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| Norbulingk |
The Summer Palace is now a poorly kept tourist attraction with only a few of the pavilions open to public viewing. Its origin, a special healing spring, is now not working due to an earthquake but the story is interesting. An early Dali Lama or Living Buddha, had a skin condition that was cured by the waters of a nearby spring. When the Emperor in China heard of this he had the Summer Palace built for the Dali Lama. The palace is also famous for its more recent history as the last location of the 14th Dali Lama in Tibet. His dramatic escape from the city in 1959 is recalled in the clock that stopped working at 9:00 p.m. when he departed. Today the grounds are the site of a local festival in August that lasts several days (the yogurt festival?). People set up tents and cook and eat and of course drink and visit at that time. Common people never got inside in the early days and only the nobles and high monks shared in the once beautiful gardens.
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| Potala Palace |
After lunch the group makes its way to the Potala Palace. The number of visitors per day is now limited and group sizes cannot exceed twenty-five. We were thirteen, twenty-five and twenty-five. Many Tibetans come to Lhasa and visit the Potala Palace among other holy sites. The palace is no longer in use but monks are stationed throughout to ensure the sanctity of the place is observed. Women and men must be respectfully dressed and no photography is allowed. The visitors are limited to one hour from start to finish in the interior of the buildings. Our guide, Monday, conducted the tour with an informative explanation of each room. Tours are led in an orderly flow from the bottom up to the top and do get to see the great rooms and sacred locations of this treasured palace. The interior is dimly lit with electric lamps and one can only imagine earlier times when yak butter lamps lit this space. I cannot help but feel the deep spirituality of this place. In some rooms the three dimensional universe is represented and Monday describes how the Living Buddha is at the centre of this three dimensional universe inside the Potala Palace.
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| Sera Monastery |
Our final stop is the Sera Monastery, once housing seven thousand monks but now housing three hundred. Our visit is specifically to witness the debating style of these monks. Groups of monks sit together in a courtyard while one stands and declares a question to another individual monk. The questioner slaps his hand and gestures and shouts in a loud voice for an answer. The response is sometimes immediate but if it is not forthcoming or if it is wrong then the respondent is publicly derided. There is much humour in these debates but sometimes there are serious looks and other participants are relieved to not be in the hot seat.
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