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Album: By Country | By Date Tibet | June 2001 < Prev: Drepung Monastery | Next: Linghor Kora >
Travelogue: By Country | By Date Tibet | June 2001  

June 2001 - The Norbulingka

Summer palace of Dalai Lamas

Door handle with new braids Men putting on new decorations Tote doing the Buddha routine Inga, Maggie, Audrey, Tibetan woman, and Theresa. A charming crew.
Detail of one of the costumes for rent to tourists. Audrey and Inga in the costumes. This is part of the Summer Palace of the Dalai Lamas. It's a nice place but is most interesting because this is where the current Dalai Lama was living before his escape to India. In 1959, after the Chinese seemed about to take the Dalai Lama prisoner, 30,000 Tibetans surrounded the palace determined to prevent the Dalai Lama from falling into Chinese hands. In the popular uprising that followed the Dalai Lama's escape, the Chinese shelled most of these buildings. This is the retreat of the 13th Dalai Lama. The 14th Dalai Lama's palace was the most interesting, featuring modern plumbing and a Hi Fi, as well as two marvelous murals. One mural depicts the history of the Tibetan people from the union of the ogress and the monkey. The other shows the history of the Dalai Lamas and shows the current Dalai Lama as a young fellow surrounded by his friends.
We were told that this has something to do with astrology, but we're not sure what. Tote in a doorway. Looking out the Flora's window to the green hills above Lhasa.
Thanka stall. The Jokhang is surrounded by stall selling souvenirs, monk outfits, beads, prayer wheels, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Pool seems to be mainly an outdoor occupation. In many places, there were peaked, metal covers for the tables. Boxes Tibetan cloth Nice decorations
Handsome man with spinning prayer wheel. Worshippers in front of the Jokhang. The women put a band around their calves and usually had small cardboard pads for their hands.