Tibet was an amazing experience with alot of information and photo’s to share so I’ve decided to split my blog into 3 parts;

– Culture & People

– Monastery’s

– Landscape

To start with I want to talk about the beautiful people of Tibet.

I’m certain you are all fully aware of the current Chinese occpation of Tibet, or what was  refered to us as the cultural revolution.

In 1959 China invaded Tibet and the Dalai Lama who is the leader of Tibet fled to India and China claimed Tibet. Currently 60% of Tibetan citizans are actually chinese the rest have fled as refugee’s all of the world . Understanding this, residing Tibetans are some of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen.

I travelled accross Tibet from Lhasa through to Everest base camp and accross the border. The main towns are strange. The buildings and people are heavy with culture and history yet there is this influx of new chinese buildings and trade it seems somewhat tainted. The tibetans have lost there  country  and religious leader and all passports have been taken away from them, yet I have never seen such huge and genuine smiles.   I believe there is alot to be said for finding inner peace.

As Tibet is the highest country (or Chinese region if we want to be PC) it’s really cold. The average height is 4,900 meters (16,000 feet). To compare, Ben Nevis is 1,344 meters high! The traditional clothes are beautiful and everyone puts colour and semi-precious stones such as amber in their hair, men and women. What was lovely is that the locals seems just as fascinated in us tourists as we were in them. At one point they were taking pictures of us!

Some of my favourite images of this trip are of the people. They were inspiring. There is no way I will ever be able to relate to the hardship they have gone through. I honestly don’t think Tibet will ever be a free country. The land has too much minerals that China want and I doubt any country will go to war with China. It’s a very sad situation indeed and I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to interact with these brave and resiliant people. Many tried to converse with all of us in my group. It just shows the strength human beings have. Truly inspirational.

I also want to note about the dedication they have to thier buddhist faith. All monastery’s and palaces we visted had flocks of people praying and making offerings. Lhasa is particular was amazing. The center of the city has a Jokhang Temple which was built in 642 AD which seems to be huge buddhist pilgrimage site. Hundreds of people walking around it (clockwise) praying with thier beads and people prostrating (a type of praying clasping your hands at certain points then droping to the floor)  in front of and around it. I did a circuit myself with some beads using the mantras I had learnt from Kopan. It was lovely beacuse a lady recognised what I was doing and we just grinned at each other the whole way round.

The dedication seemed magical to me and there was such a positive vibe, Ill never forget it. It just screamed so much about the human race from all perspectives. Very humbling indeed.

What an experience.

Much Love, C.