Public Zone 公開區 > Travelogues 遊記相薄

Tibet, China 中國西藏 (20 Jun - 4 Jul 2004)

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chin:
Observing Debates

While the monks debating, visitors can sit around in the courtyard to watch. Half of the visitors are non-Tibetans like us who has no idea what the monks are debating about, while the other half are Tibetans, like this woman, who watched with admiration and occasional smiles.

chin:
Jokhang Temple

I took this picture in the large square in front of the Jokhang temple.

The square and the Bakhor Bazaar next to it are lined with hundreds of little stalls selling coral, turquoise and other tourist items.

There were also numerous young guys approaching us peddling Tibetan knives. All the knifes that I saw were new knives made for tourists. I was told that Tibetan men do not usually carry knives any more. So I guess the local demand for real Tibetan knives are gone.

chin:
Lights of Hopes

In front of Jokhang Temple, there is a little chamber, half dug into the ground, with thousands of butter lamps lit up.

I was told that a score of families in Lhasa contributed to the building and maintenance of this special chamber. The special chamber was moved to right outside of the Temple due to too much smoke generated.

When we went into Jokhang Temple to see the monks chanting in the evening, I saw two well dressed Tibetan women, inside the chanting area, counting stacks of cash with a monk. 20 minutes later, an old monk handed out cash to each of the monk sitting and chanting there and then. I wonder if those two women were from one of the families that supported the temple financially.

chin:
Guardians of the Potala Palace

Here we learned that the original palace, only a fraction of the current palace, was built in 7th centuey by the Tibetan king back in the Wen Chen Princess time. The palace was the political center of Tibet.

In 17th century after the 5th Dalai Lama seized political power, thus consolidated the "church" and the "state" power onto himself, he rebuilt the palace to a much larger scale.

Curious visitors like us now co-mingle with what appears to be pilgrims in the palace hallways. The pilgrims will offer money on the altars and add butter oil to the lamps.

This picture is taken on a large roof top of the palace, where we had beautiful vista of the Lhasa city.

chin:
Superwoman Photographer

As soon as we got out of the bus that took us to the Potala Palace, we saw this woman squatting on the ground looking into her camera with the gigantic lens mounted on the tripod set to very low position. She was taking pictures of the many peddlers selling all kinds of junk.

On our way out, I saw her again, walking with a man. The guy also had 3 cameras on his neck and shoulder. Plus a smaller point-and-shot in his pocket and a nice (means heavy) tripod on one hand.

After talking to them, I found out that they are both from Beijing. When I asked to lay my hand on the big lens to see how heavy it was, he proudly announced to me the model number of his lens.

In the days that followed, we would see more groups with lots of professional-looking photography equipment on the roads of Tibet.

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