Day 3: Potala - DaZhaoShi

布达拉宫—大昭寺

It was such a great day, waking up without feeling headache. I brushed my teeth happily singing a silly song. Feeling healthy is really the best feeling one can have. The only thing I can complain is, I did not get to take bath for more than 48 hours.

1st stop, 大昭寺 (I searched through google, still can't fine what's it called in English). A temple, where in 藏语 means 释迦牟尼， meaning, 释迦牟尼的佛堂. History of this temple is about 1350 years, the oldest temple in Lhasa. Amazing. Many people 朝拜 when we visited the temple.

Inside the temple, we crazily snapped many many pictures:)

Can see the Potala from 大昭寺 2nd floor also.

Of course, there are "shopping streets" outside the temple. Too many small stalls, we don't know what to buy, only bought small souvenoir. Tour guide told us don't buy the too old looking stuff, coz you never know who it belongs to earlier. In Tibet, it is their culture after the person is dead, they will "hire" the 祭师 to do the "process" - like cleaning the body, then chopped the body into 365 pieces, either throw into the sea to let fish eat or burnt some scent to induce the eagle to come eat the dead body pieces. If the fish or eagle do not finish eating the body, that means this person was a bad guy before. If the fish or eagle finished everything, then this person was a good person before. Anyway... 祭师 sometimes take the dead person's jewerly to sell to these stalls in the temple, so, if the stuff is old-looking and very unique, probably is taken from dead person's body. eeee.....

These "taxi", starting fees is RMB 3. Cute.

After lunch, finally, we were going into the Potala!! (actually, these few days, already passed by it outside for more than 6-8 times. Potala is just located in the heart of Lhasa city.)

It was quite a "task" to climbed up to the top of Potala (height of the peak is 3750 meters above sea level). Under the circumstances of lacking in oxygen, every step is a challenge. For every turn of the stairs, we need to stop for a while to catch more air. And, take more pictures. When we reached the top, we were so happy (actually, it was not that high, compared to The Great Wall in Beijing, but it feels more difficult to climb than The Great Wall).

Can only take pictures outside of the Potala, inside of the Potala, are all 灵塔, photos are not allowed. Talk also have to soft-soft. If you stand in one place too long, the guard inside will shout at you, "faster go, don't stay so long". Very fierce one... perhaps they scared got people want to steal all the germs on the 灵塔. Those germs, all big big, and looks very expensive. Made me drool also..

Potala is divided into 红宫 & 白宫. The colors of the wall, are all splashed at, not brushed one. Interesting. Oh, by the way, the Potala was built as a gift from 松赞干布藏主 to 文成公主.

The "towel" look-like thing, is actually 经幡. You can see this everywhere in Lhasa, and the whole of Tibet actually.

Tour guide told us, after another 1.5 month, no one will be able to go into Potala anymore. Government wants to preserve Potala, don't want 凡人 to pollute it. We are considered very lucky this time. Wow...

转经筒：）

I love Day 3:)

Night view of Potala:

经幡

在藏区，道路两侧，古树上，屋顶处，江桥旁，到处是五彩的经幡，在蓝天下迎风招展。在家家户户的房屋上、帐篷上迎风飘扬

经幡大部分采用绸布做成，颜色有蓝、白、红、黄、绿色等，多为素色，大小不等。经幡幡条具有特定的含义，其组合排列顺序都有严格的规定。经幡上面印着密密麻麻的经文和鸟兽图案，各图案也有一定的象征意义。经幡是藏民祈求福运升腾的象征物，每年藏民们都要挑选良辰吉日，举行庆典活动，更新经幡。之所以插上经幡，是因为当地的信徒们大多没有文化，念不了经文，只为借助自然的力量，风每吹动经幡一次，就意味着他们念了一次经，以此来表达他们对上天的虔诚和敬意