Do note that women are not allowed in some areas as they are seen as dirty because they have a menstrual cycle, they use incense in all the rooms to cleanse the rooms of the dirty women that pass through. I crawled under a place where they keep scriptures which is said to make you more knowledgeable. They also have many prayer wheels you must spin clockwise as the DL, monks, and visitors, must all walk clockwise.

Then we had lunch at a Chinese Restaurant which was not very good. Made Asia sick. We then went to the Robulinka Summer Palace where the 7th DL came to cleanse his skin of pimps (word Tsetan used), and where the 13th DL used it as a summer palace. The current DL lived there for 3 years with his mother and family. He also used this for 1 day before he had to leave the country. There was a very sad zoo here as all the animals where in very small pens. Bunnies, black/brown bears, deer, peacocks, and monkeys. Very sad...

Then we went to the Sera Monastery which was the 2nd largest monastery in the world. Currently 400 monks reside here. Geoff and I both where able to make a wish as a large stone pole was put up to the heart of the Buddha of Compassion, Abalaketashpara, and then we put our head on the pole. Geoff also made a blessing by putting his head in a hole under the horse head protector, Hariagiva.

Tibet is a very under developed province of China. The bathrooms especially! Talk about a hole in the ground, that is how most of the bathrooms where, bring your own toilet paper. In addition, there are a lot of beggars, and the children that beg for money grab on to you and tend to not let go. Children have to pay for school here and if they do not have money they do not go (cost per year is $60USD). The Roof Top of the World, is however, very beautiful in scenery and history of Buddhism

The Palace was amazing. No monks live inside the Palace, they just do their scripture studying there and the Stupa’s (tombs) of 11 of the Dali Lama’s bodies are buried there. The Stupa’s where amazing; they where made of copper and gold and jewels where decorating the outside of them. We could not take pictures inside the Palace as they would charge us $90.00 for every picture we would take so we decided to purchase a book.

We where able to get a good picture of Lhasa from the top of the palace and see what was their Tina men Square.

9-21-02

Woke up for our last breakfast and then went to Bakoor street to pick up souvenirs for the family. Tsetan picked us up around 1200 and we traveled to the airport. Our flight was 4 hours with an 1.5 stop over in Chengdu. We meet Rebecca at the airport and traveled to our hotel. Looking forward to our brunch in the morning.

9-22-02

Woke up around 0800, had brunch and then Rebecca took us to the airport, only to find out our flight was delayed 3 hours. Blah! So after 20 hours of being on planes and in airports we finally arrived safely back in Portland, Oregon with yet another unforgettable travel experience.

HOME

China Web Page 

9-18-02

Woke up around 0800 feeling better, no headache or nauseous. We had our 3 star breakfast, which I only ate fruit and a roll. Tsetan met us at 930 and we headed to the Drepung Monastery (founded by TomYounChuChee) where the 2,3,4 Dalai Lama’s (DL) lived and built in 1460. Again we where packed with information and Tsetan continued to quiz us on this information. This was the largest monastery in the world where there are now 600 monks and there use to be 10,000 in the past.

Prayer Wheels

We saw the monks doing a philosophy session related to the scriptures where the standing monk would ask the sitting monks a question and then slap his hand palms together saying he wanted an answer, if the question was wrong he would slap his hand palm down and back hand toward the monk, if the monk was right he would ask another question. Asia was sick so she did not make this monastery.

9-20-02

Woke up this morning to Asia leaving and in need of some of our medication, as she had a very uneasy stomach. After this we meet Tsetan in the lobby. Tsetan was nice enough to come on her off day and take us to the Potala Palace, only problem was is we had no driver and had to make it to the entrance before 1:00 p.m. as the palace closed their doors to the tourists and open them to the pilgrims. So with a fast walking pace we made it to the Potala Palace and had 10 minutes to make it to the top of the stairs. I was on a mission as I knew if I stopped to take a breath I would not make it. With sweat beading down our faces we made it to the top of what was about 9 flights of stairs, and our heart rate well over 170.

After learning more history throughout the Potala Palace we headed back to our hotel to watch the Tibetan people circle and chant through Bakoor Street around the Bakoor Monastery. This chanting was done in a clockwise direction daily at 700am and 700pm. After this we went and enjoyed some Hawaiian Pizza (Yak Meat and BBQ sauce on Nan Bread). Watched a movie on our lab top and then went to bed.

Bakoor Street

Streets of Lhasa