Friday, July 15, 2005
Eastern Tibet
I"m in Eastern Tibet for a few days on the end of my trip here. We are below 3000m. The weather in this region is good. Nice and cool, not hot like Lhasa is. The climate here is like in the Rockies. Alpine forest. It's beautiful alright, and makes me think of home, definetely not like the Tibet I had in mind though. The houses are different here. Made of stone, and also the language is different here. ( that's what my guide book says anyways, not like I would really know)
I"m in the mountain town of Bayi. Which is probably the cleanest town I"ve seen in awhile. Today we went to some scenic areas, and when to Lamaling monastery. The original was destroyed by earthquake in 1930, and this one was made in 1989. They did a very good job of it though. This temple belongs to the Nyimapa sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
I have seen pretty much every major temple in 3 out of the 4 provinces of Tibet in the last two weeks.
Basically, while you are here, it's either Temple, Mountain, Lake. And then your sites rotate around that. Plus a bit of shopping here and there..
Our group, which is about 30 people, are divided into 3 teams. Each time has to take turns to order food at the restaurants, get water, and take care of little problems. I"m on team 3, and my responsibility is ordering the food. The good thing is that that is something I have LOTS of experience in, so we are eating better now. :)
Tomorrow we have a long ride back to Lhasa. Everyday we travel far. We spend about 6 to 18 hours a day on the road sometime, covering lots of territory. It gets tiring.
Tomorrow will be our last night in Lhasa. I plan to go to my favorite cafe, have a glass of Tibetan barley wine, and just relax. We probably will arrive too late to do any sort of shopping. Which is too bad. I bought a painting from an art gallery here, and I would like to go back and talk to the owner, who is a very nice lady. She is an artist herself.
The painting I bought is of several monks, and it's painted on a recycled prayer flag, which the artist got from a mountain. It's very cool. I will take a shot of it, and put it online when I get back.
Tashi Delek
I"m in the mountain town of Bayi. Which is probably the cleanest town I"ve seen in awhile. Today we went to some scenic areas, and when to Lamaling monastery. The original was destroyed by earthquake in 1930, and this one was made in 1989. They did a very good job of it though. This temple belongs to the Nyimapa sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
I have seen pretty much every major temple in 3 out of the 4 provinces of Tibet in the last two weeks.
Basically, while you are here, it's either Temple, Mountain, Lake. And then your sites rotate around that. Plus a bit of shopping here and there..
Our group, which is about 30 people, are divided into 3 teams. Each time has to take turns to order food at the restaurants, get water, and take care of little problems. I"m on team 3, and my responsibility is ordering the food. The good thing is that that is something I have LOTS of experience in, so we are eating better now. :)
Tomorrow we have a long ride back to Lhasa. Everyday we travel far. We spend about 6 to 18 hours a day on the road sometime, covering lots of territory. It gets tiring.
Tomorrow will be our last night in Lhasa. I plan to go to my favorite cafe, have a glass of Tibetan barley wine, and just relax. We probably will arrive too late to do any sort of shopping. Which is too bad. I bought a painting from an art gallery here, and I would like to go back and talk to the owner, who is a very nice lady. She is an artist herself.
The painting I bought is of several monks, and it's painted on a recycled prayer flag, which the artist got from a mountain. It's very cool. I will take a shot of it, and put it online when I get back.
Tashi Delek
# posted by jason @ 6:13 AM 
