Recent social hot spots are extremely heavy, whether it is the woman in chains or the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It seems that all the subscription accounts are writing relevant push notifications at once, and ’s circle of friends is also filled with a large number of collisions and arguments between different viewpoints. They penetrate into every corner of life, attack us, and there is no way to hide. Individual emotions are like branches and leaves in a storm, being involuntarily wrapped up in them.
I hope this travelogue can bring you a moment of peace and respite from the constant depression.
In this travel note, I will mainly introduce the many experiences and photography I gained during my trip to Lhasa based on my experience on August 20, 2018 .
The reason why I say mainly is because I have been to Tibet three times so far, and Lhasa is inevitable, so I also used some materials from my second visit in 2021. .
Although Lhasa may not be as "distant" as the destinations in my previous travel notes, I believe that even though there are countless tourists who have been here, there are so many travel notes on the market, and even you may have been there yourself, this article Travel journals can still give you a new and different perspective.
Sunrise | Potala Palace Square
Morning｜Bu Palace Garden Tour
Afternoon | Jokhang Temple & Barkhor Street
Evening｜The other side of Yaowang Mountain
Nightfall｜"Princess Wencheng Enters Tibet"
Lost with all our strength｜What kind of trip do we need?
The process in the catalog is exactly what I did when I was 18. one day inside We left the house in the dark at around 6:30 am that morning and didn't return until just before midnight. We didn't take any transportation the whole way, relying only on our own legs, and our route covered almost the entire old city of Lhasa. It was a rampage.
I remember that before this, I was with the team A friend said that the itinerary for that day would be very relaxing, hahaha.
Sunrise | Potala Palace Square
I think the first thing you should experience when you come to Lhasa is Enjoy the sunrise on the square of the same name right in front of the Potala Palace (hereinafter referred to as the Potala Palace).
As for the specific location, there are roughly three choices . First of all, there is the open area of Square directly in front of . Although the view is unobstructed, the bare marble floor makes the whole scene a bit monotonous, so many tourists will try it by pouring a pot of water on it. The method artificially creates mirror reflections to take pictures. So often we hear this joke: The ground of Bu Palace Square never dries even on a sunny day.
But it’s still appropriate to take a group photo; 2018
The second place is Yaowang Mountain Viewing Platform . The Potala Palace is built on the mountain. From this angle, the mountain has the clearest outline, with a white tower and streets in the foreground.
As the spot where the pattern on the back of the current 50 yuan was taken, this place has inevitably become the most popular place for tourists.
Moreover, everyone will take out the 50-yuan banknotes they have prepared in advance, fold it in half with one hand, and hold a mobile phone in the other hand, trying to match the real scene and the picture as closely as possible to take photos. It is actually a large-scale bizarre act.
I’m not immune to this; this one uses depth of field stacking.
The area of the platform is not large, so during the most "crowded" time period, tourists are crowded together, and it is even so crowded that even the camera tripod cannot be placed.
The irritability caused by the large number of people naturally reduces the travel experience. So is there a place that not only has a good angle, but is also less crowded and secluded?
This leads us to the third place that I highly recommend , which is located in front of a pond on the other side of the square.
In addition to a small pavilion, there are many weeping willows that are tens or even hundreds of years old. Together they form a rich prospect.
Why must you watch a sunrise at Bu Palace?
First of all, there are few people .
This entire square requires queuing up to go through security checks before entering during daily periods. But at such an early hour of sunrise, even the security guards had not yet arrived for work. Even during the peak tourist season, the surroundings were extremely clean. Only the uniform chants of soldiers during their morning jog could be heard intermittently from afar. There was no such bustling scene at all.
There were only a few Tibetans around, kowtowing their heads in the direction of the Bu Palace and talking for at least ten minutes. This standing and lying down seems to have a large range of motion, which can be regarded as their morning exercise.
As for the one in the picture below, when I first looked at it from a distance, I thought it was also kowtow. I picked up the telephoto lens and took a closer look, only to find that it was an old man who was diligently taking pictures of the girl.
Maybe there is not much essential difference between the two behaviors hhh
The most important thing is that at sunrise, the golden light of dawn falls on the milky white walls of the Potala Palace. Even for us who do not have any religious beliefs, I couldn't help but associate words like "holy" with this scene. At that moment, my teammates and I were all in tears.
Later, when I went there for the second time in 2021, I took another picture at the same shooting spot.
The person in the frame at the bottom of the picture is a couple. After talking, we learned that they had just arrived here from their home in the Sichuan-Tibet area after more than a month of hiking.
Although I prefer the second picture from the perspective of picture content, the emotion imprinted on the first picture when I first saw it can never be surpassed.
After the above activities, you can have breakfastin a small local restaurant next door.
How local is it? I have been here three times in total, and each time there was only one table of Han Chinese in the packed hall, and the lively conversations around us were all conducted in a language unfamiliar to us. When I first arrived, I even felt that everyone in the store was looking at our group of people with their peripheral vision, and they were a little nervous.
Visited for the second time in 2021; the total store area is about 3 times that of the picture
This can be regarded as a little travel experience - if you come to a certain dining place and find that the majority of the people are locals, you must have come to the right place. Because this shows that repeat customers account for the majority of consumers here, and the purpose of travel is naturally to obtain the most local experience possible.
But on the contrary, if you find that they are all tourists, it means that you are in the wrong place in all likelihood, and what you consume here is nothing more than lambs to be slaughtered and leeks to be cut.
For example, when I was traveling in Europe in 2017, I discovered that a restaurant that only has the local language on the menu is generally better than a restaurant that also has an English menu. If you encounter a restaurant with a Chinese menu, you will definitely turn around and walk away immediately. .
18 years; the thermos bottles placed on the table are filled with sweet tea
After ordering at the entrance, the clerk will hand you several signs written in Tibetan. Guess each type corresponds to a dish. Some of them need to be redeemed at a fixed window with the sign; others can be placed directly on the table, and a clerk will take the initiative to check and serve the food.
There are some Tibetan specialty foods that I would like to recommend. The first is Tibetan noodles. Different from those made with flour in the mainland, it is made of highland barley, so the taste will be very different. A bowl only costs 5 yuan.
The one I want to recommend the most must be the potatoes here. I seem to have mentioned in high school geography that potatoes are suitable for growing in places with large temperature differences between day and night and sufficient sunshine during the day, so that their starch content will be higher. The plateau obviously has unique conditions in this regard.
It doesn't seem to require any special cooking skills. Just simple frying can give you a very high-quality taste.
The main drinks are sweet tea and butter tea, sold by the pot. In my impression, the five of us boys ordered a pot of 20 yuan together, and we drank tons and tons of it during the whole breakfast.
I personally prefer sweet tea, and many people think the taste is similar to uniform Assam milk tea. Butter tea is a bit salty.
Teahouses like this are found all over the streets and alleys of Lhasa, playing a very rich role.
It doesn’t have to be breakfast. Whenever you feel thirsty or simply want to find a place to rest and temporarily escape the scorching sun during the day, you can always find a restaurant nearby to sit in. In this regard they are comparable to mainland cafes.
They can even be seen on both sides of some roads, in which case they resemble service areas.
Taken on the way from Lhasa to Yanghu Lake
Such an interesting thing happened in this teahouse at that time.
Perhaps it was because it was unusual for a group of Han Chinese guys like us to visit, but an uncle in the store showed extraordinary enthusiasm towards us.
First of all, as a customer rather than a clerk, as soon as we sat down, he came over and gave us many packages of napkins (the scene reminded me of the rich man throwing money on the table).
Later, the chat gradually evolved into an ideological and political lesson about national unity, such as "56 ethnic groups must unite with each other. If they are suspicious of each other, just look at the Soviet Union next door... Only unity can surpass the United States..." and so on.
Before leaving, he gave each of us a postcard.
Doing good deeds with a heart will lead to good fortune in the world, and a harmonious heart and a broad road; on the other hand, there is also "harmony is precious"
"I hope that when you go back, you will convey what you saw in Tibet to your peers without colored glasses." He said this when he said goodbye.
I am here to show you this experience exactly as it is, which can be regarded as fulfilling my promise.
I remember that before I went to Tibet for the first time, a friend joked with me about whether I would encounter Tibetan separatists. Such a comparison makes make people laugh.
After asking, he was holding a book by the founder of Tibetan.
I went to Xinjiang again in 2021, and many experiences made me realize the fact that we often accuse the West of distorting these two special provinces of our country and the ethnic groups under them, but in retrospect, many of us from the mainland actually A lack of understanding about them is also filled with mysterious and even distorted stereotypes.
I understand that not everyone has the opportunity to travel to these areas in the west as I do, so it becomes my obligation to "share what I see without colored glasses".
Morning | Potala Palace Garden Tour
The garden tour mentioned here first refers to visiting the interior of Potala Palace.
Visitors need to walk along the front The stepped wall outside the plank road leads up the stairs. After all, you can't expect to have an elevator or drive up in an ancient building with a history of thousands of years.
The altitude of Lhasa is approximately 3600 meters. In my experience, starting from almost this altitude, you can very clearly feel the impact of the low oxygen environment on the plateau on the body.
This is especially obvious when climbing a hill, where you can clearly feel that your breathing is heavier than ever before.
Therefore, visiting Bu Palace has become the first hurdle for many people after coming to the plateau.
While waiting to enter, the fragrance cloth hanging on the eaves on the side looked like waves when the wind blew it.
But the tour itself is actually very procedural and has little to say. And since photos are not allowed once inside, the memory has long since faded.
The park I want to focus on is the surrounding area at the foot of the Potala Palace hill.
First, there is a prayer path surrounding it, with prayer wheels dotting the walls on one side. Oh yes, don’t forget, on similar circular roads in Tibetan areas, you must walk in the clockwise direction , including turning the prayer wheel, you must also turn it in the clockwise direction.
Many people also hold a portable prayer wheel in their hands and turn it while walking.
It can be seen that although there are dense crowds of people on the road, they are mainly local Tibetans.
It was the peak tourist season at this time, and I had just completed my trip on the Northwest Qinggan Loop . The huge crowds of tourists on that route still left a lingering psychological shadow on me.
Although the altitude of Tibet constitutes a threshold for many people, around such a popular scenic spot, the scene of few tourists and many locals is quite unexpected.
It must be admitted that the front and back of the Potala Palace are highly asymmetrical. Not only are there fewer buildings on the back, but there is also almost no The decoration is much more monotonous and simple than the front.
There are many carps in the pond
This may be the reason why most tourists pass by other surrounding areas in a hurry and go straight to the front of Bu Palace.
But from another perspective, the back is actually rich and diverse; the front is single and boring.
Although the Bu Palace is sacred in the hearts of Tibetans, it is definitely not fortified and inaccessible. For example, like the British Royal Palace, there are only guards standing guard all around who cannot make tourists laugh no matter how hard they try.
Zongjiao Lukang Park located behind the Potala Palace is full of fireworks and market atmosphere.
For example, directly behind and below, there is a public fitness equipment area.
There is also "square dancing" in broad daylight.
What should I do if my awning can no longer accommodate any more people? It doesn't matter, just find a shady spot nearby and dance along with the music.
In addition to standard elements such as prayer wheels and white pagodas, there are also some relatively "modern" sculptures in the park, which may conflict or be inconsistent with the thousand-year-old buildings in the background, but they are integrated.
Walking in such a life-like scene, I couldn't help but think that if the square in the front belongs to tourists, then the park in the back belongs to locals.
Afternoon | Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Street
Even those who have never been to Tibet have probably heard of the custom of Pilgrimage: Tibetans start from the door of their homes and worship step by step in the direction of Lhasa.
The GIF below records the complete movements of a body-length head. Pilgrims usually tie a slider to their palms, and have aprons and kneepads to reduce wear and tear on their clothing.
Such pilgrims can often be seen along the roads around Lhasa.
But perhaps you don’t know that they worship end It is not the Potala Palace, but the Jokhang Temple.
A square outside the entrance of Jokhang Temple
After being introduced by the tour guide, I learned that just arriving at the Jokhang Temple is not the end of the pilgrimage. They still need to continue in front of the temple until they have kowtowed (as if) one hundred thousand heads to complete their practice.
Therefore, there used to be a separate area at the entrance of the Jokhang Temple dedicated to them, and next to it was the tourist entrance.
You can see that each person has a small mattress, and in addition, there are a large number of daily necessities.
Most of them embark on such a pilgrimage when they are in their 40s. Firstly, they have accumulated enough economic conditions at this time, and the next generation has become independent. Secondly, they are fashionable and healthy enough, and their bones will not be able to withstand such a torment any later. .
Presumably this tradition has existed and continued for a very long time, but the reason why I say "used to" is because after the epidemic began, this kind of "gathering behavior" was obviously not allowed. It had not recovered until my second visit in the summer of 2021. The area that once existed now seemed empty.
I can’t help but wonder. The impact of the epidemic on various economic activities is obviously obvious to all, but its impact on folk activities such as pilgrimage is at least not widely known. If there are scholars in the humanities and social sciences to conduct field research in this area, it will definitely be a very meaningful research.
Inside the Jokhang Temple
The most important artifact here is Life-size golden statue of Sakyamuni at the age of 12 .
An interesting anecdote is that monks often paint gold powder on this golden statue to pray for it. But if these gold powder accumulate on it over time, the Buddha will become "blessed". Therefore, the surface of the gold statue needs to be cleaned regularly to "weight loss".
It seems that no one can escape the fate of gaining weight, not even the Buddha.
Anti-epidemic slogans seen in Lhasa in 2021
I can’t think of anything special to recommend about the visit itself. However, like the Bu Palace, due to the lack of an effective ventilation system inside the temple, a large amount of smoke generated when butter lamps are burned will accumulate in the almost airtight and airtight room and cannot be dissipated, which may cause bad consequences. experience.
In a bungalow in front of the Jokhang Temple, staff are preparing butter lamps for worship in the temple.
The architectural style of Barkhor Street itself, including color matching and decorative elements, is like a market version of the Potala Palace.
If you want to take a photo of yourself in Tibetan clothing as a souvenir, there are obviously a lot of options here.
If you are a girl, or have long hair like I did when I went to Lhasa, then when you walk in Barkhor Street, there will almost certainly be a Tibetan grandma asking you if you want to braid Tibetan braids.
The general principle is to tie a colorful rope and a small piece of hair together.
my head; under construction
This is indeed somewhat similar to dreadlocks, and the pronunciation is almost the same. However, dreadlocks should be African/black things, and there is no colorful rope in the middle, so the final visual effect will be much inferior in comparison. In addition, Tibetan braids also have more spiritual significance.
The charge is roughly 3-8 yuan per session. Although it doesn’t look expensive, it can’t stand the quantity. If you encounter a grandma who can take off quickly and can weave thirty or forty lines with just a few clicks, it will still be quite painful to spend one or two hundred yuan. So it’s best to agree on the number of braids in advance.
Originally we thought that only mainland tourists like us were interested in this kind of thing.
But very unexpectedly, we later discovered that the same was true for the local Tibetans we met in other parts of Tibet.
For example, in 2021, when we went to Kulagangri, Shannan City via Se Township, Luozha County for a meal, a shop assistant was very interested in this.
It happened that Wult, who was very handy, had already learned how to braid, so he enthusiastically offered to help her braid a few.
But since we didn’t have colorful ropes at the time, we had to tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall, that is, we took off a few braids from each of our heads and gave them to my sister.
I know that many people may feel this way. Ancient cities across the country, no matter how different their cultural genes are, seem to be carved from the same mold. So much so that I fell into a kind of "ancient city ptsd".
This high degree of homogeneity is an inevitable by-product of commercialization.
I have also read articles on the Internet that oppose the unification and rectification of the ancient city of Lhasa, but that article was from 2013, a few years earlier than the first time I went there. What it used to look like and what the differences are before and after. It’s something I’ve never had the chance to experience.
But perhaps because the cultural genes of Tibetan areas are too different from those of the mainland, even after being "rectified", they are still far from the same ancient cities in the mainland, so it is still worth a visit.
When I visited in 2021, I could clearly feel that the number of short video workers had increased a lot compared to 3 years ago.
Evening｜The other side of Yaowang Mountain
The attractions introduced in the previous sections are must-visit attractions for every tourist visiting Lhasa. They are well-known and commonplace.
But beyond that? Are there some quiet, even off-the-beaten-path places that are interesting and worth visiting?
Can this desire to enjoy a certain scene exclusively at a certain moment be realized in a bustling tourist city like Lhasa? Or is it just an unrealistic hope?
I'm telling you, places like this do exist.
And the answer is often right under people's noses. It's within easy reach, yet constantly ignored.
Remember when I mentioned Yaowang Mountain before, it is where the viewing platform of the Potala Palace is located.
Yaowang Mountain at sunrise
It can be seen that the entire hilltop is actually not too small, but unfortunately, except for the small viewing platform that is crowded with people, the other parts are almost completely deserted.
That afternoon, after a series of twists and turns, we accidentally arrived at the side of the hill facing away from the Potala Palace.
On the outermost side, there are murals carved on the entire mountain, including the Buddha and his disciples. Several uncles are worshiping it.
Countless candles were lit in the room nearby, their flames swaying slightly with the weak air flow.
Slow motion shooting to gif
Keep going inside, both sides of the road There are prayer beads placed everywhere. Flower pots and A stone tablet with mottos engraved on it.
In the deepest part of the alley is a Thousand Buddha Pagoda. The same is Gautama Buddha and his disciples.
When I went there, there were only a few local people making pilgrimages. Among them is a mother and daughter. The mother is kneeling in the center of the picture, while the daughter is not so honest, jumping up and down in front of her and running around.
A passing Gugu is looking at the Buddha statue
The last picture I took before leaving.
In this picture, you can see all the people you met just now, such as the uncle worshiping in front of the thangka, and the mother and daughter in front of the Thousand Buddha Pagoda (the two in white short sleeves on the steps). It turns out that she even brought the mats used during worship in person.
This place is very difficult to find, hidden deep among the houses, and there is only a narrow path leading to it from the street. I didn’t see any other tourists during the entire trip.
It's obviously not an "attraction," but is it worth it? The answer is obviously yes.
There may be countless similar places like this in the ancient city of Lhasa, they just need to be explored and discovered.
At night｜Watch "Princess Wencheng Enters Tibet"
After nightfall, in addition to continuing the night tour of the Potala Palace, you can also choose to watch a large-scale live drama "Princess Wencheng Enters Tibet".
Bu Palace after dark; there are a lot of flowers on both sides of the street
Because it is in an open-air theater, the performance requires lighting, so this performance can only be performed after dark every day.
It is a bit far away from the Potala Palace. Rather than taking a taxi, my more recommended way of commuting is to find a shared electric car on the roadside🛵 and ride there. There is a section of the road along the Lhasa River. In the evening, facing the river breeze, you may be able to watch the sunset and "ride your beloved motorcycle" with a few friends.
From the ticket office, you need to climb a quite short flight of stairs to reach the theater. Even though this climb may make you a little out of breath, don’t forget to turn back before entering the theater. ——Here you can look across the Lhasa River at the Potala Palace in the dusk on the other side.
Shot with a 200mm focal length; actually very far apart
To be honest, I just watched it with the mentality of "Come here" at first. I didn't have much expectations for the stage effect, and I didn't really appreciate the art form itself.
But the scene really surprised me. First, there is the huge three-dimensional stage set.
For example, the Daming Palace in the first act "The Rhythm of the Tang Dynasty". The scene was first set up on a dark stage and the people were in place. Finally, the lights suddenly turned on, and the scene was brilliantly presented in front of the audience.
There are also examples of the Bu Palace in the fifth act "Harmony between Tibet and Han", and the street scene of Lhasa more than 1,300 years ago - the Bu Palace itself was built by Songtsen Gampo and led the Tubo people to marry Princess Wencheng who came from afar. .
It can also be seen from the two pictures just now that a major feature of the performance is its "grand scale".
In the stage plays I have watched before, due to limited space, there were usually only a few dozen actors at most. But "Wencheng" has at least nearly a thousand actors participating.
But this is definitely not for the purpose of crudely stacking numbers to support stage effects, or to cover up crude details.
Excluding the Tibetan songs and dances that are not easy to show through static images, we can get a glimpse of the whole process from the costumes, props and stage lighting. The effort put into details.
These details did not leave a very deep and intuitive impression on me at the performance. It was not until I went home and looked through the photos taken with a telephoto lens that I was amazed again.
For example, as mentioned in the previous article, the 12-year-old life-size gold statue of Sakyamuni now preserved in the Jokhang Temple traveled all the way from Chang'an to Tibet with Princess Wencheng and her bride-to-be. This history is also shown in the play.
Artificial snow scene on stage
rich Fu's "props" also include a large number of animals, such as horses and sheep.
Lost with all our strength｜What kind of trip do we need?
This ends the travel notes. In this section, I would like to try to use this experience to explain some of my travel concepts.
Perhaps many readers will think that before I went there, I had done very detailed homework through various channels, including Lonely Planet, travel forums, etc., pursuing the goal of seizing every moment and not wasting any time, which ultimately led to the birth of this Arrange a full schedule that is accurate to the hour.
Although I have a habit of being well prepared, this couldn't be further from the truth.
When I first went there in 2018, only two activities, visiting the Bu Palace and Jokhang Temple , were determined in advance, and everything else was random events.
For example, I didn't know the existence of the pond where I watched the sunrise. I discovered it on the spot.
I didn’t check in advance. There is a Tibetan teahouse nearby where you can have breakfast after watching the sunrise. I just found it while shopping, and happened to be hungry so I went into the store to have a look. It looked good, so I sat down.
There is also the Thousand Buddha Pagoda in Yaowang Mountain. We didn’t know about it in advance. We were told about it when chatting with the locals after dinner. All we had was a brief and vague guidance from the other party , so we plunged into the streets and alleys to find it.
If you search for the keyword Yaowang Mountain on some travel forums, you will find that all the records left by tourists below are just check-in photos of that viewing platform. Not to mention the Thousand Buddha Pagoda we found in the back mountain, there was not even a small temple less than a hundred meters away from the platform.
It’s as if the “light” of a popular tourist attraction is too bright and eye-catching, covering up everything around it.
People call travel that has entered the Internet era "Travel 4.0." That is, compared with Travel 3.0, which is represented by a guide book such as "Lonely Planet", the difference is that the Internet allows everyone to become the creator of travel guides. ,The massive platform and storage space give people the opportunity to share every bit of their travels in detail, with pictures and texts.
At the same time, we seem to have nearly free access to all these resources.
This will give people the illusion of omniscience and omnipotence, but in fact it is just self-imposed and self-limiting - people mistakenly believe that what is included in the guide is the entire world, so they no longer take the initiative to explore any things that are not mentioned in the guide. And, recommended place.
This has greatly emasculated people's desire to actively explore and discover.
And the travel notes that flood the Internet are just meaningless sameness.
In addition, people have also lost the motivation to communicate and interact with local people, as if they are just NPCs (non-player characters) in the game.
After all, if you think you already know everything about your destination through the Internet, why waste time interacting with locals?
Some people say that it is "Lonely Planet" that makes this planet lonely: "Don't visit any scenery that is not recommended in the book, don't go to any place that is not mentioned in the 193 pages of the book, don't talk to the locals, don't explain New friends, what a lonely journey.”
In almost every section, I spent a lot of words describing my interactions with locals, my attempts to get into their lives, and my explorations beyond the recommended attractions.
Even though it was a bit aimless, I was able to see things that others could not, which later proved to be very rewarding.
In order to make discoveries, we often need to first let ourselves get lost.
I never want to write a purely informational "guide" type of travelogue. In the draft, I actually wrote about a variety of local restaurants that I visited. But in the end they were all deleted, leaving only the Tibetan teahouse mentioned in the article.
The reason why I have written so much is not to hope that readers will fill your day with the same itinerary.
Rather than thinking of this as a guide, think of it as a guide, a guide on how to explore, discover, and be surprised in the city.
I hope you can finish reading this travelogue of mine, but I hope you can forget about it and go your own way.
I know that many people like to spin koi carps. So, seeing the swarms of red koi carps as thick as arms in the pond under the Potala Palace, why don’t you repost and share them?
![[Travel Note Sharing] 2018 Kyoto Red Leaves + Utada Hikari Live (2)](https://bh2255.static.gitbeta.eu.org/bh2255/body_images/frc-e92c7d24a1507fed4a96dfa3261486d8.jpeg)
