Daily Archives: Tuesday, 2 October 2007

After lunch and a quick stop at a Tibetan handicraft market (which disguised inside Lhasa Museum), we finally visited the Potala Palace in the afternoon. Seeing its photo is not the same as being there yourself to see it. It looks amazing (except the walking up bit – was too painful to do!).

First we were taken to across the road from the Palace to take photos. Over there, they also rent out traditional Tibetan clothes. Of course the six of us hired them, then we took countless (I lost count after 10) photos of us wearing the clothes in front of Potala Palace. Some tourists even posed with us, I wasn’t aware that we look like Tibetans that much. We also received some glares and laughs when we decided to take a “jumping” photo, which BTW turned out to be a very nice photo. (Thanks to Andri’s brilliant idea)

Check out some of the photos.

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Group photo with the Tour Leader across the road from Potala Palace

We are so happy to be here!

Candra & Andri in the middle of the road in Lhasa

Andri & Candra climbing the Potala Palace

Eating Tibetan yogurt

For more, click here.

Apparently only limited number of visitors are allowed in the palace. Visitors are given time-slot of when they can be inside the palace. Not sure why though.

In my personal opinion, climbing the stairs and go inside the palace wasn’t really worth it. It is not my thing to have a look at the artifacts, the statues, and previous Dalai Lama’s gold-encased tombs. Plus no photos are allowed to be taken inside. Climbing the countless stairs was like a year’s worth of cardio especially in high altitude area. LOL!

After the Potala Palace, we were taken to some Tibetan medicine shop and some tea shop. What’s with these tours and trying to make people to buy stuff..

I was so tired after we arrived back at the hotel, also had this really bad headache. I went straight to bed after taking my Panadol.

In the morning we went to visit the Barkhor and the Jokhang Temple.

For those who have never heard about the Barkhor, here is a bit of info about it.

Of all the countless sacred circuits in Tibet, the Barkhor is probably the most famous and certainly one that every Tibetan wants to circumambulate at least once in their life.

For visitors to Lhasa, the Barkhor represents a unique cross section of the entire Tibetan region.

The Barkhor circuits start right in front of the Jokhang Temple, which of course means that you can see a lot of pilgrims that arrive from all around Tibet.

It was an interesting to see how these people pray, which I believe require a lot of faith in their religion and also requires a lot of efforts.

The Barkhor is not just a religion center but also a lively market square, where pretty much everything is sold there. From pilgrimage requirements to metal juice blenders.

Have a look at the photos we took at the Bakhor.

After going around the Bakhor once, we visited the Jokhang Temple.

The temple is at the heart of the old town Lhasa, and at the center of the temple is Tibet’s holiest image, the Jowo Sakyamuni. A lot of pilgrims may have spent weeks traveling on foot or by road to reach this spot for the first time in their life.

Another highlight of the temple other than the fact the Jowo Sakyamuni is housed here, is the view at the rooftop. It offers superb views of the temple’s famous golden pavilion eaves, the Potala Palace on the east, and snow-capped mountains.

Some photos from this morning…

Candra, Devi, and Andri at the Bakhor

Group photo at Bakhor

Can you see the Potala Palace?

Candra & Andri on the roof of Jokhang Temple

Group photo & our Tour Leader on the roof of Jokhang Temple

More photos can be found here.