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Lhasa City in China

Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, lies on the Lhasa River’s north bank in a valley of the Himalayas. Rising atop Red Mountain at an altitude of 3,700m, the red-and-white Potala Palace once served as the winter home of the Dalai Lama. The palace’s rooms, numbering around 1,000, include the Dalai Lama’s living quarters, as well as murals, chapels, and tombs.

Introduction to Lhasa, a famous historical and cultural city in Tibet

Lhasa, referred to as “Lha”, is the capital of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, an international tourist city with plateau and ethnic characteristics, the political, economic, cultural, scientific and educational center of Tibet, and a holy place of Tibetan Buddhism.

Located in the central part of the Tibetan Plateau, on the north side of the Himalayas, at an altitude of 3,650 meters (to prevent endogenous oxygen deficiency), it is located in the valley plain of the middle reaches of the Lhasa River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, through which the Lhasa River flows into the Brahmaputra in the southern suburbs.

Lhasa has mostly sunny weather throughout the year, with little rainfall, no severe cold in winter, no extreme heat in summer, and a pleasant climate. With more than 3,000 hours of sunshine throughout the year, it is known as the “Sunlight City”. Lhasa is rich in various resources, and has obvious resource advantages compared to other cities in the country and the autonomous region.

As one of the first batch of national historical and cultural cities, Lhasa is famous for its beautiful scenery, long history, unique customs and folk customs, and strong religious colors. It has been awarded as China’s Excellent Tourist City, European Tourist’s Favorite Tourist City, National Civilized City, and China’s Most Popular Tourist City. It has won the honorary titles such as Safe City, Top 200 Charming Cities with Chinese Characteristics, Top 200 Charming Cities in the World, and 2018 Changyou 100 Cities in China.

About Lhasa

The capital of Tibet and a labyrinth of monasteries, temples and colourful market squares, Lhasa draws pilgrims and tourists from far-flung corners of the world. With the Chinese quarter on the west and the Tibetan Quarter on the east, visitors can cross from the elegant Norbulingka Summer Palace to lively street markets and twisting lanes filled with tantalising aromas from small local cafes. Named “Land of the Gods”, it’s common to see traditional Tibetans with spinning prayer wheels circling clockwise around Jokhang Temple, built in the 7th century to hold the official statues of Buddha.

Barkhor Street, the circular road around Jokhang Temple, marks the heart of Old Town Lhasa, where pilgrims and travellers mix with locals at the bustling market, bartering for handmade crafts, prayer shawls, wall hangings and religious trinkets. The temple itself holds the most sacred Buddha statue of all, as the Shakyamuni Buddha was brought from Chang’an 1,300 years ago by Princess Wen Cheng. The bright red-and-white Portola Palace, home of the Dalai Lamas and a UNESCO World Heritage site, sits on the northern slopes of the mountain, opening for one-hour visits to views murals, tombs and chapels and the Dalai Lama’s living quarters.

Travel permits and visas are necessary to visit Lhasa and all of Tibet, typically requiring a tour guide or travel agent. Once in Lhasa, the frequented tourist attractions are navigable by foot, but cycle rickshaws are prevalent and a popular way to get around. Public buses, minibuses and pilgrim buses provide motorised transportation throughout the area.

Lhasa became a prominent political and cultural centre when ruler Songtsen Gampo moved his capital to Lhasa in the 7th century AD. The ruins of his original palace became the Portola Palace, built by the fifth Dalai Lama in the 1600s.

Lhasa history and culture

1. Festivals

1. Tibetan New Year

Tibetan people have been preparing for the Chinese New Year since the twelfth month of the Tibetan calendar. The first day of the first day of the Tibetan calendar is the first day of the Tibetan New Year. The first thing they do is to send people to the river to bring back the first bucket of water for the new year—— Auspicious water, starting from the second day of the new year, relatives and friends visit each other for New Year’s greetings and congratulations. This event lasts for three to five days.

During the Tibetan New Year, in the square or on the open grass, people form a circle to dance the Guozhuang Dance and the Xianzi Dance. Accompanied by musical instruments such as violins, cymbals, and gongs, they hold hands and step on the ground for festivals and joyous singing. And, children set off firecrackers.

2. Bull King Club

The Niuwanghui begins on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month and usually lasts for more than ten days, sometimes even for a month. There are often more than a thousand people. During the Cow King Meeting, people invite Heipa to chant scriptures, blow yak horns, and slaughter dozens of yaks or hundreds of sheep.

Due to the huge cost of the Bull King Meeting, this large-scale Bull King Meeting has only been held once in the past hundred years. The members participating in the Niuwanghui have a common blood relationship, and it also belongs to the cultural festivals of ancestor worship.

3. Chuan Zhao Dafa

It is the biggest religious festival in Tibet. At that time, the monks from the three major monasteries, Drepung Monastery, Sera Monastery and Ganden Monastery in Lhasa will all be concentrated in the Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa.

This puja is a continuation of the prayer meeting held in Lhasa in 1409 by Master Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug sect. Since then, the scale has been continuously expanded and enriched, making the prayer meeting a fixed religious festival, its scale is not As early as when it was founded.

4. Butter Lantern Festival

The fifteenth day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar is the last day of the Zhao Da Dharma Assembly. During the day, people go to various temples to pray to the Buddha; at night, a butter lantern festival is held on Barkhor Street in Lhasa. Various kinds of gods, figures, birds and animals, flowers and trees, as well as puppet performances. At night, farmers in the suburbs sing and dance and compete against each other. Sometimes it lasts for a few days before it ends. This is the most lively and lively festival in Lhasa.

5. Saga Dawa Festival

The 15th day of the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar is the founder of Buddhism, the birthday of Sakyamuni, the day of enlightenment and death, and it is also a traditional festival of the Tibetan people. Groups gather in the Dragon King Pool behind the majestic Potala Palace to hold this holy festival.

6. Bath Festival

It is a traditional festival of the Tibetan people. The bathing festival lasts for five or six days. During the festival, people come to the Lhasa River, whether in towns or villages, rural or pastoral areas, with tents and food such as butter tea, highland barley wine, and tsampa. Along the Yarlung Zangbo River, I came to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau beside thousands of rivers and thousands of lakes to compete in the water, playing and swimming in the water.

7. Shoton Festival

Shoton Festival is one of the largest traditional festivals in Tibet. “Shoton” means yogurt. Shoton Festival was a purely religious festival before the seventeenth century.

According to the regulations of Gelug in Tibetan Buddhism, the sixth month of the Tibetan calendar is a forbidden period, and monks and nuns in all Tibetan monasteries are not allowed to go out, so as not to step on the insects. Farmers and herdsmen should present the prepared yogurt. This is the origin of Shoton Festival.

During the festival, Tibetan people come in groups of three or five, men and women, young and old, carrying various kinds of burdens, carrying highland barley wine barrels, and some even set up tents, laying card mats and carpets on the ground, and placing highland barley, dishes and other festive foods. In Norbulingka, various organs and units of the autonomous region will also arrange large-scale literary and artistic activities, academic seminars, and economic and trade exchanges during the Shoton Festival, making the scene more lively.

8. Horse racing festival

Horse racing is a very favorite activity of the Tibetan people. It is not only a place for gathering and exchanging experience in farming and animal husbandry in the spare time of farming and animal husbandry, but also a display of the spirit of the Tibetan people.

Horse racing is almost indispensable in all Tibetan festivals that are passed down through folk traditions. Horse racing not only appears in the festival in the form of a motif, but more importantly, the Tibetan people based on their strong belief in horses have formed such a national traditional “horse racing festival”, and this event has your long-standing experience. history.

9. Wangguo Festival

The “Wangguo” Festival is an annual festival for the Tibetan people to wish a bumper agricultural harvest. Every year on this day, the Tibetan people wear festive costumes, some with colorful flags, and some carry a harvest tower made of highland barley and wheat ears. Gongs and drums were played, songs and Tibetan operas were sung. Some carried the statue of Chairman Mao and circled the field. After the circle, people carried tents and highland barley wine. , yak races, horse-riding pick-up hada and singing and dancing, Tibetan opera competitions.

2. Origin of place names

Lhasa was called “Rasa” in ancient times, the Tibetan “goat” was called “Ja”, and the “earth” was called “Sa”. “Lhasa”, the Tibetan translation of the spoken language “yes”, only needs to respect and obey the will of the Buddha. It is a combination of “temple” and “servant”.

The city was established by a Buddhist temple, hence the name Lhasa. The word “Lhasa” appeared for the first time in historical records. It was found in the “Garchong Monastery Stele” erected by the Tibetan king Chide Songtsen in 806 AD, in which it said: “In the world of Songzan, the ancestor of the holy Zanpu, he began to practice the Dharma of Enlightenment, and established the Lhasa Jokhang Temple.” This shows that the name of Lhasa has been around for nearly 1,200 years.

3. Customs and customs

Lhasa New City, centered on the Potala Palace and Barkhor Street, extends to Sera Monastery in the north and Duilong Deqing County in the west. Looking across the city of Lhasa, the post and telecommunications building, the news building, the Lhasa hotel, the Tibet hotel and various buildings are dotted with each other, intertwined with each other, continuous, and a new brilliance.

Standing on the top of the Potala Palace overlooking the whole city of Lhasa, the entire urban area of ​​Lhasa is full of new-style buildings hidden in green trees.

Here, there are densely populated houses and streets with ethnic styles, and people from all over the Tibetan area gather, many of them still wearing the traditional costumes of their own people. The prayer wheel and rosary that seem to never leave their hands clearly show that Buddhism is actually in fact. has become a way of life.

4. matters needing attention

1. The biggest taboo for Tibetans is killing, and Buddhists who are ordained are even more strict in this regard. Although they eat beef and mutton, they do not kill them with their own hands. Tibetans absolutely forbid eating donkeys, horses and dogs, and some areas also do not eat fish.

2. When drinking butter tea, the host pours the tea, and the guest can only take it when the host holds both hands in front of him.

3. When you encounter religious facilities such as monasteries, mani piles, and pagodas, you must detour from left to right, and those who believe in Bon religion should detour from the right. Don’t cross the magic weapon, the brazier.

4. The warp cylinder and warp wheel cannot be reversed.

5. When entering the temple, it is taboo to wear hats, smoke, touch Buddha statues, read scriptures, and ring bells and drums. For religious utensils such as amulets, rosary beads, etc. that lamas wear with them, they are not allowed to touch them with their hands; they should be silent in the temple, and they should be upright when they are seated, and they should not sit on the seat of living Buddhas.

6. Don’t use Tibetan paper as toilet paper or wipe things.

7. When entering the village, when there is a patient or a woman giving birth to a Tibetan family, the door is marked. Some build a fire outside the door, and some stick a branch or a red cloth at the door. Outsiders should not enter if they see this sign.

Fun Places in Lhasa

1. Scenic spots

1. The Potala Palace

The Potala Palace was built in the 7th century AD by the Tibetan King Songtsan Gampo for the Tang Dynasty Princess Wencheng who married far away from Tibet. The Potala Palace is located on the Red Mountain in the center of Lhasa. The highest point is 3767.19 meters above sea level. It is also the highest ancient palace in the world.

From the entrance to the top of the mountain, there are more than 900 stone steps. The Potala Palace consists of the Red Palace and the White House. The Red Palace is in the center, and the White House runs across the two wings. The buildings are red and white, and the buildings overlap. It is a magnificent building integrating a palace, a castle, a mausoleum and a temple.

2. Jokhang Temple

The Jokhang Temple was built in the heyday of the Tubo Dynasty in the seventh century. It is the most splendid Tubo period building in Tibet and the oldest existing civil structure building in Tibet. It created a Tibetan-style Pingchuan-style temple layout. The Jokhang Temple integrates the architectural styles of Tibet, Tang, Nepal and India, and has become a model of Tibetan religious architecture through the ages.

3. Norbulingka

Norbulingka is located in the western suburbs of Lhasa, Tibet. It was built in the 18th century. The buildings are mainly composed of Kelsang Phodrang, Golden Phodrang and Daden Mingjiu Phodrang. There are 374 rooms. It is the largest and most scenic man-made garden in Tibet. The best garden with the most monuments. There is the only zoo in Lhasa.

Norbulingka has doors on all sides and the main entrance to the east. Kangsongsi Lun is the most eye-catching attic on the front. It was originally a small Chinese-style wooden pavilion, and was later renovated into an opera building, and an open space for performances was added to the east, which was specially used by the Dalai Lama to watch operas. Next to it is Chabdien Lacan, a place for religious ceremonies. Its north side houses the offices and meeting rooms of the Kashag.

4. Namco

Namtso Lake is 4,718 meters above sea level, 70 kilometers long from east to west, and 30 kilometers wide from north to south. It is the largest lake in Tibet, the second largest saltwater lake in China, and the highest lake in the world.

Namtso has a vast lakeside and lush water and grass. It is a natural large pasture that can be grazing all year round. At the beginning of summer, flocks of wild ducks come to roost and breed. Wild yak, rock cattle and many other wild animals also appear frequently.

5. Drepung Monastery

Drepung Monastery is one of the six major monasteries of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The temple is large in scale, with 6 scripture halls, 4 monasteries, and a large number of precious cultural relics. On the day of the Lhasa Shoton Festival on June 30 of the Tibetan calendar every year, people gather at Drepung Monastery to hold grand celebrations around this, showing Buddha, Tibetan opera and other programs, which are very lively!

6. Medicine King Mountain

Yaowang Mountain is close to the Red Mountain where the Potala Palace is located, and there is a main road in the city passing through between the two mountains. In the past, the two mountains were connected by a white pagoda, and the bottom floor was a doorway, which was the gateway to Lhasa City.

In the 1960s, Lhasa was expanded, the pagoda was demolished, and the tens of meters wide asphalt road opened the distance between the two mountains. Some people think that the divine vein is broken, and they once thought of connecting the two mountains with prayer flags. Every year in Tibet, devout believers come here to hang the new banners. The tower has now been reconnected.

6. Mira Hill

Mira Mountain passes through Mozhugongka County. Mila Mountain is 5,013 meters high and stands in the east of Lhasa. Although Mila Mountain is only a small mountain for thousands of mountains in the Tibetan Plateau, it forms a north-south line with Potala Mountain in the south. It is a watershed of the Yarlung Zangbo River in the east-west direction, and it has become an important boundary mountain of the landform, vegetation and climate on the east and west sides of the Yarlung Zangbo River Valley.

2. Local specialties

1. Cordyceps

That is, Cordyceps sinensis is a kind of precious medicine with the name of both animals and plants. It is Cordyceps sinensis fungus parasitic on the sub seat and body of bat moth larvae. It is a worm in winter and a grass in summer. The lower part is worm and the upper part is grass. Cordyceps is sweet and sour in taste, flat in nature, and fragrant. It is a good tonic for strengthening the lungs and kidneys.

2. Hidden Knife

Tibetan knives are well-known traditional handicrafts in Tibet with a long history and unique style, and are very popular among tourists. In the life of Tibetans, Tibetan knives are also a must-have. Generally speaking, men’s Tibetan knives are relatively rough and sharp, while women’s Tibetan knives are more delicate.

3. Tibetan masks

Masks are called “Ba” in Tibetan, and are a kind of handicraft derived from religious art. They are roughly divided into three parts, namely religious masks, Tibetan opera masks and folk singing and dancing masks. In Tibet, every major religious festival, every temple will hold a god-jumping ceremony, and the masks used are ghosts, guardian deities, immortals, etc. Due to regional differences and different uses, Tibetan masks are also colorful and in different forms.

4. Wooden bowl

Because of its strong heat insulation, wooden bowls are mostly used for tea drinking, and are more practical daily necessities in Tibetan areas. There are many kinds of wooden bowls in Tibet, and the price varies greatly. Generally divided into ordinary type and luxury type. The ordinary type is made of tree roots or miscellaneous wood such as tung, birch, and azalea, without decoration. The luxury type is made of a parasitic plant called “Zan”. The wood is dark and translucent, the lines are as thin as hair, and the silver decoration makes it even more gorgeous and generous.

5. Thangka

Thangka is a scroll painting with complex lines, rich colors and strong religious features. Most Thangkas represent the theme of Tibetan Buddhism, and a few of them represent other themes and serve other contents. The pigments used in drawing thangkas are taken from opaque minerals and plants, and some animal glue and cow bile are added in proportion. Even after thousands of years, the painted thangkas are still bright and unfading.

6. Jewelry

Jewelry in Tibet includes pearls, agate, various jades, gold and silver products, etc., generally simple and simple. You can buy it at the second-hand market on Barkhor Street in Lhasa or some tourist shops. Wear around the neck, on the wrist, on the ears and on the waist.

7. Butter tea, tsampa

Butter tea and tsampa are the main representatives of Tibetan food in Lhasa. Ghee butter tea is made by mixing ghee, brick tea and salt. It has a very unique taste and is said to relieve altitude sickness.

Zanba is a mixture of highland barley fried noodles and butter tea in a certain proportion. When eating, first stir in a bowl and knead while eating. The method is unique. Many Tibetan restaurants in Lhasa can taste butter tea and tsampa.

8. Tibetan noodles

The most common daily diet of Tibetans is to boil the noodles and put them in beef soup and a small amount of beef. The taste is not much different from the noodles in the mainland. General sweet teahouses and roadside shops have Tibetan noodles. Many sweet teahouses have Tibetan noodles, and the noodles are mostly dried noodles, and the taste is basically the same.

9. Ganzi yellow jelly

One of the most popular snacks in Lhasa. It is jelly slices, mixed with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic juice, and chili.

10. Highland barley wine

Highland barley wine is called “Qiang” in Tibetan. As the name suggests, highland barley wine is made from highland barley. It is the favorite drink of Tibetans. The taste of the wine is slightly fat, but it is refreshing and refreshing, the degree is not high, and the stamina is not small.