Touring Lhasa

Another full day of touring. We seemed to be doing OK with the altitude acclimation-until we hit our first stop, Drepung Monastery. No one told us that it was a huge walk up-hill to get to the main monastery, and most of our group was winded and exhausted at the top. We’d noticed that the group diminished daily- people either with altitude sickness or with the “Chinese” cold. With all the pollution and spitting in China, it seems inevitable that you will get a cold and cough at some point.

Drepung was once the world’s largest monastery with over 10,000 monks. It was founded in 1416 and prior to the construction of the Potala, it was the residence of the Dalai Lamas and headquarters of the Tibetan government. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Dalai Lamas are all entombed at Drepung.

The monasteries in Tibet operated like an assembly of colleges, each with its own interests and administration. The colleges (tratsang) were then made up of residences (kahgtsang). Each monk was assigned a residence based on the region he was born in.
After lunch, it was on to Sera Monastery, the second of the Gelugpa Monasteries. It once had a population of over 5000 monks and now has only a few hundred.

We arrived to see a lot of construction work, with roof workers singing in unison. John got blessed by one of the monks.

We ended our tour at the Norbulingka, the Summer Palace of the Dali Lama, founded in 1755 by the 7th Dalai Lama. Each subsequent Dalai Lama built onto the grounds, adding lakes and palaces. It was at the Norbulingka that the 14th Dalai Lama made his escape to India in 1959 disguised as a Tibetan soldier.

We departed early from the group and headed back for a dinner at the Tibet Lhasa restaurant- great Nepalese/Indian food.