Before writing Tibet Travel Diaries, I would like to share one minor change about myself.
After this travel, I decided to become a Buddhist. It would be ridiculous if I use the word “believer”. Just what I want is to follow the lecture of Buddha in my way to live. I felt so many positive things that I would like to share with people. Always thankful for everything, and it is one way to cleanse my karmas built already.
So many changes and agonies in the life. The answer would be to release which is not easy at all. Karma and nemesis were there for me. I have been very painful. One day, I was happened to hear the Buddhist music which a Chinese musician tried out a few electronic elements for Tibetan music to express holiness. Since hearing that, I kept dreaming of Tibet.
(emao music)
Kailas Mt, Lake Manasarovar, I had never heard of those things, however, they were on lyrics. After searching, I found out Kailas Mt is the holy mountain not only for Buddhists but also for others and it has been regarded as the middle of the universe. My whole body moved when I read the statement that if I go one round the Kailas Mt, my sins from all lives that I have lived would be purified. For 2, 3 years, I have dreamt of Kailas.
This time, after getting married, I went to the Tibet with my husband and it was my honeymoon. It was quite expensive when I searched on the Korean website, however, almost half price in foreign websites; so we decided to go in the way of a foreign tour group. It took 2 hours from Incheon Airport to Beijing and 5 hours from Beijing to Lhasa by airplanes. Lhasa is located at an altitude of 3,800 meters and when I arrived there, I suffered from altitude sickness for a one hour. My lungs were pulled and I was short of breaths. However, I was very lucky because I just suffered for just only one hour. After that, I was very healthy during whole travel. My husband, on the contrary, suffered for five days during the sleep hour and morning.
After arriving in Lhasa, we took a rest for two days to prepare high altitudes. Having some rest and eating Sichuan foods, we looked around. It was quite different from what I expected. Lhasa was seized by Chinese people from Sichuan. The hostess and part-time worker from our first accommodation were Chinese people, too. I was able to think about the suffering of the region which was colonized as much as the experience of holiness during Tibet travel. I could see the reason why so many Korean bloggers mentioned the colonization. To be a little bit cynical, it would be a good way to visit Tibet for Koreans who wonder about how Korea would be in Japanese colonial era even though Tibet region is urged by Korean government not to travel.
However, I got an intuition from Lhasa thanks to the strength of Tibetan people and dazzling beauty of harsh nature; that is Tibet people could not easily mingle with other secular east Asians. They look similar to east Asian people seemingly, but their faces were so tanned by strong ultraviolet rays that those were red or even black and their eyes were bloodshot. I found out that some people even become blind. It was truly plausible because it was the enormously large amount of rays. I have never been so dazzled by lights and rays in my life. And the clouds! They were so close to human. Beyond the developed roads, high mountains were there and snow was on top of those. I felt Lhasa is a kind of fortress built on the nature, however it was just lying on the nature not to conquer the mighty power of nature. No one would dare to do.
Even though it seems there are many Chinese people working in business, I could see the Tibetan characters on the streets. Their efforts hanging the colorful papers to spread the words of Buddha, people in traditional clothes walking in between the gaps of low buildings, and the fishy smell of yak milk which is crucial to the lives of Tibetan people. They were selling chunks of yak butter from the streets. Even in the ice cream, I could taste the thick flavor of yaks. Yes, it was Tibet! Ultraviolet rays and the smell of yak fats were things that could beat even the colonization.
To be continued