Chapter Two
Yakkety Yak From Tibet
Hello from the Top of the world! Lhasa, Tibet (3,750m to be exact).
Well, since my last mail, everything fell beautifully into place, and once we arrived in Chengdu, Sichuan, it became obvious that getting to Tibet was not going to be as difficult as the literature had made out. Expensive, yes, difficult, no! Since the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, this has been a "Security Zone", and one can only visit with a Police permit. These are only available to tour groups. However, we quickly found that one's company, two's a tour group!! We had to take out a package which included our permit, dormitory accommodation in a hotel in Lhasa (which we didn't show up for) a guide for two days (whom we kept), and a one way ticket.
Here in Lhasa we arranged the return.
Before describing how wonderful Tibet is, a quick word about Sichuan. To our relief, as we continued southward, all the things that had annoyed us up to this improved, - accommodation became cheaper (much cheaper!!), people became far more friendly, hardly anyone spat at us, public parks stopped singing to us, no-one tried to sell us postcards OR water, and of course there is Sichuan food! We had enjoyed eating everything (literally) up to then, of course, but this stuff blows you away (in every sense). With spices as subtle as a boner in a leotard, sichuan food is not for the faint hearted. A table full of fantastic dishes, all designed to burn the gob off you today and the Lord knows what off you tomorrow, served in style at a top restaurant in Chengdu, cost us a princely 72yuan (exactly 10eur).
Then on yer bike back to the hotel, where a twin room with ensuite knocked us back about 20eur. Sure where would you be going!!
Sichuan is also the home of the lovable but greatly endangered Giant Panda, and the national breeding station for these cuddly toys is 12kmout the road from Chengdu (about 20km if you cycle the wrong way first!). We spent a wonderful morning at the station, these things have an "oooooh" factor of 100/100. For a fee (which goes towards the upkeep of the station) you can have a baby panda sit on your knee while you feed it and play with it. Needless to say neither of us could resist. Giant Pandas deserve their name, - the "baby" sits in your lap with his feet sticking out over your knees, and his head level with your own! They are so playful that I got a crack on the ear for tickling it under the arm, and then a big panda nose stuck in my face. I tried to get one into my backpack to bring home, but when we found that they eat over 20kg of fresh bamboo per day, I reckoned Arran Quay could never support it. The only downside at the station was the Chinese tours, - making enough noise to start an avalanche, 20 people arrive out of nowhere, scare every Panda in sight back out of sight, and then f*ck off to terrorise something else. Not for the first time I reckoned that with just a 10 second burst of machine-gun fire we could enjoy the rest of the day in peace!
A second downer was when I found that my camera, which had been "repaired" by the roadside after a problem in xi'an, had a shutter problem. I was left with only 2 or 3 photos of the pandas, despite shooting off a whole roll, and had a mad dash for a late night haggle for a new camera before we left chengdu for Tibet.
Back to Lhasa. We've been here for four days now, and it really is magic. (It would help if you could ignore the Chinese presence, but that's a little difficult, since after wiping out 1 million of the locals (leaving 1.5 million), they've now shipped in 1.5 million Chinese to solidify their grip on the place). The (Tibetan) people here are fantastic, beaming smiles everywhere you look. It is a buddist country, of course, with the Dalai Lama (living in exile in India since 1959) being the supreme figure. The 500 year old Jonkhar Temple in the centre of Lhasa is the religious epicentre of the country. Inside is a magical and mystical half-lit world of beaming golden buddhas, chanting monks, flickering candles, and the scent of Yak butter torches and heavy incense. Outside the faithful follow a circular route through the streets around the temple. The route is called the Barkhor, and thousands of people walk around (clockwise only) spinning their prayer wheels, thumbing their prayer beads, or repeatedly throwing themselves headlong on the ground, all the while chanting their repeated mantra. All around the route huge egg-shaped ovens burn various scented herbs, offerings from the faithful. The route is also lined the whole way around with market stands, selling everything from the Yak butter and herbs for offerings, to prayer wheels, beads, Yak-bone ornaments and clothes.
There are huge varieties of Tibetan dress to be seen here also. In Lhasa, the women wear long brown dresses, waist-coats, and wonderfully coloured aprons. The men are straight out of Braveheart. There is a religious festival taking place at the moment, with an influx of pilgrims from all over the country, so we also have women in long black dresses, hair woven with beads and ribbons, men in huge cloaks with red tassles woven into their hair, everything from red-indian lookalikes to something from a mexican cowboy movie. It's a wonderful place.
After the temple and the barkhor, the other main attraction in the city is the Potala Palace, the erstwhile residence of the Dalai Lama. This is a vast white, brown and gold affair perched on top of a hill at the edge of the town centre. Not unlike the Forbidden City in Beijing, but all in one vertical structure rather than spread out at ground level, the Potala has thousands of rooms, many off limits to normal folk. It was built by the 5th Dalai Lama (1600s) and has been occupied by all since, including the current (14th). Since these are all re-incarnations of the previous incarnations, that qualifies as a pretty long occupancy! (an exception was the 6th, who wasn't so keen on being found to be the next re-incarnation, and ran away never to be seen again!! - you just can't please everybody!!). Most of the intervening incarnations have had their mortal remains interred within the Palace in sumptuous golden jewel encrusted stupa, some over 7m high. The gilded roofs over these stupa rise over the rooftop of the palace, gleaming in the intense high-altitude sun. Again the atmosphere throughout is heavy with monks chanting, melted butter, incense, and the many thousand variations of the Buddha.