Tibet 04

Day 4

Jokhang Temple, Barkor Street, Cultural Show Dinner

I mentioned earlier that most foreigners consider the Potala Palace as the center of Tibetans culture and history. But for the Tibetans its different.

While Potala Palace may look magnificant, it is more of a symbolic place where the Dalai Lama used to reside and work. Jokhang Temple, on the other hand, is considered more important to the local people because of its central religious role. This is the place where most people come and pray. This is the place where people could seek for blessing. There are many who walks around and around the Potala Temple too. But Jokhang Temple is the temple that is in the Tibetans heart and soul.

Again, I could not take my eyes away from the bright beautifully coloured temple. And the details drawn inside and out of each wall was quite something. I don't know what you think of the photos colour, but I could tell you that it was much clearer and better in reality. So comparable to my former trip to Egypt.

Now this is the view that you see from Jokhang Temple. Under the cool breeze and the birght sunlight, even the busy street looked calm and happy. As you can see here, not only is Tibet colourful but also very clean. As if a storm swept by, not a single trash could be found on the ground. A hard sight to find in most countries...

Surrounding this temple are small street markets and stores. And the main street around the temple is called the Barkor Street. Thats where we did our hour of cultural shopping!
Not only was the temple white, but these surrounding buildings were white too.

Alas, our first day at Lhasa ended with a special local dinner. This place was the one of the only big resturant that had local food and cultural performance. Five different performances were held after the short buffee dinner. The performance was quite nice, but the food was quite bland than I thought. Because of their geography, they have Yak meat as their main meat. I don't think I enjoyed the taste of that one. I decided to drink in as much with my eyes rather than through my tongue. Some things need to take time to get used to.