June 20, 2007

Today we met our tour guide, Ja Xi, who took us everywhere. He’s a really cool guy who’s been to college in New Delhi, and speaks English, Hindi, and Tibetan, but his Chinese was terrible so we just spoke English. He actually worked with the Red Cross and NGO as a translator for cataract surgery between American and Indian doctors and Tibetan doctors when teaching them how to perform the surgeries. He took us to Jokhang Temple which is the most sacred temple in Tibet. So today I learned the difference between a monastery and temple, maybe some of you knew already, but a monastery is where the monks reside and learn the mantra’s and a temple is a place of worship. I took some awesome pictures today that I will try to get my sister to post for me. Apparently blogspot and livejournal are censored websites in China so I can’t access them. I’ve resorted to sending them to my sister and having her post them for me.

This isn’t my dissertation so please mind the bad writing.

We also walked all of Lhasa I feel like. After Jokhang Temple we had lunch on this rooftop where I think I found my favorite Tibetan dish. It’s lamb that’s grilled with a spicy spice rub served with potato fries! I say potato fries cause they tasted more like sweet potato fries than french fries. It was amazing, exactly what I’ve been looking for. After lunch we walked to Potola Palace to get our tickets for tomorrow and then we took a cab to Sera Monastery, which is the main monastery for the yellow sect. There are four sects of Buddhism, basically four different ways to become Buddha, and this is one of them. As part of the monks’ studies they have to engage in debate everyday at 3pm for 2 hours. So we waited around and watched them debate in the main courtyard which was amazing. You’ll see my pictures, it’s way too hard to explain. But basically they pair up with one person sitting and one person sitting and they ask each other questions and debate. It was pretty amazing to see that.

On our way out of the monastery, there are a lot of beggars and children begging. They told us not to give them money because then we’ll get flocked with people asking for money. But today this one little kid followed me all the way down the hill begging the whole time saying Buddhist sayings, so with that kind of perseverance I gave him a good amount.

The weather’s amazing here, it’s in the low 70s, dry heat, with a slight breeze. Still no altitude sickness, just a little out of breath when climbing stairs. I can tell though if I tried to run it would be pretty difficult.

I’m meeting the people from the hospital tomorrow to set up my hospital schedule. There are a few places I can’t go alone, so I have to go with my dad while the tour guide is still with us.