Tibet, 18 Apr 2007 --

It seems to be the opinion among the cool (read:  annoyingly jaded) travelers I’ve met that ‘The real Tibet is gone forever.’  While the Chinese encroachment on Tibetan culture is painfully obvious, one walk around the Barkhor pilgrimage circuit in Lhasa proves this statement to be far from true.

After caving to the Tibet Tourism Bureau (TTB) travel agency mafia in Zhongdian and paying far too much for a ‘permit,’ I at last found myself in the lounge of the Zhongdian airport waiting to board a plane for the 2 hour flight to Lhasa.  The modernity of the entire experience was a bit surreal after the remoteness of Yubeng. 

I felt a little out of place with my dusty backpack as carefully coiffed, trendily dressed yuppie couples mingled with retired world traveler couples.  Surreality continued as I boarded the spotless China Eastern 737 and flipped through a few glossy inflight magazine articles about the new BMW 335i and some upscale hotel in Switzerland called (what else) The Hotel.

Surreality aside, views from the plane were spectacular and before long we decended onto the surprisingly arid Tibetan plateau.  On the hour-long bus ride to Lhasa, passing one hastily built Chinese building after another, I started to wonder if the cool travelers hadn’t been right after all.  Once I found my way to the old Barkhor district and was caught up in the current of pilgrims circulating the Jokhang Temple, I decided the cool travelers didn’t know what they were talking about.

The devotion of the Tibetan Buddhists is stunning, and on several mornings I’ve visited a favorite smoky, sunlit courtyard to find the same ancient women sitting in the same spots twirling their prayer wheels and chanting quietly. 

Inside the temple itself, the air is palpably thick with incense, and anything that stays there for more than an hour or two soon becomes coated with a layer of oily residue from thousands of yak butter lamps.  The maroon walls have been there for a lot longer than a few hours, and are now almost black with soot.  After visiting three floors of claustrophobic chapels to assorted Buddhist dieties and demons, I climbed stairs onto the roof out of the darkness and was dazzled by sunlit views of fresh snow on the mountains around Lhasa.

Sure, if you venture outside the Barkhor district of Lhasa, signs of the massive influx of Chinese are painfully obvious.  Still, don’t let anyone convince you that Tibet is gone for good…it’s right where they left it, now with a bit more MSG.

Categories Tibet