Day 5 - Lhasa (Bakhor Street/Jokhang Monastery / Potala Palace)

This is madness. I keep asking why I am doing this - blogging! But if i don't, then the photos will be meaningless. Besides,I get to select the ones that I find good. Anyway, I am more than halfway in this travel blog so I should finish soon. Yeah!

Bakhor Street

This street is located at the perimeter of Jokhang Temple. The temple was too crowded so we decided to walk around this super crowded bazaar.

Prayer wheels, called Chokhor in Tibetan, are very common religious objects found in Tibet. A hand held pray wheel is a hollow cylindrical mechanical device attached to a rod handle, made of metal or wood, with Om Mani Padme Hung mantra print or relief on the cylinder. Attached on the cylinder is a lead weight with a chain, which facilitates the rotation. Tibetans use prayer wheels to spread spiritual blessings to all sentient beings and invoke good karma in their next life. They believe that every rotation of a prayer wheel equals one utterance of the mantra, thus the religious practice will in return help them accumulate merits, replace negative effects with positive ones and hence bring them good karma. The religious exercise is part of Tibetan life. People keep turning the wheel day and night, walking or resting once they get their right hands free, murmuring the same mantra. Buddhists turns the wheel clockwise while Bon followers anticlockwise.

Lao Gong was trying to capture the lady above cos her wheel is quite big. Must be obvious haha ...

Women all around the world are strong! Gosh, hard for a photographer to miss them. Again, we love the colours.

Watch out for the crowd.

But easy to spot Lao Gong huh? Reasons may be size, no hat, boring colours ...

I just want to show you the colourful stalls

And they will also hang the flags on the roof for good fortune

As usual, we were just snapping while waiting to enter Jokhang Temple.

This is the base of the steles with many scriptures pasted on it.

The stele from the top view.

五体投地 A youtube video will be posted soon to show you how they pray.

The Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), was characterized by economic prosperity and great progress in politics. During this time, China was considered the cultural and political center of the world. King Songtsem Gampo (617 – 650, the 33rd king of Tibet) was the leader of the Tubo (or Tibetan) Kingdom. He actively promoted Buddhism in Tibet and under his reign, Tibet achieved great progress in social innovation and realized the integration of Tibet for the first time. In order to promote friendly relationships with the neighboring countries, he successively married Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal and Princess Wen Cheng of the Tang Dynasty. When the two wives arrived in Tibet, each brought a statue of Jowo Sakyamuni. During this time, most people lived in tents and there were few palaces. To house the Buddha brought by Princess Wen Cheng, King Songtsem Gampo constructed the Little Jokhang. Jealous of her, Princess Burikuti asked Gampo to build a Jokhang for her as well. Therefore, in 647 the giant complex was built.
The original complex included only eight shrines. After multiple renovations, most notably during the Yuan Dynasty (1206 - 1368), the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the complex grew to the scale that exists today.

The Dharma Wheel (chakra) is flanked by two deer. This represents the unity of all things and symbolizes Sakyamuni himself.

And the monks again ...

From tallest to shortest keke

The Jokhang Temple was built on the former site of a lake. According to the legend, the lake site was chosen after many failed attempts to build a temple in the region. Prior to this, every time a temple was built, it would collapse. Confused by this phenomenon, Princess Bhrikuti turned to Wen Cheng for help. Being a learned woman, Wen Cheng told the Princess that the geography of Tibet was very much like a hag, with the lake at the heart. In order to build the temple, Wen Cheng advised they must demolish the hag by filling and leveling the lake using 1,000 sheep to carry soil from a mountain far away. When the temple was done, it was called Ra-Sa-Vphrul-Snang ('ra' meaning sheep and 'sa' meaning earth in Tibetan) to commemorate those sheep.
Whether the legend is true or not, this temple brought Buddhism into Tibet and became an inseparable part of Tibetan history and culture. The city of Ra-Sa grew around the temple and over time, become known as Lhasa, a holy land.

It is only with this close-up that I notice the beast on this golden structure.

The statue of Sakyamuni is a rare treasure. When Sakyamuni was alive, he disagreed with the idea of 'personal worship' and did not allow likenesses of himself to be created. Only three statues, designed by he himself, were permitted to be sculpted during his lifetime. The first is a likeness of him at age eight; the second shows him at age twelve when he was still a prince of India; and the third is of him as an adult. The statue kept in the Jokhang Temple is the statue of Sakyamuni at age eight. It was presented to the king of the Tang Dynasty and brought to Tibet by Princess Wen Cheng.

I have to redeem my beauty after all the spoilers on the train ride.

The Potala Palace from the roof of Jokhang Temple.

My Lao Gong is obsessed with the beasts above and amazingly, the same set is also found in Potala Palace!

Isn't this similar to the one found on the golden bell-like structure?

The colourful beams

Had to pose for a pic while waiting for the rest of our tour members

Lunch

Lunch was at a tastefully decorated place. But food was mediocre. vegetables again ...

Yep, the flags that greeted us when we lifted our heads.Roofless and sunny!

Potala Palace

This ancient architectural complex is considered a model of Tibetan architecture. Located on the Red Hill in Lhasa, Tibet, it is 3,700 meters above sea level and covers an area of over 360,000 square meters, measuring 360 meters from east to west and 270 meters from south to north. The palace has 13 stories, and is 117 meters high.

(It is a challenge to climb. Cos the shortness of breath will just hit you for every step you take!)

While killing time ... we had to wait for our turn to enter the palace. As it is under conservation, they only allow a small number of visitors at every hour. And we only can have slightly less than an hour in there. It's close to an amazing race, weaving in and out with the tour guide explaining to us the various prayer rooms, statues, stupas and so on. But the sheer beauty of this architecture is astounding and surely took our breath away! 值得！

In 641, Songtsan Gambo, ruler of the Tubo Kingdom, had the Potala Palace built for Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty, whom he was soon to marry. This structure was later burned to the ground during a war and was rebuilt in the 17th century by the Fifth Dalai Lama. Repeated repairs and expansions until 1645 finally brought the palace to its present scale. Over the past three centuries, the palace gradually became a place where the Dalai Lama lived and worked and a place for keeping the remains of successive Dalai Lama.

The stone-and-wood-structured Potala Palace consists of the White Palace and Red Palace. The White Palace, comprising halls, temples and courtyards, serves as the living quarters of the Dalai Lama. The Red Palace includes various chambers for worshipping Buddha and chambers housing the eight stupa that contain the remains of fifth through thirteenth Dalai Lama. All the stupas are covered with gold foil. The most magnificent stupa belongs to the fifth Dalai Lama. It is 14.85 meters tall and inlaid with pearl and jade. The palace also collected a large number of sculptures, murals, scripture and other valuable cultural relics.

In 1994, the palace joined the list of world cultural heritage sites.

She's tired.

It is not the steep gradient. It is really us running out of breath even when we are walking really slowly. Unbelievable. We are still young!

Must stop awhile to pant and pose.

Lhasa is a mountainous region and the magnificent mountains surround the holy ground.

Taken from Potala Palace, while trying to climb the stairs.

We are still climbing ...

And we are finally at the door! phew.

And we found the familiar beasts greeting us!

These women are trying to conserve the temple by layering more cement-like material on the roof to prevent rain water from seeping through the temple. A video will be posted ...

A full view of its grandeur ...

I am professional enough to ask him to block out the lamp post.

Couple shot ...