Tibet: What's The Fuss About?

 The Capital

When I think of Tibet images of Buddha, monks, monasteries, and yaks come to mind. But undoubtedly, most of you will also think of Lhasa: the capital and cultural hub of Tibet and also home to the renowned Potala Palace. My husband mentioned something very true while we stared in awe up at it. He said that even as a child you know about these iconic buildings, like the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids and the Potala Palace, but it’s amazing that even as a child, knowing about these places, you never thought that you’d get to see most of them in your lifetime. Especially not the ones located on the other side of the planet. Think about it. How many friends can you count on one hand, who’s seen the Eiffel Tower in real life? And how many friends do you know who’s seen the Potala Palace? I think my husband also tried to emphasize that it’s an amazing feeling to get to stand right in front of it, having known about something this iconic only from pictures. It’s almost like realizing a dream. And trust me, this icon doesn’t disappoint.

Prayer flags

A little unknown fact is that Lhasa was first known as Rasa, which either meant "goats' place" or “place surrounded by a wall”. It wasn’t until China and Tibet signed a treaty many moons ago that the name changed to Lhasa, which literally translates to "place of the gods”.

Personally, I think the modern name is appropriate because Lhasa offers heaps of monasteries and devoted Buddhists. The spiritual importance this city carries for the locals is undeniably present.

Bahkor Street

As to be expected, our travel agency wanted to give us an intense burst of monastery action during our time in the capital of tibet. On our list was the Sera Monastery, which also one of the top three university monasteries in all of Tibet. The most interesting sight this monastery has to offer is when all their monks gather in a large square to debate. Now, this might sound like something average, but remember, most monks are usually reserved, often serving vows of silence with emotionless expressions. But here, we had hundreds of monks getting into heated discussions while showing distinct physical actions. I was fascinated. It was almost like witnessing a calm and collected monk experiencing split personality disorder and change into a passionate and downright vicious lawyer. The cliff notes version is you have a defender (damchawa), who answers, he’s usually seated, and a questioner (riklampa) who asks the questions, claps his hands and often approaches his opponent in lightning flash movements with a stern finger pointed at the defender’s face. 

It starts off with the questioner posing a test question to the defender. As soon as he’s done asking, he claps his hands as a sign for the defender to answer. This can go on for hours and they can debate over almost any topic you can think of. Of course, they have certain guidelines that need to be followed and their arguments need to be well put and carry some significance to their faith.

Another fun fact: young monks begin their studies usually at the age of six.  They attend 8 years of classes in reading, writing, mathematics, science, and history. They also begin preliminary studies of scripture and philosophy as soon as they learn to read and write.

Another temple on our to-do list was the largest Tibet has to offer, the Drepung Monastery. During 1936 it was the largest monastery in the world with somewhere between 7,700 and 10 000 monks. I can only imagine what a party their debate sessions would have been.

Kitchen

Speaking of kitchens, even though Tibet is so hard to get to, for both tourists and restaurants getting their supplies, most restaurants in Lhasa and all over Tibet, offered an impressive selection of Tibetan, Chinese, Indian, Italian and Continental dishes. I was never far from a Hawaiian pizza or lasagne. It was actually quite the anti-climax to be honest. Here I am, in a very isolated part of the world, experiencing sacred spiritual traditions, mingling with monks praying in ancient languages while at the same time I’m enjoying a cheeseburger with fries. I guess modernization happens everywhere, even in a village of 20 people on the outskirts of nowhere in Tibet.

By far my most memorable visit in Lhasa was Bahkor Street with the Jokhang monastery. The monastery lies right at the foot of the famous Bahkor Street and is still today the most sacred and important temple in all of Tibet.  The temple is always packed and crowds gather at the front with their mats to pray to Buddha. While strolling clockwise around Bahkor, you need to be careful not to stumble over these worshippers (they’re everywhere), and some of them start at the temple to pray but then they do, what I like to call, “travel praying”. The way they pray is very interesting. I’ll give you a short introduction, but it involves a lot of aspects, so bear with me.

The correct term for my “travel praying” is called prostration, which also means to collapse, but the aim behind it is rather beautiful. They do this to purify their bodies, speech, and mind of bad qualities that can harm their karma, for example, pride.

Before I explain you need to know only two things: first, during this prayer they pay homage to Guru Rinpoche, the Tibetans adore him and believe he was the guy who made Buddhism a big thing in Tibet. They use his enlightenment as an example of what they want to achieve. The second thing is The Triple Gem, three things Buddhists take guidance from in life. The first is Buddha and what he represents: the ideal or highest spiritual potential that exists within everyone. The second is Dharma: the teachings of Buddha, the path to Enlightenment. And finally Sangha: a community who are already enlightened and who may help a practicing Buddhist to do the same.

To start they stand upright with their hands in prayer position (lotus bud mudra) right by the crown of their heads to pay respect to Guru Rinpoche's enlightened body and to purify damages and impurities to their bodies. They then place their lotus bud mudra by their throats to offer homage to the guru’s enlightened speech and then they bring their hands to their hearts (which also refers to the mind or soul) to offer homage to his enlightened mind.

They then bend down and lie flat on their bellies while sliding their hands by their sides to the front of their heads and touch palms. They finish this ritual by standing back up and placing their lotus bud mudra in front of their hearts and with a smooth motion, they bring their hands to their crowns. Then they start the whole thing again. As you can see it's then very easy to take this prayer action and turn it into movement. Some Buddhists do just that, they start at the monastery and travel pray around Bahkor Street and return to the monastery. Others have taken it a bit more extreme and travel from Xining in China's Qinhai province, to the holy capital, Lhasa. They travel pray a whopping 1956 kilometers (1215 miles). If that's not dedication, then I don't know what is. 

They believe that a pure mind, speech, and heart are the main keys to enlightenment. It was quite a spectacle to witness. There were women at least in their 80’s laying their frail bodies down to worship their Buddha. The dedication and loyalty they showed were heart-warming.

As I’ve mentioned before this monastery was right by the Bohkar Street, one of Lhasa’s main attractions. It’s about one kilometer long and a very popular devotional circumambulation for pilgrims and locals. The only thing to do is to just fall in line with all the Tibetans praying while walking clockwise around Jokhang monastery. Of course, the people of Lhasa became aware that this is very popular with tourists and overpriced shops popped up along this religiously important street.

Masks at Bahkor

While following the Buddhists in our merry-go-round down Bahkor, I noticed that some of the older locals unlike others who were carrying prayer beads and softly mumbling to themselves were carrying something like a spinning wheel without praying. These are called prayer wheels and have a prayer in Sanskrit engraved on the side. They believe that if they spin this wheel it’s the same as saying the prayer.

Prayer wheel

Naturally, I saved the best for last. The Potala Palace. It is a large white, red, and yellow palace beautifully resting on a hill - the city’s pride and joy perched over her loyal city. Before we are allowed in the palace area we have to go through a security check. There is a zero-tolerance policy again taking photos inside the palace and only a few groups are allowed inside per day. This basically means that you need to make an appointment to be allowed to see it. Once inside you have exactly one hour to do your sightseeing otherwise you and/or your tour agency will go on a blacklist and will not be allowed to enter the palace again. I reckoned this was because the palace still contains many relic scrolls and tombs for several Dalai Lamas. The palace used to be the main digs for the 14^th Dalai Lama, however since he fled to India, it’s a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. However, with the heavy security detail, I felt like I was visiting the president rather than a museum where all the people inside have been dead for quite some time.

Like I mentioned before the Potala Palace has white, red and yellow parts. This is so for a reason. The Dalai Lama used to live in the White Palace. In the center, there is the yellow courtyard, which separates the living quarters of the Dalai Lama and his monks who prayed and worshipped in the Red Palace. While wandering through this piece of art, you can see the differences in décor change between the white residential and red ceremonial sections.

I have to admit when arriving in Lhasa, I turned to my husband and said skeptically, “this just looks like any other Chinese city.” And I’ve experienced enough in my three days there to admit that I was wrong. Women in colorful ethnic dresses carrying half-naked babies can be seen throughout the city and the architecture in the city center is uniquely Tibetan and colorful. The hordes of worshipping locals praying, swinging their prayer wheels, or travel praying are omnipresent. This city and its atmosphere is clearly the spiritual and cultural heart of this religious and extraordinary culture. And you can feel it in the “air” when you’re there.