Onto the Roof of the World: Lhasa

The flight into Lhasa crosses massive mountain peaks and dark, barren terrain. The airport lies on a dust-shrouded plain between brown mountains and our plane must fly between a couple of peaks before lining up for landing.


This is Tibet.




Lhasa is far cleaner than any Chinese city we have visited. It lies in a valley surround by mountains. Military presense is excessive. There are guards on every corner, 4 at each intersection, and roving patrols of 12 down every street. They carry automatic rifles, riot shields and billy clubs. The locals do not notice. They crowd the streets with carts and tables, selling everything imaginable: clothing, fresh fruit, cuts of meat, deep fried food, cd's, pvc piping. Behind the carts and tables are more permanent shops selling everything from replica North Face jackets to yak skulls. For some reason the three-story unbroken building fronts with brightly decorated upper-floors and paneled windows that line all the streets reminds me of a Carribean town of the 18th Century.

For our first day in Lhasa, we visit Drepung monastery, once the home to 10,000 monks. It is white, red and gold on the outside, filled with chapels and buddha statues inside. It is beautiful. At night we eat dinner at a restaurant overlooking a street in the Barkour area, narrow streets filled with shops, carts and pilgrims circling the Jokheng temple clockwise. The restaurant plays funky Tibetan music followed by Bob Marley, who seems to be very popular with the locals. During the day it is warm in the sun, almost 60. At night it drops into the 30s. I am lucky enough to have a working heater in the room.

The next day we visit the Potala Palace, the epitomal landmark of Lhasa, if not Tibet. It is stunningly situated on a large upthrust of rock in the center of Lhasa. The lower portion is white with a series of external staircases. At the top lie the red and the white portions - the white housing the political areas of the palace and the red the religious.

Another day, and we visit the Jokheng. At night we go to what I would describe as dinner theater. We are treated to a buffet and a collection of local music and dances. The dances are probably not genuine, but the highlight closing the show is a musical piece and demonstration on how to tame a yak. The yak gets the better of the tamer and runs wild into the audience. The following day it rains and snows. We have a lesson in how to speak Tibetan. For lunch we have a momo-making class - momos are dumplings.

For my free and final day in Lhasa, I take a hike up in the hills behind the Sera Monastery. The day is warm and after awhile the sun comes out. I walk with pilgrims clockwise around the monastery passing insense ovens and prayer flag shrines. I keep looking for a way up into the hills to Sera Utse, but no one seems to know how to get up to the nunnery lying 300 meters above. I settle for a path that wanders the hills about 150 meters up. Lunch is a mandarin, bread and a roasted chicken leg that I bought in the street.