Jac’s Journey

My head was full as I prepared to leave Tibet. Full of all the experiences I’d had while I was in Tibet; trying to process and understand some of the things I’d seen. Which was quite a challenge.

I’d met and bonded with some amazing Tibetan people and spoken to them about Tibetan issues. I’d personally had a very positive experience of the Chinese Military at Everest Base Camp, yet was infuriated at the closure of Drepung Monastery (after the Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour by George Dubya and the monks had a celebration) and the horrible riot-gear-clad-police strutting around the Barkhor area telling Tibetans to split up cos they’re not allowed to gather in groups of more than 20-or-so. I’d watched Richard and Karen’s film, made in Dharamsala, where the exiled Tibetan community live (scroll to the bottom of their web page to watch for yourself www.environments.org.uk). What on earth was I to think? The Tibet issue is so complex…

Having spent a month or so travelling in ‘China-proper’, and then almost two months travelling in oppressed minority areas, I decided that I needed to leave China for a bit. I felt as if my mind was too full for me to be able to continue appreciating and seeing the best in China. I needed to mentally and emotionally separate what the Chinese government does from the Chinese people and their wonderful country and history.

So a quick re-jig of the plan later, and I was on my way to Chengdu for a week of chilling out, then Hong Kong, then………….a beach in the Philippines!

I haven’t seen a better city in China than Chengdu for chilling out. The home of tea-drinking as an art form for the last 3000 years, Chengdu is a city that rejects the frenetic pace of other Chinese cities. Everyone has time to sit down and have a cuppa. And for some reason, the Chinese people here are more outgoing and friendly than across the rest of China. The city’s got a really great feeling about it.

One of the other great reasons to chill out in Chengdu is that they’ve probably got the best selection of budget guesthouses in China. First stop was ‘The Loft’, a very chic New York loft-style place. After John Paul left to climb Emei Shan, I headed over to ‘Sim’s Cosy Guesthouse’ where Karen and Richard were staying, and treated myself to a room of my own. This place was fabulous. Once I discovered that I could go to reception, order breakfast and ask for it to be delivered to my room, I became a demon breakfast-in-bedder!

Although, I did get out of bed sometimes… A visit to Sichuan Opera and another really colourful show was enjoyable, but not so much fun as watching the baby pandas climbing around in the ‘panda nursery’ at the Sichuan Panda Breeding and Research Centre. This place was brilliant. Pandas themselves are not massively interesting most of the time. For some strange reason they eat bamboo (despite being natural carnivores), which doesn’t give them enough nutrition or energy to enable them to do very much. So most of the time they sleep. No wonder they’re in danger of extinction…

So, up early to be in the Panda Sanctuary for breakfast time. The Pandas were awake, and mostly, like me at Sim’s, having breakfast in bed. We saw pandas of different ages, with the general theme being the older they get the less energetic they get (just like us humans, really). The absolutely highlight was seeing the panda cubs – only a couple of months old – trying to find their feet. One of them in the panda nursery was determinedly trying to climb a ladder, but just couldn’t stretch himself enough to reach the next rung and kept tumbling through the gaps hanging onto a rung with one paw and then falling in a cute heap on the floor. A massive crowd of tourists (me at the front!) were gawping in the window and ooooh-ing and aaaaah-ing over this bundle of black and white fun. Unfortunately no photos allowed so I can’t share it with you.

Chendgu

Other fun in Chengdu included a big night out clubbing until 6am, going along to watch an old classic film in a bookshop, attending a creative writing class and eating lots of wonderful food. A week of chilling out later, I was ready to head to Hong Kong…

Mount Everest. Or Qomolangma as both the Tibetans and Chinese prefer to call it.

The highest mountain in the world.

When it comes to Mount Everest, the Base Camp is as high as I ever want to go. My ambitions in life lie elsewhere and not on the summit of this massive mountain. The Base Camp is a breathless 5200 metres above sea level on the Tibet side, with the summit of the mountain around 8850 metres.

It was an action-packed 5 day trip, with loads of fun and adventures along the way. From Lhasa to Yamdrok-Tso Lake, to Gyantse, to Shigatse, to Everest Base Camp, pit stop on the way back, then return to Lhasa.

Thinking about this trip in advance, I was hoping and praying I could find three other people that I could bear to spend many hours in a car with for 5 days. Luckily, I found a great bunch of 7 others to share two jeeps, and we had a brilliant time.

We had so many adventures along the way; luckily the photos tell a lot of the stories, so I can restrain myself a little and keep to the best moments here (although there were so many it’s tough to choose!).

The first bonding experience for the group was when all of our white knuckles couldn’t get any whiter and I called out, ‘Jesus Christ Sandy, slow down on the corners!’ Sandy was our Tibetan driver and his evil-sounding laugh when asked to slow down didn’t make us feel any better. I put on my very assertive tone of voice and asked him again. He slowed a little. At the first stop, we asked the guy in the other jeep who spoke Chinese to tell him to slow-the-f-down. He did, a little. I’ve never seen cornering like it. Imagine climbing a really steep hill, with hairpin bend after hairpin bend and your driver speeds up on the corners. Blind corners. He’s on the wrong side of the road, accelerating. My hair was graying. The driver was doing evil-cartoon-laugh and telling us it was ok, he was a great driver. Michelle was having kittens about the sheer drop to the right hand side. I was trying to bend my vision to see if there was any oncoming traffic on the left hand side. The guy sitting in the front proclaimed himself a fatalist and that he wasn’t bothered by the crazy driving. I think it was only cos he was already dying of ‘man-flu’ and decided that it would be less painful to topple off the side of the cliff.

After developing an immunity to car-racing-Tibetan-style (and seating myself in the back where I couldn’t see what was happening on the road) things got a little easier. Sandy the driver was actually a really cool guy and just needed to be told to slow down on corners. Cool, we knew what we were dealing with.

Arriving into Gyantse after a fairly long day in the car, we all stretched our legs by climbing up 200m above the town to the top of Gyantse fort. A stunning view was waiting for us at the top; looking over the old town towards the monastery and Gyantse Kumbum – a unique Tibetan monument packed with 15th century Buddhist art. An incredible place to catch our breath, congratulate ourselves on climbing so high at that altitude and watch the sunset. Beautiful.

Next day was Shigatse, the site of Tashilhunpo Monastery, the seat of the Panchen Lama. We walked half-way round the holy kora, then veered off at the highest point, settled ourselves onto some rocks with a great view over the Monastery and Shigatse, pulled out our beers and nibbles and sat in the coolest pub I’ve ever been in for a few hours, watching yet another sunset.

Next day, as we bumped our way over dirt roads towards Everest Base Camp, we came up behind a toppled pick-up truck with a load of Tibetans and their stuff all over the road. We all helped push the truck back over and then the pilgrims waved and got on their way.

Arriving at Rongbuk Monastery, the highest monastery in the world, where we were planning to spend the night, we were asked to provide our permits. ‘The Drivers have them’ we answered. ‘No we don’t, you have them’ was the reply. ‘Oh no we don’t!’ Things got messy. You can’t travel around Tibet without a permit, and our travel agent had sent us to Everest, one of the most sensitive places in Tibet (after the American banner incident earlier this year) with no permits. The chinese-speaking guy in the other jeep managed to befriend the Chinese Military guy; we were allowed to stay and allowed to visit the Base Camp the next morning. Result! Although the travel agent got a fright when all 8 of us descended on him once we got back to Lhasa…

Mount Everest. The highlight of the trip. We intended to trek the 8k from Rongbuk to EBC the next morning, but as we didn’t have permits the chinese miltary guy got nervous and followed us, picking us up in the jeeps saying that there were wolves in the area and he had to protect us. It didn’t really matter how we arrived though, it was still Everest Base Camp! As I stood looking at the highest mountain in the world, not a cloud in the sky, I was quite overwhelmed. Mount Everest, and officially, at 5200 metres, I was more than half-way up! Who’d have thought – a wee lassie from Glasgow…

There were even better views to come though, as we travelled back a different way, we climbed higher and higher up a steep hill. (Sandy’s driving had improved somewhat…or were we immune by this point?) Looking towards the Himalayas was amazing – watch this to see what I mean…

All 8 of us sitting on the top of a hill, with prayer flags blowing in the breeze, gazing towards the Himalayas, drinking brandy from the Rongbuk Monastery shop, smoking cigarettes. I thought Shigatse had been the best pub in the world. I was wrong. We found it here.

With a quick pit-stop back in Shigatse, we all went out to celebrate the last night of the tour. Where else but NangMa? The best fun of the evening was a crowd of us on the dance floor with a bunch of Tibetans, limbo dancing under a kata that just kept getting lower, break dancing (not me I hasten to add!) and waltzing. Everyone should get drunk with Tibetans at least once in their life – such brilliant fun!

And then back to Lhasa. Slowly our group began to disperse; Andesh to Xi’an, followed by Hilde, John-Paul to Chengdu, followed by me, Sean to Shanghai then Chicago, Jay and Michelle to Kunming then Thailand, Matt to Beijing. It had been an incredible week, with so many adventures, laughs and above all, Mount Everest.

Trip to Everest Base Camp

I wouldn’t normally write a separate post about a day-trip, but Nam Tso Lake is so, so beautiful. We’d been in Lhasa about 4 days when we set off to Nam Tso. A couple of days before, people had been turned back because the road was impassable. Luckily the snow had melted and we got there.

Blue like I’ve never seen before. As were driving up to Nam Tso I commented to Richard and Karen that I’d never seen a sky so blue. Then I saw the lake. I laughed and called out, ‘Come on Sky, get your act together. That Lake’s giving you a showing up!’

Nam Tso is more than 4000m above sea level, so was a great test of how I was coping with the altitude. We started to climb up a peak. I ran up the stairs at the bottom in my usual skippy manner only to come a cropper gasping for breath after about 20 steps. A brief break and I took things at a more steady pace, all the way to the top of the hill, to get you this video…

The most beautiful thing about Nam Tso was the combination of the blue lake, the blue sky and the multi-coloured prayer flags flapping in the wind. Tibetan pilgrims tie their prayer flags to the highest point they can as this is where they have the most power to answer their prayers. Anywhere else they would look like rubbish left on the mountain. In Tibet, they look beautiful.

Nam Tso Lake

Also, here are the Lhasa photos I promised…

Lhasa

Where to start? The colourful Tibetan Pilgrims or the Monasteries? The delights of the Tibetan Barkhor area or the karaoke bars and neon lights of the Chinese area? Gasping for breath due to the altitude or singing and drinking with Tibetans? Or with politics?

Almost three weeks in Tibet and it’s been a rollercoaster. Lhasa has been a dream city for me. I never really thought I would get here, and to actually be here was hard to comprehend. Walking around the Barkhor area, following the pilgrim kora around the Jokhang Temple, drinking yak butter tea, eating yak momos, visiting temples and monasteries; it was all so surreal for a while. I couldn’t figure out how I felt about it all. I’ve met some amazing people, seen wonderful things, been shocked by poverty and angered by repression.

I thought long and hard about writing a political speel, but, for various reasons, have decided against it at the moment. So, the rest of this blog will simply describe the wonders of Lhasa…if you want to chat Tibetan politics, drop me an email…

So, the amazing sights and experiences of Lhasa; Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, the Barkhor, Sera Monastery, Drepung Monastery, Norbulingka, nights out with Tibetans drinking beer and Chang; the list brings such a smile to my face.

The Barkhor has been one of my favourite places to people-watch. Pilgrims make their way to Lhasa from all over Tibet to pay homage at the Jokhang, the most important temple in Tibet. I’ve never witnessed such devotion. Some pilgrims travel by pilgrim truck, some walk and some prostrate the whole way from their home to Lhasa – it can take them months to make the journey. Pilgrims stroll or prostrate around the Jokhang kora in the Barkhor, creating such colour and energy it’s a delight to join in. I’ve completed several Jokhang koras (walking!), staring in amazement at the Tibetan people spinning their prayer wheels and murmuring ‘Om Mani Padme Om’. There’s something magical about the Barkhor – it draws you in, time and time again.

Visiting the Jokhang itself was an almost spiritual experience. At first we were ushered in the opposite direction from all the pilgrims, but when the chinese guard stopped a monk going through and waved me in, it all felt wrong. So, we went and joined the long, slowly snaking queue of Tibetan pilgrims. They were tickled to see us in their queue, when usually tourists are given priority access, and we got to see them go through all the different chapels and worship the different buddhas, boddhisatvas and deities. Incredible. Coming out onto the roof of the temple, we watched a large crowd of pilgrims prostrating in front of the temple. I just stood and watched them for ages. I really can’t understand that level of religious devotion. One old lady could barely stand, but was still prostrating in front of the temple. She was so frail I’d have gladly given up my bus seat on a 10 hour journey for her. And still she prostrated…

The Potala is the winter residence of the Dalai Lamas, although now is more of a museum for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, what an incredible building. Built on top of the highest hill in Lhasa, it towers above everything and glimmers white and red against the bluest of skies. I went over to visit Norbulingka, the summer residence of the Dalai Lamas. In the grounds of Norbulingka was a house specifically built for the 14th Dalai Lama. This made me really sad. Looking at the study he hadn’t read in for many years, the bed he hadn’t slept in, even the loo he hadn’t used since leaving for India, was very moving. Pilgrims made their way around his house, leaving small offerings beside his desk, on his bed, tucked into the 1950s Phillips radio that had been a gift from India. In this house is one of the only remaining pictures of the 14th Dalai Lama in China – on a wall mural. Leaning over the barrier deliberately placed several feet away I caught a brief glimpse, and then exchanged smiles with a monk who knew exactly what I was doing. He came over and smiled and said ‘14th Dalai Lama’. I grinned back and said ‘it’s good to see him’.

Visiting Sera Monastery was a real highlight. It’s a beautiful place on the outskirts of Lhasa, and famous for it’s fighting monks. Each day, debating is held in the courtyard and I was held spellbound by the sight of so many monks boisterously debating aspects of Tibetan theology (or so I’m told – I can only speak three words of Tibetan!). At times it seems quite fierce, but then the monks laugh and you realise they’re not going to set about each other!

I’ve had a few incredible nights out with Tibetans. Once, we heard singing in an alley in the Barkhor, knocked on the window and were asked in to join a small group of Tibetans in a little Chang house. Cries of ‘Tashidelek’ (Cheers) must be followed by downing your beer in one go (thank god the glasses are small). The glasses are never empty for more than a few seconds and then someone else cries ‘Tashidelek’. Thankfully people sing too, which puts a nice gap between beer shots. We were asked to sing; one verse of Flower of Scotland and they didn’t ask me again. I have always said I have many talents, but singing’s not one of ‘em!

Another night we headed to a NangMa club; a traditional Tibetan nightclub. More like a posh working man’s club, we chuckled at the decor, and then various acts coming on stage. My personal favourite was the Tibetan boy band with the cool dance routine. We shared our table with some friendly Tibetans who just kept on buying more beer and pouring it into our glasses. I was glad when one of the Tibetans fell asleep in the club – at least I could outlast one of them, hehe.

I have taken an obscene amount of photos and really want to share them with you, but am having major uploading probs at the moment. Bear with me, photos to follow…(later edit – and here they are!)

Lhasa

It feels like ages since I’ve blogged. I’ve missed it.

I’ve been putting off writing this blog entry cos, for once, I just didn’t know where to start. Arriving in Tibet, being in Lhasa, adjusting to the altitude, visiting various monasteries, lakes and pilgrim circuits, seeing the nature of the Chinese military presence here and seeing examples of repression; it’s caused a bit of a rollercoaster of thoughts and feelings and it’s taken me a while to process them all.

And now I find myself with not enough time to blog properly cos I’m off on a 5 day trip to Everest Base Camp tomorrow (really looking forward to it!).

I promise you all a top-notch blog and photos when I get back from EBC, probably in a couple of installments, to tell you all about the people, the sights, the sounds, the sadness and the happiness of being in Tibet. It’s quite a place!