Must Know information before You Travel to Lhasa Tibet
Lhasa the small city on the Roof of the World may have lost some of its reputed magic and mysticism to the sterile modernity of Communist China, but it still remains the beating heart of Tibet. The most important pilgrimage destination for Tibetan Buddhist devotees, Lhasa holds the culture’s treasures—jok hang Temple and the surrounding Barkhor—the most holy and active temple and circumambulation route on the plateau.
With a population of a little over-160,000, Lhasa is remarkably small, considering its long history. Its major sights, both historically and architecturally, fall into three eras: first, the 7th- to 9th-century building boom, which produced the first Potala Palace on Mt. Marpori (AD 637) and the Buddhist-influenced Jokhang temple (641); second, the 15th century, when Tsongkhapa renovated and enlarged the Jokhang temple (1409) and founded the three great monasteries of Ganden, Drepung, and Sera (1419); and third, when Lhasa again became the capital and Dalai Lama V (1617-82) rebuilt (and expanded) the Potala on the foundations of the original. Over the next three centuries the lamas constructed the great Gelugpa monasteries and palaces, of which the Norhulingka Palace is the most notable.
The city today, 50 years after the Chinese invasion still contains a generous amount of Tibetan architecture, art, and culture, but primarily on one side of town. Lhasa is basically divided into an eastern old Tibetan section and a western Chinese section. Its main road also has east–west delineations, with the notorious Chinese-erected Golden Yaks statue more or less marking the line of division. The dusty but colorful eastern end—Beijing Dong Lu in Chinese or Dekyi Shar Lam in Tibetan—runs past Potala Palace and some of the more popular low-end accommodations, north of Jokhang. Meanwhile, in the west end, Beijing Xi Lu, or Dekyi Nub Lam, runs through sterile, bathroom-tiled buildings, including the Lhasa Fandian and other higher-end hotels. The Tibetan/Chinese “coexistence” can get somewhat confusing, even down to the basic fact that all of Lhasa’s streets have both Chinese and Tibetan names.
This juxtaposition has defined Lhasa at the millennium, with a jarring dichotomy between China’s brutal push towards modernity and Tibet’s oppressed yet unstifled spirituality and traditionalism. Let yourself carried along in the Barkhor’s cycle of movement, however, with its deep colors, medieval pathways, vivid people, religious scents, and whirlwind of life and you will see that the Tibetan enclave still embodies the earthbound otherworldliness and old-world charm that has brought travelers to Tibet for centuries.
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