Lhasa: how might it have looked then ... and how it looks now!

In the mid 1920's an eccentric French woman, named Alexandra David-Neel, walked from Yunan province in China to Lhasa, Tibet.  She made this journey, with her adopted Mongolian son as her companion and, was the first Western woman in the holy city of Lhasa: their journey is detailed in her book My Journey to Lhasa.  Of the many verbal images she creates in her writing, one that sticks in my memory is her description of coming over the final mountain pass and seeing the Potala Palace atop a hill and Lhasa laid out before her on a huge open valley. Few buildings impeded her view of the Potala Palace in all of its imposing architectural wonder.  Grainy black and white photographs show the buildings without giving any impression of the grandeur of the surrounding scenery.

Approaching Lhasa airport

Our flight departed Zhongdian in the rain and our route north and west was mostly seen through peek-a-boo moments when the clouds cleared and the rain stopped beating on the plane's windows. However what terrain we did see was covered in muddy water and the visible mountains appeared bleak and unfriendly.  I found it a little disconcerting to not see huge, high mountains - we were after all journeying to the roof of the world.  The awareness came slowly that of course they were not huge and high mountains - we were after all between 10 and 11,000 feet above sea level already!

Between Lhasa airport and the city

Settling into the small bus, which met us at the airport, our journey continued.  Lhasa airport is about an hour from the city itself.  We stopped to see this series of sacred sculptures in the wall of a mountain between the airport and the city.  The white items are khata (usually white scarves associated with Tibetan religious practice symbolizing goodwill and compassion) which people have thrown to gain the highest place on the side of the mountain.  Hoping their prayers are closer to heaven, we wondered?

Where one used to first see the Potala Palace!

The bus moved on toward the city - all eyes were to the left waiting our first views of the Palace.  Instead this was what we saw!  American writer, Canyon Sam (Sky Train - University of Washington Press 2009) had detailed very clearly what to expect on arriving in Lhasa today. However as the bus continued on toward the center of the city the first view of that amazing building, perched on the top of a mountain, appeared through the bus window. No less amazing than I had imagined.  Moving on away from this amazing sight and the modern thoroughfare ... the bus turned into a tight, crowded narrow street in the Tibetan part of the city and stopped outside our wonderful, Nepali managed, traditional hotel where we settled in for the next four days.

Potala Palace seen through the dirty, wet window of the bus

The Dhood Gu Hotel, Lhasa

Chinglish!

Traveling in Asia one sometimes finds oneself standing in front of a sign which may make totally good sense in the language of the country.  I have experienced signs like the one above (note the very English royal crown on the left and the ? ball of yarn on the right ) which totally confound ones ability to understand just what is being said.  When I asked our guide to please translate what this sign said (on a street corner in Zhongdian)  I was staggered to find that it was about investing money in the building that was under construction and the amount of return you could expect for your money!

"Polystone brand strategy for dissemination will be the height of the existing communication structure unification means to create structure unification"
... is what the sign said in English ... well certainly Chinglish!

A small cafe in the old section of Zhongdian

Delighted Cafe!

Don't fall down the stairs  - at the top of a flight of stairs.

A closeup of the exhortation placed all around Lijiang

And perhaps most mysterious of all in a hotel room

The Security Scattering Sketch reads - exactly as written below:
•  " Declaration
•  Please don't worry if a fire is occuring We hotel have owned superior scattering facilities to ansure you transmitted safely.
•  Please follow the direction route to the information corridor and there safeguards will take you out to the security belts.
•  Red point stand for where you are now."

Many times we found ourselves perplexed by the signage and its possible meaning.  At the same time we commented about the incredible changes occurring in China and wondered aloud why there were not people translating signage from the Chinese characters to correct (or even understandable) English particularly when so many young people there speak excellent English?

We didn't take it but we sure wondered where it went!

The road to Tibet

Planning to travel in the Developing world requires a certain degree of flexibility! I began planning last year to join a small of travelers to Tibet for a month long trip.  The itinerary was chosen by the tour leader and our guide in China and set in place. Chinese visas were in process when, in April, a major earthquake struck the city of Yushu and one of the areas we were to visit was closed to tourists. Plans change.  Our Chinese guide created a new itinerary for us: Beijing, Kunming, Lijiang and  Zhongdian were to replace our plans to attend the annual Horse Festival in the area around Yushu.
Almost 10 years ago Peter and I had visited Kunming, Lijiang and Zhongdian on our way to Deqin in Eastern Tibet. Kunming was not our favorite city - but we enjoyed a couple of days there.  In the original, old part of the city we found Lijiang to be a quiet sleepy town where you could wander the cobblestone streets admiring the traditional architecture and pause in a cafe for a quiet cup of tea or a meal.
Zhongdian we thought at that time was one of the more soulless places we had ever visited.  One dirt road entered a sad, dusty, small city where we were aware of the military and police presence for the first time. Food was terrible and the hotel dismal.  We were happy to leave.  Zhongdian's only saving grace was a visit to an old monastery, perched on a hillside outside the city, saved from destruction during the Cultural Revolution.
At that time the Chinese government had just renamed that part of the country - Shangri-la province!  Huge billboards announced the re-naming as we made our way up a single lane, boulder strewn, precipitous road to Deqin.  Although the scenery was spectacular the naming Shangri-la had a hollow ring ring to it.
Eight years later ... accompanied by my daughter Amy, the changes I experienced were phenomenal.  Kunming was larger, more polluted metropolis and the pall of coal smoke and other air quality contaminants now hung over the city all the time.  A "Tea University" visit provided information and tea sampling at a much higher level of sophistication that our prior visits to one of the many tea shops of the city.  Yunan province is a famed tea growing area. One "cake" of tea below - $329 USD!  Serious stuff, tea, in this part of the world.

At the University for Minorities, also in Kunming,  a beautiful new museum has been constructed ( in 2008) to display the collections of clothing and artifacts which we had previously seen packed into dusty old glass fronted cupboards with no identifiers.  I was delighted to see the articles so well curated and displayed.
Lijiang felt like a low grade carnival with the quiet meandering streets crowded with loud, Chinese tourists who push you out of the way rather than walk around you! And umbrellas as weapons ( it was raining) make for challenges when most of the people are shorter than you!  The once quiet lovely shops selling items particular to the Naxi (pron. Nashi) culture had all been replace by cheap junky tourist items: how many fake "pashmina" shawl selling shops can a city support.  The only quiet time was at 7am when Amy and I walked the blissfully quiet streets to the hotel where we were having breakfast.

Peter and I had attended an evening performance by the only living, traditional Dongba shaman - I recall he was 82 at that time.  Several of us from our group attended the 2010 "show".  It was terrible - the stage filled with aged men sitting passively with their musical instruments, dressed in a Chinese version of what they thought traditional Naxi clothes were.  Amy and I left when we couldn't stand anymore.  Our Tibetan guide in Lijiang was exceptional: knowledgeable & charming.
Zhongdian must have trebled in size - most of the roads are paved and the military was visible everywhere.  (There was a Tibetan uprising here in 2008 and apparently freedoms have been greatly reduced.)  Our hotel was opposite the hospital and we were intrigued that it was owned by an Aviation company!  Amy and I walked the small streets of the remaining section of the original city where cars were not allowed and one of my treasured purchases, of a small string of green beads cut from stone, was from a Black Yi woman in the marketplace in the old section.  

We succumbed to our last "show" ... guaranteed to be Tibetan by our guide in Zhongdian ... and found ourselves in the midst of a Hollywood-styled spectacular, attended by very loud (they talked loudly through every performance) groups of Chinese tourists.  We left that one early too.
What we had been doing for these first days was gradually ascend to higher and higher elevations:  we were relieved that no one in the group had experienced any serious effects from the altitude which was by then 10,400Feet.
Our next stop - Lhasa - 11, 450 feet above sea level!

From Mayfield West, Australia to Lhasa, Tibet!

Atop the Dhood Gu Hotel looking toward the Potala Palace, Lhasa

Who would have thought that a birthday gift given 55 years ago, would spawn a dream that is only now realized? That birthday gift, from my parents, was a copy of the book Seven Years in Tibet (author Heinrich Harrer - published 1956) .

At the time I lived in an industrial suburb of the city of Newcastle, Australia: a city known mostly for steel production and a huge shipbuilding dockyard.  Mayfield West was about as far from Tibet ... in terms of exotic vs non exotic, old vs new, complex, long, cultural history vs relatively new (at least the white culture in Australia was comparatively new)  ... as one could imagine.  However the seed was planted and since that time I have dreamed of going to those amazing high places at "the roof of the world". The dream recently became a reality for my daughter and me.
I now live in the NW corner of the United States and recently returned from a month-long sojourn in Tibet/China.  The accompanying photo shows me on the rooftop of our Lhasa hotel - the famed Potala Palace ( now a museum with a time schedule for entry ) as the backdrop.  I can easily read the delight on my face at being there finally.
The shirt I am wearing is a much treasured t-shirt, made by Olympia WA artist Martie Carroll ( as an experiment, , she said, at the time)  which has been part of my travel wardrobe necessities, since I bought it from Martie more than 10 years ago.  Sharing this adventure with daughter Amy added greatly to the fun and delight of the trip and as I enfold the experiences into my "real life" I hope to write more about it. It was truly the journey of a lifetime.

A July Day on Puget Sound!

Within an hour today, July 2nd, our summer weather again let us know that this is not a usual year!  The ornamental grasses in our front yard were totally weighed down by the water from a downpour.  Later, we looked west and watched, with the sun low in a both black and brilliant sky, as a storm made its way across Puget Sound toward us.  Minutes later, it was raining so hard we had difficulty seeing.  This was all followed by one of the more brilliant rainbows we have ever seen.
Such is an early summer day on Puget Sound.

Meanwhile, the brilliantly eccentric plant known as bee balm (botanical name Monarda - I call it the plant having a bad hair day ) blooms like crazy and grows taller each day - spectacular crimson against the "summer" - very stormy - backdrop.

Butternut Squash soup!

Dear Alice, I wanted you to know that this remains my absolutely favorite food so the minute Nanna walked in the door, on Friday,  with a container full, I demanded that my Pappa heat some up immediately and it's pretty amazing how co-ordinated I am with a spoon and a bowl of soup!  Hardly missed a bite.  love Eva  P.S.  My hat is a wonderful Gautemalan head cover Nanna finally remembered to bring to me.

The traffic light turned red and ....

The traffic light on the corner of Broadway and E. Pine Street turned red in the gathering light of the day on Saturday and I watched this couple stroll out of the store on the corner and pause, waiting for the light to change.

She looked spectacular!  I wondered if she realized that the row of yellow button trim on her city shorts was a match for the shopping bag she was carrying?  The peeking red top under her jacket was a perfect match for her shoes and as I watched she crossed one foot, over the other, and leaned in toward the young man with the fedora - something in the distance catching her eye.

I grabbed for the camera as Peter asked - WHAT are you doing?

I snapped the photo wishing the long haired young man who had sauntered into the picture hadn't been there at that moment ... but he too paused waiting for the light to change.

The car behind me tooted its horn encouraging me to go ahead and turn right ... this Seattle moment was over.