For a long time I've always wanted to come back overland from China to India. Historically, the two countries were linked so closely culturally and politically that it seemed very odd to me that all that exchange had completely died. I had also heard of the incredible atrocities committed by the chinese in Tibet, especially during the cultural revolution, and wanted to go and see for myself what Tibet was like. I'd also read Seven Years in Tibet recently, in my opinion, the best travel book I've ever read.
The idea was to fly into China and make our way back into India - over land. Getting into Tibet is not so easy. You need a special permit that can be arranged only through authorized agents and need to travel only in groups. Luckily the Chinese definition of a group is open to interpretation and even a single person traveling to Tibet can be considered a group. However, there's no way you can go off on your own. If you're not Chinese, your agent needs to chaperone you 24 hours. The Chinese are very particular about what they want foreigners to see. However, in this day and age, there's hardly much they can cover up.We fly Bangalore Chengdu direct. The very fact that there's a direct flight between Bangalore and Chengdu is quite surprising to me actually. Chengdu is hot, humid and polluted. We check into our hotel, grab a good night's sleep and head to the Panda research base the next day. It's hard to dislike Pandas. Watching them apparently reminds Shama of me on a Sunday afternoon. It's easy to build a massive conservation effort around something that's so cuddly and cute. However, China is probably one of the major reasons that tigers in India are being driven to the point of extinction because of the demand for various tiger parts in traditional chinese medicine. The weather's horrible and Shama and I are really looking forward to getting on the train that would take us to Lhasa.
A word about the train connecting mainland China and Lhasa. It's an engineering marvel no doubt; it's the highest railway in the world and half the tracks are on permafrost. The average height of the railway is above 4000m. As most things in China go however, it's mostly symbolic. It's engineered to bring more and more Han Chinese into Tibet and Lhasa. Official Chinese estimates state that the number of Han Chinese in Lhasa is 20%. However, the real number is probably closer now to 50%. This is a full on attempt to marginalize the tibetans in their own land. It has even been termed "cultural genocide" by the Dalai Lama.
Chengdu railway station is like any big Indian railway station; noisy and chaotic. Chinese trains, however, (at least the one that we rode on) however are a different matter altogether. They're clean, fast, efficient and always run on time. Oh and BTW, the toilets are locked when the train's at a station, so if you need to go pee pee or poo poo, when you've stopped somewhere; you're better off carrying a large diaper. The Chengdu Lhasa train's no good to acclimatize to the high altitudes. After they get higher than 3000m, they're continuously pumping in fresh oxygen to keep passengers comfortable. The 44 hour train journey is not as awesome as we expected. Here are a couple of videos we took from the train.
As the train finally chugs into Lhasa, I get my first view of the Potala. The potala's like Tibet's statue of liberty for want of a better metaphor. Tired pilgrims trekked for months together to get a a glimpse of it and perform a ritual kora (circumnavigation) around it. Up to thirty years ago, no foreigner would be able to see this sight. Today all it takes is for you to throw some money at the problem and you get to ride a train comfortably into town.
We're in Lhasa for three days and complete the tourist circuit in two. We keep getting drawn again and again to the Jokhang temple with the hundreds of tibetan tourists completing their Kora around it. It's an incredible place. For all the "development" that China wants to force down Tibet's throat, with the return of religious freedom, the pilgrims have returned with a vengeance. There are few takers for China's model of development. I hardly met a single tibetan who preferred today's tibet to how it was in 1959.
We now start our road trip. Something I've wanted to do for the past seven years. We are forced to use a mini-van as no land cruisers (we were promised one) are available. Hardly two hours out of Lhasa we get into a high pass and get our first view of Yamdrok Tso. Here it is.
This is a lake nestled at 4700m above sea level known for it brilliant turquoise blue waters. It's considered to be one of Tibet's holiest lakes. The Chinese now have a rickety fishing boat there and fish in it. They sell the Yamdrok-fish to the hordes of Chinese that flock there. There's respecting local culture for you. Long live communism.
One more video of the lake
We now get to Gyangste and immediately head to the Phalkor monastery. A wonderful thing happens here. As an Indian tourist, you're mostly tolerated whenever you go anywhere outside India (this is at least my experience). In Tibet however, we are liked and respected. This is of course because we took in the Dalai lama and all the tibetans respect us for that. As soon as the monk learns that we're Indians, he says that he's very happy we're here and gifts us two white scarves (a tradition). Incredible.
We make our way to Shigatse and visit the Tashilumpo monastery. Apparently the monks here are hand in glove with the Chinese government and we need to be careful about what we say and do.
Then in my opinion, comes the highlight of our trip. A 2 day excursion from the friendship highway to the everest base camp. There are seven base camps in all and ordinary tourists like us are allowed to go up to base camp number 1. It's a bumpy road for around 100 KM and takes 4 hours to navigate. The road takes us right to the base of Mt. Everest (Qomolangma) and we're incredibly lucky that there isn't a single cloud in the sky and the view is spectacular. I'm going to do the 5 day trek up to base camp from Dingri someday soon. At 5200m, the amount of oxygen in the air is about 50% of what you would find normally at sea level. Breathing gets incredibly difficult. To top it all is the sub zero temperature. The altitude invariably brings about altitude sickness in the fittest. Horrible dizzying headaches, nausea, bleeding from the nose and I have all three at the same time. It's a hideously uncomfortable night sleeping in that tent at the base of the highest mountain in the world. The only consolation is that when we wake up tomorrow, we're going to see the first rays of the sun hit the summit of the mountain. This happens, and when it does, the miseries of the night before are completely forgotten.
Our first views of everest.
After this, it's downhill to the border town of Zhangmu (Dam in Tibetan). Arid dry tibetan plateau turns into lush green vegetation over the span of 20 minutes. There's moisture in the air so you feel incredibly good when you breathe it. It's funny how many things we take for granted. In this case, oxygen and moisture in the air!
From Zhangmu we drive down to the border, cross the "friendship" bridge by foot and are driven to Kathmandu and then take a flight back to Bangalore.
If there is one "take away" for me from this trip, it is the tibetan people. The tibetan people have gone through a lot. Their religious freedom trampled upon, 90% of their places of worship desecrated and destroyed. Sacred buddhist scrolls have been used as toilet paper by the red guards. Despite all this they're always quick with a smile and forever joyful. They carry their religion in their heart. The believe intrinsically in having a good heart and doing good to people around them. For someone who hardly sees behavior like this demonstrated around him, this trip was incredibly life affirming.
All our photos from the trip are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shama_darshan/sets/72157625083472826/
