8 Days in Tibet

So after finally getting all our necessary visas and permits required for the guided tour through Tibet (the somewhat paranoid Chinese government not allowing independent travel through Tibet) we set off with 11 other travellers, our guide, Lampar and our driver, up through the beautiful Kathmandu valley in Nepal, headed north for the border town with Tibet. In the middle of beautifully lush green mountains with hundreds of waterfalls tumbling over the cliffs into the river below, we were met with a horribly soulless white tiled building surrounded by stern looking young men all dressed up for a day out of playing soldiers and officials. ‘We must be at the Chinese border’ we said to ourselves.

This really was Chinese paranoia at its finest, as they one by one unpacked the entirety of everyone’s luggage to make sure no one was bringing in any subversive materials that would corrupt the minds of the completely un-corrupted massively oppressed Tibetan people, such as that literary work of Satan – The Lonely Planet (...it is written by Salman Rushdie isn’t it?!?), not to mention anything that looked at all religious in any way shape or form. Weapons, contraband or drugs however could’ve slipped through quite easily apparently.

After repacking all our luggage we were finally admitted back into The People’s Republic of China or Tibet, as most of who come from the free world like to refer to it, confident in the knowledge that the LYF’s hadn’t thought of checking our laptop, where we had The Satanic Verses, erm I mean, The Lonely Planet, in PDF version. Feeling quite smug as we slipped another one past the Chinese officials we headed into the border office toilets. Doubtful there has ever been a quicker change of emotions, from feeling smug to feeling sick in no time at all, as we were greeted by a typically disgusting Chinese toilet. We did think that they might have made a bit more of an effort at their ‘official’ border, but apparently not. With cubicle doors wide open, the Chinese officials that were in there at the time proceeded to deposit their lunch into the trough beneath them. Without even a wipe, flush or wash of their dirty little hands the young men all dressed up for their big game of soldiers then left the toilets and proceeded to walk back into the customs area and handle their way through everyone’s previously clean(ish) possessions...... ‘Oh China our old friend, how we have missed you’ – we thought to ourselves as we gagged and wretched our way back out the toilet block.

So we are assuming that you know that China forcefully occupied Tibet in 1950 (or ‘peacefully liberated Tibet’ as the Beijing propaganda refers to it as) and over the last 60 years have led a campaign of brutality against the Tibetan people, forcing out their political and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in fear of his life back in 1959 and continued to destroy the majority of their cultural heritage and persecute the local people until they give in to the Chinese way and frankly just start behaving themselves and acting like the rest of the Chinese population and do as they are told. So it was with quite some mixed emotions that we even decided to go into Tibet at all, particularly after spending the majority of the previous 2 months around areas in India and Nepal populated largely by Tibetan refugees.

However we decided to go and see it for ourselves, intending to hand over our tourist cash to Tibetan run business’ rather than Chinese as much as possible...easier said than done as we were about to find out.

The first thing you notice once on the Tibetan side of the border is the significant improvement in the quality of the road versus the Nepal side. A fully surfaced smooth mountain road, complete with crash barriers on every corner (very novel!) and steel netting set up to catch the rocks that would otherwise tumble down onto the road. Two very distinct lanes were marked out with a dividing line down the middle and everything. Some people just take all the fun out of everything!

In all seriousness the ‘Friendship Highway’ as the road cutting all the way across Tibet that was built by the Chinese is somewhat ironically named, is from our experience hands down the best quality and safest road anywhere in the Himalayas. Give yourselves a pat on the back the ladies and gentlemen of the Chinese government. Oh, that’s right – you’ve already done that numerous time haven’t you.

Anyway, after a few hours driving through beautiful scenery we steadily climbed our way up to 3700 metres and the town of Nyalam where we would spend our first night. We were a very diverse bunch of nationalities in our group, 1 Dutch, 2 Hungarian’s, 2 Germans, 2 French, 1 Japanese, 1 Czech, 1 Ukrainian and 1 Afghan/Canadian, and the first night we would spend sharing a dormitory room – which with the exception of a little snoring coming from the Czech corner, worked out really well. After sharing a few Lhasa beers and a Yak burger with some of our new companions we decided that they all seemed like a very nice bunch and would enjoy spending the next week or so in their company. Perhaps with the exception of our Ukrainian friend who refused to shower or change his clothes the entire time even though he was carrying the largest bag out of all of us. ‘Must be all those weapons and contraband he has smuggled through’ we thought to ourselves...

Day 2 started out bright and early as we continued our climb up onto the Tibetan plateau , otherwise known as ‘The Roof of The World’. Our guide informed us that today we would be crossing 3 high passes, the first at 5100 metres, the second at 4900 metres and the third one at 5200 metres. The strange thing about the landscape of the plateau is that because everything is so high, you barely even notice you are gaining any altitude or arriving at a high pass. The ground to the left and right of you for the majority of the time is all at the same level as the road with mountain peaks in the distance rising up another 3000 metres or so above you as you head ever closer to the 8,842 metre peak of Mt Everest. A barrier of prayer flags across the road would generally be the only indication that we had arrived at one of these high passes – a little different to the high passes we travelled across in northern India.

Meeting various nomads along the way generally selling prayer flags or a few trinkets, one chap invited us into his tent that he lived in up there at 5100 metres while he plied his trade selling prayer flags and herding Yak. His tent was surprisingly cosy complete with a burner stove for heat and cooking – he offered us some of his Yak cheese he had farmed and gave us a little musical demonstration on his drum and cymbal. Does this chap need ‘peacefully liberating’ we pondered...

Later in the afternoon we stopped by the turn off to Mount Everest base camp & were fortunate enough to catch a view of the peak of Everest poking out above the top of distant clouds. Photo taken, box ticked, we jumped back on the bus & chugged along for another few hours.

After about 10 hours driving through wonderfully desolate landscapes we arrived in the town/city of Shigatse, the 2nd largest in Tibet, after the capital Lhasa. Checking into a typically low budget Chinese hotel (i.e. rock solid beds, not a vacuum cleaner in sight and CCTV – the Chinese national TV channel that spouts nothing but incredibly good news about Chinese achievements 24-7 , which just so happens to share the acronym with something that represents paranoia and state monitoring of individual actions - in Britain at least anyway), though actually was significantly better than the standard of accommodation we had been led to believe we might end up in by our tour agent that we booked it through in Kathmandu.

In Tibetan Buddhism the second in command after the Dalai Lama is a chap called the Panchen Lama. As with all the leaders of this religion, the individuals that represent the various Lamas’ are re-incarnations of an ancient god, so after each Lama dies the search begins for the re-incarnation of the Lama again, so when the 10th Panchen Lama died in 1989, the search began for his re-incarnation. The Dalai Lama identified a young Tibetan boy of 6 years old as the latest incarnation, the 11th Panchen Lama. Quickly afterwards the Chinese government whisked this boy away to a secret prison in Beijing somewhere, making him the youngest political prisoner in the world. That was about 14-15 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and hundreds of thousands of others have campaigned for the boys’ release, but to no avail.

To try and quiet the calls for the release of the 11th Panchen Lama, the Chinese government have introduced a distinctly Chinese looking young man of the same age that they now claim is the 11th Panchen Lama, obviously fully trained in the methods and practices that the Chinese government are comfortable with him preaching, rather than the ‘dangerous and subversive’ teachings that may have come from the mouth of the actual Tibetan boy.

The monastery that we visited in Shigatse is the official seat/residence of the Panchen Lama so it has been a somewhat controversial place for many years. As a tourist in Tibet you can only go to the few places that the authorities allow, this monastery, Tashilompu Monastery is now one of those places – in an attempt by the Chinese government to prove that they have nothing to hide apparently. The ‘approved’ 11th Panchen Lama even made a recent visit to the monastery amongst much hype and fanfare from the officials. It is still a very sensitive monastery, and our Tibetan guide made a point of telling us that we could ask him anything we liked about religion while in there, but not mention anything about politics or the controversy over the Panchen Lama or the current 14th Dalai Lama of which no pictures or discussion/mention is permitted anywhere in Tibet. It is believed that many of the ‘monks’ in this monastery are actually Chinese informants, listening out for ‘subversive’ conversations, reporting the Tibetans involved in the discussions so they can be suitably dealt with. This was also highlighted later to us when our guide informed us that the staff wearing orange ‘maintenance’ uniforms were also military personnel.

After the visit to the monastery we decided to follow the pilgrim circuit or ‘Kora’ as it is known, around the outskirts of the monastery & up the side of the surrounding mountain. The entire circuit is lined with prayer wheels all the way along that the pilgrims rotate clockwise on their way round, stopping every so often to prostrate – a prayer movement that involves laying face down on the ground and spreading your arms out to the side and pulling them together above your head.

We followed the Kora trail around the hillside towards the recently rebuilt fort that looms large over the city, looking very much like a mini Potola Palace in Lhasa. Visitors are not permitted entrance here and it apparently lies completely empty and dormant, merely standing as a landmark these days. Down past the fort we stumbled into the old Tibetan quarter of the city where the local market was underway, where rows of women sat around drinking tea & playing cards next to a neatly lined up collection of what looked like goats, all perfectly in a seated possession, skinned with the exception of some fur still around their ankles & their heads chopped off. Needless to say we ate vegetarian that evening.

Moving further across the country the following day, we moved on to the town of Gyantse, a town where the Brits massacred 700 Tibetans in 4 minutes flat apparently back in 1904. So it turns out that once again the English are not exactly whiter than white when it comes to crimes against humanity in the region. Apparently during the British rule of India, the British Raj caught wind of a rumour that the Russians were planning to attack India and overthrow the Brits, so in preparation to add an extra line of defence in the form of a buffer state, the then military general, General Young-Husband advanced on Tibet aiming to claim the territory. Turning up in Gyantse with guns and fire power, the locals took a very quick and serious beating when they tried to defend themselves with just sticks, stones and the belief that Buddha would act as their protector. He didn’t as it turned out.

By all accounts the Tibetans couldn’t quite make out what was going on, as immediately after killing and maiming hundreds of Tibetans our next move was to set up a medical camp and try to treat & help the wounded. The Brits apparently then marched onto the capital city of Lhasa, killed a few hundred more defenceless Tibetans before General Young-Husband had some sort of spiritual awakening upon seeing the Potala Palace & decided to retreat immediately. Never to be the same man again, denouncing the army & becoming a devout Buddhist.

Thankfully for us the Tibetans appeared to hold no grudge against the Brits and were nothing but warm and friendly towards us. Young-Husband and his crew had also completely destroyed the town’s attractive hill top fort, that the locals diligently rebuilt, only to have it completely destroyed again by the Chinese during the cultural revolution of the late ‘50’s. It was re-built again in the ‘90’s and now offers superb views over the town and the whole valley – which considering the valley floor is around 4000 metres above sea level is surprisingly fertile & green this time of year, full of crops of barley & rape seed.

Another full day on the road followed, crossing a few more 5000 odd metre passes, stopping off at a glacier, having a photo shoot with some local yak herdsmen, having lunch in a traditional Tibetan front room/restaurant and stopping off at Tibet’s most sacred lake – Yamdrok Lake.

Yamdrok lake has become the centre of yet more Chinese fuelled controversy over the last few years as the Chinese government have installed a hydro electric plant into the lake, which involves the water in the lake being drained down into a power plant at a lower altitude further down the valley. The lake has no rivers that feed it & with very little rainfall coming to this area it is essentially a dead body of water that will not naturally replenish itself. It is a massive affront to the Tibetan people who hold this lake sacred to see the water levels significantly reducing year on year in the name of electricity. Whether the electricity generated actually remains in Tibet or not we don’t know.

As we approached the outskirts of Lhasa it felt like we could be rolling into any other modern Chinese city. It is a massive sprawling place full of typically Chinese white tiled buildings and high rise apartment blocks being built left right & centre. It is in a beautiful natural setting though, with a huge river skirting around it and towering mountains hemming it in, which help detract from the rampaging modernity.

The pre-1950 Tibetan area of the city is now a small little quarter, though infinitely more full of character & atmosphere than the rest of the city areas combined. Our hotel was right in the heart of this area, just off the main Bharkor Square with the Potola Palace looming over from a nearby hillside.

During the few days we spent in Lhasa we visited several of the key monasteries that are still in existence, the hugely important & incredibly crowded Jokhang Temple – considered one of the most important temples in Tibetan Buddhism and naturally spent an afternoon exploring the grand and enormous Potola Palace, one of the world’s great landmarks, which now stands with a Chinese flag flying proudly from its roof as it now looks over the newly constructed ‘Liberation Plaza & Monument’ that this areas current landlords installed. The Potola Palace is/was the Dalai Lama’s winter residence with all past Dalai Lamas being buried there in huge gold guilded stupas inside, though obviously since 1959 the current Dalai Lama has not spent any time at all what with being in exile and all. I wonder what he now thinks of his old residence with these new decorative amendments to the roof and the surrounding area.

Lhasa is now a city of some several hundred thousand inhabitants, Han Chinese from mainland China now out numbering the Tibetans by more than 2:1. The completion of the Beijing to Lhasa railway in 2006 has significantly added to the numbers of Chinese moving into the area to set up business’. The Chinese are naturally an industrious nation with strong business skills and have introduced almost every product a chinese or western tourist could ever want. There are some job opportunities being created for Tibetans as a result of this, so it certainly has a positive side. The reality seems to be much more that all these Chinese run business’ are actually marginalising the Tibetans even more and making it harder for them with their inferior commercial skills to make a viable business.

So after a very interesting 8 days in Tibet, experiencing beautiful landscapes & witnessing a culture that is being changed so rapidly we courted controversy ourselves and boarded the 48 hour train from Lhasa to Beijing.

The train itself was ultra modern and comfortable, with a nice dining carriage and comfortable beds. It was just the toilets that left a bit to be desired, but that was to be expected really. It is the highest train line in the world, rising up to over 5100 metres at points and spends much of the first 24hrs above 4500 metres, passing through seemingly endless expanses of uninhabited wilderness. The 48 hours actually passed remarkably quickly meeting some interesting travel companions along the way such as Howard, a 70 year old American mathematics professor who was spending a couple of months travelling around Asia on his own. We also met several well educated young Chinese professionals who were good fun and offered up some good insights on the current way of life in the rapidly developing China... EG

Question: Do people within China know that their media accessibility is incredibly censored and full of propaganda, and if so how do they feel about that?

Answer: The majority of the country don’t realise this is the case and for those that do, many of them really don’t care to rock the boat provided they are getting their slice of the amount of new wealth that is being generated, but also added that we know what can happen to us if we do speak out to openly (they were also speaking in hushed tones in case the train staff or other chinese hear them).

Maybe a spot of 'peaceful liberation' would help things along...