The heavy aroma of yak butter candles mingles with the sweet smoke of burning juniper leaves billowing out of pot-bellied, stone sangkang (incense burners). Chanting Tibetans push and shove their way around the holy pilgrimage circuit of Lhasa’s Barkhor Square.
An exotic combination of medieval market economics and fervent religious devotion, Barkhor is both the spiritual heart of Tibet’s (click for map) capital and its main commercial district. It is here, in the old Tibetan quarter of modern Lhasa, that I first fell in love with Tibet.
Home of the Dalai Lamas
Pilgrims journey overland from the remotest regions of Tibet to congregate here, in a colorful parade of striped aprons, yak-skin boots, bowler hats, silver, turquoise and agate beads. Squeaky prayer wheels mix incongruously with the scuffing of hands and knees on concrete, as pilgrims prostrate themselves in front of the Jokhang — the holiest temple in Tibet, and the centerpiece of Barkhor — to accumulate merit towards a better future from Maitreya, the Future Buddha.
While the Jokhang is the religious center of Lhasa, it is the Potala Palace that dominates the skyline and is the most renowned symbol of Tibet’s national aspirations. Once shrouded in mystery, the dark chambers and narrow passageways of this immense fortress are now open daily to masses of devotional pilgrims and tourists.
Half a day is barely enough to explore this amazing treasure house of Buddhist art and former home of the Dalai Lamas, the spiritual leaders of Tibet who were traditionally considered god-kings. Its 1,000 rooms feature an overwhelming array of intricate murals, temples, stupas, the tombs of eight past Dalai Lamas, exquisite mandalas, and other relics of Tibetan history. But you must pay a fee to take photographs inside — up to 50 yuan (US $6) per photo.
One can easily spend a few days in greater Lhasa at a leisurely pace, while acclimatizing to the high altitude of 3,900 meters (12,870 feet — almost as high as the tip of Mount Rainier in the United States). My traveling companion and I explored two 15th-century monasteries on the outskirts of central Lhasa — the Drepung and Sera — which are among the few to have survived centuries of civil war, attacks by the Mongols and the Cultural Revolution. Drepung was once the world’s largest monastery and home to 10,000 monks. From here, the early Dalai Lamas exercised control over central Tibet until Dalai Lama V reconstructed the Potala Palace in the 17th century. (The original Potala, built in the 7th century, is said to have been destroyed by lightning.) Today, both monasteries have a slightly downtrodden, village-like atmosphere.
