Tibet 05

Day 5

Lhasa -> Xigatse
Yamdrok Lake, Baiju Temple,

On the way to Yamdrok Lake.

Because there are few roads that are in good condition, those few good roads are often crowded. Except, unlike other places where it would be crowded with cars, in Tibet this is what you see. Traffic :P.

After 7 hours of driving up the hills, we reached the mid point where we can see the lake. Beside the foggy clouds we could see the colourful Tibetans cultural flags strapped around. This is something that you can see all over Tibet. Though Lamaism is mostly based on Buddhism, what makes Tibetans Lamaism unique is that it has evolved along with Tibet's mythology and culture. Because of their geographical setting, Tibetans have learned to show respect and appreciate nature in every single way they can. This is one common way. By adding each line of these colourful line, they are showing thankfulness and wishing good luck for their future.

Ha, and now here is Mr. Yak. The symbolic animal of Tibet. I don't know if you could tell by the picture, but they were quite big and strong, and warmly coated... No wonder they can survived the high altitude and cold weather. I was actually under dressed for this temperature. Flip flops and short pants, my tour guide had to give me a worried look as I sprang along the 3,000meter landscape.
We thought we won't see this pretty scene! It was so cloudy when we were taking pictures earlier, but once we got on the Bus and started to head down. Suddenly the clouds moved away and shared us this beautiful scenery of Yamdrok Lake. The third largest lake in Tibet, over 72 km (45 miles) long. It was simply endless. I tried to do my best to capture the bright colour of this place, but as if we were stealing a glance of the beauty of its goddess, clouds covered her rapidly again. We all stood at the tip of the hill thanking for that five second of beauty. It was worthy to come up such a height.

Our bus that took us around Tibet for the past 9 days.

Though they don't have much, these people are one of the nicest people I have meet. Their smiles and curious eyes sparkling as they rush toward the foreign guest. We stopped at one of the villages down the lake. This was considered as a countryside. Its natural that young kids will look with such genuine curiosity. One girl in our group ran up to them with a warm smile. Taking their pictures and sharing them with her digital camera. The young girl couldn't even try hiding her happiness to see such a thing. Herself reflected in that small screen, she couldn't help but smile back with glee at the foreign guest's warmth.


We stopped at the village not to just visit but to sit in one of their house to have our lunch. The kind owner eagerly greeted the unexpected guest and shared her house. By first sight, I thought this was the grandmother. No, she is just a mother who has a twenty year old daughter. The reason why she looked so much older is not just because of the hard life in the countryside, but also because of the sunlight. Remember, this is at least 3,500meters above sea level. But that also means that the sun is closer to you and stronger sunlight burning your skin 365 days. Imagine you have to live in this place. I don't think you would want to go tanning at the beach, you get too much already naturally in Tibet.

Part of the Kitchen of her house. Apparently this is one of the houses that has been newly renovated so its cleaner and more colourful compared to the regular houses near this small town.

The children of this town.

We stayed at only one house, but everyone came out. I'm sure our short visit would have been a story that they would talk about at least for a couple days. Maybe even for weeks. That's how rough their living condition was. Limited technology, limited education, limited cleansing, and limited access to the bigger world. It was the second time that made me seriously think why AIDS in Africa or other 3rd world countries always emphasized the importance of clean water. Its seriously hard to keep that. (The first time was in Egypt. But I didn't knew that I would be thinking about this so soon again...) The reality seemed harder then I thought.

Baiju Temple, also called as the cyangtse pachu monastery, was established in 1418. This pretty white building is indeed colorful too. Though it doesn't look that big from the outside, as we entered inside it was as if entering a Buddhist maze. Every floor had rooms and rooms full of mural or Buddhist sculpture. 32.4 meters high it contains 108 cells and about 100,000 holy emages.

This was at the fourth floor. When you look down from here, you can get a pretty good sight of the streets down you. And at the same time, the blue sky above you.. Its a perfect place they would want to meditate and meditate and...