TİBET - THE ROOF OF THE WORLD.

 I went to Tibet 17 years ago, in 1999. And I am happy I did go then, since I hear that it is becoming more and more Chinese by the day. Lhasa (3.600 m. from sea level) still had its Tibetan charm in 1999, even though some Chinese buildings had emerged. But it seems today Tibetan architecture is fast being replaced by Chinese-style structures, geometric concrete block construction, blue tinted glass and tiled facades adorned with bright colored flags, or the Chinese government symbol, or both. Furthermore, it seems it has become a police state, small armies of machine-gun clad Chinese soldiers wandering in the city. And last but not least, I was also told Lhasa has become overrun by the Chinese who are rapidly forcing the Tibetans into a minority. What a pity !

Tibet is nestled between some of the world's highest mountains,  the Himalayas in the South, the Karakoram in the West and the Kunlun Shan in the North. The Tibetan plateau averages about 4.000 meters above sea-level so a visit to Tibet is not a walk in the park. Over 1.500 lakes are scattered throughout Tibet and the mountain waters give way to several major river systems in Asia, namely the Brahmaputra, the Indus and the Mekong. 

Planes usually fly at a height of approximately 10.000 meters  and with Everest being at 8.848 meters, we are flying not far from the summit. 

 We swoop down quite dramatically into a valley which is home to the Gonkar International Airport (the highest airport in the world) and land on what is one of the world's longest runways. As soon as I disembark, I immediately feel a bit breathless because we are now at 3.800 meters. But it is the scenery that also adds to my breathlessness. So dry, so rough and so bright. Just as I love it. 

Buddha greets us on the road to Lhasa as a rock painting. The distance from the airport to Llasa is 100 km. So this is a nice break. 

We reach Lhasa and our hotel and realize we must be the first Turks to have come to Tibet since we are met with a welcome banner attached to the outer gate of the hotel. 

There is a market just in front of the gates of the hotel constituting my first stop in Tibet. Lots of knives, jewelry and other items carved with turquoise and coral are in display. But more than the goods on sale, it is the women in their traditional attire to whom I am drawn . They are so beautiful. And their voice still rings in my ears : '' Looki,looki,chip,chip'' meaning ''Look here, look here, cheap, cheap''. 

The next morning we go to visit the heart and soul of Tibet, the former residence of the Dalai Lamas and an object of devout pilgrimage, the Potala Palace. On ''Marpo Pi'', the 130 meters hill that commands view of all Lhasa was the site of King Songsten Gampo's palace in the 7th century. It is only the 5th Dalai Lama who ordered the construction of the Potala when he decided to move the seat of his Gelugpa (or ''Yellow Hats''- the dominant sect of Tibetan Buddhism) government from Dreprung Monastery to more spacious quarters. Work began on the ''Potrang Karpo'' or White Palace in 1645 and those constitute the nine-storey bottom layers used for administrative affairs. Rising from this base is the ''Potrang Marpi'' or Red Palace which was completed in 1694 and is used for religious affairs.  Since its construction, the Potala has been the home of each successive Dalai Lama and used to be a bustling place that contained the seat of government (Tibet was ruled by a theocracy, the Dalai Lama being both the head of the Buddhist structure and the secular administration) as well as chapels, housing, and schools for religious training. It was virtually a self-contained world. After the Chinese invasion and the escape of the Dalai Lama to India, the inside of the palace became much gloomier. It is more like an empty museum though there still are crowds of pilgrims who wander the routes between each shrine murmuring Buddhist mantras and prostrating themselves in front of anything representative of the Dalai Lama as well as the tombs of the former Dalai Lamas. Today, it seems there are very few pilgrims and a great number of loud Chinese tourists exploring their ''liberated'' land. I am lucky there was not a single one of the latter when I visited the Potala. 

After climbing the hill we enter the Potala from a small door out of which come  pilgrims. 

Inside there is quite a lot of pilgrims who have come from all over Tibet, spinning their prayer wheels, fingering their beads and muttering their mantras.To Tibetans, the Potala is not a museum of treasures, but a shrine, because the Dalai Lamas are revered as reincarnations of Chenrezi, the bodhisatva of compassion. The sight of ordinary people with such tremendous faith is astonishing; they have a sole purpose in life : see Lhasa, the Potala and Jokhang. They have come on foot, some covering more than 2000 km just to do this. Unbelievable. 

These people have walked for a long time with no bath or change of clothes. They, unfortunately, really smell bad. But they seem so happy to have made it here. Add to this the smell of burning yak butter which is used for candles and the tiny size of each and every shrine, chapel and other (there are 9.000 rooms in the Potala) and you end up with an unbearable odor that permeates everything. Inside the Potala,it is crowded, stuffy and there is a lack of oxygen.  But it is nevertheless amazing. 
What struck me is that the people are so destitute but each shrine contains gold statues of Buddha or other Bothisatwas with gems on their clothes and other gems lying at their feet, and those poor people put money, rice or candles (bought with the few cents they have) to honor their ''Gods''. Again, what is religion if not the opium of the poor?

Inside, I saw chapels by the dozen, all with statues, icons, butter candles burning in ornate, gold calices, thangkas (woven cloth with religious images), elaborate mandalas (the wheel of life to reach nirvana) all this entailing climbing up and down steep, dark corridors and stairways. It is forbidden to take pictures inside the Potala so I will put a few taken from books to give an idea of what I saw. 

We finally reached the roof of the Potala. From here you can have a view of the whole city.

MEET CHİNESE ARCHİTECTURE....

THE SQUARE İN FRONT OF THE POTALA
 I WİLL BE THERE SHORTLY. 

ME ON THE ROOF OF THE POTALA

PİCNİC ON THE ROOF OF THE POTALA 

And we start our descent towards the city. This building is really beautiful from each and every angle. 

AND HERE I AM ON THE SQUARE WE SAW FROM THE ROOF. 

VİEW OF THE POTALA FROM THE BACK, ACROSS THE RİVER. 

From here we go to the supreme temple of Tibetan Buddhism, the Jokhang Temple, built in the 7th century. Most of the pilgrims are  prostrating themselves in front of the Jokhang. Most of them have a thin mattress, just the size of their body. They tie their lower legs together with cord. Standing, facing the temple, they join their hands in prayer and raise them above their heads, then lower them to their foreheads, their lips and their hearts, and thrust themselves into a sliding motion unto their mattress, with hands at full length in front of them, totally prostrating themselves to their God.  This is amazing to watch.   

İNSİDE THE TEMPLE

NO NAPPİES İN CHİNA. BABİES WEAR TROUSERS
WİTH A HOLE FROM WHİCH THEY CAN EASİLY PEE.
WHAT I DİD NOT GET İS WHAT HAPPENS İF THE BABY
DECİDES TO PEE AT THAT EXACT MOMENT.

The temple is situated in the middle of Barkhor pilgrim circuit which is surrounding the temple. There are lovely oldTibetan houses along the way. Today the circuit is more of a market mostly retaining the traditional features of the ancient city. There are more than 120 handicraft shops and 200 stalls selling such religious articles as copper Buddhas, prayer wheels, prayer beads, scriptures and Tibetan handicraft.

CİRCUMBULATİNG PİLGRİMS

PİLGRİMS CAN SHOP TOO.

HOW CAN THİS BABY SLEEP ?

YAK BUTTER

SO NİCE LOOKİNG

MONKS COMİNG OUT OF JOKHANG MONASTERY. 

The next day we are going on an adventure across the Brahmaputra River to visit the Samye Monastery. 

The Brahmaputra River ( Yarlong Tsang Po in Tibetan), is Tibet's most important river. It flows for 2.900 km from Western Tibet to Bangladesh, crossing India. At an average altitude of 4.000 m it is the highest river in the world. 

THE ''BOAT'' ON WHİCH WE ARE TO CROSS THE BRAHMAPUTRA. FUNNY. 

BUT EVEN CARS CROSS ON SUCH BOATS. EVEN FUNNİER. 

SUCH CALM ON THE RİVER THOUGH. 

On the other side ''cars'' consist of trucks where you stand (no sitting) and go for 30 minutes on a very rough road to finally reach Samye Monastery. You feel more like cattle than human. Not easy but we laughed a lot and will remember this ''car'' trip forever. 

Samye , with a history of over 1.200 years, was the first of Tibet's monastic institutions. It was founded between 765 and 780. Samye's original design is a mandalic representation of the universe. The central temple represents Mount Meru and the temples around it, in two concentric circles, represent the oceans, continents and sub-continents. 

THE CENTRAL TEMPLE, THE JOWO KHANG

Now we enter the holiest place of the monastery, the Jowo Khang. You can take pictures if you pay the monks. Clever way to make money. 

PRAYER WHEELS - İNSİDE THE PRAYER WHEEL THERE ARE ROLLS OF PRİNTED PAPERS
THAT BEAR PRAYERS. TİBETANS BELİEVE THAT ONE ROLL OF THE WHEEL EQUALS
A RECİTATİON OF ALL THE PRAYERS.

BUDDHA OF COURSE

GURU RİMPOCHE- İN TİBET WHEN YOU HONOR SOMEBODY, YOU GİVE
HİM  /  HER A WHİTE SCARF. THAT İS WHY GURU RİMPOCHE İS COVERED
WİTH  THEM. 

WHY DO THESE STATUES HAVE RED HATS, AND NOT YELLOW HATS LİKE THE GELUGPA SECT OF THE DALAİ LAMA? BECAUSE THİS MONASTERY BELONGS TO THE SAKYAPA ORDER OF TİBETAN BUDDHİSM
AND SAKYAPAS WEAR RED HATS.

A LONE PRİEST RECİTİNG HİS PRAYERS. 

AND WE CROSS THE BRAHMAPUTRA BACK TO RETURN TO LHASSA ( 1,5 HOURS DRİVE). 

The next day we hit the road ; destination Gyanze. It was a difficult but scenic trip and an experience of Tibet's natural scenery. Words can hardly convey the beauty around us.  First the road was relatively flat, but then started raising in hairpin turns. We were climbing to  a 4974 m pass, Kamba - La Pass. Am I really on the roof of the world ? There seems to be nobody but us here. We continued driving and from a bend appeared the most breathtaking view of all : Yamdrok Tso or Yamdrok Lake, the most beautiful lake I have ever seen, one of the three holy lakes in Tibet, and a lake which stands at an altitude of 4.500 m. It did not look like a lake but a turquoise portion of sky embedded between the mountains. And it well deserves its name, Yamdrok meaning ''jade'' in Tibetan. The view was out of this world not only because of the lake but also the pastures, the herds of yaks, the snowy mountains and the blue sky surrounding it. I do not know what happened to it today, because at the time for the Chinese , Yamdrok was just the site of a new power plant. I hope the power has not been built and never will. 

SOME FLAT ROADS DO EXİST. 

YAMDROK LAKE

SUNBATHİNG AT 4.488 METERS FROM SEA LEVEL. 

NİCE YAKS

ONE OF THE CUTEST THİNGS I HAVE EVER SEEN. 

Time to go on with our journey. Every nice thing has an end. We continue on some winding roads, and reach another pass, Karo - La Pass. We are literally at 5.050 meters but luckily  enough I do not feel any discomfort. Not even a slight headache. We then come to an enormous glacier, Nojin Kangstang Glacier, standing several hundred meters from the road. The glacier was just above us going to an altitude of 7.200 meters. Impressive. 

The altitude declined after the glacier and we finally came to Gyanze. We are at around 3.900 meters. 
We have driven only 254 km. but Llasa seems a lifetime away. Gyanze is still quite a Tibetan town with streets lined by nice Tibetan houses. What a change after Llhasa. Not too much Chinese buildings here. Towering the town are two hills , one housing a monastery that we will visit tomorrow morning and the other the Gyanze Dzong , a 14th century fort  that we will not visit since it requires a very steep climb and there is not much left inside since it was heavily damaged during the British invasion of 1904.  

THE CİTY AND THE FORT

PAY ATTENTİON TO THE BOOTS WHİCH MOST TİBETAN MEN WEAR. 

The next morning, we head to the Pelkor Chode Monastery which was founded in 1418 and became an important center of the Sakyapa (Red Hats) sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The monastery is famous for its grand Kumbum Chorten ( meaning 10.000 Holy Images ) which has 77 chapels and 108 doors for worshipping over 10.000 images of the Buddha. The circular stupa rises up to six storeys and its 77 chapels are spread out over each floor. The chapels have beautiful murals and statues of deities and Buddha in them. The roof rises in a gold coronet with four pairs of Buddha eyes looking out to the four directions. 

ENTRANCE TO THE CHORTEN

The next morning we drove to Shigatse, only 90 km away and at the same altitude so no winding roads (3.900 m.) We are here to visit the Tashilhunpo Monastery, which ended being my most favorite monastery in Tibet after the Potala. Tashilhumpo is probably the largest functioning monastery in Tibet today ( or so it was in 1999). The monastery was founded in 1447 by the 1st Dalai Lama. İts standing tremendously increased when the 5th Dalai Lama declared his teacher, then abbot of Tashilhumpo, to be a manifestation of Amithabha ( Buddha's faculty of perfect cognition and perception). Thus Tashilhumpo became the seat of an important lineage line, that of the Panchen Lamas (the title meaning ''Great Scholar''). Today, the Panchen Lama is the 2nd most important person in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama. 

The Panchen Lama's situation is another sad Tibetan story. Upon the death of the 10th Panchen Lama in 1995, the Dalai Lama identified a young boy as the reincarnated Panchen Lama. He was immediately put under house arrest in China and even though nothing more has been heard about him, he is said to be still there. The Chinese Government chose another boy, the son of a Communist Party official, as the ''true'' Panchen Lama. He is being educated and groomed in China to take on a future leadership role in Tibet. But despite all this, the monastery is timeless and beautiful.  

THE SMALL WHİTE HOUSES İN THE FRONT ARE THE HOUSES OF THE MONKS 

WE HAVE CLİMBED TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE MAİN TEMPLE,
THE KELSANG TEMPLE.

WE  ARE ON THE ROOF OF THE TEMPLE.
İT WAS FORBİDDEN TO TAKE PİCTURES İNSİDE BUT THERE WAS
A 26 METERS BUDDHA STATUE MADE OF 300 KG. OF GOLD.
İN THE STREETS THE PEOPLE ARE VERY POOR, AND İN THE
TEMPLES YOU HAVE , AMONG OTHER THİNGS, 300 KG OF GOLD.
I WİLL NEVER UNDERSTAND THE PULL OF RELİGİON ON PEOPLE.

GOİNG OUT OF THE TEMPLE

All of a sudden, gongs start everywhere and from every building young monks start to run towards the Kelsang Temple. It is the evening prayer time. 

 That was a wonderful experience. After a night in Shigatse, we return to Llasa. But we still have places to visit around the city. 

We have left Llasa and drive on a winding road to Ganden Monastery. (Ganden means Joy). we are greeted on top of the winding road by a few yaks. 
Ganden was the first ever Gelugpa ( Yellow Hats) monastery in Tibet and has remained the seat of the order ever since. The abbot of this monastery is the Ganden Tripa and it is the Ganden Tripa, not the Dalai Lama as one would expect, who is the head of the Gelugpa order. 

WHEN I SAY WİNDİNG ROAD, I MEAN WİNDİNG ROAD !!!!

ME AND GANDEN MONASTERY

THE RED BUİLDİNG ON THE LEFT HOUSES THE GOLDEN TOMB OF TSONGKHAPA, THE FİRST GANDEN TRİPA HAVİNG FOUNDED THE MONASTERY.
THE WHİTE BUİLDİNG ON THE RİGHT İS THE GOLDEN THRONE ROOM AND CONTAİNS THE
GOLDEN THRONE OF THE GANDEN TRİPAS.
GOLD    GOLD    GOLD     

THE GOLDEN THRONE ROOM

AND İNSİDE THE SAME İNEVİTABLE SMELL.
BUTTER İS OF VİTAL İMPORTANCE TO TİBETANS , SERVİNG NOT ONLY
AS A DAİLY FORM OF NUTRİTİON BUT ALSO OİL FOR THE MİLLİONS
OF BUTTER LAMPS BURNİNG İN THE COUNTRY'S HOLY SHRİNES. THE ADDİNG OF
YAK BUTTER TO THE CANDLES İS FOR THE TİBETAN A SYMBOLİC GESTURE TO
DİSPEL  THE DARKNESS OF İGNORANCE.
FOR ME , THE SMELL OF YAK BUTTER İS DİSTİNCTİVE TO TİBET
AND QUİTE UNFORGETTABLE (!)

AND BACK TO LLASA. 

We are now visiting our last monastery in Llasa, Sera Monastery. Sera is one of Llasa's two great Gelugpa monasteries and was founded in 1419. The monastery has three different colleges . a) Sera Me, specialized in the fundamental precepts of Buddhism; b) Sera Je, specialized in the instruction of itinerant monks from outside Central Tibet; c) Sera Ngagpa, specialized in tantric studies. At its height, Sera housed over 5.000 monks but today is home to less than 1.000 since it is now the Chinese Government who decides on the total number of monks allowed in Tibet. 

At the entrance we meet another group of visitors and this is picture taking time. We take theirs, they take ours. We are as different for them as they are for us. 

WHY İS THE TONGUE OF THE GİRL ON THE RİGHT OUT ?
İF A TİBETAN WANTS TO PARTICULARLY HONOR YOU, HE/SHE WİLL GİVE YOU THE TRADİTİONAL
''TONGUE GREETİNG''. 

THEY ARE SO BEAUTİFUL.

MAİN TEMPLE

GOİNG İN THE MAİN TEMPLE

THE ASSEMBLY HALL. 

AND MORE GOLD AND PRECİOUS STONES THAN YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT TO DO WİTH. 

After the main temple, we were asked to  approach a wooden door (very nice by the way) and enter a garden where  monks were ''studying'' by debating what they had learned 
that day. The sitting monk has to answer the questions asked by the standing monk, and then they switch positions. The debates are very spirited and involve a lot of hand clapping. 

THESE MONKS HAVE JUST DELİVERED THEİR  POİNT. 

Tibet is an unforgettable experience for me. You have to put up with a lot if you want to go to Tibet because of the altitude that can cause headaches or nose bleeds. But once you are there you are rewarded with views, smells, colors you have never experienced before. And you meet a people ( I do not mean the Han Chinese but the Tibetans) who are nice and helpful. A Tibetan's life purpose is ever greater spiritual achievement ( vs the Western life purpose of ever greater material productivity). Maybe this is why I have never met people so willing and eager to laugh. 
Tibet is a journey out of the ordinary or at least was in 1999. Today, in Llasa , I hear that the Potala is only open to tourists, that there are fully armed squads of Chinese soldiers patrolling Barkhor Square. I am angry the Tibet is losing its culture and way of life  and that is a place I will never return to  since I want to keep Tibet in my memories as I have seen it in 1999.