Aliens land in Tibet - or was it China?

Any comments expressed in this blog are definitely my own - I've no idea what VSO thinks about the Tibet/China situation, but I certainly wouldn't like to get them into trouble!

As I was writing the last blog, the longest spell of continuous rain since I have been here was just starting. I know Nepal's floods have been mentioned on British news broadcasts and there have been many homes destroyed, people killed in landslides or by swollen rivers and crops devastated. I spent two days in Pokhara where it had been raining for five days (but with less tragic results because of its situation)and when I met Roz the following weekend she was really leased to escape as the rain still hadn't stopped. Unfortunately during the four days we waited for our Chinese visas, the weather turned very wet in Kathmandu and we spent quite alot of time with our noses in our holiday reading.

One of our Kathmandu based education volunteers works for an NGO that operates in the terai. Against VSO wishes he went down there with some coleagues at the time the floods were hitting hardest. These are just two of the photos he posted for us to try to appreciate the real situation.


The situation is improving in some areas but other areas are just getting their heaviest rainfall. Last Thursday Simara airport was closed for several hours because of flooding and the area was the hardest hit that day, though the gravel beds don't look as though they running with water now. I came back by road,a journey that was made more interesting by the numerous waterfalls that have appeared.

To link the wet season in Nepal with the wet season in Tibet now seems ridiculous. We were advised that August was 'the wet season' but the amount expected is so small, in comparison with monsoon and we had heavy rain one night in Lhasa and a quick shower one morning when we were on the road. The contrast was brought home very sharply as we came down from the plateau on our last day. Within a few minutes we had driven from dry, brown, rocky scenery to a lush green gorge with a thundering river (we couldn't see it properly that night because of very heavy mist, but the following morning it was revealed in all its beauty.

But back to the beginning of the holiday. After an amazing flight over the Himalayas,again showing the change between the 'wet' and 'dry' sides, we landed at Lhasa airport. Not for the last time, Roz said 'This has changed in three years'. Unfortunately our driver had been delayed and for the first time we met with Chinese officialdom - our names weren't on the list! He eventually arrived with apologies, silk 'kata' scarves of welcome and the news that cars hadn't been able to reach Everest Base Camp because of the road conditions - oh well, we had almost two weeks to go before then!

After settling into our Nepali run hotel ('The Tibet Gorkha')with a very Tibetan feel, we set off to join the pilgrims and tourists making their way round the Barkhor - a circuit of the most important temple in Lhasa, the Jokhang. Many of the Tibetans were older women dressed in traditional dresses with aprons and hats, spinning their prayer wheels and muttering prayers as they walked, but there were also younger people - young men from the eastern part of Tibet with their hair in a traditional red braid and families with children wanting to reach the square where they could fly their kites.

The following morning our guide took us into the Jokhang -the first leg of monastery marathon. While the Tibetans were all lined up patiently to go round the building and its many chapels in a clockwise direction, tourists ('foreigners'as the guides called us, though many tourists are Chinese)were sent in a different door. I felt very uncomfortable and could understand the impatient pushing as the pilgrims tried to reach the statues or butter lamps. I was pleased when we reached the roof and could take a good look at the town and its most famous landmark,the Potala Palace.

After lunch (noodles and fried rice were the staple diet,with an occasional pancake and chips if they were on the menu!)we went to another monastery where the highlight is to watch the monks debating after their morning studies. There are many hand gestures that mean somone agrees or disagrees and plenty of swinging of prayer beads. We got the feeling that this debating was playing to the crowd (unlike what I had seen a couple of months ago in KTM and what we saw a few days later in Samye, where noone was watching).

Next day was monastery number three. The highlights for me here were the fabulous hangings. You had to pay to take photos inside the chapels (anything from 10 to 150 yuan)but here we were able to go on the roof and take photos through the open windows.

We had a new guide this day- we weren't impressed when she gave us a photo copy of the relevant page in the Lonely Planet guide (we had two copies with us)and pointed out where we were - it wouldn't work at Ormesby Hall!
In the afternoon we visited the summer palace of the Dalai Lama. The buildings were set in pleasant woodland and the outsides were beautifully decorated with familiar flowers. (We avoided the zoo).

We had read that English speaking monks were not always what they seemed and we began to wonder how strong the surveillance was when while we were in the Dalai Lama's private quarters Roz commented 'I wonder what would happen if I took a photo?' The words weren't out of her mouth when a 'monk?'from the next room appeared - were there hidden microphones?
Until then I had tried to ignore Roz's cynicism and conspiracy theories(she has been involved in Free Tibet activities for years), but I had to admit she might have a point.
That evening we walked in the opposite direction from our hotel and explored the local Muslim area, where there was a lively market around the main mosque. Among the interesting shops was this butter seller.

Yak butter is not only used with bread (in fact hardly ever) but for tea (I tried it but didn't like it-I stuck with the ever present jasmine tea) and even more importantly for the lamps which are kept burning in the temples. We saw many people walking round with Thermos flasks-they are filed with melted butter so that the lamps can be filled up. In the temples monks have the job of scraping out the hardened butter, which can then be re-used.
Other interesting shops we saw were the sewing shops where traditional headdresses and temple hangings were being made, a shop making prayer flags, a fair trade craft shop (I resisted the carpets this year), a monks' clothing shop (all maroon and orange), yak butchers, woolshops(every other business was run by a woman sitting in the doorway knitting)and vegetable stores spreading over the pavements. The most interesting store for many people seemed to be where a crowd had gathered round a window to watch what looked like a soap opera on a TV inside.
As it grew dark (after 9pm - 21/4 hours ahead of Nepal, so dark mornings and long evenings)the communication mast turned red and gold, the street lights came on (flashing neon colours up and down the columns)and the blue and yellow plastic coconut trees were illuminated. Roz again -'It wasn't like this three years ago'. We really didn't go into the internationally flashy high streets which could have been anywhere in the world unless we were on our way somewhere else, or in the car, but it was a completely different world and our experience after we left Lhasa showed it was definitely the shape of things to come.

On Sunday morning, we were hoping to visit the Potala palace, but we had been advised that Chinese visitors got the first pick of limited number of ticket each day. We knew from other volunteers that there was a complicated procedure of lining up at two different places the day before you wanted to visit, but our travel agent had said he would organise everything. Our guide redeemed herself by liaising with someone 'inside' and despite having to explain to the ticket collector that we had no tickets but had already been allowed so far into the palace ('Get your ticket the day before, next time!')we were able to wander round at our leisure (we took 2 hours,unlike the tour groups who were hustled round by Chinese speaking guides in 45 minutes). Our guides all explained to us that only Chinese speaking guides are allowed to guide round the Potala. One said that the guiding exam consisted of 20% describing a building and 80% the 'politics' - what guides could/should say/not say.

Despite the fact that most Tibetans don't go into the Potala, and it is no longer used as a temple (we were only allowed in a very small part of its 13 storeys-much less than on Roz's last visit)many pilgrims do walk round the complex on the 'kora' (the religious path like the one round the Jokhang) and prostrate themselves on the pavement in front of the building.

A longer 'kora' goes all the way round the central part of the city, linking several holy sites. On our last morning in Lhasa we finally managed to get up early(sleeplessness was the only symptom of acute mountain sickness (Lhasa is 3600metres asl)I suffered - and even then when I was really tired I could sleep)and left our hotel at 6am to join people passing the door on their way to the kora route.Unlike Nepal, most of Tibet does not wake up until 8 or 9 o'clock, so the main roads were very quiet. Eventually the woman we were following turned right down a lane which began to rise over the side of the hill where we knew the communcation tower was situated. The path was lit by butter lamps and led to one of the highlights of the visit. The cliff wall of the hill was covered in Buddhist paintings-Buddhas, signs and symbols,deities, mantras and about twenty people were prostrating in front of the wall.A notice told us that the paintings were kept fresh because families who could not afford all the death rituals of their relatives, gave money or paint for the upkeep of the wall and in return the worshippers offered prayers. It was too dark for photographs and it would have been intrusive to take pictures, but the sight and sound are locked into my video memory.

Further round the path we heard the morning devotions at a monastery (deep horn sounds, conch shells, drums and tinkling bells). Then we skirted the Potala palace and caught a glimpse of its reflection in the lake in the park where citizens were using modern plastic keep-fit equipment (none of the rustic wooden poles we have in England). We made our way back on a shortened route via the Barkhor and were very ready for breakfast just after 8am.

At 9am we met our guide for the rest of the trip. Pinsok -not sure how to spell it, but that's how we pronounced it and it means 'good faculties'- Tashi (good luck) -"all together it means 'may your dreams come true'" - was an interesting young man who added greatly to our tour with his insight into Buddhist philosophy (he'd studied in India), his political awareness (his home area was one of the first to be invaded and is now part of China rather than the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), his education in Nepal(he speaks fluent Nepali, but very little Chinese - he's just gone back to language school and says he has reached Grade 3 and his humour and singing (George Michael and the inevitable John Denver were in his repetoire as well as duets with our driver (Tensing).

We were delighted to meet Pinsok because he brought back our passports whch had been retained for the permits for the rest of our visit. He shared our amusement at our 'Aliens' Travel Permit' and regularly referred to our 'planet'. When we had a space-age shower with music, lights and too many knobs and switches, in our hotel room in Tsetang, it became our vehicle and when we reached the top of a 5000+ pass, he suggested we were nearer home.

One friend had told us 'Tibet's all brown', Roz said she wondered if other places would have changed as much as Lhasa, another volunteer had raved about particular monasteries and there were still concerns about acute mountain sickness as we headed for Chomolungma (Everest to you), so as we set off in our personal Land Cruiser, I didn't know what to expect (to be continued)