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TIBET Several facts about Buddhism Buddhism However, Buddhism reached another dimension in Tibet. After accepting influence of the local religion Bön, the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon contains many protector deities, Buddhas and uncountable manifestations of various bodhisattvas. It is worthwhile mentioning that Buddhists believe in an infinite cycle of rebirth. Person's karma (good and bad deeds accumulated from the current and previous lives) determines into which realm and into what life the person will be reborn. Thus Buddhists consider it very important to lead decent lives. Their actions have direct consequences for themselves. Buddhists cannot hope for forgiveness. One way of improving one's karma is gathering "merits". Buddhism defines several ways of making merit, but the most important for Tibetans appears to be undertaking of pilgrimages to sacred places. Thus one can meet many pilgrims from both near and far at every monastery or any other sacred place in Tibet.
History of Tibet First The power of Tibet grew and in 763 Tibetan army conquered Xi'an, the capitol of China. A peace treaty was signed and inscribed into three stone pillars of which one copy survived till these days and can be found in front of the Jokhang monastery in Lhasa. In the 9th century Tibet weakened, lost most of its territory and Buddhism experienced a decline. In the 13th century Tibet fell under the influence of Mongolian empire (which later included also China). During that time Tibetan Buddhism made its way to Mongolia where until today some tribes consider Dalai Lama to be their spiritual leader. In the 14th century, monk Tsongkhapa established the new order called Gelugpa, which soon became the most powerful order in Tibet. Dalai Lamas come from this order. The fifth Dalai Lama (17th century) was one of the most important and most celebrated Dalai Lamas and he significantly contributed to advancements of Tibet. New dynasty Qing was established in China in the 17th century. After the death of the fifth Dalai Lama, the Qing took advantage of weakened Tibetan government and put Tibet under their domination. That lasted until 1911 when Qing dynasty fell and a new republic was established in China. At that time Tibet regained its independence. In 1950 the army of newly established Chinese People's Republic started the "liberation" of Tibet. First fairly orderly occupation later evolved into one of the worst eras of Tibetan history. By the time the social madness of Culture revolution ended in 1976, most of Tibetan monasteries and cultural sites where destroyed, 1.2 million people were dead, environment was devastated and Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government ended up in exile in India (since 1959). Today, Tibetan traditions are being revived, selected monasteries are being renovated (or rather rebuilt) and the Chinese government is investing into infrastructure and improving education. However, Han immigration to Tibet continues at an alarming speed, religious life and education, an essential part of Tibetan life, is controlled through strict quotas on number of monks and nuns in monasteries and Chinese-provided education is in the Chinese language and aimed at assimilation. Dalai Lama remains in exile and continues his struggle for the rights of Tibetan people. Unfortunately, great majority of countries prefer undisturbed economical relationship with China and are careful not to show any open support of the Tibetan government in exile. The Czech president Vaclav Havel was the only highest representative of a country who invited Dalai Lama for an official state visit.
How to travel to Tibet For all tourists but Chinese,
getting into Tibet represents a problem on its own. Officially,
foreigners are allowed to enter the "Tibetan Autonomous
Region" only with a government permit issued by the "Tibet
Tourism Bureau". Officially, this permit is issued only to participants
of tours organized by Chinese travel agencies. Thus, for example, a
tourist traveling to Tibet from Nepal needs to join an
organized tour. The tourist agency then arranges for a "group"
visa and permits. If an independent traveler attempts to cross the
border from Nepal to China with regular Chinese tourist visa, his visa
will be cancelled (or at least cut to 1-2 weeks). It is easier to travel
to Tibet directly from China. Theoretically, several
options exist, but only two are practical for most travelers - they can
take a bus trip from Goldmund or a flight from
Chengdu. It is possible to purchase a bus ticket and permit to
enter Tibet in Goldmund. After about 20 hours of a tiring ride and
crossing of several passes above 4000m, one will reach Lhasa (3600m). It
is as expensive but considerably more comfortable to fly to Lhasa from
Chengdu. Several travel agencies organize "tours to Lhasa"
that include transport to the airport in Chengdu and one-way ticket to
Lhasa. Once one gets to Lhasa, it is possible to travel independently. Once within Tibet, it is still not possible to travel freely (except in Lhasa and environs). One needs to obtain a permit from local police department. Those are issued without problems for some areas, but almost impossible to get for other areas (again, except for organized travel groups). There is a rumor, though, that the Chinese government is considering to abolish these police permits requirements for travel within Tibet.
Lhasa (11.10.-16.10.) Despite the large-scale
encroachments of Chinese influence, Lhasa is still the
heart and soul of Tibet. Therefore, visitors searching for the original spirit of old Lhasa need to be heading to Jokhang and its surrounding area. This Tibetan quarter on the eastern edge of the city is made up of several narrow streets with traditional white washed houses. In the center of the quarter is Bakhor square, where Jokhang is located. There is a large market on the square where one can buy everything from jewelry to fruits. But the unforgettable atmosphere of Lhasa would not exist without the colorfully dressed pilgrims who march through its streets day after day. They walk along the ritual circumambulation circuits called koras while chanting prayers and rotating the small prayer wheels that they hold in their hands. They also carry yak butter and add a piece of butter to at least one butter lamp in every little chapel they visit. Wherever there are big prayer wheels mounted on walls along the koras, they spin them, sending prayers into the air. They also often prostrate themselves in holy places, such as in front of the Jokhang, the most devoted once also after every step along a kora. We arrived in Lhasa on the 11th of October and found a hotel in the old Tibetan quarter. Our acclimatization to the high elevation (3600m) took several days. First day or two we were not able to do anything more than walk slowly around town, so we visited the Bakhor square and walked the koras with pilgrims. Here we first fell in love with Tibet and realized what it is all about - simple life, strong Buddhist beliefs and wonderful people with shy smiles. We visited Jokhang In the afternoon, we took a bus to the Sera monastery. It is one of the most important Gelugpa monasteries. (Gelugpa is the strongest order in Tibet.) It was established in 1419 and during its golden times 5000 monks used to study in its five specialized colleges. It has been somewhat damaged during the infamous Cultural revolution and reconstruction is still in progress. There are only few hundreds of monks today. (Chinese government issues strict quotas on numbers of monks. They are trying to reduce their population, since monasteries always were the center of Tibetan education and recently also a center of an uprising against Chinese occupation.) As we were wondering through the monastery, we suddenly heard voices and clapping of hands. In one of the courtyards, hundreds of monks were practicing their discussion techniques. They worked in pairs. The standing monk was asking questions and the sitting monk was trying to answer them and turn the discussion around to his advantage. We enjoyed watching them and regretted that we do not speak Tibetan. On October 14, we visited another
important Gelugpa monastery, the Drepung monastery.
It was established in 1416. Here, the second Dalai Lama established the
Ganden Palace in 1530, which has been the residence of Dalai Lamas till
1645, when the fifth Dalai Lama decided to move it to Lhasa and began
the construction of Potala. At this time, Drepung was the
largest monastery in the world with something between 7000 a 10000
monks. Today, one can find only 600 monks here. When we visited, they
were engaged in a large-scale clean-up of their library. It was amazing
to observe how they dust centuries old scriptures and wash the yellow
fabrics that they are wrapped and stored in. Then we hiked up the
mountains behind the monastery, all the way to 4000m. We were not short
of breath and were pleased that our acclimatization is coming along
nicely. We were rewarded by nice views of Lhasa and the monastery.
Nam-tso Lake (17.10.-18.10.) We met a Czech couple,
Trek Ganden - Samye (19.10.-23.10.) We rented camping equipment in
Lhasa and set off for a five-day hike from the Ganden
monastery to Samye monastery. Ganden monastery is worth a visit. It is wonderfully set on the top of a ridge. There are beautiful views down into the Lhasa valley from its kora. Ganden monastery was established in 1409 by the founder of the Gelugpa order. Till today, the head of the order resides here. Number of monks does not reach the historical figure of 2000 any more, but the monastery is still a lively spiritual center. In 1996, there was a strike here against the ban of Dalai Lama's photographs in Tibet. (Many pilgrims ask tourists for photos of Dalai Lama.) We hiked through Hepu village, where we visited a Tibetan house. One of the villagers invited us in after he offered yaks to us and we declined his services. (Many tourists hire yaks to carry their backpacks through the high passes.) He told us about his family with five children. One son is married, one studies to be a monk, one is in school and two small children are at home. His wife gave us baked potatoes, bread and delicious yak cheese. We wanted to give them some money for the food, but they refused. They enjoyed looking at pictures in our guidebook though. We also met several nomads with their yak herds and passed through their summer camps with large black tents. One evening, two female herders stopped by at our camp and one of them asked us to treat her bruised finger. As Jitka attended to her, both women were watching her closely and talking about what she was doing. Later we found out that they probably just used the small injury as a reason to make contact with us. We heard from other tourists that the same woman asked them to help her again only couple days later, but there was no sign of the bandage we provided to her by that time. The Samye monastery was the very first monastery ever established in Tibet. It is closely tied with the beginning of Buddhism in Tibet. First seven Tibetan monks were trained here at the end of 8th century. Soon after, Indian and Chinese scholars were invited to Tibet to help spread the Buddhist teachings throughout the country.
Jeep ride from Lhasa to the border with Nepal (26.10.-31.10.) We set off for the six-day ride
with Andrea, David, our guide and a driver on October 26. Three of us
were sitting in the front and three in the back. We drove through a rough but beautiful countryside. There were only a few pastures in the valleys (all above 3500m) and we saw a few trees here and there. The rest was bare. Round hills on the sides of the valleys were mostly brown, but there were also areas with colorful rocks. Besides two big cities in the first two days of the trip, we drove through a handful of small villages and saw several remote monasteries. We passed by two large lakes and crossed through several passes in 5000-6000m. There were beautiful views of the Himalayas and also glaciers from these passes. Undoubtedly, the highlight of this
trip was our visit at the Mt. Everest Base Camp and an
overnight stay at the Ronghpu monastery only 5km away. Besides enjoying the mountains, we also visited two monasteries. The Kumbum stupa in Gyantse is quite unique. It is the largest stupa in Tibet with 77 small but beautiful chapels jammed around the perimeter of its 4 stories. In Shigatse, we visited the Tashilhunpo monastery, the seat of Panchen Lamas. We have to share a story about our Tibetan driver. He told us that the heating in our car does not work. So we were freezing every morning until the sun came up. The last day of our trip, we started particularly early and it was very cold. So, Jitka decided to try the heating once more. The driver did not want to let her touch it, but she persisted. She soon found out that the heating was working and our driver just did not know how to operate it!!! As the heat started to warm up the car, the driver was very surprised, stopped being upset and gladly learned from us how to operate the heating system. We could not be mad at him (even though he let us freeze the previous five mornings!) and had to laugh.
Notes: Just one note about food and drinks. Tibetan cuisine is very simple and not very tasty. Their bread, "tsampa", is roasted barley mixed with liquid (most often tea or milk) and then worked by hand into small balls. Tibetans eat it with every meal. The same is true for Tibetan tea - no meal is complete without it. But it is just for brave characters. Tibetan tea is half hot water, half yak butter and salt. Tibetans can drink a lot of it every day - some say up to 40 cups.
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Tibet Data for Tibet are included in
information for China
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first
appeared in northern India around 5th century BC and gradually spread to
the south to Sri Lanka, to the east to the countries of South-East Asia
(Thailand, Laos, Burma, Vietnam) and to China and Japan. Buddhism was
introduced to Tibet comparatively late, in the 7th century AD. The
teachings came from both China and India, however the Indian influence
prevailed and most monks and scholars working in Tibet were from India.
Through the ages Buddhism split into two teachings. Theravada Buddhism
remains close to the original teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (current
Buddha and the founder of Buddhism) and it underscores the role of an
individual on the way to liberation from the cycle of rebirth and to
attainment of Nirvana. This teaching is accepted in Thailand, Laos and
Cambodia. Mahajana Buddhism, on the other hand, emphasizes
the importance of reaching Nirvana for all (not just for an individual)
and thus praises bodhisattvas, scholars who reached enlightenment,
but delayed entering Nirvana in order to help other beings. This
teaching has spread for example to China, Vietnam and Tibet.
Tibetan
kingdoms were established in the Yarlung valley. However, their sphere
of influence probably did not reach far beyond the valley itself. It was
not until the 7th century that Tibet became an important Asian emporium.
During the rule of the king Songsten Gampo (630-649), Tibet was reaching
into the Northern India and into China. Contacts with China brought the
knowledge of astronomy and medicine to Tibet and India had very strong
religious influence on the country. Songsten Gampo sponsored
establishment of Tibetan script (based on Indian letters) and drafted a
code of law. Through the influence of his Nepalese and Chinese wives he
also accepted and started to support Buddhism, which was only slowly
being accepted due to the strong local Bön believe. Songsten Gampo also
established the first Tibetan monastery, the Jokhang monastery in Lhasa.
For
centuries the abode of the Dalai Lamas, it is being visited by thousands
of pilgrims from all of Tibet every day. But we were still unpleasantly
surprised by the extend of change accounted to the last 50 years of
Chinese occupation. Lhasa used to be a small town with 20 to 30 thousand
inhabitants. Its center used to be just below the Dalai Lamas palace,
the Potala. The only road in town used to connect this
center with another cluster of homes surrounding the most sacred of all
Tibetan monasteries, the Jokhang. Potala is now empty (the
Dalai Lama lives in exile in India) and visitors are allowed to see only
a small fraction of its 1000 rooms. The old center below Potala is in
ruins. The Tibetan quarter near Jokhang makes up only 4% of now large
city and the rest are modern and spiritless Chinese buildings. Most of
150 thousand of Lhasa inhabitants are Chinese, which is a result of
Chinese colonization politics. (Chinese who are willing to move to Tibet
receive government funding.)
on October 13th in the morning. This monastery was first built in the
7th century, but has been rebuilt several times since. It has two
stories, whose perimeters are full of many small chapels. There were
lines of pilgrims waiting to enter each chapel. It was dark inside, so
each of them held a butter lamp. We could hear chanting of prayers and
smell yak butter everywhere. It was a very nice experience. The roof
offered splendid views of the Potala and the Tibetan quarter.
Andrea
and David, in Lhasa (by chance) and the four of us decided to travel
together and split the high cost of a jeep. On October 17, we set off
for a 190km ride to the holy Nam-tso Lake. It took us 8 hours to get
there, since the last 66km were on bad dirty road and since we had a
2-hour delay due to a broken fuel pump (our driver had to take a lift to
the closest town to buy a spare). We reached the 70km long and 30km wide
lake late in the afternoon and joined hundreds of pilgrims for a walk
around a 1-hour kora that leads around a reef on the lake shore.
The scenery was breathtaking - long lines of colorfully dressed pilgrims
moving in front of the blue waters of the lake, surrounded by
pastures and with snow-capped 7000m high peaks in the background.
Then we watched sunset over the lake. We camped overnight and drove back
to Lhasa early next morning, because David was experiencing signs of
high altitude sickness (Nam-tso Lake is in 4700m). He was fine as soon
as we descended back to Lhasa.
We
really enjoyed it and recommend it to others. Besides visiting two
important monasteries, we also trekked through several villages and
nomadic camps. Along the way, we experienced many different landscapes.
The trek starts in the typical bare hills of Tibetan plateau, then
ascends to two passes over 5200m high, passes two beautiful glacier
lakes, continues down through an unexpectedly fertile valley with many
trees and bushes and ends in desert with sand dunes.
The
roads were sometimes good and sometimes not, but overall OK. The trip
was not cheap, but still worth it. (Standard price is $700 to $750 for
one jeep, Marek was able to negotiate it for $600.)
Even though the Base Camp is usually very windy, we spent a sunny and
warm afternoon there with no wind. We had beautiful views of the
mountain, since there was not even one cloud. Mt. Everest did not seem
as high and unreachable from here as we expected, but it still was very
majestic. The weather changed immensely as soon as the sun set behind
the high peaks and it was very cold overnight (-15 to -20°C).
Fortunately, we felt warm in our sleeping bags and under heavy blankets
provided by the monastery guesthouse.