Puteri Harbour Marina
Johor, Malaysia
Hi All,
Some of you may have missed our emails from China and Tibet. Our notebook computer didn’t have my Outlook email address book and my web address book apparently is out of date. Sorry. You can read them at www.mydoramac.com and find out about our time in China, the train trip from Guangzhou, China to Lhasa, Tibet and our early adventures in Lhasa. Now things are back to “our normal” and I have my big computer making email easier. It was great to have the notebook though the keyboard is small making it too easy to hit the wrong keys. Sometimes that made everything GO AWAY! We did have Internet access in our room at the Mandala Hotel in Lhasa and in the hallway of our hotel in Kathmandu and the small restaurant just next door where we ate most of our meals. Along the way we used other access when it was available. It was hard to check up on the Sox at times….they were doing great. Now I follow the games daily and they lose. Hmmmm.
I wish I could click my heels and be back in Tibet to ride horses, go trekking and do some painting. I never even took out my paint brush once.
Randal and I bought many books while in Kathmandu which has what seems like 3 or 4 book shops on every street in the Thamel area where our hotel was located. It’s the “tourist” area of Kathmandu packed with small shops, eating places, and book stores. I am currently reading Last Seen In Lhasa by Claire Scobie. She is a journalist who has made several trips to Tibet and during one made friends with Ani, a Tibetan nun. This book talks about their meeting and friendship and seems to capture the image of Lhasa that we saw.
Now it’s catch up time. Catch up email, laundry, boat cleaning, following the Red Sox, reading and hopefully painting.
Ru
DoraMac
Tibet # 5 Norbulingka (Summer Palace)
“ Norbulingka means Jewel Park in Tibetan. It is the summer palace of the successive Dalailamas. Now it is listed as World Cultural Heritage, State class protected unit of culture relics and appointed four class tourist site. It is a shady place with very rich plants and very important place where every year Tibetan traditional opera and folk song and dancing are performing.
The palace inside is great and luxurious, all the murals are very delicate, among them some of the mural unique to Tibet. Norbulingka is an huge ancient royal garden with natural scenery and cultural landscape.” This information is written on the back of the entry ticket for Norbulingka
Norbulingka is a huge park where the 7th Dalai Lama built his summer home in the 1750s. The New Summer Palace, completed in 1956 was built by the 14th (current) Dalai Lama. The main meeting room contains a huge throne and according to AA Keyguide China, the only photo of the Dalai Lama on public display in Lhasa. Also, the clock at the top of the stairs is stopped at 9 o’clock, the time the DL fled to India on March 19, 1959. As we walked through the grounds our guide Lobsang explained much about the DL and Buddhism. But I was busy taking photos so didn’t listen hard enough. It is really difficult to take photos and listen at the same time. Also, prior to our trip to Tibet and Nepal, I didn’t even know where they were. I also, really didn’t know anything about Buddhism. Now I know a little bit about everything. According to a BBC news story (see below) much of the Summer Palace was destroyed by Chinese artillery: I’m not sure what building were part of the original construction and what was rebuilt after the destruction. Honestly, what was confusing to me was how modern the religion is and following the events around all of the different DL.
Lobsang and the map of Norbulingka.
We just walked through the small zoo (really needs lots of upgrading!) and the palace of the 7th DL and the 14th DL. We couldn’t go into the small building that is the library and houses hundreds of scrolls.
“In the worst single incident, four days ago, the Chinese army fired about 800 artillery shells into the Dalai Lama’s Summer Palace, razing the ancient building to the ground.” (March 28th, 1959) http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2788000/2788343.stm
Home of one of the earlier DL. Maybe the 7th, maybe the 13th. I just don’t remember.
Lobsang and Randal in front of the Palace of the 14th DL.
Drive up to the Palace
A small lake near the “library.”
The building houses hundreds of scrolls but we weren’t allowed to go inside. Also, must buildings prohibited photos. We found that to be the case many places, or, alternatively, you had to pay a small fee to take photos. Sometimes I paid; sometimes I didn’t. I would have liked to have gone into this little “library.”
Rebuilding.
Walking along through the park.
It would have been nice to stay at the park longer and many people apparently do that; take a picnic and spend the day. It was interesting to visit the Palace of the 14th Dalai Lama though not being allowed to take photos was really disappointing. The other buildings were very dark so hard to see the decorations. Also, many of the building burn yak butter or other oil lamps and the smoke made it hard for Randal and me to breathe. Anyone who goes should bring a flashlight if it would be allowed. It couldn’t hurt more than the residue from the smoke.
We left the Summer Palace to go to the Tibet Museum, but it was closed…so we went another day.