tashi delek
Lhasa is the holiest, friendliest place I have ever been. Today, the first day of the Year of the Pig, pilgrims, children, shopkeepers greeted me with Hello! Tashi Delek! (tashee delay) -- best wishes, good luck.
Yesterday, our first full day in Lhasa, we walked the Barkhor: the teeming, brightly colored, noisy kora (holy circumambulation) surrounding the Jokhang, the holiest site in Tibet. Crowds eddied through the cicuit, buying and selling, stopping to eat, but always flowing clockwise among the pilgrims doing their prostrations along the route. The Barkhor is the heart of the Tibetan district of Lhasa. Afterwards we followed the Lingkhor, a road which outlines the original periphery of Tibetan Lhasa. We walked in a crowd of pilgrims, all spinning their prayer wheels as they walked, and all greeting us. We walked to a hill clothed in prayer flags and decorated with holy paintings. Along the stone path people had left a myriad of junk... broken pieces of mirrors, plastic cups, small figurines and talismen, many coated with grime. And all of this stuff, under a canopy of colored flags and a haze of incense and brushed by old and bent pilgrims, was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.
As we emerged on the other side, we faced a huge rock wall with an enormous blue buddha and attendants painted high up. The rock below was worn smooth by pilgrims' prostrations, and just below the cliff face was a small temple. As we were about to leave the area, a big ram wandered through at a fast clip... taking a quick look both ways and seeing no one in his way, the goat darted right into the temple! A monk, seeing him come in, ran up and smacked him right on top of the head. The ram was taking none of this, even from a monk, and tried to headbutt him! The monk eventually wrestled him out, and sent the goat, chagrined, on his way. Funniest thing I've seen in a long time!
That night, we wandered the Tibetan quarter, dodging intermittant fireworks (most set off by small children, all of whom own their own lighters) and watching as pilgrims lined up around the Jokhang. As it got close to midnight, we returned to our hostel on the outer edge of the Tibetan area, and happily found ourselves caught in the midst of the best firework show I've ever seen. Fireworks were being set off left and right -- full sized shows were going off at either end of our street, and in between, every other restaurant and shop was setting off its own chains of firecrackers, punctuated by bands of kids shooting bottle rockets across the street at eachother. It sounded like we were in the midle of a war-zone, and as any of you who know how much I love fireworks might guess, I loved every minute of it. The bedlam went on for a solid 20 minutes, and all night long we'd be woken up by a big boom from someone's belated celebration. Firecrackers have gone off now and then all day, and there are still random fireworks going off tonight. The night before we arrived, the streets were apparently filled with bonfires as people burned old things, preparing for a clean start in the new year.
Speaking of a clean start in the new year, today everyone was out and about sporting brand new clothes. It looked like the number of Tibetans had tripled because so many more people were dressed in beautiful tradition clothing. The kids, wrapped up in tiny gold and fur coats, and sometimes wearing fur hats half again their own size, were adorable. Many also had new hairstyles. Today we parked ourselves in a small grassy spot by the Jokhang and spent the afternoon warm in the sun, making friends with a few families,some young tibetans, and several monks who were fascinated by our cameras. Best people-watching ever. We have some incredible photos to show for the afternoon, and I'll add some of those to this post in a few weeks when I get back home.
Oh! I should probably mention the train ride to Lhasa! We had been worried about getting tickets, but my dean helped us out and we ended up being in a farily empty train, a big change from normal travel in China! It took about 30hours, and we spent the whole of a day glued to the windows as we passed snow, tundra, mountains, yaks, nomads, the highest freshwater lake in the world (frozen over),antelope, and did I mention yaks? The highest point that we passed by train to the top of the world was a pass 5000+ meters high. Be on the lookout for a few pictures from this part of the trip too.
One thing that's really stuck out for me here has been the begging for alms. Both people in need, as well as pilgrims, and many children, ask for money at almost every turn within the tibetan quarter. It's traditional to just give 1mao (10mao to the yuan, 8yuan to the dollar). Most people also leave mao at each altar in the temples. In fact, it's a common sight to see people making change for themselves at the alters, exchanging yuan notes for the piles of mao. I try to keep a pocketful with me all the time. There is no stigma in buddhist thought attached to begging. You face life with humility, live on what you are given, and offer people the chance to gain good karma by giving alms. It's really given me pause at times, but I'm starting to appreciate the general air of acceptance and care and above all, the incredible focus and balance of the pilgrims here.
Yesterday, our first full day in Lhasa, we walked the Barkhor: the teeming, brightly colored, noisy kora (holy circumambulation) surrounding the Jokhang, the holiest site in Tibet. Crowds eddied through the cicuit, buying and selling, stopping to eat, but always flowing clockwise among the pilgrims doing their prostrations along the route. The Barkhor is the heart of the Tibetan district of Lhasa. Afterwards we followed the Lingkhor, a road which outlines the original periphery of Tibetan Lhasa. We walked in a crowd of pilgrims, all spinning their prayer wheels as they walked, and all greeting us. We walked to a hill clothed in prayer flags and decorated with holy paintings. Along the stone path people had left a myriad of junk... broken pieces of mirrors, plastic cups, small figurines and talismen, many coated with grime. And all of this stuff, under a canopy of colored flags and a haze of incense and brushed by old and bent pilgrims, was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.
As we emerged on the other side, we faced a huge rock wall with an enormous blue buddha and attendants painted high up. The rock below was worn smooth by pilgrims' prostrations, and just below the cliff face was a small temple. As we were about to leave the area, a big ram wandered through at a fast clip... taking a quick look both ways and seeing no one in his way, the goat darted right into the temple! A monk, seeing him come in, ran up and smacked him right on top of the head. The ram was taking none of this, even from a monk, and tried to headbutt him! The monk eventually wrestled him out, and sent the goat, chagrined, on his way. Funniest thing I've seen in a long time!
That night, we wandered the Tibetan quarter, dodging intermittant fireworks (most set off by small children, all of whom own their own lighters) and watching as pilgrims lined up around the Jokhang. As it got close to midnight, we returned to our hostel on the outer edge of the Tibetan area, and happily found ourselves caught in the midst of the best firework show I've ever seen. Fireworks were being set off left and right -- full sized shows were going off at either end of our street, and in between, every other restaurant and shop was setting off its own chains of firecrackers, punctuated by bands of kids shooting bottle rockets across the street at eachother. It sounded like we were in the midle of a war-zone, and as any of you who know how much I love fireworks might guess, I loved every minute of it. The bedlam went on for a solid 20 minutes, and all night long we'd be woken up by a big boom from someone's belated celebration. Firecrackers have gone off now and then all day, and there are still random fireworks going off tonight. The night before we arrived, the streets were apparently filled with bonfires as people burned old things, preparing for a clean start in the new year.
Speaking of a clean start in the new year, today everyone was out and about sporting brand new clothes. It looked like the number of Tibetans had tripled because so many more people were dressed in beautiful tradition clothing. The kids, wrapped up in tiny gold and fur coats, and sometimes wearing fur hats half again their own size, were adorable. Many also had new hairstyles. Today we parked ourselves in a small grassy spot by the Jokhang and spent the afternoon warm in the sun, making friends with a few families,some young tibetans, and several monks who were fascinated by our cameras. Best people-watching ever. We have some incredible photos to show for the afternoon, and I'll add some of those to this post in a few weeks when I get back home.
Oh! I should probably mention the train ride to Lhasa! We had been worried about getting tickets, but my dean helped us out and we ended up being in a farily empty train, a big change from normal travel in China! It took about 30hours, and we spent the whole of a day glued to the windows as we passed snow, tundra, mountains, yaks, nomads, the highest freshwater lake in the world (frozen over),antelope, and did I mention yaks? The highest point that we passed by train to the top of the world was a pass 5000+ meters high. Be on the lookout for a few pictures from this part of the trip too.
One thing that's really stuck out for me here has been the begging for alms. Both people in need, as well as pilgrims, and many children, ask for money at almost every turn within the tibetan quarter. It's traditional to just give 1mao (10mao to the yuan, 8yuan to the dollar). Most people also leave mao at each altar in the temples. In fact, it's a common sight to see people making change for themselves at the alters, exchanging yuan notes for the piles of mao. I try to keep a pocketful with me all the time. There is no stigma in buddhist thought attached to begging. You face life with humility, live on what you are given, and offer people the chance to gain good karma by giving alms. It's really given me pause at times, but I'm starting to appreciate the general air of acceptance and care and above all, the incredible focus and balance of the pilgrims here.
posted by Kristen at
Sunday, February 18, 2007
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