After our Nepal- trip we flew across the Himalaya to Tibet,
the "roof of the world", where we landed at the airport
of the capital Lhasa.
The really overwhelming building which rises above all is the
Potala, the former residence of the Dalai Lama, until the
marching-in of the chinese into Tibet happened in the year 1959,
and he went to exile in India. Nowadays for the chinese the
Potala is a museum, for the tibetians it is the distinctive sign
of hope that the Dalai Lama, who represents the incarnation of
Buddha, will be able to return some time.
Generally this land lives in the sence of Buddha, who appears to
be here omnipresently. Nowhere else we experienced such a
heart-felt faith in buddhism as here. And not only that: the
instruction of Buddha to live in peace with all creatures is not
only pronounced here but itīs philosophy of life! Itīs nearly
incredible, but we have never seen such peaceful, forgiving,
fate- devoted people. I suppose that was the reason why the
chinese had little trouble in occupying this land.
Nevertheless there are quite warlike, rapacious nomads living in
the wideness of Tibet, the Khampas. They had ried to defend the
land against the chinese, but of course they never had a real
chance.
| If you consider that Lhasaīs elevation is 3600 m and the air is quite rare here, you can imagine itīs pretty strenuous to climb the 195 stairs up to the palace. But without visiting the Potala you havenīt seen Tibet. And itīs worth-while in any case. |  View from the market-place to the Potala |
 On the golden roof of the Potala |
| Against that the summer-palace in the
Norbulingka (= jewels garden) seems more modest but is much lighter and has a wonderful park. It was built by the still acting 14. Dalai Lama, who is in exile in India. |
 The summer palace of the Dalai Lama |
 Discussing monks of the monastery Sera |
| Drepung, a monastery which isnīt far away from Lhasa seems to be a little town for its own. Until 1959, when big parts of the monastery were destroyed by the chinese, 7770 monks lived here. Nowadays there are only 450 left! |  The monastery Drepung |
 The main Buddha statue in Drepung |
| On our trip the next station was Shigatse, the
residence of the Pantschen Lama, after we had droven
through an impressing landscape along the Brahmaputra -
river (which in Tibet is called Yarlung Tsanpo) And onwards it went on meanwhile very bumpy and dusty roads to Gyantse. |
 Tashilhunpo, the monastery at Shigatse |
 Monastery Pelkor Chode at Gyantse |
| After Gyantse we drove (on still worse roads) steadily uphill until we reached the Karo-pass which has an elevation of 5010 m. Then we reached Yamdrok-Tso (turquoise- lake) in an elevation of 4500m, which really has a clear, turquoise color! |  Prayer banners and stone heaps at Karo-pass |
 A small part of the hugeYamdrok-lake |
| Everywhere on our tour we met the Yak, an animal for work and riding, which primarily allows the tibetians the hard living in their poor highlands. In the cities they are getting seldom, but there you see rather strange motorized car pools (right picture) and more and more modern cars. |  Tibetian woman with rich decorated Yak |
 A horror picture for each western policeman |
Of course this was a very short description, which canīt
really meet this wonderful land!!!!
I can only say this: Tibet is a unique dream!!! We really never
met so frank, friendly and unselfish people as just here. And I
believe we have learned a lot from them and got much peace of
mind.
Surely Tibet isnīt the right holiday destination for
everyone.But those who are really frank to other (perhaps better
???) philosophies of life should visit this land and become
aquainted with the charms of this land and especially its
inhabitants!
Please excuse me showing here some banners, but they are very urgent to me:
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