Day 3
Today we piled three to a minivan and began a ten-hour road trip, travelling across the mountainous regions in a southwesterly direction, crossing Khampa La ("La" means Pass) (altitude: 4,794m / 1600') headed for the city of Gyantse (4,000m / 12,956'). The temperature has been pleasant (+18 C) in the afternoons, with the sun blaring down upon us; the mornings and evenings are cool, though (-5C).
This morning I had yak cheese for breakfast! It was crumbly and sharp and crunchy; it was slightly sour or citrusy and had a subtle meat flavour. Later in the day we saw women standing by the side of the road holding strings with square white cubes attached to them - turns out that that is a form of the yak cheese, sold on the street. It could then either be shredded (like what I had for breakfast), or popped into the mouth for a long chew. This photo of a fellow was taken later on the trip: he is holding the unmistakable string of cubed dried yak cheese. It's hard as a rock so Tibetans put the chunk in their mouths and as it warms it becomes more chewable - but apparently that can take hours!
Gorgeous Lake Yamdrok is one of the three largest sacred lakes in Tibet. It is over 75 kilometres long (45 miles) and is surrounded by many snow-capped mountains. Our driver, Sola Lobu, told us the name of the highest snowy peak in this shot, is called Mount Nindingdzaka, but I can't find any reference to it anywhere. Must be a local name or something.
A jewelry vendor at a stop along the Khampa La. She posed for our group (for a minimal fee) and her associates managed to sell us some beads. They are quite persistent! I finally caved in and bought a couple of necklaces, which I wore proudly around my neck because I was told if future vendors saw them, they'd leave me alone. It worked!
Our picnic lunch buffet set out for us, near Lake Yamdrok. The food usually consisted of a thick and delicious dhal soup, some veggies (bok choy, carrots, cabbage, etc), a chicken or lamb curry, and the ubiquitous platter of french fries! Most food was Chinese style, with one Tibetan dish (yak or lamb) thrown in daily. The french fries seemed to me to be there especially for the Americans! However, sometimes the potatoes were thinly sliced (rather than julienned) and deep fried, and that was actually nice for a change. Beautiful landscape and yummy eats!
A "chorten" is a shrine or a tomb dedicated to a distinguished Buddhist, especially a lama, which may contain a relic or bone from said lama. This beautiful, recently white-washed one was off the road, but near to where we were having our road-side picnic lunch, so when we were given 30 minutes to explore, I took off to check it out! But the main reason I wanted to photograph this "chorten" was because of the ladder on the left hand side. I saw many painted white ladders on the sides of mountains as we drove away from Lhasa. Apparently there are three different versions as to why the ladders are there but I will only recount the one I was told:
The first kings of Tibet descended from the heavens on a (magical?) ladder. When the time came for the kings to die, they would climb the ladder back to heaven. The ladders are painted to represent the divine bond between the early people of Tibet and the heavenly beings, offering a way for spirits of the ancient kings to return to their homeland in the heavens.
An old woman was sitting in the village, surrounded by our group, with everyone trying to take a photograph of her. But she wasn't having anything to do with that! When I quietly asked her if I could photograph her hands and the spindle, she was happy to oblige...although she probably thought the request somewhat unusual. I wanted to show her hands, her apron and of course the spindle. The three elements simply depicting Tibetan life.
Early evening, before sunset, a few of us wandered around Gyantse to check out the sights and people. The Gyantse Fort (or Gyantse Dzong, 1268CE) stands in the background, high atop the hill. This handsome young Tibetan wears his "chuba". As you can see, the left arm sleeve is quiet long and there's room for lots of goodies in the front of his jacket.
A woman walks through the streets of Gyantse as evening falls, with one last basket of cow dung to be dried and used for fuel at a later date. Women pick up dried dung throughout the countryside, bringing basket-loads to their homes to be laid out and then formed into round patties which are then patted onto the sides of their houses to be sun-dried. You could see hand prints on the walls of dung...actually it was quite beautiful: round dung shapes with the subtle hand print of its homeowners.