Raphael Kessler

Tibet is now a part of the People's Republic of China. In China they refer to it as a peaceful liberation, although for the majority of Tibetans before this date they lived like serfs, after the so called liberation their lot did not improve and they were occupied by a foreign power. Furthermore it was not peaceful, Tibetans died in droves as well as being tortured, humiliated and subjugated to incredible indignities.

Surprisingly, despite the efforts of the Red Guard and the Cultural Revolutionaries, a remarkable amount of the Tibetan culture remains intact, although many monasteries and temples were destroyed during the cultural revolution, many were saved simply due to their remoteness and inaccessibility.

One of my first experiences of the Tibetans was in the town known to the Chinese as Xiahe, but called Labrang by the indigenous Tibetan community. In the town there is an open sewer that divides the Chinese part of town from the Tibetan. Life in the Tibetan part of town seemed quite tranquil, with monks lying around taking in the sunny weather (photo 1), strolling around town  (photo 2) and doing the circuit of payer wheels, spinning each one as the went  (photo 3), (the prayer wheels contain papers with "Om Mane Padme Om" which means "hail to the jewel in the lotus" and each spin of the wheel sends millions of prayers to heaven which makes it an extremely efficient way of praying).

The reality was quite different as a monk explained to me when we were in the security of his private quarters (photo 1) where we had some lunch and a very slow conversation using a dictionary and sign language. He explained to me that he lives a life under threat and feels as though he had a Chinese gun to his head. He was trying to learn English and could also play the guitar, which bizarrely had eight strings. 

Whilst wandering around the monastery area, I was lucky to stumble across a monks examination (photo 1). This is a peculiar rite where the monk who is trying to get to the next level of monking (whatever that is) walks up and down in front of hundreds of other monks whilst reciting Sutras (Buddhist writings). When he gets anything wrong all the other monks laugh at him and he is judged how well he performed by how often the others laughed. There were lots of monks around of all different ages, the young ones generally seemed to be scurrying about in a rush to get somewhere (photo 2).

In Langmusi is a smaller town so has fewer monks  (photo 1). The good thing though is that there are almost no Chinese people there, so the people live a reasonable Tibetan life. Whilst I was there I went to see a Sky Burial. The person being buried this time was a twenty four year old girl who had apparently died of a bad head. After having prayers etc. done around the corpse for a couple of weeks the body is taken to the burial site where several guys drinking beers and wielding axes chop her body into little pieces  (photo 1). The skull is crushed and the bits are scattered around the site  (photo 3), so that the holy buzzards can eat her and take her to heaven. It was not as macabre to watch as it probably sounds. There was very little blood and all the guys at work were in good spirits. There are several religious sites around Langmusi including a holy cave which had a collection of big prayer arrows outside  (photo 4).

Lhasa the capital of Tibet has some splendid buildings including the thirteen storey Potala Palace (photos 1 & 2), where the Dalai Lama used to live and the Jokhang  (photo 3) the Naval of the World in Tibetan Buddhist cosmology. Many of the old buildings have been destroyed by the Chinese and replaced with aesthetically unappealing modern constructions.

I went with some people I met to Namtso lake, a holy lake at 4,700 metres. The lake is surrounded by attractive mountains and is very serene  (photo 1). Some nuns live around the lake and one of them invited us in to her cave  (photo 2) for some tea and cheese. The yak butter tea is certainly an acquired taste and the cheese would be good to resole your shoes. The sentiment was appreciated though and it was interesting to see how she lived, with a tiny bed, a large shrine and meat and cheese hanging around  (photo 2). There are cairns all around Tibet with colourful prayer flags attached that send prayers heavenward when the wind blows them.

In Samye, is a very important monastery  (photo 1), it is also very old and interesting and as it is difficult to get permits to get there, not really affected by tourists. As with all the monasteries in Tibet there is a strong smell of yak butter as it is used to make candles  (photo 2) amongst other things (it is also used for sculpture, to make tea, as butter, as a lubricant, as a plaster filler and many other things). The monks were generally very sociable and when I showed the abbot the foreword of my guidebook which was written by the Dalai Lama and had his crest he became quite emotional. Although he could not read it or understand it he was very happy to see it  (photo 3). The rest of the monks took turns having a look and many of them blessed themselves with the book. In Samye I also watched monks debating  (photo 4). This is done by a monk facing several opponents and challenging them with theological statements. As he makes the statement he draws his arm back and then then to punctuate the statement he slaps his hand in the faces of the other monks. Quite a strange thing to see.

Gyantse  (photo 1) is another town with an impressive monastery and historical buildings. The children in these towns seemed very good at looking after each other and it was not unusual to see a three or four year old child minding its younger brother or sister  (photos 2 & 3). Around the perimeter of the monastery area are a number of rock paintings and prayer flags  (photo 4).

In Shigatse I got to see monks rehearsing for an upcoming festival which would involve sword dancing and music  (photos 1 & 2). I don't quite know what the story was but it didn't quite project a peaceful demeanor as the guys waved their swords around.

Tibet is sometimes known as the land of snow. The country is very mountainous in parts, with the Himalayas  (photo 1) in the south and much of it is at quite high altitudes. All over the country one sees prayer flags, particularly on the crest of passes and mountains  (photo 2). The mountains are very lovely and as one crosses a pass the view can change quite dramatically. The Kao-La pass (photo 3) is at more than five thousand metres and the mountains still tower above. The most famous of the mountains (in the west at least) is Chomolongma, the mother mountain  (photo 4). Known to most as Everest it towers up 8,846 metres which is bloody high.