Lhasa
bramski
So, the city on top of the world (12439 ft/3791m by my altimeter) is a very interesting place. I arrived here, having split up from Mike and Dave in Chengdu with infinite amounts of curiosity of both the himalayas and the spiritual center of buddhism.
I’ve been staying at the Yak hotel, which is well known to all travelers coming to Lhasa, and has both hotel rooms and dorm rooms. The city of Lhasa has a HUGE amount of chinese and tourist influence, making certain parts of the city really not much fun as beggars tug on your arm at each corner, and rickshaws whistle and yell “hello” at you if you walk down the main street (Beijing Jhudong).
The Potala (wikipedia this place) is an amazing amazing tribute to the Dalai Lamas. Most of the tombs are covered in huge structures, some using up to 3700kg of gold to build the elaborate structure. Monasteries cover the land, many up on mountains over 15,000 ft.
A friend (a swiss girl from the hostel) made the trek up towards one such monastery (Sera Utse), and were taken in by a local tibetan who wanted to show us the monastery, and lead us all the way up the mountainside. The tibetans are an amazingly hospitable people, as many people have told me, the monks love to take you in, feed you, show you all the ancient paintings of their monastery (like hundreds of them), give you gifts and send you on their way. Apparently, their beliefs say that if they can help you, they will help you 100%. It’s a refreshing wonder of kindness and goodwill (not to mention they make fantastic food!).
Much love and tashi dele,
-Bramski
Posted on: Friday, April 13, 2007 at 3:07 am 
Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Comment Feed