The Potala

I'm am such a bad blogger! I apologize for not writing in a month. I've slipped into Tibetan time, which is not always a good thing. For those who don't know, Tibetan time is a lot like owning a watch that is at least half an hour slow. If someone says they will meet you at such and such a time, chances are he or she will be late, or that he or she will call you to say that there is no time to meet today (your preset meeting day) and could you meet another time, or the opposite happens. You made a date at, say, Friday, 5pm. Instead of being satisfied with this, your Tibetan friend calls and says, there is no time on Friday, could you meet right this minute instead? Time here is very convoluted, and I have fallen into the time warp that is Tibet.

So, the last time I wrote, I was going to go to the Potala. (Those pictures are posted, by the way.) That morning started out with a trip to the post office. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but if I have, oh well. When you go to the post office, usually, you just take the things you are mailing. You buy a box there for your things. Then, you take the box of stuff to the customs counter where they have you write on a little sticker-form what is in the box. After that, you stand in line for the man who tapes the box. No, I'm not joking. If you tape the box yourself, you still have to have the man tape it for you, because, heaven knows you didn't do a thorough enough job. I have never, in all my life, seen anyone use as much tape on a box as the Chinese postal service, (this includes my stepbrother, Matt, well known for being able to make tape disappear). So, you are standing in line for the man to tape your box, and he is good. This is all he does all day. When he is finished taping up the box, it is covered, literally covered, with green China Post tape. So far, you have stood in lines for about 25 minutes. Now, you take the box back to the customs counter where they put on the green sticker that you filled out earlier, with the contents of the package. You are not allowed to actually put the sticker on yourself. It must be done by the customs agent. Then, you take the box to the next counter, where it is weighed, you pay, fill out another form, and finally, if you are lucky, and there are no problems, your package is successfully placed on a pile of other boxes being sent out of country, and it only took somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour, if there were no problems.

That is how the trip to the Potala started out. My friend Doris was mailing a package home, and we were almost late for the tour because of all this line-waiting in the post office. I'm not really looking forward to mailing out my Christmas presents (which will be quite late, by the way.)

When that was completed, we ran across the street to the Potala, where we met our teacher and other classmates. We entered the Potala through the front gate, which is something that is normally reserved for locals, and of course, the most of the tourists were gone at this point, so most everyone uses the front now.

The Potala is beautiful. The original building, so Tibetan history goes, was a small place built by King Song-tsen Gam-po, the 7th century king that brought Buddhism to Tibet via his wives. Inside, there is a small room that is said to be the place that he built. The rest of the Potala was constructed by the Great 5th Dalai Lama and later, after his death, the regent Sang-gye Gyatso. He kept the death of the 5th Dalai Lama a secret for 15 years while the palace was completed. It is a bit over 100 meters high and over 300 meters wide, with exactly 1000 rooms.

To tour the Potala, one climbs up the steps at the front of the building and then works down from the top of the palace looking at what few rooms are open to tourists. Many rooms have been destroyed, either during the Cultural Revolution, or through neglect. Photos are absolutely not allowed inside, and there are cameras and plenty of security to make sure that non are taken.

Now that all the basic info is here, I can say how beautiful it was. While we only saw a few places inside the Potala, perhaps 10 or 15 rooms out of the 1000, it projected history and tradition. We were able to see the official throne room of the Dalai Lamas, various rooms for meditation and teaching, chaples dedicated to Avalokitesvara, and the most impressive of all were the rooms with the three-dimensional mandalas, which are representations of the universe or the abodes of various deities, and the golden funeral stupas of the Dalai Lamas. This type of stupa and funeral is reserved for only the highest lamas. These structures are about two storeys high, covered in gold leaf, turquoise, red coral, mother-of-pearl, they are incredible and not to be missed, if anyone comes to Lhasa.

The view from the Potala is wonderful. It is possible to see the city, nearly from one end to the other, and there are a number of tiny monasteries and retreat houses on the mountains facing the Potala. Beautiful!

This tour took us a total of two hours, one hour longer than tourists get. (We lucked out because we are students.) While the tour can certainly be done in an hour, it was nice to have the extra information provided by our teacher as we went along. And of course, it is nice to just spend some time looking at things, being there, in the space. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be going back. It is 100 yuan to visit the Potala, if you are a tourist, and I don't think dyeing my hair will get me a Tibetan price. Admittedly, 100 yuan is only about $13, but that will buy a lot of toilet paper and thukpa (noodles).

It's late here, so I will end this entry and I will write another tomorrow. Thanks for being patient!