Day 36 – Walking on the roof of the world, Lhasa!

By bogaert

Today I had on my agenda a discovery tour in the city of Lhasa. It was cold in the morning, so left around 10:00 to the impressive Potala Palace. I was really impressed about the size, the decoration inside, and in particular about the numerous deep religious pilgrims. You could smell the yak-butter offered by the pilgrims everywhere, as the murmur of monks and pilgrims. A fascinating atmosphere was hanging around. Unfortunately, no photo taking allowed inside, so no inside photos.

Thereafter I walked to the Jokhang temple, the most religious temple in Tibet. The queue to enter the temple took about an hour for pilgrims. As a foreigner I could walk along the line and get immediate access, lucky me! Also here were hundreds of pilgrims, offered yak-butter at every stage in their pilgrimage. The roof of the temple was accessible and gave a nice view over the city.

After a short lunch (yak-meat) I returned to the Jokhang temple and joined the pilgrim circuit around the temple. It was a nice walk through the narrow streets around the temple. Again, being the only foreigner around I felt observed continuously. When mounting my large zoom lens (more than a foot long) on my camera I was closely observed by two police officers. I continued my journey and made sure I was only taking pictures of pilgrims and monuments. I crossed the city and walked back to the Potala Palace and did the second pilgrim circuit around the palace. Around the palace wall there are hundreds of prayer rolls, impressive! I was getting tired from all this walking, probably also from the thin air at this altitude and returned to the hotel to rest.

I can only say, this is a total different world! What a boring blog … no inspiration today … hope you enjoy the photos!

Potala Palace