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By Hannu Berghäll
Location: Tibet and China
Date: September 26, 2000
First an update, then some thoughts upon being here...
So I went to Mt Everest. Getting a permit allowing
me to travel there wasn't all that hard, after all. Until end of
1999 it used to be the Shigatse PSB (Public Security Bureau, i.e.
the police) one had to approach as an individual traveller in Tibet.
In Lhasa and other places you can only get a permit by joining a
tourgroup and cough up a few hundred dollars for that. The police
in Shigatse have stopped issuing them though, after orders from
further up in the hierarchy, and have also put up a sign on their
building saying "Foreigners are forbidden to go inside". But the
CITS-office, the official Chinese touristoffice, does the same service
as PSB used to do - for an additional 100 Yuan (13 US$).
As soon as I had my permit I started hitching to get
to the mountain as soon as possible - the permit only being valid
for 14 days, I had to rush a bit. Hitchhiking in China isn't all
that easy - officially it is even forbidden. But what driver can
resist some good extra money? The drivers also know where the police
has set up their permanent checkpoints, so avoiding getting caught
isn't that hard. And in my case I was lucky: I got more or less
instant lifts all the time, and no one ever even checked my permit
(So I could have saved that money...), and in just 2 full days of
bumping on the back of lorries I was at 5000 Meters at the foot
of the worlds highest point...
I spent a total of three days at the monastery there
(World's highest monastery as well at 4980 meters), stayed in their
dorm and ate the boring food of the nearby restaurant. The guy running
it could make a fortune there, having no competitors nearby, but
he insists on such a meager menu that no one eats more then necessary
there - pancake, fried potato, omelette and fried rice with egg
- that's the whole menu. But still, the place is the warmest venue
around having a stove that they sometimes lit (firewood doesn't
grow all around at that altitude), and so in the evenings everybody
staying at the monastery's dorms or camping (!) on the lawn sat
and talked with each other in there. It was a mixed group of people
and quite funny to observe. Some of the American ladies disinfected
their beerglasses with some of those tissues you use to clean scratches
and wounds with, before pouring up. The same ladies also insisted
on wearing their make-up even when trekking the 1 1/2 hours to the
basecamp proper of MT Everest. Ian the Brit made everyone laugh
with his jokes and comments. Two Dutch men in their 50-s had left
their happy wives home and come for a 2 month trip to Tibet - "We
are both happily married to women who love to see us go, and love
to have us come back", as they explained...
We all sat in the restaurant, eagerly looking out
of the window every now and then, waiting for the clouds to clear.
MT Everest's base was visible, but it was the top we all wanted
to see. The weather is very unpredictable on this altitude. At six
in the morning, when going out for a morning pee, I saw that the
mountain loomed as a black shadow in the distance, with a starstudded
sky above it. Today, I thought, today I'll see it. I decided to
set my alarm at seven, get up and walk to the basecamp proper at
5200 meters, and then see the first rays of sun lighten up the top...
But when I got out of bed one hour later the situation
was completely different: It was snowing, it was nearly a storm
blowing, and I couldn't see 50 meters away down to the restaurant.
Anyway I was awake, and went there for breakfast. As I had done
already for two days, I sat there eating my pancake and looking
out of the window muttering and swearing that I would have to stay
another day... I wouldn't leave without having seen MT Everest!
Another hour passed by and now it was clear blue skies.
What a change! So off I went, and 1 1/2 hours later I was at the
basecamp proper, looking at the mighty peak now only 3648 meters
further up. That would have to do though: The previous day, when
the clouds had ALMOST let me see the top, I had had energy enough
to walk a further kilometer or so beyond the basecamp, to maybe
5400 meters altitude. But today my coughing had gone from bad to
worse, and so I stopped and stayed at basecamp itself. Still, the
views were great even from there, and I hope the photos will turn
out well.
Then after a few hours there everything happened quite
fast. A truck turned up, going down to Rongphu monastery and the
restaurant, and I got a lift. Since they were about to continue
further down and away from MT Everest, I decided to quickly pack
my bags and go with them. They took me halfway to the entrance of
the MT Everest region national park, and after a few more hours
of waiting there a Landcruiser came through the village where I
had already expected to be sleeping that night. That Landcruiser
then took me another 50 km or so to the first town outside the national
park. Those 50 Km where quite magic: I was the only westerner in
the Landcruiser, the rest being Tibetans, and when we passed the
5000 meter high Gur-La pass, the car stopped for the Tibetans to
put more prayer flags on the lines and poles already up there for
that purpose. It was about eight in the evening, already dark, and
since it was a clear sky and the halfmoon reflected the sunlight
well, I could see the whole Himalayan mountain range in the distance.
I think I could make out which of the tops was MT Everest, and so
stood looking into the darkness while the Tibetans wandered around
me on the top, mumbling their prayers with deep dark voices...
The rest of the way to Lhasa was easy. One more hitched
lift, and then there was public transport onwards. I visited a few
more towns and villages, having a look at some more monasteries
(I'm getting rather sick and tired of them by now though), and a
few days ago I arrived in Lhasa town - the only town of any real
size in the whole of Tibet. It's nice to be able to eat good food
and drink again, to get whatever you want from the shops, to be
able to have a hot shower when you want to, and in general just
to relax after all the adventures. I'll spend a few more days here,
trying to get fully recovered from my cold (it's been almost two
weeks of coughing now!), and then it's China proper. More from there!
---------------------
India might be great for the use and abuse of the
English language, but China is in many ways far worse. If they insist
on writing in English on goods in shops, wrappers, in the media
- wherever - would it be too difficult or expensive to hire someone
to check for mistakes? Here are some good examples:
Why not start the day washing your hair with "Hateline
schampoo"? Or a shave with a disposable Gillette copy that on the
packet says "Nanshile inductive razor shaking the whole whole world"
and "Let you feel lighter and easier when changing blade". Have
a glass of "calcium milk powder for mid-senile" if you feel your
going that way. Put on your shoes called "All you", that you might
have bought after reading the add for them saying "All security
offering you thousand charm". Watch TV and amaze at the add for
a breastenlargement cream named "UNION cream chubby breasts". Or
get vital from the "Beyoung" tablets. For snacks? Why not some peanuts
from a bag saying they're so good "It will make you cannot stop
thinking of it every time". Maybe pistachios instead - but why does
the bag containing them say "American grapes"? Or go for a meal
at Lhasa's only fast food joint, trying hard to imitate McDonalds
and KFC at the same time, having traypapers saying "Service is top
ranking. Courses are the first. Superlative quality. Delicious taste.
Environment is posh. Having dinner comfortably popular consume.
Advanced enjoyment."
Talking about restaurants: here are some good misspellings
from a few of their menus. Why not go to the one with a sign outside
saying "Your presence is cordially requested"? Flip through the
menu and try to decide what to go for: "Grilled chicken paws", or
"Fork shreds with pickes soup" or "Saute unedible fungus with marsh
room" or "Sweet and fork" or "Boiled buck"? Why not have a "too
cold beer drink" with it?
And where else could one stay in Lhatse town, then
at the "Tibetan farmers adventure hotel"? What's the included adventure?
An hour behind a yak at the barley field?
Having written all these examples down, I hope that
I have avoided any terrible mistakes myself...
--------------------
When I on my way to Lhasa stopped in Sakye, to have
a look at the monastery there, I bought some interesting tablets
in a red box that the monks were selling inside it. There was 15
small pills, about 2 mm in diameter, and with an instruction sheet
saying the following:
Sakye religious sect's "CHEME YONDOL THOZI" pill's
description and directions in nutshell
INGREDIENT: Mummified particles of Buddhas and semi-buddhas,
high lamas, saints and those attained Nirvana, elephant's brain,
saffron, rhinoceros's horn and about 118 other things.
EFFECTIVENESS:1. Make your body magnificent and lustrous,
will not get old quickly, prevent white hair growth, wrinkles and
preserves one's body fluid. Generally it prevents sickness, particularly
chronic diseases. 2. Remedy speechdefects, improve oral power so
that others easily obey 3. Make your mind peaceful, prevent excessive
sleep, clear the mind, prevent accident, prolong your life, create
compassion, draw essence of mind and soul, stop food poison and
purify the mind to access of NIRVANA.
...Yes, I've tried them, but I felt no different...
-----------------------
Lhasa is a fascinating city to wonder around, with
quite a few sights to wonder at, the Potala palace probably being
the most famous one. It's more impressing from the outside then
the inside though, I've heard, and so I might save the 6$ entrance
fee and not walk up the many steps to see the more then 1000 rooms,
almost all of them empty. Otherwise there's also many monasteries
to marvel at, but even just walking around on the streets presents
a lot to see.
In the Tibetan part of town monks sit on the pavement
and act as soothsayers for Tibetans paying a few Yuan for them to
throw the dice's and tell them about their future. They wear their
traditional monks outfit of a red robe, some of them even a yellow
monks hat, and when having no customers they mumble their constant
neverending prayers for themselves.
At the market one can buy a golden or silver cover
for one of your front teeth - something very popular amongst Tibetan
women, almost everyone of them having a glittering smile.
At Barkhor square dozens of Tibetans are prostrating
themselves in front of the Jorkhang temple. They have a piece of
a mattress on the ground in front of them, and two oval pieces of
cardboard, one on each side of that mattress. They stand up and
start with putting their palms together, then move their hands from
over their head to their forehead to their heart, then they get
down on their knees with their hands on the cardboard pieces. The
cardboard easily slides on the smooth stonepaved ground, and they
then get down lying on their stomachs on the mattress. They stretch
out fully before they get up and start all over again, and again,
and again... For hours, sometimes. Some of the prostrators have
even tied their legs together at their knees, all to make it more
difficult for themselves. But what an explanation I heard a Chinese
guide give to a group of elderly American tourists there: "We Chinese,
we do exercise in the parks of China, for example Tai Chi. The Tibetans,
they do this to stay fit.". Did the tourists believe that? I hope
not...
Some monks play a simple game that a guy has put up
on the ground in front of him. He's got 4 dices that costs 1 Yuan
to throw, and you win something every time, according to what the
dots add up to. The prime target is to get 24, and win the plastic
camera, but there's 23 other things to be won. They are all laid
out on a piece of cloth in a circle, with numbers drawn on the cloth.
As an example, number 14 wins you an ear-cleaning spoon. How about
that?
The three monks take it in turns and win a small bag
of hairbands (very useful for a monk with half a centimeter of hair
left), and a yellow balloon to blow up, and yet another bag of hairbands.
They laugh a lot and seem to be happy anyway... Well, they could
also have won a plastic comb, or a box of matches, or a pen, or
something similarly useful...
It is easy to see that the Tibetans doesn't benefit
very much from the Chinese invasion. The Han-chinese run almost
all of the businesses and shops, and so far all the beggars I've
seen on the streets are Tibetan. It's rather depressing to see how
rudely the Chinese act towards the Tibetans, and it will unfortunately
not take long before the Tibetans are a minority in their own country...
The political control is hard as well, and even the
internet cafe where I sit and write this have a handwritten sign
on the wall saying "Please don't use the Internet for political
or other unintelligent matters". Some friends of mine, who flew
into here from Shanghai at the east coast, had before their flight
gone to the tourist information bureau in Shanghai to get some info
on Tibet. They were given a map of the region, with some useful
written info on the backside of it, one of the notes under "Behaviour"
saying "Don't talk with the Tibetans about sensitive issues, such
as politics". My friends were also told by the guy working at the
Shanghai tourist bureau "Not to talk with Tibetan people at all"!
On top of the Drepung monastery, one of the three
main monasteries in Lhasa and Tibet, there is a Chinese red flag
on a pole. When I was walking around in the monastery complex I
found a painted face of Mao on one wall. What good has that guy
ever done to any Tibetan monastery? I thought of the cultural revolution
and the mad destroying of almost all the Tibetan monasteries that
took place during those years (down from 1600 functioning monasteries
to just 10!), and I shivered...
Yesterday I also heard from a girl who'd been working
in the country (and so should have correct information), that all
the Tibetans working as guides for the travel agencies in Tibet
have been ordered to find themselves new jobs. The Chinese have
apparently realised that it is not a good idea to send Tibetans
able to speak good English of on tours together with the westerners
coming here - of course the tourists find it interesting to talk
about politics and Tibet with those guides! So apparently it will
soon be only politically correct Chinese taking around tourists
to see Tibet, and one will even more then before be only an outside
observer of Tibetan life...
It's not a wise thing though as a tourist to openly
show support for the Tibetans and their issues. A boxed text in
the Lonely Planet guide book tells about an American couple that
smuggled in three tapes with speeches by Dalai Lama into Tibet.
They handed one of those tapes over to an English speaking monk
at a monastery, only to later be pointed out to the Chinese police
by that same monk - now in civilian clothes. Their hotel room was
searched, the two remaining tapes found and the couple deported
to the Nepalese border. There are apparently lots of (Tibetan!)
spies amongst the real Tibetan monks in the monasteries, and those
are the ones asking for Dalai Lama pictures and other material that
could be fatal for your stay here... One better be careful if one
wants to stay free.
----------------------
Well well well, another lengthy email. It's time to
stop typing now, to go out on the street and walk around in town
a bit more. On the 1st of October China celebrates national day,
and I might want to stay here in Lhasa until then - just to see
how tight security will be. I imagine some nervous show of military
power by the Chinese. One day though, I hope that Dalai Lama will
be able to return to the Potala palace with his government, and
that the Tibetans can change the flag on Drepung monastery for their
own...
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