We only have one tourist item on the agenda today and that is the Potala Palace which was the seat of the Tibetan government and the winter residence of the Dalai Lama, it is the Vatican of Buddhism and is an equally impressive building sitting high above the city on Red Hill, it rises 13 stories and has over 1000 rooms.
Today it is open for public viewing, moreso as a prized Chinese tourist attraction than the significant historical and political edifice that it justifies.
The Palace itself is split into the White palace which is the DL's residence and offers an interesting insight into his daily life, as it is all left as it was, an orange ???? Rests on his vacant throne, signifying his absence.
The Red palace is ceremonial and contains the tombs of the 5th-12th DL's as well as numerous chapel's housing the deities of the many Buddhas, some dating back to the 7th century when the palace was first built, it also houses the original Buddhist scriptures, written in gold on parchment and sealed with wax.
The tombs are over the top impressive, 20-30 feet high covered in precious stones and plated in 1800kg of gold.....perspective check...
1,800kg = 3,960 pounds = 63,369 ounces
Approximate price of gold today = US $1700 an ounce
Cost of gold on the 7th DL's tomb at todays Market value...
Aprox $1.077 billion
The other buildings house the lower monks, former administrative buildings and the usual back of house required for a 1000 room residence/ parliament.
Similarly to the Jokhang Temple, the Potala, even with all the Chinese censorship, and no entries and no photography ( sneaky illegal pics to follow) reeks of a history of 1300 years of yaks butter and incense, the artefacts and decorations are stunning, you can close your eyes and imagine cloaked monks shuffling through the narrow hallways and chanting in the temples.
The amusing thing is that to get to the Potala you have to climb about 130 metres up very old stone stairs, now I'm sure they didn't know it at the time but Tibet gets one back at the chain smoking, throat hacking Chinese as they stumble up the stairs on their way to cardiac arrest. Ha!
Buddha'd out, we strolled back to the Barkhor as a Chinese military marching band struck up a tune, the lyrics to which probably went something like " Oh great China, yes this is China, no its not Tibet, and no we didn't steal it and they don't have a flag anyway "...probably.
We joined the throngs of tourists, all decked out like they ran through a mountaineering shop in Velcro suits, the Mountaineering look is haute fashion, don't rock up to Lhasa in your heels and summer dress and its fleeces not t-shirts, they're so yesterday. We had dinner at the Snowland ( Colin Farrell and Steven Segal ate here) and went back to the hotel to desperately try to get flights out before our permit expires and the dental plyers are surfaced.
My throat is on strike today however the plumbing is on overtime...TMI??...never!
No comments:
Post a Comment