Last night’s dinner was on our own. We found a grocery store and bought some food, including more Western treats than we need. The chocolate chip cookies came in handy for a snack, because lunch wasn’t until 3:00. We’re reserving the rest of the cookies for the airplane lunch tomorrow. Their meals have been uniformly awful so far.

We started out the day going to a park in Lhasa. They have Tibetan dancing from 8:30 to 10. It’s a free recreational program. They do a dance from Northern Tibet. It is wildly popular. There must have been over 500 people dancing. The people in the center are the lead dancers. Besides the people you see here, dancers spilled out all over the area, far beyond where they could see the lead dancers. In the middle of a dance, the activity organizer came out and good-naturedly chided folks for not dancing correctly. It’s for sure everybody was having a good time.

After this we went to a local cultural and history museum. It wasn’t a huge museum, but they did a very nice job. They started with 30,000 BCE. The pieces we liked best were actually made in China. This jade jug has 3 handles firmly affixed to the body. Each handle has a perfect ring, not attached to the handles. I can’t imagine carving something like this.

 

 

 

The next jug was an even more impressive bit of carving, with the lid held to the pot with a jade chain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It must have been a day to admire jugs. The last piece I’ll share is a ceramic jug. I can’t say exactly why I like it. I just thought it had a great sense of beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next was the highlight of Tibet — the Potalo Palace, otherwise known as the winter palace. It was wise to visit this palace on the 3rd day, because visiting requires climbing or descending 600 steps. Danita was getting herself all psyched up about whether she would be able to do this. But she decided to try. She did it and found that while it was difficult, it was far from impossible. Altogether, 15 of the 24 people on this tour visited the palace. Everybody who started up made it all the way. This included a lady who broke both ankles just last October.

As usual, we couldn’t take any pictures inside. Today no functions are carried out in this palace. Before China took over Tibet, white sections were for government operations (including the jail), red sections were for religious, and yellow sections were for the Deli Lama.

I’ll include a few more shots. To a non-believer, it looks a lot like other Tibetan Buddha palaces, monasteries, and temples. Highlights included tombs for many of the Deli Lamas. I also learned that the 4th Deli Lama was more interested in drinking wine and writing poetry than in Buddhism. I suppose drinking wine can enlighten one to write poetry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had some free time after lunch. After dinner, we a dancing demonstration. Tibetan dancing is quite vigorous, and the dancers didn’t pose for pictures. But I did get a few shots, which are below.

The next 3 days we are sleeping on the river boat. Internet is not free. My China phone plan does not include data. Unless the Internet on the boat is a lot cheaper than I suspect, my next post will be on Sunday, May 10 (China time).