Topic: Tibet: A Picture Journal

[tangerine dream]

I can't seem to get enough of Tibet the last few days. 

The picture below explains a dream I had a while back.   



 Yamdrok lake



 The Barkhor is probably the best part about Lhasa and one of the most interesting places to see in Tibet. The Barkhor is a pilgrimage kora around Tibet's most holy temple, the Jokhang. The main circuit of the Barkhor is about 1km long, but there are many small alleys that come off of the main route. Everyday sees thousands of Tibetan pilgrims walking around the Barkhor in a clockwise direction.





The picture below is taken at Rongbhu Monastery with Mt. Everest  in the background.

[nichi]

It looks like home, doesn't it.
I'm enjoying your pictorials very much, N.

[tangerine dream]

Apparently, there used to be thousands of monasteries in Tibet. Every family was expected to send at least one boy to a monastery. Usually, boys would be ordained at the age of seven; girls, a bit older. The monastery life used to be the only access to education and improved social status. People went to monasteries to get educated, to merit their family and to pursue religious fulfillment. Although educational and economic conditions in Tibet have improved, many Tibetans are still drawn to the monasteries


The Yumbulagang Monastery is one of the first buildings to be constructed in Tibet and is the first palace to be built in the country. Although this 2,000 year old building was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, it was successfully rebuilt in the 1980s. Today, the history of Tibet can be seen on the painted murals found on the walls.

[tangerine dream]

[tangerine dream]

Here are some great photos of nuns.  Unfortunately, I am not able to paste the img links here.  But do follow this link, you will be glad you did!

http://www.jamesgritz.com/tibet.html#

[tangerine dream]

In many parts of Himalayan region, the number of women joining Tibetan Buddhist nunneries is in decline, or else institutions face political and other challenges, and struggle to remain open.  In Bhutan, however, nunneries have begun to flourish. In 1960, the country had two nunneries. Today, there are over thirteen.


Traditionally, ritual arts and scholastic study have been a prerogative of Tibetan Buddhist monks, with their ordained sisters receiving little or no training in these areas.  In the Tibetan community-in-exile, however, this is changing.  Nuns are now training in classical Tibetan debate, the performance of ritual music, the creation of sand mandalas, and other ritual arts. 

[tangerine dream]

"After the lecture the king urged me to partake of Muli delicacies. There was a grey coloured buttered tea in a porcelain cup set in exquisite silver filigree with a coral studded silver cover. On a golden plate was what I thought to be, forgetting where I was, Turkish delight. But it proved to be ancient mottled yak cheese interspersed with hair. There were cakes like pretzels, heavy as rocks.
It was an embarrasing situation but in order not to offend His Majesty I took a sip of tea, which was like liquid salted mud."
Dr.  Joseph Rock
 in his writings about travel in Tibet and western China in the 1920s on his first visit to the King of Muli.

Later on he was given gifts of food by the king:

"There were eggs in plenty, two bags of beans for the horses and one of flour; one wormy ham; dried mutton; lumps of gritty salt, more of that doubtful yak cheese and butter wrapped in birch bark.

The dried legs of mutton and yak cheese were literally walking all over the terrace of our house, being propelled by squirming maggots the size of a man's thumb. I was informed that these were the choicest delicacies from the king's larder. As none of my party wanted the lively food, we gave it to the beggars, who fought for it like tigers."



 Butter tea, tsampa and yak cheese


Tsampa
This is the everyday food of most Tibetans. The consistency of ground oatmeal mixed up with thick creamy milk into a muesli-like consistency, then kneaded into a dough-like bites.  Apparently it tastes just like you would expect a mixture of barley and yak butter to taste.   



A Tibetan Dinner party
The typical dishes of Kham Tibetan cuisine: butter tea, momo bread, sour yak yoghurt and cheese with green chillis.




Making Butter tea  by the traditional method: mixing yak milk and hot water in elongated wooden bucket with a plunger. A rhythmic sucking sound is the background music of Tibetan household life.

More Butter Tea



These two boys are posing with a pig that has been gutted, boned , salted and sealed - which apparently ptreserves the pork for years. The carcasses also doubled as mattresses.   These pigs are still prepared today.


A one-eyed cook --
This cheerful monk is the head cook at Muli monastery . Here he is making butter tea, "suyou cha", by the traditional plunger and bucket method.

[tangerine dream]

Fruit and vegetable markets:






As you can see, there is no shortage of variety!  They have tomatoes, potatoes, ginger and green beans, orange or tangerine, pomegranate, grapefruit and pumpkin.




Meat Market:








In the meat markets yak carcasses are laid out on trestle tables. There are bloody hunks of meat, bits of bone, yak hair and even complete severed yak heads.   Hui Muslims have traditionally been the butchers of Tibet - a job not deemed appropriate for people whose Buddhist beliefs are against harming any living thing.

[tangerine dream]

A courtyard.. full of all kinds of things including a satelleite dish, laundry....


Burning incense



A small tea shop





Outside a Palace in Lasa... The entrance room to the Potala Palace

[tangerine dream]

This is a pair of Songba shoes loved by Tibetan women.

Songba Tinyima is the best of the Songba shoes as they bear patterns much cherished by noble women in the past.


Tiri shoes are favored by working women. Sown with thick threads, they come from Shannan with soles made of locally-available linen. Shannan farmers gather the linen and insert the plant into the sole for shoemakers to further process.

In the Tibetan-inhabited areas, there are many kinds of Tibetan shoes. Due to inconvenient transport facilities, Tibetan herders tend to focus entirely on their cows and sheep.

Unlike herders, farmers wore woolen shoes.

A pair of Tibetan shoes is identical. With our shoes, we have to ensure you put the left one on the left foot; but you don't have to do this if you are wearing Tibetan shoes because there is no distinction between left and right.


Tibetan Monk shoes
Footsteps to inner peace and enlightenment...