Greetings everyone from the World Map Pin community, thank you for all the comments from the first post I had last week on my journey into Tibet. In the last post, I have shared on starting the trip at an altitude that is slightly lower to get ourselves acclimatised before moving to places of high altitude to prevent altitude sickness. In today's post, I will continue on my journey into Tibet with focus on the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, which is also the home to the beautiful Potala Palace, the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas. And in the cover photo for today's post is a picture I took of Potala Palace from a platform a short distance away from the palace.
Background Recap
This is a 9 days trip span across 9 days, that me and my buddy, a fellow photography enthusiast went on.
The main cities that we visited in this trip includes: Chengdu (Sichuan Province), Nyingchi (Tibet), Lhasa (Tibet), Shigatse (Tibet) and Xining (Qinghai Province).
Mode of transport within includes an internal flight from Chengdu to Nyingchi, land cruiser driving through Tibet, a train ride out of Tibet to Xining and lastly an internal flight back to Chengdu before heading back home to Singapore.
If you've missed the first part of this trip where I shared about how I acclimatise my body before heading into higher altitude locations in Tibet, you can check out here: Link
So let's continue this amazing journey!
Sejila Mountain and Mila Mountain
As we depart from Nyingchi, we started our drive towards Lhasa. This drive into Lhasa will include crossing 2 mountains, namely Sejila Mountain (4720m) and Mila Mountain (5013m).
The first mountain that came upon us is Sejila Mountain which we manage to see it in beautiful weather where there are still blue skies and we are able to see prayer flags put up by the Tibetans. Prayer flags are commonly seen at locations with strong winds, as Tibetans believe that as the wind blows through, prayer scriptures that are inscribed on the flags are being uttered as prayers. Which is why we will see them on mountains where there are strong winds which means more prayers are uttered as the winds blow on them. Do take note, it is very cold at this altitude, do not attempt to exit your vehicle without some warm clothing and wind breaker. And before I forget, before heading to such high altitudes, make sure the vehicle is equipped with portable oxygen tanks in the event that our body still did not manage to acclimatise and seeing effects of altitude sickness. We didn't stop too long at Sejila Mountain, a brief stop of approximately 20mins and we journeyed on towards Lhasa.
We had changing landscape from icy mountain to non icy ones as our journey continued and then stop over at an old suspension bridge at Saiwo Village to capture some pictures.
After this short stopover, we headed towards the next mountain, Mila Mountain. Unfortunately, the condition at Mila Mountain is quite bad with huge gust and the view isn't as clear as Sejila Mountain. But I still manage to get a picture of the beautiful mountain range although it was seriously cloudy and windy.
It was blistering cold due to the bad weather conditions. I couldn't last more than 8 minutes out of the vehicle and quickly snuggle in as we continue our journey Lhasa as we are about 150km away from Lhasa.
As the vehicle comes to approximately 50km away from Lhasa, I saw a picturesque place and called for my driver to stop because it was really beautiful especially with the sky reflection onto the lake.
Once this is done, we are on our way into Lhasa city itself. When we came into Lhasa , it was close to 5pm and after a day of long drive, it's time to rest and have a good meal before exploring Lhasa city tomorrow. However, we had a little episode in the hotel room as my buddy after reaching the room, started throwing up due to altitude sickness. He felt really unwell, so instead of heading out to a restaurant for dinner, we gotten the hotel to help us get soup noodles for a simple dinner. And it is through this, I learned the importance of acclimatising for high altitudes. Thankfully buddy got alot better the next morning.
Lhasa
Potala Palace
After confirming my buddy was alright, both of us headed out towards Potala Palace. Something to share with everyone is that, during peak seasons when we visited (May to October), there is an entrance fee of 200 RMB, if you come during other time of the year, the entrance fee is half of peak season.
When we reached near the entrance of Potala Palace, we saw something that shocked us:
People walking 3 steps then going all flat onto the ground. Then our guide told us that this is something that Tibetans want to do at least once in their lives as a form of pilgrimage. They can start from where they stay and do this 3 step/1 pray sequence till they reach Lhasa's Jokhang Temple. I salute their dedication and conviction.
Next we went into the Potala Palace:
Such a majestic place of amazing architecture. And below are the steps that we took to head up to the main palace. This flight of steps was no easy task, especially with the thin air. Completing all the steps before we reach the entrance of inner palace felt like I just went for a good 3km run.
A place filled with heritage and history await us and I had a good time understanding the history from my guide with his detailed sharing through the various exhibits in the inner palace. To me, this is a place that you must visit to know more about Tibet, its history, its culture and about the 2 special Llamas. As we exited the palace, we continue seeing many devotees along the streets and many using methods to utter prayers, one through handheld prayer spinner and the other using giant prayer spinner on the streets.
Jokhang Temple
Next, we headed Jokhang Temple, which is the heart of Lhasa and where pilgrims from all over tend to end the 3 step/1 pray pilgrimage here. This temple is built by King Songsten Gampo to house the Jowo Shakyamuni, brought by his Tang Chinese queen Wencheng. And Shakyamuni is the most venerated statue in Tibet today. This place is another place that one should visit if they come to Lhasa.
A long day comes to an end after and we are more or less done with what we've planned for Lhasa. Time to rest before we head out to Shigatse which will be covered in the next post.
Closing
So much to see in the days spend coming into Lhasa and also within Lhasa. From beautiful sceneries to rich culture in Tibetan devotion towards Buddhism and learning more about the history of Tibet.
Have you ever been to Lhasa? Let me know your thoughts and also your experience if you've been here before.
Thank you for reading my 2nd post on my journey to Tibet in this community World Map Pin! See you in the next post where more amazing photos of a beautiful lake and also the city of Shigatse.