Lhasa: Life inside Tibet's sacred capital

[Music] in this episode of travelogue I'm heading to the roof of the world to explore the famed capital of Tibet Autonomous Region and the most sacred city for Tibetan Buddhists Lasser [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] hello I'm Tyrone and welcome to this episode of travelogue in China now many of you might recognize the suni behind me but if you don't I'm standing in front of the potala palace the world's highest palace at an elevation of 3,700 meters above sea level and I'm suffering a little bit from altitude sickness but don't worry we'll be taking it slow in this episode as we explore the fabled strengths of Lassa Lassa is the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region the name Lasser means place of gods and the powerful religious atmosphere is evident the moment you arrive in the city now I'm more so than at the Potala Palace this magnificent building used to be the home of Dalai Lama's and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site [Music] so might not be very tool but at the top of the yellow mountain you get the most iconic view of the potala palace as seen on the back of the fifty r mm b note the potala palace as we see it today dates from the 1600s it was built on top of an older 7th century palace but unfortunately no cameras are allowed inside however I know a great location for getting some unique shots of the patellas exterior all right so here's the tip for you photography buffs out there a lot of people will just take pictures of the potala palace from the front but if you actually make your way to the back to the Dragon King legs you get a really nice view and also if you're lucky sometimes you might even catch the reflection of the Potala Palace in the waters today it's not my day today but if you do manage to take some really nice photos make sure to send them in to us and then maybe I could pretend that they're mine due to its popularity tickets for the Potala Palace must be booked in advance visitor numbers are limited to 5,000 a day during peak season but it's certainly very busy isn't it so this is perhaps one of the most important and most sacred sites here in the entire Tibetan Autonomous Region and if you've come to Lassa there are two places that you have to visit once the Potala Palace and the other is the jokhang temple which was built some 1,400 years ago during the reign on kingsong stein campo who founded the tibetan empire which ran for about 200 years and even today there are thousands of tourists and laypeople making their way around the temple at all times during the day most of Potala Palace and the jokhang temple are sacred to Tibetan Buddhists pilgrims will often travel for months on end in order to pay homage at these sites this is the most important part of the druk Aang temple because inside that hole are statues of the sacrimoni butter that princess Linton brought several centuries ago and that's why there are 70 people doing full body prostrations and you know obviously the more you do the better but it really depends on your level of fitness and your age as to how many you'll do and for someone like me who's suffering from altitude sickness thinks you can just do some internal prayers to princess when Chong was a wife of Kingston Stan Gamper the man credited with introducing Buddhism into Tibet when she came from the Tang Dynasty Court to married the Tibetan King as part of a dowry she brought with her a number of sacred Buddhist relics which are now housed at the Jokhang temple now every day thousands of pilgrims circle around the jokhang temple while spinning prayer wheels they do this to accumulate good karma in the hopes of getting a better rebirth all Buddhists believe our world is an endless cycle of suffering involving life death and rebirth the way to escape it all is to become enlightened and good karma can help us achieve that goal [Music] the area around the jokhang temple is called Bar Court Street and as you can see it's lined with shops everywhere setting lots of tourist knickknacks rosaries tankers prayer wheels and it might seem a bit touristy to you but that's not the case because for hundreds of years this was the most commercially active part of the city in fact it's the oldest part of the city because you know thousands of programs will come and visit the temple and where there's people there's obviously lots of business a maze of alleys radiate out from bark or streets and all of them are crammed with stores selling traditional handicrafts and Tibetan Buddhist knickknacks you could pretty much get all of your Tibet souvenirs here in bark or and obviously as you can see there's a huge selection but some of the ones that you do want to maybe purchase or these dodges they actually virtual implements or maybe get a prayer wheel and these masks look pretty cool but they're also actually ritual implements and then there are these rosary beads lots of different colors then you'll see lots of people counting them as they walk along the streets bark or Street hasn't changed much through the centuries pilgrims still continue to walk its streets while praying and prostrating them for hours even days on end I guess all this must be quite physically tiring so when it's very high altitude you've got to eat off and you've got to drink off and get those calories that's why I've come to this teahouse it's been around for 30 odd years and it's a very popular local haunts and it's pretty busy in here I guess the menu is in Tibetan and Mandarin so if you only know English then just just see what everyone else is drinking but I've got my friend who's waiting for me in there so he's going to help me do the Audrey the audience could halogen a lot to surah fatah Jetta it's kind of like it yes it's kind of like milk tea except milk here and for sugary later like it they're emotionally gonna quit smoking [Music] sweet tea is firmly a part of daily Tibetan life going to the tea house is a social thing and many locals will come here after visiting the jokhang temple and stay for hours chatting leh [Music] coming up next I join a local family in celebrating one of the most important events in the Tibetan calendar shoot on festival Jessie's brought me to his friends place they're going to be visiting be short on festival tomorrow and we're going to be joining them to see the big unfurling of the tanker Taryn hey does a new yeah and you do ha ha ha what is it let me help oh I like it student should should son Daniel idea should a Jewish woman to me over to furniture mover not a free horse on a Google on the notch a tourniquet and for cetera smear Caillou how to be relieved the union some pollution killer kills much it I am NOT a lesser deities he and a quarter to meet in the coffin occasion hostage this is it uh for like royalty wow you're doing yo Joe Laura Andrew OH one-size-fits-all helpfully the inside of the robe forms a pocket where you can keep your stuff and as per tradition the right arm is left uncovered thank you but your mother hey ami de guy here turns over yeah this is video sir I've never worn such a complex outfit but I guess it if everyone's going to be wearing this tomorrow all right without a place it's gonna be awesome festival me and all day on the China chuckling you know because there's going to be a lot of people at the festival we've decided to get there early very early oh okay so it's a 3:00 in the morning you arrived at the world's largest veteran Buddhist monastery the Jaipur monastry and there's already tons of people up there just hear voices all on top of the hill look at that wow that's huge obviously this is where the the tank is going to be unrolled then and we're going to have to be over there with the rest of the audience I think the tank is coming at about 7 o'clock and it's going to be coming up by the same route as as we climbed and if we're lucky we might even be able to help out with the actual tanker itself so let's see writing now there's the tons of people behind us table a lot of matching you've got a voluminous and tank is probably going to be unrolled a little bit later get secreto refreshments because it's could be a while some that Holly oh I think chanting Runyan I think the the llamas are right now and they're going to be doing their reciting their mantras and later on they gonna be bringing the tanker up here it's going to be it's going to be pretty chaotic though because as soon as the tanker starts making his way up everyone is going to try and get a chance to grab onto it so you're gonna have to run we've got experience they knew we'd be standing here in the rain so that's why we brought a lot of lot of backup shaitaan festival was originally a religious event when people offered yogurt to monks who were finishing their meditation retreat the tradition started here at drape on monastery during the 11th century in every year to kick off the festival the monks will unveil a giant tanker on the hillside they call it the sunning of the Buddha I just hope the rain lets up [Music] [Applause] the tanker is extremely heavy even so people are more than willing to help carry it it's viewed as a great honor to be in contact with such a sacred object [Music] [Applause] [Music] just by being here everyone is accumulating could calm we've been waiting being literally the entire I will go ahead to the raining non-stop everyone behind us is freezing but finally things are starting to happen what kind comes on the Shumacher are doing the coroner that's a me for come party the time for you to go for the coronation Oh your poor merchant you show the dark fish I hope a pooja Shahada no Michel Emma children's Google chiama lament 18 and your shirt is on really the male Python finally I'm looking forward to this I think there's going to be a race to the top so I got to get ready you might be wondering what exactly is a tanker basically it's a painting of a Buddhist deity but the one here is 500 meters big it's only brought out once a year at Showtime Festival and supposedly every time it's unveiled the rain mysteriously stops I can see that people been waiting for hours all that kind of anticipation and energy wazoo just coming out right now it's a pretty chaotic festival like everything's very busy it feels like I'm at La Tomatina except instead of tomatoes people are throwing hard as or ceremonial scars georgette I like this I'll give you and I know you did it you know my good girl oh oh they did they did doesn't mean I'm any different shouts all wrong man yeah woman who saw me one shot in the world what auto teams are now moving on to 20 de nada there's an incredible energy here a mix of giddy excitement and Wonder [Music] honestly I feel awestruck just by gazing up at this giant tanker everywhere I look there are faces revealing tremendous devotion it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor just by being here you've been blessed [Music] hahaha Lanyon 'yeah don't forget Jenna long dollars on minion tokuma um so I think it's worth the Tony way we were waiting in the rain for five hours then even going to sleep and you know as thousands of people here it is quite chaotic to be honest but it's all worth it at the end of the day what a fantastic experience hopefully we'll get the same next year there's a module to go back at the end of the unveiling marks the beginning of the festival proper coming up next it's all about art as we attend a Tibetan opera go backstage at at anchor school and get VIP seats for a song and dance extravaganza the head it's a pretty big turnout today but then again everyone gets 7 days off for the Showtime Festival and usually after people have watched the big unfurling of the tankers they'll go to linkers which are basically parks and the most famous of the link is in Lhasa is the Nova linker which was the Summer Palace of the dalai lama's but as you can see today there's loads of people here lot of them are carrying sacks and stuff in their hands because they've come to picnic and watch the Tibetan operas that are taking place inside thanks to the addition of performances like Tibetan opera Showtime was transformed from a purely religious festival into something for everyone a popular feature is the picnic in the park where people get together to eat among other things you'll get I've never seen so many people picnicking at the same time feels like all of lasses here but I hear singing that's obviously where the Tibetan Opera is just massive queue see if I can get in [Applause] [Music] [Applause] if all this looks a bit shamanistic to you that's because Tibetan operas are mostly folk tales about good trumping over evil and during the seven-day show Thanh festival troops from all across Tibet come here to perform and compete [Music] don't quite know what they're singing about now many different kinds of Tibetan opera what I do understand is that originally these were sort of rigged school which later became a form of opera and even these performances are abridged versions there are nine different stories in the Tibetan offer a repertoire the complete story takes several days to perform I just hope the actors can get some time off so they can take part in the fun and activities in the park okay meanwhile I've come to the steward 3-byte anchor school to meet Gama Gatting he's an artist who's surviving a lost style of tanker painting the salmon tradition I guess you get a pan chicken Chasseur just 30 pounds you know this in allocate Cassius also did a study partner study be Otunga ties into loony abdullah how are you i just be airtight NJPAC a father-daughter 15 years here I said this Amazon Ohio employee until society ella continued originally used as a meditation aid a tanker is more a technical drawing than an expression of creativity like an architect the tanker artist must first meticulously sketch out the blueprints of his painting before applying the color [Music] keesha's especially our yellow artists cannot additional publishers didn't hear that things are silly with the tone of Cujo table did that emerges ooh each end exchangers tell you just pay you only and Jessa Jinger tonight boy do another phase generational casino hi shaggy great purchase corneal of Union we being said this is what she done here three talk she didn't eat a lot Shanta doing is that you transitioned and everything in this record to your peers on a second celebrate on that other alone Coutinho contingent that is rose Chuy night chosen cotton is here to come ba ha ha - ha and I just root n so their economy - EJ don't occasional shot yeah ha ha did she die cool of eco ha ha ha sergeant session entire society can see juices tortuosity so city would you turned out to happier mayor not switching the Tunku latecha thomas you're upset about why hmm how the utopian the one you get sure - yeah I do have an agenda and in hey Louie enter in the hotter so here actually boy Dale Earnhardt is written are are you gradually one tanda toward a eulogy sir dunya necessary want under I didn't even see you too bit earlier to the third didn't see myself or so that new car today to home n de- NASA go you're going to you wanna blame yes has to be here and to say technically develop on a mattress in a happy his other works they have been collected by temples and celebrities but many tanker schools in Tibet this one doesn't charge fees students bought from a young age and when they eventually become fully fledged artists the school receives a portion of their earnings it's a great way to preserve and promote the tradition of tank avenging Wow looks like it's a full house tonight so I've come to watch a performance called princess winter and by now obviously you know who she is the thing is during peak season it sold out every single day so I'm pretty lucky I've got one of these babies [Music] the performance tells the story of princess when trans marriage to Kingston stand camper and it's on a truly epic scale with song and dance numbers from all the Tibetan regions [Music] of course Tibetan Buddhist motifs are evident throughout the show but then they pervade everyday life in that [Music] after all everyone wants to accumulate good karma because who doesn't look forward to a brighter future [Music] well that's the face of the potala palace I've never seen before I mean to be honest latter turned out to be a little different to what I expected but that's not necessarily a bad thing I think it's always going to be an incredibly spiritual place that pilgrims will walk for months on end in order to visit and every single day you're surrounded by the culture of Tibetan Buddhism but at the same time it's also just a regular city with regular families who live and work and play here and I think if you can just get over the altitude sickness you'll find latter to be an incredibly rewarding experience I'm sure and I hope you've enjoyed watching this episode of travelogue [Music]

Channel: CGTN

Views: 118,226

Rating: 4.5994434 out of 5

Keywords: CCTV, CGTN, CCTVNews, News, ChinaNews, WorldNews, Politics, Tibet, Lhasa, travel, travelogue, tibetfestival, ShotonFestival

Id: RG2rivR-FxM

Length: 29min 19sec (1759 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 06 2018

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Places shown in the video: The Potala Palace, Dragon King Lake, Jokhang Temple with prostrations, Barkhor pilgrim street – with people spinning prayer wheels, Shoton festival at the Drepung monastery with the yearly unfolding of the Buddha Thangka, Tibetan religious opera in the Norbulingka park, school for Thangka artists, tourist show: ‘Princess Wencheng’s marriage to King Songtsen Gampo’