Lhasa Favorites

Favorite thing: When you visit Lhasa in july or august you can expect some rain, as it is the rainy season in that period. We had rain every day in july 2004, but almost always only at the end of the day. So if you go sightseeing always take you umbrella and/or raincoat.

Favorite thing: Lhasa has two different parts of the city. Most of the must see things like the Barkhor and the Jokhang are in the Tibetan part of town. The Tibetan part is the eastern part and can be recognised by its colorful houses.

The chinese (western) part has the more expensive hotels.

Favorite thing: The city now is divided in two parts - the chinese and tibetan one. You can see the Tibetan quarter on the picture. This is the typical tibetan building. You can see the black squares around the windows. Ususally there are small red and yellow curtains on them. These colours symbolize three main gods of Tibet: Yellow - Avalokitesvara, the god of compassion, Read - Manjushri, the god of wisdom, and Black - the protective deity, I think, Yamantaka (I can be wrong :))

Favorite thing: This is the summer residence of Dalay Lama. It is not as interesting as Potala, but worth of visiting. When Dalay Lama lived here, he liked to feed fish in this pond. He took the piece of bread and went to the pond. when he moved, the fish heard the steps of Dalay Lama and followed him around the pond.

Favorite thing: This Temple is one of the holliest places in Tibet. It was established by the first buddist tibetan king, Songcen Gampo. He had two wives, one from Nepal and one from China. They both were buddist. Chinese wife, when she came to Tibet, brought a holly statue of Budda with her. That was the statue of Jowo Saqyamuni, depicting the crowned 12 year prince Sidhartha (that is the name of Budda). This princess, she was an astrologer. And she said that buddist faith would have a lot of problems in Tibet as there was a giant demon - godess who lied on Tibetan plateau. So the princess made some calculations and said that a temple should be built in Lhasa to neutralize the demon. The temple should be built in the center of the lake, as, according the calculations, that was the place where the heart of the demon was situated. And the water was the blood of the godess. The lake was drained and the Jock-Khang temple was built. Now You can see that statue of Budda here.

Favorite thing: The Potala Palace is an administrative, religious and political complex, which was built on the Red Mountain in the center of the Lhasa valley, at an altitude of 3700 meters. It is made of 13 stories, the most visible distinction being between the White Palace and the Red Palace where the Dalai Lamas lived. There are some 1,000 rooms!
The building of the palace was begun in the VIIth century by King Songtsan Gambo to welcome his bride Weng Cheng, a Han Princess of the Tang Dynasty. In 1645, reconstruction and expansion of the Palace were carried out until it reached the present scale. The 5th Dalai Lama began living there in 1653 and it became Tibet's political religious center.

Favorite thing: This is one of the main streets of Lhasa, joining from the Jokhang temple. The market bustle allowed me to photograph the crowd without being "in your face", and I think this shows a typical atmosphere in Lhasa, with street stalls, people in traditional hairdress, and the old buildings as a background. Not a highlight to visit, but the streets are definitely part of any trip to Lhasa.

Favorite thing: This is the most sacred temple of Tibet. I was told all Tibetans must come here before and after leaving the country. It was built in the VIIth century to receive a gold statue of Buddha, a dowry of the chinese Princess Weng Cheng when she arrived in Lhasa to be married with the Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo. At the entrance, many Tibetans pray in a very typical way (see Local Customs tip).