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Album: By Country | By Date Tibet | July 2001 < Prev: The Norbulingka | Next: Around Lhasa and a Visit to Sera Monastery >
Travelogue: By Country | By Date Tibet | July 2001  

July 2001 - Linghor Kora

A traditional sacred circumambulation of Lhasa. Tote helps paint Buddhas

Meat laid out in butcher's shop. Seeing the butcher's cutting off chunks with an axe was unnerving. So, was the morning delivery. A pickup with the bed filled with carcasses pulls up, the bed is uncovered, and the butcher and driver haul a couple into the shop Eating at our favorite muslim chinese restaurant. Duncan with the restaurant guys. Yak cheese salesman. Mark liked the stuff. The kids thought the chunks would be good substitutes for rocks.
Hardward store The courtyard of Ani Sangkhung nunnery. ("Ani" means nunnery.) The nunnery was neater, prettier, and had many more flowers than any monastery. Butter lamps in the chapel. These are traditionally filled with yak butter, but nowadays they are mainly filled with vegetable ghee. A skull filled with local "beer." Chang, fermented barley and water, is a traditional offering, supposedly dating back to Tibet's pre-Buddhist religiion. Skulls of lamas are used for offerings. The little bill behind the skull is a 5 Jiao note, worth about 6 cents. Worshippers leave bills, as well as tsampa, butter, rice, and scarves. Every now and then I chang a 1 Yuan note into 10 Jiao, so the kids can put a note on their favorite statue. It's kind of fun.
The clean and tidy chapel in the nunnery A nun working on a garment. She called us in to chat. Flowers outside the nuns' quarters. Maggie in the nunnery entrance
Lama stones and decorated skull along the Linghor Kora. Kora's are traditional, sacred walks around things. Hindus do it too. This one was around old Lhasa, but there are also walks around the Potala and the Jokhang. Carvings and paintings at the bottom of Changpo Ri Close up of the painted reliefs Maggie with 1000 buddhas at the bottom of Changpo Ri. Changpo Ri is a hill in the middle of Lhasa with lots of devotional things and a steel telecom tower on it.
Tote climbing up to help repaint buddhas Our favorite buddha painter The spot may be holy, but that doesn't stop anyone from creating a dump next to it. The famous yak statues. Dedicated on the 40th anniversary of Tibet's subjugation by China. Note the guard.
Head of a yak. Two goofy creatures Potala through prayer flags Eels in the market. These babies wriggle like crazy and stick their heads up out of the water. Can't wait to eat them.
Vegetables in the market. The market is huge and neat and no one seems to speak Tibetan. Radishes Onions Spices
Three market lovers This fellow is one of many who cook skewers of meat and vegetables in hot oil. They then season them, and we all love them. This particular guy smiled and cheerfully cooked a bunch of things for us. Monica and the kids selected most of them, but only after asking the prices. When I went to pay, the fellow demanded more money. After walking away and doing calculations, we returned and asked for the money back. A crowd gathered, and he eventually "recounted" and returned our money.