Tibet is a part of China, situated in East Asia. It has some of the tallest mountain in the world and numerous high-altitude lakes. Several major rivers have their source in the Tibetan Plateau. And the ever famous the magnificent Mt. Everest, located on the border with Nepal.

Religion is extremely important to the Tibetans and has a strong influence over all aspects of their lives. Tibetan Buddhism is vastly followed in Tibet, which is a distinctive form of Mahayana and Vajrayana.

Three friends and I traveled to Tibet in April 2017. It was the end of winter season, and the weather was cold and sunny. We were on a 9 day (including arrival and departure dates) tour in Tibet. I will split the post in to couple of posts as it will be quite long.

The beginning of the Tibet trip started with a long train ride. We wanted to witness the stunning views of the Tibet plateau so we decided to take the train from Xining to Lhasa.

I have written a separate post on taking the train to Lhasa, Click here to check that out.

We checked into our hotel in Lhasa looking for a good rest. We stayed in “House of Shambhala” in Lhasa, which is a very cozy authentic Tibetan hotel :).

The next day morning we started off our first day of the trip with Drupung monastery.

“Drepung is the largest of all Tibetan monasteries and is located at the  foot of mount Gephel, five kilometers from the western suburb of Lhasa. It is one of the “great three” Gelukpa university monasteries of Tibet. It was founded in 1416 by Jamyang Choge Tashi Palden (1397–1449), one of Tsongkhapa’s main disciples, and it was named after the sacred abode in South India of Shridhanyakataka” ~ wiki

It was really interesting to see the monks debating in the court yard.

“As part of the their training, monks participate in a series of debates. These debates are held in a courtyard of crushed stone. Senior monks grill junior monks on various doctrine. The junior monks are seated, while the monks questioning their knowledge of Buddhist scripture fire questions at them, accompanied by dramatic hand slapping. The hand slapping is a signal for the seated monk to respond.” ~ wiki

The next stop was Jokhang temple, which is a Buddhist temple in Barkhor Square in Lhasa. Tibetans, in general, consider this temple as the most sacred and important temple in Tibet. The temple is currently maintained by the Gelukpa school.

“The Jokhang was founded during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo. According to tradition, the temple was built for the king’s two brides: Princess Wencheng of the Chinese Tang dynasty and Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal. Both are said to have brought important Buddhist statues and images from China and Nepal to Tibet, which were housed here, as part of their dowries.” ~wiki

“The Barkhor is an area of narrow streets and a public square located around Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.The Barkor is a popular devotional circumambulation for pilgrims and locals. The walk was about one kilometre long and encircled the entire Jokhang.There were four large incense burners (sangkangs) in the four cardinal directions, with incense burning constantly, to please the gods protecting the Jokhang.”

“In addition to walking around the temple and spinning prayer wheels, pilgrims prostrate themselves before approaching the main deity; some crawl a considerable distance to the main shrine.”

Next day, it was time to see the Potala palace up close.

“The Potala Palace, winter palace of the Dalai Lama since the 7th century, symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration of Tibet. The complex, comprising the White and Red Palaces with their ancillary buildings, is built on Red Mountain in the centre of Lhasa Valley, at an altitude of 3,700m.” ~ UNESCO

As we went there in the high season, there was a queue to enter the Palace. You are not allowed to take any kind of liquid inside, including water, beverages and cosmetics. Beverages can be purchased inside.

There are lot of steps, so most probably it will be hard to climb up if it’s your first day in high altitude. You will feel exhausted very frequently.

After the tour in Potala Palace, we headed to a tibetan restaurant to have a local meal. It was a vegetarian restaurant with many vegetarian option. They had a lightly sweet rice (Dresil), tibetan momos, lentil soup and many more vegetarian dishes. Also we had the pleasure of having tibetan black tea, which has a salty taste instead of the sweetness we are used to. (Sorry I don’t have a photo of the Tibetan black tea, but it looks same as the other black tea, just the taste is different)

Next stop was the Sera monastery. It is one of the “great three” Gelukpa university monasteries of Tibet built in 1419. In this monastery also debating monks are one of the attractions.

In the courtyard of the monastery, young and old monks perform their debates. You are not allowed to use a camera to take photographs but you may use a phone to take photographs. Inside the courtyard in one side you can see the young monks and on the other side elder monks carry on their debates. It’s really interesting to watch these with all their hand and body gestures.

So that was the end of our awesome second day in Tibet. And next day we went to Shigatse, which is a long ride with amazing landscape views And the day after to Mt.Everest base camp.. We were all excited to experience all these new things. I will write all about it in the next blog post, with breathtaking photographs.