Shyam Sundar Sharma

Being part of the 6-journalist delegation to Tibet—the two-week journey to Tibet organised by the Chinese embassy—was obviously pleasing news, as travelling to Tibet was been a long-cherished desire.

On the first day of the trip, which is to say the day we started off for Tibet by air, we found ourselves as the only Nepalese on board the huge and completely filled Boeing. As the plane approached various ice peaks, all tourists started crowding towards the Boeing’s left, peeping out of the windows. All were busy capturing the towering Mt Everest inside their cameras. Through such ordeals, at the end of an hour, the captain announced we were about to land at Lhasa airport; we got busy with our seat belts. We had to spend as much time at the immigrations in Lhasa. Once outside, the dull dry mountains made us doubt any surprises awaited us there.

One Lee, who spoke only Chinese, accompanied by Pemba, a multilingual, had come to escort us. We were taken towards the city in a van. As the city is 95 kilometres away from the airport, it took us one and half hours to reach there. The road ran along the river. From a distance, the city's development forms greeted us—four lane streets, rickshaws on the left and the right and two additional lanes for bicycles. The city boasted of uniformly constructed roads, houses, shops and well-lit signboards. Finally, we reached the hotel. Tibet has a time difference of 2 hours and 15 minutes from Nepal. Having taken our luggage to our rooms, we all gathered in the lobby.
By then we were extremely hungry because we had taken nothing except cake and chocolates served in the plane since the plane took off at 7 from Kathmandu. After some time we rested and after some snacks we were taken for dinner at 7. The guides were with us. We were informed about the problems— nosebleed, inability to sleep and difficulty in respiration-caused by high altitude. We were also advised to drink much water. But we were faced by another problem since we had taken a lot of water. Jasmine tea was available all the time in the restaurant. They would hardly let the cup be empty. The meal was ordered by the Chinese side. A variety of food items were served one after another and most of them were new to us. However, we had given consent to everything except beef. The style of eating was amazing. An item of meal was served in a big plate and we had to eat with the help of a pair of sticks instead of spoons. Though we found this cumbersome, we got used to it very soon. A member in our delegation was a pure vegetarian. Probably because he was aware of the Chinese custom, he had taken a packet of snacks that included beaten rice, dalmot, chop etc. Journey to Tibet is difficult particularly for vegetarians. Each food item contained at least some pieces of meat. There was no alternative other than soup of leafy vegetables (Suchai), rice or boiled corn for vegetarians. We all got along quite well in no time; before long even those who tended to return after a few days did not know how time passed by. The trip was further enlivened by Pemba who made us laugh almost all the time.

The daily routine was— breakfast at 8 am followed by lunch at 12 noon and some programmes before dinner, which was at 6 pm. However, we got the dinner managed at 8 pm later on. During the trip, we visited Ramoche Monastery, Jokhang Monastery and Dalai Lama’s summer palace, Norbulinkha Palace. Women were not allowed in some rooms of the cultural monastery where there were frightening idols. Cultural heritages are properly protected. We thought the amount raised as entrance fee could help in the maintenance of these monasteries.

For long there had been a Nepali ‘Xiamao Gabu’ in Barkot Street. There is now a curio shop though it earlier dealt in foodstuff, clothes etc. The employees in the shop stated there was more competition now compared to an almost monopoly earlier. The Tibetans could easily recognize Nepalese while wandering around the Barkot Street and it epitomized the friendly relations existing between people of the two countries for generations.

Tibet seems to have given adequate attention to development as well as to environmental protection. Environmental experts told us about various plans designed to control and mitigate environmental pollution caused by hotels, hospitals and vehicles.

The Potala Palace still stands as the pride of Tibet. We could read information about the Palace in English language, which helped visitors know about the Palace. Out of the 500 million rupees allocated for renovation of the Palace, 13 percent of the amount has already been utilized. A visitor had to pay 90 Yuan (900 rupees) as entrance fee, which could be of immense help to carry out the palace’ expansion and renovation work. One could observe the enthralling panorama of the entire city from the balcony of the Palace on paying 10 Yuan.

We met Chheri Bangdi, a peasants’ leader, living in a nine-member family in Syanga village, which has a population of 400. In addition to his work in the farm, Bangdi worked in construction and transportation of goods. We also got the opportunity to observe Children’s Day on 4th Bhadra of 2059 in Tibet. The programme began with the national anthem; 50 students of Gorkha Primary School had engrossed the audience with their songs and dance. The school was established 70 years ago to educate Nepali children.

We also saw ancient documents written in Nepali in the Lhasa Archives. Old documents including the one written in a 366.66 metre long paper were kept safely and systematically. Similarly, the Tibet Museum is also remarkable.

While visiting the museum, we were given mobile sets, which bore card numbers. The sets were connected to and run by a computer; dialling the code numbers enabled us to hear all the pre-stored information in English about the museum. It was a new experience for us.

We were also taken to the city of Nyingchi. The city at the lowest altitude in Tibet was wonderful. The area also had a ‘telephone village’ where telephone sets were installed in all houses at the same time. The water mill turning the mane presented a beautiful sight in the recently renovated place. The water was brought from a holy place. There were trees of different shapes and sizes. All symbolised something in their own way. Some were sentinels of the citizens; some were believed to bring ill luck if children touched them. Very old trees in Old Panai King were separately conserved. Some of them had withstood the test of time for more than a millennium. Interesting incidents took place due to the linguistic gap; once, four or five girls entered one of our rooms. The friend there, unable to understand or make himself understood, immediately made an exit to another friend’s room. We had to wait until the multilingual arrived to sort the matter. Language was the major problem as at places, when we ordered spoons, bowls were brought, napkins in place of plates and jasmine tea replaced our order for a bowl. We also went to the Tsedang city, around 40 km from the city. Here, around 1st century AD, the Yongbu Lakang Palace was built by the first Tibetan King. The palace, which has been renovated only this year, is worth visiting. We also visited the Samye Monastery.

Our expedition next found us in a medicine factory, where we all had to dress in sterilized germfree shoes and clothes. We all looked like doctors then. The manufacture dates were marked in all packets with lasers. Medicines thus manufactured with the latest ultra modern technology were then sent to the market for sale.

Next, we went to Beijing High School; it was well equipped with state-of-the art facilities. Since English has been made a compulsory subject in schools, it seems obvious that language will not prove to be a barrier in future.

At Lhasa, our guides left us alone for 2 hours to shop; and we went on our own to various shops. The keepers told us the price by either writing on a piece of paper or showing us the digits in a calculator. We had to do the same to show how much we were willing to pay; excessive bargaining was the order there. Like for example, when the shopkeeper put the price at 160 Yuan for a pair of shoes—quite expensive for me—I said I could pay only 60; to my surprise he agreed readily. Likewise, we paid 15 Yuan for the cream that was priced at 65 Yuan. On the last day, before taking our flight back to Kathmandu, we went to Dam Song County, which is 200 kms from the city. We talked for half an hour with a peasant leader about his life style and trade. What was worth remembering about the visit was that it took us nearly 8 hours.

The development made by Tibet within a short period of time; the care and preservation of old documents and monasteries are well worth noting. The Tibetans are equally attracted to religious traditions. We also found that Tibetans believe that politics and religion are two completely different entities and that they should not be mixed.