Why So Many People Yearn for Tibet

There was a little bit of trepidation before setting off, because of my mother’s worries. After all, the place I was going to was a bit different. But besides the trepidation, excitement was also unmistakable. I had prepared my travel luggage early and checked repeatedly to make sure I had everything ready.

Itinerary:

Day0 Shanghai-Lanzhou

Day1 Lanzhou-Lhasa

Day2 Yaowang Mountain Viewing Platform

Day3 Jokhang Temple

Day4 Lhasa-Basongcuo Scenic Area

Day5 Basongcuo Lake Tour-Sosong Village

Day6 Nanga Bawa Peak-Dainyang Sand Dunes-Bayi Town

Day7 Linzhi-Lhasa

Day8 Lhasa-Namtso

Day9 Lhasa-Yamdrok Lake-Sangding Temple-Lhasa

Day10 Lhasa-Kunming-Shanghai

About Body Adaptation

Altitude Sickness

This is almost everyone’s concern after returning. My mother heard from somewhere that someone was seriously affected by altitude sickness when they drove into Tibet in a motorhome. Knowing that I was going, she kept reminding me that I would have altitude sickness and was extremely worried. I had been suffering from allergic cough for a long time before going, but fortunately, I didn’t have pneumonia. So I brought the Chinese medicine prescribed by the doctor along the way. The medicine cannot be stopped.

I started taking Rhodiola rosea at the beginning of April for the trip at the end of April. Therefore, I chose to fly to Lanzhou. The train to Tibet also gave me a chance to experience the legendary “Sky Road”.

I arrived at 10 am. I had a slight headache all the time on the train, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. I just reminded myself to slow down and slow down again. After checking into the hotel, I slept for a while, but I woke up quickly. Then, fully armed, I walked towards the Potala Palace on Deji Nanlu, where there were willows floating everywhere. On the first day, I felt like I had traveled to the age of 80 or 90 in a time machine. If I walked a little faster, I would feel my heart beating faster. Even listening to fast-paced music would make my heart race… When the team gathered and started the kick off, my blood oxygen was 88, not bad. After watching Mayday’s Dalian concert live, it was finally time to go to sleep. It was a long night. I had a headache, I felt like vomiting. I dared not cover myself too little for fear of catching cold. I was sweating a lot under the covers. The learning experience was that I felt good but shouldn’t jump around.

Fortunately, the city walk in Jokhang Temple was in the afternoon on the second day. I had slept for a while after dawn and missed the time slot for visiting the inside of the Potala Palace. After May 1st, you need to make an appointment, so this time I didn’t have a suitable time to go again. Thinking back, I don’t seem to regret or feel regretful. The tension and discomfort of being in a new place are real. To ensure the smooth progress of the following itinerary, I would make the same choice if I had to go through it again. Life has no script. In making choices again and again, we learn to honestly face ourselves and the world.

After the city walk in Jokhang Temple on the second day, I still felt a clear throbbing pain in my temples. I went back and took a pain reliever. Fortunately, I slept through the night. In the following days, I could at least sleep until I woke up, although I often woke up briefly, as if I had something on my mind. From Lhasa to Linzhi and back to Lhasa, it was okay. I didn’t have the nightmare of the first day again.

Dryness

When you come to the west, you will clearly feel the dryness. After a few days, my hands were obviously dry and peeling. The leader reminded me to drink more water, but I often needed to find a toilet when I was on the bus to maintain balance. Bringing a hand cream is a good suggestion.

Sun Protection

Hats, glasses and sunscreen, as reminded in various guides, should not be forgotten. Although a short week will not immediately turn you into a plateau red, you will still get tanned. When the bus stopped, everyone, regardless of gender, was applying sunscreen. The most important thing is not only to protect yourself from getting tanned, but also to prevent sunburn or peeling, which is something to be more vigilant about.



The Potala Palace on the 50 yuan bill, the Jokhang Temple full of Tibetan Buddhism history, the Basongcuo Lake which is still beautiful even though you missed the ten miles of peach blossoms in Linzhi, the mysterious and shy Nanga Bawa, the tranquil and beautiful Yamdrok Lake, and the snow mountains, yaks and prayer flags that never stop along the way.

Every time, I could feel the beauty of the scenery from the exclamations of my companions. A slightly composed picture would be like a wallpaper. 

The surprise seemed to start as soon as I stepped onto the train to Lhasa.

The long-lost yellow soil, snow-capped mountains, blue sky and white clouds, which should have been ordinary natural sights, are now precious images of the world.





Qinghai Lake Again

Because of the bright sunshine, the Qinghai Lake I saw from afar was even more beautiful than the one I stayed by the lake before. The blue lake water is like the deepest eyes. Once you notice it, it’s hard to betray this deep affection and beauty, so it attracts all your attention. The bright blue sky, the textured white clouds, the gray-yellow lake shore, the intoxicating lake water, and the dotted sheep in the distance. It’s a peaceful beauty that only the eyes can record.

The high-speed train at five in the afternoon, which should have been familiar with the setting sun, now had a dazzling sunshine like noon outside the window. When I arrived in Golmud at 7:30 pm, the sky was still bright. My parents on the other end of the phone had already gone for a walk and come home. I didn’t sleep well on the train, got up early, and the sky was already bright at 7 o’clock. There was a thin layer of snow on the grass by the railway, I wonder what kind of wind, frost, snow and rain I had climbed over during yesterday’s clattering journey. Suddenly I had a feeling that my life had been extended. Watching sunrise and sunset seemed to be a luxury in my life. The golden sunlight shone through the white lace curtains of the carriage, just falling on the shoulders of the girl opposite me. The girl whispered a few words to the boy she was with, then lowered her head to look at her phone. A peaceful life, perhaps, is no more than this.



Basongcuo Lake

Six hours of hiking wasn’t obviously tiring. There were almost no other residents or tourists along the way. The local old man who was a tour guide was very enthusiastic. He explained all kinds of plants and their uses along the way. He was like an elder around us, who liked to tell the legends with certainty and liked to praise his children with pride and humility. We imagined what Linzhi would look like with peach blossoms in full bloom. We looked through the gaps in the trees and saw the different layers of plants distributed vertically against the blue sky and white clouds on the opposite side. We wanted to distinguish them but we had no words. When the sun was shining, every frame was like a cure for the eyes.





Nanga Bawa Peak

This 7782m peak has not yet been conquered by humans. It is always shrouded in mist and is also known as the Shy Girl Peak. Seeing its true face as the mist gradually dispersed, the joy was indescribable. High mountains seem to always show their grandeur in a low-key way, making you see the insignificance of mankind. It was truly a blessing to meet such a peak.

The viewing spot is in Sosong Village at 2700m. The Yarlung Tsangpo River flows beneath our feet. Standing at the edge of the cliff, you can see the canyon. The Yarlung Tsangpo River in the textbook is now like a stream in front of your house. You can only feel the magnificence of the sound of the roaring water when you get close. The plain on the opposite side is now full of green, and you can count the scattered houses. Your gaze goes upwards, and you see the gradually increasing altitude and snow mountains. The clouds wander freely, engraving the changes of time, setting off the unrestrained sunshine. Unlike the Tyndall phenomenon in the forest, the light beams are always misty and ambiguous. Here, large clouds gather, leaving large areas empty, and the sunlight shines directly on the green village. It is bright and clear, like the legendary light of God, a lucky blessing on this place beneath your feet. It is the scene I love most at this moment.

About People

Compared with Tibetan Buddhist religious culture and principles, I seem to be more interested in ordinary people I meet along the way.

Have a cup of sweet tea for 80 cents at Guangming Sweet Tea House, everyone laughs and says it’s actually Assam milk tea. When I was a child, I remember going to teahouses with my grandfather. My impression was full of crowded benches and smoky tobacco smells. There are many people here, but it’s not particularly crowded. I didn’t notice any smoke. The place was full of local people of all ages, men playing cards and laughing, girls sitting in a row, looking straight at us as we walked past. The owner’s wife was running around with a big teapot, filling our cups with sweet tea and collecting money from the tables. We, the outsiders, were also curious about the stories behind those eyes. Is this their place for rest and contemplation, or is it their social place? Are they talking about the outside world or the same mundane things of life?

Not far away, the history and legends of the 7th century are still being sung. The Jokhang Temple is where the great Songtsän Gampo, revered in the hearts of the Tibetans, and the picture in my memory from history textbooks truly coincide. The story of the life-size Buddha and the sheep and camel dung has been mentioned many times along the way. Precious murals, exquisite Thangkas, and one statue after another, gradually become the smell of butter lamps in my memory. The woman prostrating outside the Jokhang Temple square; the old man prostrating alone outside the Potala Palace I saw for several days in a row; the young man with ice tea in his back pocket and protective gear for prostration on his knees on Barkhor Street; the young monk in Sangding Temple looking at us curiously… They are still vivid in my memory after many days. Those prostrations touch the heartstrings.

In the Jokhang Temple, Lobsang said that you can pray, but here most people pray for the well-being of all beings, or at least for the happiness of all those you know. It was a moment of shock. I still can’t clearly distinguish between the Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug schools. However, that casual explanation stayed with me for a long time. It seems disrespectful to discuss their faith too much. In our ordinary lives with a lack of religious faith, what could be our faith?

Uncle Feng always said that we can defeat time with words, but I think perhaps our ordinary people’s faith can only be defeated by time with time.

There are people around me who have been in one job for 20 years. Suddenly, there are moments that will amaze you. When I think about Mayday, a band for 20 years, I don’t believe they are like children, a giddy fan mentality. Street performances, fame at a young age, they have experienced enlisting in the army and returning, developing the mainland market, getting married and having children, and world tours. They may have been to 99% of the places that most fans haven’t been. They may have seen what the morning at 4 am is like in those places. Any 40-year-old adult around me always has stories about wine and life. In a thousand mundane lives, there are always elements that you can’t experience until you reach that age. This is the weight of time and the resistance to it. When you cross the obstacles of time, the bland persistence becomes your own faith and the faith of many others. Ashin often emphasizes his luck on various occasions. I think they are lucky. Hard-working and talented people are never the only ones. It’s really lucky to be able to let more people hear your voice. But, but, life is never a chicken soup article. Most of the so-called success, because yesterday is too close and tomorrow is too far, what you want to do at the beginning is just now, just want to play music, just want to enjoy the applause and cheers. After becoming Mayday for everyone, Ashin often says frankly that sometimes it’s hard to dismount the tiger. Those four words are followed by a smile, but the stories behind them sound a bit bitter. When fame is in sight, youth has already faded. They have walked barefoot through the absurdity of the world. If they sang about the suffering of life, Mayday wouldn’t be Mayday for everyone. Life is like this. There is more weariness and less miracle. Everyone can find a sense of frustration that they can relate to. But Mayday has a footnote. They have been expressing their belief in this noisy world. The original simple colloquial expressions, when a group of people have believed for 20 years, silently defeat time and become a kind of faith in ordinary life. The mundane life is still about food, clothing, housing, and transportation, school, work, and love. It’s a kind of fortitude to be a simpleton and a lazy person with your own persistence, a kind of fortitude to face whatever the wind brings. Twenty years have told all kinds of stories about the human world, but they have been expressing and encouraging themselves and everyone who listens to Mayday. Ashin always says sincerely, “I hope you go and do what you love. I just hope that on this road, Mayday can be your background music.” I remember the boss sent me some text about leadership yesterday. The logic of successful people always has a place for merging similar categories. There is thinking, execution, and persistence.

We always envy and admire those who have faith. Maybe we just don’t persevere and believe enough.

About My Companions

This is my second time joining the Straw Man long-distance tour. I met companions with all kinds of personalities. I met kind and naive Tibetan tour guides. I met a cute driver. Because of the night snow blocking the mountains, we played games for an hour at the entrance of the Namtso Scenic Area at 4700M; we danced around the bonfire in Sosong Village at night and roasted mushrooms playfully; we posed for group photos by the Yangzhuo Lake at 4400M; we always looked for toilets when we stopped the car on a 10+h journey; the game of who is the angel and the label that I will never draw again; the unfinished mobile game we played halfway through; the sunset outside the car window when we summarized the journey; and all kinds of food that is not suitable for posting late at night… Maybe everyone has different reasons and different stories to meet. We saw the same or different scenery, and we also took away our own experiences, feelings, and courage on the journey. Blessings.