Day 4: Warming Up

I woke up early this morning and took a wonderful, really hot shower. Not a lot of water, but the temperature was what counted. I feel much better than I did yesterday, which was a relief. Gita, Mari and I enjoyed Western breakfasts back at the Naga teahouse (I had a wonderful crepe-like pancake and a pot of green tea) and sat at the window in the sun. There was a fluffy cat curled up on the cushion next to me and I felt like curling up right next to it. Mari and I left Gita sipping her coffee and the two of us wandered down the street and around the corner to the Jokhang Temple, the most sacred temple in Tibet. As we approached the front entrance we were overwhelmed by the pilgrims prostrating up and down and up and down in front of the building. Inside, the temple was nearly empty. It is impossible to describe it: the temple complex was originally constructed in the 600s AD and though its gone through fires and wars and just been worn down it is still awe-inspiring. The stones in the inner sanctum have been worn down by the millions of pilgrims. The room itself was really dim and lit only by the flickering yak butter candles (which don't smell half as bad as I was warned to imagine). All the different idols and images are totally foreign to me, but their significance is clear when you see the piles of money that have been stuffed into the individual chapels and the white silk scarves wound around the doors.

After we exited, we walked around the outside walls and spun the hundreds of golden prayer wheels. I wasn't sure what they say or what the traditional process was, but there was no one else around so we just did it our own way. It was beautiful and unfortunately no photos are allowed. After that, we went up to the second floor and the roof and admired the amazing views of the Barkhor Square below us and the Potala Palace off in the near distance (is that an oxymoron?). I took tons of pictures, it is all so, so, so beautiful and photogenic.

After a pit stop at yet another teahouse to rest and use the bathroom, we wandered back to do the kora, pilgrim circuit, around the outside of the Jokhang. We just filtered into the Tibetans wandering the circle and kind of just went with the flow. There were no other Western tourists, remarkably, and so we got our fare share of "hello!"s etc., but everyone was friendly and no one was too aggressive. Mari bartered for and purchased a pile of jewlry as we went around and I took notes on her cut-throat bargaining skills for when I'm ready to do some souveneir shopping. For today, I just took photos. I already want to go do the kora again, it was really fascinating.

Now I'm resting up because that was just about all my body could handle. I need to go arrange a tour for a trip out of Lhasa, but just can't quite decide what I want to do. I've really been hoping for someone to come up with something that I can just join, but so far nothing's been quite right. Again, tourists are still a bit scarce as its off-season. We'll see. I'm now in such a "whatever.. I'll just go with the flow" mood that I don't really feel like anything other than just being here is critical. I guess the "altitude excuse" will expire tomorrow or so, but until then I'm enjoying just sitting around soaking it up.

I'm so glad I decided to come!