Tibet Trip on Oct 25,2007
Oct 25,2007
At 9:00am this morning, we started to visit Jokhang Temple. The temple is very close to our hotel.
So we walk to the temple. To our big surprise, there were already a great number of local Tibetan people there. They either pray with hands and knees touching the ground or walking around the Jokhang Temple. Walking around the Jokhang Temple ( pilgrim circuit ) is said that it can bring prosperity and peace to one's whole life.
Most of them come from the remote villages or mountainous areas. They come here once a year.
The Jokhang Temple was first built by King Songtsem Gampo (617 BC 650). He was the 33rd king of Tibet. He was the leader of the Tubo (or Tibetan) Kingdom. He actively promoted Buddhism in Tibet. During his reign, Tibet achieved great progress in social innovation and realized the integration of Tibet for the first time. The Jokhang Temple is best visited in the early morning. It now houses the life-sized statue of the twelve year-old Sakyamuni brought by Songtsan Gampo's Chinese wife - Princess Wencheng.
Before he built the Jokhang Temple, he had built the Little Jokhang Temple for one of his two wives -- Princess Wen Cheng who came from the Tang Dynasty. His another wife was Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal. Jealous of her, Princess Burikuti asked Gampo to construct a Jokhang for her as well. Therefore, in 647 the big temple was built. Later it was repaired and expanded many times in Ming ande Qing dynasties.
After visiting the Jokhang Temple, we also walk around the temple along the famous Barkgor Street. The 1300-year-old and 1000-meter long trodden street is itself a kora ( pilgrim circuit ) that goes clockwise around the periphery of the Jokhang Temple. The Barkhor is the middle circumambulation of the Jokhang Temple. For tourists, the street is a magical place showing the original outlook of Lhasa with varied shops standing on both sides of the street and thousands of floating stands are on every corner. The street is lined with huge numbers of shops selling various kinds of tourist stuff with Tibetan style - skybeads and much more. Start your hagging engines.
After lunch, we take a short time rest. Then we begin our most exciting trip to the Potala Palace.
It is located north of the middle section of Beijing Road. Actually Lhasa is not a big city. It is sandwiched by two mountains from north side and south side. The Lhasa river rides over the city from the east to the west. So most part of the city is located on the flat land between the mountains.
The Potala Palace is built on the 130m-high Marpo Ri ( Red Hill ) with 13 storeys and more than 1000roms in the middle of Beijing. Like every tourist, I take a stereotyped photo in front of the Potala Palace. Still suffering from the lack of oxygen, we all find the palace climbing is a tough job! It takes at least 2-hour to visit those rooms, halls and chapels.
The palace is 115.703 meters high. We have to walk step by step to the top. The Potala Palace was built at the time of Songtsan Ganmpo in the 7th century. In the 17th century the 5th Dalai Lama extended the palace to its present size. At this time, it became Dalai Lama's living and working place. He first combined the Religion and the politics, unifying the Tibet to its greatest extent.
The main construction is divided into two parts: red and white palaces. It include living quarters, temples, funerals supas and monk dormotories. The countless cultural relics in the palace are of priceless value!
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