[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 25 October 2015]
25 July 2015, Saturday
Following last night’s sudden bout of AMS, I spent a restless night in bed, waking up every 2 hours, feeling sick. I just kept drinking water, because that was what Tenzin advised. Thankfully, when I woke up at about 7:30am this morning, I felt much better.
We met at the rooftop restaurant for breakfast at 8am. There were a few choices on the menu and I chose tsampa porridge and hot masala chai tea. The tsampa porridge came with sliced banana and honey, and it was quite delicious. The rest of them chose to eat toasted bread and eggs. Tsampa is one of the staple foods in Tibet and tsampa porridge isn’t actually porridge because it is made from barley flour. Tenzin said that eating tsampa will aid recovery in altitude “sackness” (sic), hee hee. In its powder form, it is also used in Buddhist rituals where tsampa is thrown in the air as an offering and during celebrations.
After a hearty breakfast, we departed the hotel at 9:35am for our first sightseeing destination for the day – Drepung Monastery, arriving at 10am. Before entering the grounds, Tenzin gathered us to give us “brief information”. He explained that Drepung is one of the Three Great Monasteries in Tibet, the other two being Sera and Ganden. Drepung is now the largest in Tibet after Sanden was largely destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In its heydey, Drepung Monastery housed as many as 7,700 monks. It was also the home of the 2nd to 5th Dalai Lamas.
As Tenzin brought us through the grounds of the massive monastery, he explained about the history of the 41 kings of Tibet and the 14 Dalai Lamas, about Protectors, and about how monks have to study the 5 Major subjects like Science and the 5 Minor subjects like Architecture. Tenzin also explained about the three principles of Buddishm – Compassion, Cause & Effect and the Wheel of Life. It was very interesting and enlightening.
As we went through the Assembly Hall and Chapels with the different statues, we saw many locals coming in to pray and offer cash (mostly RMB 1 notes) as blessings. They would also place their foreheads gently on the wooden railings or on the foot of the statues as a sign of respect and devotion. We also saw butter lamps, which are lit by butter, not oil. The air was thick with the smell of incense and butter lamps burning. The huge array of statues inside the monastery was impressive and it was quite an assault on the senses.
Photography in the Assembly Hall and most of the Chapels are allowed, but you will need to make a donation of RMB 10 or RMB 20 before you are allowed to do so. It is not regulated, but the monks will be around to remind you to make the donation. It can feel a little commercial at times, especially when you see the monks sitting around with huge piles of RMB 1 notes around them, offering money-changing services to the tourists. But at the end of the day, the money is used to fund the upkeep of monastery, which is about 600 years old, so I have no issues.
We spent a good three hours visiting Drepung Monastery and we left at 1pm, heading back to the city for lunch. Tenzin brought us to a restaurant called Tashi 1, located at Dan Jie Lin Road. We ordered some momo and a potato dish to share. I ordered their signature dish, Bobi, which is like our Chinese popiah spring roll, where you put the fillings on a round piece of skin and wrap it up. My bobi fillings were chicken and vegetables, and it was quite good.
After lunch, we departed at 3:05pm and headed to the second sightseeing destination for the day – Sera Monastery. It was nearer than Drepung, and we arrived at 3:22pm. We did a quick tour of the halls and chapels, and Tenzin seemed to be rushing through the visit. However, he said it was because the monks’ debate was about to end so we had to hurry.
The highlight of Sera Monastery is the debating session by the monks, held at the open courtyard from Mondays to Saturdays, starting at 3pm and usually lasting for about 1.5 hours. Before he brought us in, Tenzin explained to us the concept of debating. It took us a while to understand what he was trying to say, about what the monks were debating about and the purpose of the debates.
When we stepped into the courtyard, we saw about 50 monks dressed in their deep magenta robes. Some of them were sitting on cushions on the ground, and some of them were standing, oblivious to the tourists who were around observing them and snapping photos. We were not permitted to step onto the grounds and there were minders to ensure that we did not get close to the monks.
By observing them, we got a better understanding of what Tenzin was trying to explain to us. The monk standing up would clap his hands in an animated manner and he would pose a question to a counterpart, who was seated. The recipient would give a response, and the same monk who asked the question would answer back, and it would go back and forth.
According to Tenzin, they are debating about “emptiness”. So when they ask “Where are you?”, they are not expecting “In Lhasa” as an answer. It is about philosophy. Woah….deep. ST was not entirely satisfied with Tenzin’s explanation and she posed him several more questions of her own, and they entered a debate among themselves. We had a few good laughs about it. In all, we spent less than an hour at Sera Monastery, and departed at 4:10pm.
Back at our hotel, we met up with Small Tenzin (not to be confused with our tour guide Tenzin), our tour coordinator from Tibet Highland Tours. We handed him payment for our tour package and said goodbye to US$1,468 each. Little did we know that this was not the last time that we would be seeing him on this trip.
After that, we had free and easy time, where we were allowed to explore Lhasa on our own. As our hotel is located in the Barkhor Circuit, it is within walking distance to Jokhang Temple and surrounding our hotel are many old shops among the maze of streets. It felt a bit like Thamel in Kathmandu, Nepal, but with fresher air and cleaner streets.
KL did some research beforehand and found out that there is a famous teahouse in Lhasa that we should check out – Guang Ming Gang Qiong sweet teahouse. Tenzin had also recommended it and encouraged us to pay a visit. It is located at Dan Jie Lin Road (same as Tashi 1 restaurant), a busy street with many shops catered to tourists. We didn’t have much difficulty finding it, as it was a big building.
Upon entering the main hall, we saw that it was packed to the brim and all the tables and seats were occupied. Almost all the clients were locals. There is another main seating area further inside, branching into other small rooms, but they were all full. We spread ourselves out into different corners, trying to find seats. After about 15 minutes of perseverance, we managed to find a small table and the six of us squeezed into it.
The way to order your drinks is to simply leave your dollar bills on the table. When the lady with the kettle walks around and spots money on the table, she will automatically come over and serve you a drink. Theoretically, that is how it works, but because it was very crowded, she was in high demand, so we had to attract her attention to get her to come over and serve us.
The tea was insanely cheap – only RMB 70 cents per cup, which is about S$0.15. Granted, the glass wasn’t very big – bigger than a shot glass but smaller than a regular cup, but it was piping hot and very tasty. There are two main types of tea in Tibet – sweet tea and yak tea.
Sweet tea is like the regular milk tea from bubble tea shops, and it is sweet but with a distinct milky, powdery taste. In some places, you can add your own sugar to it, so you can control the sugar content, but it is mostly very sweet. Yak tea, or butter tea, is the salty version and it is an acquired taste. ZJ tried it at the hotel for breakfast and I took a sip of it. I must say that I did not particularly like it. However, yak tea is a Tibetan custom and you should try it at least once while you’re in Tibet.
We spent some time sipping and savouring our tea, and we could see that the locals at the next table were quite amused by us. Having a cup of afternoon tea in the teahouse was a very Tibetan thing to do, and the locals can literally spend hours away just refilling their cups and chit chatting there. After all, the tea is so cheap.
After finally having our fill, we left the teahouse and walked around the streets to do some window-shopping. Before long, it was time for dinner (we seemed to get hungry all the time), and we picked a restaurant called Lhasa Kitchen, which according to KL, was recommended.
We ordered many dishes to share because they all sounded good – potato omelette, masala chicken, garlic and butter naan and meat biscuit. I ordered a plate of fried rice as mains. In the end, we over-ordered and couldn’t finish the food. However, I must say that Tibetan food had turned out to be better than expected and it was fairly cheap. We had pooled our money together into a common fund, and on average, a meal cost around S$10 per person. It was good value for money.
After dinner, we continued shopping around for a short while before retreating back to our hotel. End of day 2, looking forward to visiting the Potala Palace tomorrow!
