Namtso—This salt water lake is located rough-
ly 70 miles northwest of Lhasa and covers 950 square miles. It is a holy site of pilgrimage with a number of hermitages around the lake and the Tashi Dor monastery.
Mansarovar—120 square mile fresh water lake
located south of Mount Kailash which is ap- proximately 1250 miles to the west of Lhasa. It is a site of pilgrimage for both Buddhists and Hindus. Hindus believe that bathing in the lake is supposed to remove the bather’s sins. Bud- dhist’s believe that it was in this area that Queen Maya conceived Buddha.
Yamdrok Yumtso—Another fresh water lake
fed from melt waters of surrounding mountains and covers approximately 250 square miles. It is located roughly 65 miles to the southwest of Lhasa. The name of the lake means Lake of Turquoise. There are two legends associated with the lake. The first is that the lake is a trans- formed goddess and the second is that the lake flew to its present position from a sea at the end of the universe.
Lhamo Latso—This tiny .77 square mile lake
is considered the holiest lake in Tibet. The lake is revered because mystical messages appear on the surface and the Dalai Lamas often come here to obtain information about their future as well as that of Tibet. It is located approxi- mately 100 miles to the southeast of Lhasa.
Average Temperatures by Month
Month High (C/F)* Low (C/F)* January 7/45 -10/14 February 9/49 -7/20 March 12/54 -3/26 April 14/57 1/34 May 20/68 5/41 June 23/73 9/49 July 22/71 10/50 August 21/69 9/49 September 20/68 8/46 October 16/62 1/34 November 12/54 -5/23 December 8/46 -9/16 *C/F = Centigrade/Fahrenheit
with an open side facing the street. The av- erage size of a shop in a private home is 12 x 12 feet. The shops sell assorted items which including cloth, butter, tea, flour, breads and, on occasion, small foreign goods carried into Tibet from northern India or China. Watches are a favorite item amongst the wealthy and, by the 1920’s, items such as eyeglasses and telescopes have become popular.
Many of the shops in Lhasa are owned and run by traders from Nepal. They are very en- terprising and have trade contacts directly with India providing a regular supply of British goods. By the 1940’s there was a growing de- mand for luxury goods, such as cameras, pho- nographs and radios. There was no place in Tibet to have film developed so they would have to be sent to India on the trade caravans and it would take several months from the time a photograph was taken to the time that the photographer would see the finished images.
The oldest area of Lhasa lies to the east of the Potala Palace. This was the area where Tibet- an nobles had their multi-story houses, usu- ally with a courtyard for their horses. This neighborhood had built up around the Tsu- lag Khang (Jokhang) Temple, which is consid- ered the holiest site in Tibet. The Chagpo-ri School of Tibetan medicine is also located in this area of Lhasa. Students of medicine from all over Tibet travel to Lhasa to finalize their studies at Chagpo-ri.
The dominant feature of Lhasa is the Potala Palace which sits on Mount Potala overlook- ing the oldest part of the city.
Until sometime early in the 7th century, what we now call Lhasa was known by the natives as Ra-sa which translates as Place of the Goat.
The word Lhasa translates as God’s Land or Place of the Deity. This is in reference to the Dalai Lama being a reincarnation of Chenrezig who had made a vow to remain manifest in the world until suffering had been removed.
In 1950, at the time of the Chinese invasion, the population of the city of Lhasa was ap- proximately 10,000, which does not include the monks and lamas living in nearby mon- asteries. Officials of Lhasa did not encour- age growth of the city and preferred that the nobles lived on their estates. If they were not clustered together there was a lesser chance of conspiracies, plus it forced the nobles to di- rectly control the border areas of the country. Modern Lhasa has, as its focus for tourists and social meetings, an area known as Bark- hor Plaza. The center of the plaza is the main entrance to the Jokhang (House of Wisdom) Temple which is said to have been built in the 7th century and was the first Buddhist temple in the country. Subsequent excavations and research by groups, such as the German based Tibet Heritage Fund, reveals that portions of the Jokhang might be Tibet’s oldest timber frame building.
Barkhor Plaza, as it exists in modern times, was built by the Chinese starting in the mid 1980’s when they began tearing down the his- toric houses of Tibetan noble families who had fled the country after 1950.
Shops in Lhasa (before 1950) are typically situated in a ground floor room of a house
Lhasa
Lhasa - Secrets of Tibet wish to design a scenario around and within the Palace itself.
The current Dalai Lama (14th) described the Potala as having many rooms which con- tained the belongings of former Dalai Lamas going all the way back to the 5th, Lobsang Gyatso in the 17th century, who expanded the palace to its present form. The palace is over 1,400 feet long and was not only the official residence but also contained the treasury, the mint, schools of theology and medicine, and housing for 1,200 government officials and 500 monks. One small section of the Potala Palace served as Tibet’s main prison for many years.
Many of the western explorers and travel writers who have visited the Potala describe it as impressive from the outside, but disap- pointing on the inside. They mention that it is a gloomy place with ages of dust and the stench of rancid butter. Others mention that years of butter lamps being spilled through- out the structure have made footing treacher- ous in some areas. Percival Landon who was a newspaper reporter that accompanied the Younghusband expedition was overwhelmed by A road runs around the Potala Palace that is
a destination for pilgrims. Devout Buddhists try to travel to Lhasa at least once in their life to make a clockwise circuit around the base of the Potala Palace on the Ling-kor Road. The most devout perform the circuit while performing full penitential prayer prostra- tions. Every five or six feet they place their hands together, say a prayer and then pros- trate themselves vigorously on the road. The most experienced wear pads on their hands and knees to protect their body from damage for the estimated minimum of 3000 prostra- tions that a full circuit requires.
The Potala Palace is thirteen stories standing nearly 400 feet tall and is the winter home of the Dalai Lama. It is said that there are over one thousand rooms throughout the build- ing. The Red Palace is built on top of Mar- po Ri (Red Hill) which makes it possible that over the centuries chambers and passageways have been carved into the rock and have long since been forgotten. This could serve as a potential starting point for a keeper if they
In the late 19th century, monasteries con- ducted commercial transactions amongst them- selves in a currency called Temple Notes, which were no longer in use when the Dalai Lama ordered the Tibetan mint to begin printing paper currency.