Lhasa Buddhist Monasteries

canned oxygen at 11,500' ?

The flight from Chongqing to Lhasa is an easy 2 hours, but with a shocking elevation gain of 10,138 feet.  Even though Lhasa’s elevation is 11,450 feet, I didn’t worry much about altitude sickness; I knew my body would adjust quickly if I drank a lot of water.  PCVs Steph and Izzy took medicine the PC gave them to help them adjust.  For the first few hours after landing, I felt the affects of our sudden altitude change.  I took an Advil, drank, drank, drank, and moved slowly.  The problem with drinking so much water is peeing.  The public squat holes in Tibet are few and disgusting.  What’s worse is a lack of bushes and rocks to hide behind after we left Lhasa. 

sucking the O2 between complaints

Two Vietnamese women in our tour group had a difficult time with the altitude.  Actually, they had a difficult time with everything.  I don’t think I’ve heard so much whining and complaining ever before.  They slowed the group down and it seemed like we were always waiting for them.  I don’t think anyone minded that, but why travel and then complain about it?  One guy, an Italian, almost lost it in a temple when one of the women, wrinkling up her nose in judgment, asked, “How often to they clean in here?”  …Um, the building is 1300 years old!  I looked at him and we just had to turn away laughing.  

Those 2 women, and a few other people, separated from our tour after the first few days in Lhasa.  Their itineraries took them to other tours and places.  That left our group number at 8 for the rest of the trip: 4 Americans, 2 Asians, and 2 Europeans, and everyone had an open, respectful, easy-going attitude.  They were perfect travel companions.

During those first few days in Lhasa, we saw Jokhang Temple, Sera Monastery, and Drepung Monastery.  I didn’t take any photographs inside because either it wasn’t allowed or it cost money.  It sounds like the entrance fees and the photography fees go to the Chinese government for “building improvements.”  I’m not sure if the monks can keep the money that worshipers leave at statues and images.  There are no images of the current, 14th Dali Lama, His Holiness the Dali Lama.  The government works hard to violently suppress any references to him.

Our Buddhist guide gave us simple explanations about what we saw and answered our religion questions, but artfully sidestepped political questions. 

Tibet is a spiritual place.  It's impossible not to feel it.  

entrance to Sera Monastery

 at Sera: no "hullablooing, curveting and slapsticking"

pilgrams at Sera

Sera, monks debating

 Sera

traditional Tibetan table

Lhasa beer

Drepung Monastery

Drepung

prayer flags cover the hill behind Drepung

Drepung

view from Drepung

Jokhang Temple
"spiritual heart of Tibet"

outside Jokhang,
ancient tablet with peace
agreement between Tibet and China

Jokhang, pilgrims praying

not a tourist door

yak butter

top of Jokhang

above door detail

China's flag is on all temples and monasteries,
I wonder why is an atheistic government's flag on a temple? 

police always close by

Lhasa, Tibet

I went to Tibet.  It’s such a simple statement about a vacation, but there’s nothing simple about Tibet or traveling in Tibet. 

In my travel fantasies, I often imagined Tibet as a mystical place with magnificent landscapes, colorful people, and a spiritual culture.  …. That turned out to be mostly true. 

I thought I understood the basics of Tibetan history, the controversy of the Chinese “liberation” (invasion), and Tibetan Buddhism.  …That turned out to be mostly false.

Either way, it was an emotional week and that was surprising.  Maybe the biggest benefit to travel is to see different lifestyles, attitudes, and worldviews.  Travel always makes me feel humble and small, but mostly it makes me grateful for all that I have as an American.

To get into Tibet, foreigners need a permit; we can’t buy any travel ticket without one.  To get a permit, foreigners need a guide and/or a tour.  PCV Steph did the research and found an inexpensive tour with Tibet Travel starting in Lhasa and going to Everest base camp: $850 included everything for 1 week, except lunch and dinner (but we ended up often skipping dinner because of late lunches).  Also, travel to Lhasa was not included.  I’m not a fan of organized tours, especially with strangers, but we didn’t have a choice and thankfully this one turned out to be awesome.

The tour company arranged and delivered the permits, but it caused us much hassle and anxiety.  We had to provide a copy of our passport, work permit, full address and telephone numbers, proof of work at our universities with contact name, address, and most importantly a red stamp.  All that had to go to the police station for approval.  With less than 24 hours before departure, we still hadn’t gotten the permit.  I asked a school employee to help me receive the post delivery, so it only cost me a watermelon to say thanks.  (There’s a common practice about giving fruit in China).

At the airport, we had to show our precious permit multiple times, getting shuffled around at the security check, not as bad as that scene in the movie ARGO, but enough confusion to send the message that Tibet travel is serious. 

Steph at the airport with our guide.
We were so happy for the cool temperature
and clear sky.

When we arrived in Lhasa, our fabulous, trilingual Tibetan guide greeted us with white prayer scarfs, introduced us to our Tibetan driver, answered our questions on the drive, and delivered us to the hotel.  At that point, he took charge of our permit, which he needed to check into hotels and get though many, many police and military checkpoints.  We spent the first few days in Lhasa.

This is the first of several posts about my week in Tibet.

our room

Tibetan Hotel

shops in Barkhor, the old part of Lhasa

around the Barkhor is a kora (a pilgrim circuit)

"singing" musical bowls 

walking clockwise around Barkhor

1300 year old Jokhang Temple,  Barkhor

view of Barkhor and pilgrims

lunch of barley mixed with yak milk

the next day was rainy,
view from Potala Palace over the
Chinese developed part of Lhasa

prayer wheels around Potala Palace kora

no pictures allowed inside

Potala Palace, former seat of Tibetan government
and residence of the Dalai Lamas,
now nearly deserted and very eerie
and depressing

security check for all entrances
to the Potala Palace and the Barkhor 

PCVs Izzy and Stephanie,
lunch at New Mandala Restaurant, Barkhor

yak butter tea, I tried it once

vegetable cakes
I couldn't eat them all, and after I got up
some little kids who were begging scooted around the servers,
who were trying to get them to leave,
and grabbed what I had left and ran out.
Really common and really sad.

around temples and monasteries are
prayer wheels, with prayers written on many layers of paper inside,
people walk by and spin them to release the prayers

100 degrees and open windows

A few days ago Bailey, a contract teacher from the US, and I were sitting in a hot office with our interpreter, Mr. L., sweating miserably as we struggled with the university's computer grading system.  Every teacher knows the potential for confusion and frustration when entering end of semester grades on an unfamiliar system.  That alone is challenging enough, but we also had the added joy of not being able to read anything on our screens, so Mr. L. had to hop back and forth between our computers translating.

I arrived at 9 am, completely drenched in sweat from my climb up the mountain to the upper campus.  The temperature was already 88 degrees; it just doesn't cool off much at night.  All week Chongqing's weather has been hot and humid with temperatures ranging from 80 degrees at night to 100 degrees during the day.  We get those temperatures in Idaho, but it's the 45%-100% humidity that's killing me.  Friends from Iowa say that's the way it is in the midwest.  How do people survive?  Some local Chinese friends speculate that the lake from Three Gorges Dam affects Chongqing weather.  I missed the full explanation about the reasons.

Bailey and I roasted for hours in that office where the air conditioner didn't work and the windows were open.  Even if the AC did work, the windows would still be open.  Mr. L. would get us both going, and then leave us to cool off in the office across the hall where the windows were open and the AC was running full blast.  Leaving windows open in winter and summer is a way of life in China.  In winter, there's no heat in Chongqing so people use space heaters and bundle up in quilted snowmobile suit looking pajamas, and they leave the windows open.  In summer, the AC is on and the windows are open.  They believe it's important to have "fresh air," otherwise we will get sick.  Never mind that Chongqing is one of the most polluted cities in the world and breathing the "fresh air" is actually like smoking cigarettes. 

Health aside, I'm really questioning the environmental ethics of this practice.  Isn't everyone in the world supposed to conserve energy?  Look for ways to reduce our carbon footprint?  Global warming is happening and it's everyone's problem.  

Mr. L. didn't listen to my mild protest about having the AC on with the window open in the adjacent office, so I tried:  "If we close the windows in both offices, maybe this office could cool off too."  Nope, apparently not.

At one point Bailey looked over at me with sweat clouded eyes, or maybe it was her I'm-going-to-kill look, and said, "I'm 45 minutes from blowing."  All I could do was laugh, I mean, that precise time only comes from experience.  Almost 6 hours later, we were finally done entering grades, exhausted, needing showers, and feeling that end of semester teacher euphoria.
  

future diplomats

The spring semester concludes soon, so I’m reflecting on how things went in my classes and on the Chinese education system in general.

preparing to negotiate

One class I taught was International Communication and Negotiation, a fun and exciting class to teach because I had no prior experience with these subjects.  I now know significantly more than when I started, so I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn new information and expand my understanding.  Teaching a new subject is really energizing; it’s good for me.

This class is part of the International Relations Department, so some of these bilingual students will find jobs in diplomacy.  I’m curious about these students’ world view.  Their understanding of current events and history is filtered through the government and may not match the world view of other countries.  For example, last week was the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, an event that has been erased from China’s version of history, so whole generations here do not know about it.  If PCVs talk to students about this taboo topic, we get sent home; it’s that serious.  I wonder if, when, and how the government tells its future diplomats and officials about the events of Tiananmen Square. 

 

As part of the final exam for this course, I asked this question:

The conclusion of Negotiation Theory and Practice, A Review of the Literature article says: “By looking at the other side as a partner rather than an opponent and by working together, negotiators have an opportunity to craft a solution that will be beneficial to both sides.”

Do you agree or disagree with this statement.  Give 3 supporting reasons why.

negotiation practice

In disagreeing with this quote, one student gave this reason:

“From my country’s history contracts, it’s not fair.  It’s not beneficial to us.  The invaded countries forced our country to sign the contracts.  Should we look at the other side as a partner? The answer is “NO”!”  

This kind of suspicion, mistrust, or maybe even animosity is common in China; it’s what students are taught and I’m concerned about the effect of this attitude in diplomacy.  My students really like me and enjoy spending time with me, so I don’t take their attitude personally; it’s just part of their culture.  Trying to present a different world view is part of the work Peace Corps does; we put a friendly face to the word “American.”  Maybe down the road, as these students become involved in international relations, they’ll become more worldly and open-minded, I hope.

About a month ago, I was confronted with anti-US attitudes at the library English corner.  In an environment of friendship and cultural exchange, it was a rare negative encounter that left me a little shaken and dismayed.  I was also confused: if they hate the US, why are they practicing English?  Weird stuff comes up at English corner and I take the opportunity to correct misunderstanding, like when someone says 9/11 was a conspiracy.  So that day, a friendly, smiling woman said that she was really happy when she heard about the 9/11 attacks because she hates the US, but then she realized it’s possible to hate a country and like the people.  I don’t understand hate, and that’s about all I could say to her.

More weird stuff came from an older man visiting from Beijing, who said he had started a tourism business and an Internet search engine and also worked for the military.  He explained to me that the US wants to take over China, sending people to work in China who actually work for the C.I.A., implying that I am here as part of the China takeover.  I tried various tactics to redirect the conversation to safer territory, “How do you like Chongqing food?” Nothing worked; he kept at me.  Finally I said, “I’m sure you believe what you’re saying, but it’s wrong.  You’re upsetting me and I can’t talk to you anymore.”  I turned my back to him, giving my attention to other people and he left a short time later.

Do educated Chinese people actually learn about and understand the US, American people, and world events?  I don’t know, I have doubts.  I hope the recent meeting between President Obama and Xi Jinping helps generate some positive dialogue in China, but the reality of that happening might be remote.