Lhasa, as the capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region, is known as the most featured and dreamt-about city in China. It attract people around the world not only because of its high altitude, 3650 altitudes, but also its over 1000 years’ cultural and religion history. Thus, such unique characteristics make Lhasa totally different from the inland cities.
I visited Tibet in summer for my volunteer project in the school “Braille Without Borders”. I stayed there for about one week, so besides by volunteer, I spent some time walking around and experiencing the city. Lhasa is not a big city, so it is very convenient. Usually, you can stay about 4 days.
🚶What you have to see and experience
- The Potala Palace
The Potala Palace is the most popular attraction in Tibet. It was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. Now, it becomes the museum of Dalai Lama.
The thirteen stories of buildings contains over 1000 rooms, 10000 shrines and about 200000 statues. It is about more than 1000 ft above the valley floor.
If you plan to visit the Potala Palace in holiday, usually, there will be overcrowded. You need to walk up till the top of the Palace but not all rooms are available for visiting.
Only White Palace, Red Palace are open for visitors. Here is a picture of the White Palace. The White Palace is the part of the Potala Palace that makes up the living quarters of the Dalai Lama. It contains the living quarters, offices, the seminary and the printing house. The yellow building at the side of the White Palace in the courtyard between the main palaces houses giant banners are the holy symbols.
📍: It is not allowed to take photos inside the Palace, so remember to turn off your camera.
- Jokhang Temple
Jokhang Temple is the symbolic center of Tibet. It is located in center Lhasa with an area of six acres surrounded by the Barkhor Streets. The Jokhang Temple is a four-story timber complex with a golden top. It adopted the architecture styles of the Tang Dynasty, as well as those of Tibet and Nepal. But what makes it popular is its history. The temple was constructed only to house a sacred image of the Buddha, which was brought by the Chinese Queen Wengcheng as a dowry. So this statue is the holiest object in Tibet. If you are interested, you can also go inside the temple.
- Barkhor Streets
Barkhor is an area of narrow streets and a public square located around Jokhang Temple. It is a popular devotional circumambulation for pilgrims and locals. The street is about one kilometer long and encircled the entire Jokhang.
There were four large incense burners in the four cardinal directions, with incense burning constantly, to please the gods protecting the Jokhang. Nowadays, as you walking on the streets, there are markets and stores along the streets where you can buy souvenirs.
Food in Lhasa
- Yoghurt Cake
This is the most popular dessert: Yoghurt Cake, in Tibet. Yoghurt is very important in daily life for Tibetan people. It is made by local yoghurt, so it is not very sweet.
- Sweet milk tea
Chinese people love drinking tea. Also, Tibetan people love to do so. Tibetan sweet milk tea is different from the normal milk tea we drink. The hot boiling black tea filtered is decanted into a churn. Then fresh milk and sugar are added.
📄Work Citated
http://baike.baidu.com/subview/28306/28306.htm
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/tibet/food-drink.htm
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