Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Issue 1 | Page 34

exploration and started at the east end of
Barkhor square, where for most Tibetans is
the most sacred temple in Tibet: the Jokhang
Temple. Founded in the 7th century by King
Songsten Gampo, Jokhang means the‘House
of the Buddha’, and it has been a Buddhist
pilgrimage center for centuries. Pilgrims walk
around the temple as part of their pilgrimage.
Then they get into the main hall of the
temple which houses the Jowo Shakyamuni
Buddha statue, perhaps the most venerated
object in Tibetan Buddhism. The route
around Jokhang is known as the “kora” and
is marked by four large stone incense burners
placed at the corners of the temple complex.

© RMT

Visiting this amazing temple, I was impressed
by the holiness and faith one can see among the
Tibetanswhopraydevotedlywhilewalkingaround
the inside of the temple, as always, clockwise.

the Dalai Lamas until the Great Fifth Dalai
Lama constructed the Potala Palace. Once
inside, we can hear the chants of hundreds of
workers repairing the roofs. These roofs are
made of a mixture of clay and stones. The
workers shape and harden them by beating
rhythmicallywithenthusiasticchoreographies.
Inside the white walls, hundreds of golden
Buddhas were waiting for us, dimly illuminated
by a few light bulbs and thousands of candles
made with yak fat. Bills from all over the
world form part of the sumptuous decoration.
The stuffy atmosphere, the incense smell
and the prayers and the chants of the monks
filled every room, corridor and courtyard.

The Norbulingka Palace

On our way back to Lhasa, we stopped to
see the famous gardens and summer palace
of the Dalai Lamas: the Norbulingka Palace.
Built under the rule of the 7th Dalai Lama

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in the 18th century, it was used as a regular
summer residence until the 14th Dalai Lama’s
exile in 1959. As an official residence of the
Dalai Lama, no pictures or videos are allowed
to be shot inside but we took pictures of the
colorful courtyards and the splendid gardens.
Our last visit of the day was to the Sera
Monastery, another one of the great three
universitymonasteriesinTibet.Serawasfounded
inthe15thcenturyandnowadayshousesabout
300 monks. Sera is well-known for the famous
debating courtyard where the monks carry out
impassioned debates that are said to be unique
among the monasteries in Tibet and are part of
their learning process. Traditional procedure
impliesvigorousgestureswithspecificmeanings
which capture the attention of onlookers.

The Jokhang Temple and the
Potala Palace

Early in the morning we continued our
January 2012 - Issue 1

After visiting Jokhang temple, headed for
one of the highlights of the trip − the Potala
Palace. This was the chief residence of the
Dalai Lamas until 1959. The first palace was
built in the 7th century by the Tibetan king
Songtsen Gampo as a present for Princess
Wen Cheng. Later, the Great 5th Dalai Lama
started construction of the modern Palace in
1645. The building is 400 meters long and 350
meters wide and copper was poured into the
foundationstohelpproofitagainstearthquakes.
There are thirteen floors, over 1,000 rooms,
10,000 shrines and 200,000 statues on top of
Marpo Ri, the “Red Hill”. It rises more than
300 m above the valley and is without doubt,
one of the most impressive places in the world.

The city centre

After visiting the Potala Palace, J and I keep
on walking to the city center. Lhasa literally
means “place of the gods”. Apart from the
main temples and palaces, the old city of
Lhasa, around Barkhor is an amazing place
to explore. A labyrinth of narrow streets and
surprising alleys, the end of which you can find,
sometimes,smalltemplesandincredibleplaces
outside of the main tourist circuits, this is also
the best way to interact with the local people
and get a taste of their famous hospitality and
easy going nature. In the middle of this maze of
narrow alleys, we called in at the AniTsangkung
nunnery, the only one in downtown Lhasa.
Suddenly,oneofthenunscalledusovertoinvite
us inside one of the rooms. There, she offered
us cookies, yak curd, and fantastic yak tea.