Here are some of our photos from the trip. (Because of the length of this trip, I am breaking the photos up into several different pages. This fifth section is from our day camping at Lake Manasarovar.)
1) Because we finished the Kailash trip a day early, we went down and spent a day camping at Lake Manasarovar, the holiest lake in Tibet. This photo shows Mt. Kailash on the right and the Chiu monastery on the hill to the left. This was the view from our campsite. We had a great day just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery around the lake.
2) This photos shows our camp site. We actually camped two nights on the shores of Lake Manasarovar. Again, the sense of scale is overwhelming. The lake is huge and is ringed with enormous snow capped mountains. You can see mountains in Tibet, Nepal and India from this lake, so you really feel like you are on top of the world.
3) On the southern shore of Lake Manasarovar is Gurla Mountain another sacred peak. At times, we could clearly see both Kailash and Gurla from our campsite, as well as look across the blue waters of Lake Manasarovar.
4) Feral dogs are everywhere in Tibet. This one, which we named "Sam" after a friend's similiar looking pup, adopted us at the campsite. He then dutifully defended his food source...uh, I mean, his friends...from the other dogs (as well as from crows and sea gulls).
Sam is a player
Love 'em and wait for the next
Woof! He loves lamb bones
5) This is a photo of our Tibetan guide Tsewang. His english was pretty limited but he was a terrific guide. He took fantastic care of us whereever we travelled and he was an excellent chef as well. Our entire trip to Tibet, including arranging our guide and driver, was arranged by Jampa at Wind Horse Travel in Lhasa. We recommend the company to anyone thinking of travelling to Tibet.
6) Tashi, our Tibetan driver, spoke no english but again took great care of us. On our day off, he got us a special tour of the Chiu monastery including having the abbot of the monastery give us a personal tour into the sacred Padmasambava cave. The fish from Lake Manasarovar are considered sacred. This is Tashi looking at some preserved fish which were hanging up inside the monastery.
7) This is the abbot of Chiu monastery. He gave us a tour of the entire monastery and then blessed us with both with a touch on the forehead from a sacred conch shell and by offering us saffron holy water from Lake Manasarovar. I found our visit to this small monastery more moving that our visits to the larger, more well known monasteries just because we got such a personal glimpse of what life is like there.
8) This is the top of the main assembly hall at Chiu monastery. These same emblems decorate the roofs of all monasteries in Tibet (and most also have yellow painted walls) so looking for these statues is a good way of spotting the main building of any monastery complex.
9) Outside the Chiu monastery is an area where lay people can leave offerings. The entire roof of this building is covered with carved mani stones and carved yak skulls. We saw the monk who goes into the local village to beg for food going into this building and gave him an apple we happened to have with us. I doubt we earned as much merit as the people who carved these stones but I hope it helped fill someone's stomach for the evening.
10) Every monastery is encircled with prayer wheels. I took this artsy shot at the entrance to the Chiu monastery.
11) Bathrooms in Far Western Tibet are a challenge. This, however, was the most luxurious set of facilities we encountered. It was relatively newly built and was up on the hillside above our campsite, practically invisible from the site since it blended into the scenery so well.
12) Here you have it, the visual part of asian toilet experience. A three foot high wall for privacy and a few holes in the floor. Normally, these would be completely gross but this one was new enough and lightly used enough to be almost pleasant.
13) What this toilet lacked in privacy, comfort and pleasant odors it made up for with scenery. This is just part of the panorama available to the visitor while taking care of business.
14) Remember I mentioned that Tsewang was a great chef? Well, he knocked out this picnic lunch for us during our day off. Curried potatoes, rice, fried spam, stir fried lamb and deep fried apple slices. Yummy!
15) These gorgeous orange ducks were hanging out on the lake shore next to our campsite for the day we were there. There were also flocks of sea gulls, geese and some kind of diving bird living on lake.
16) In the afternoon of our day off, the clouds cleared off Mt. Kailash. I climbed up onto the ridge above our campsite and took this picture of the mountain.
17) A panorama photo of Lake Manasarovar taken from our campsite.
18) Drinking the water from Lake Manasarovar is supposed to be good for your health. Unfortunately, it contains bacteria that western digestive systems don't like. Each morning, Tashi would get water from the lake and then Tsewang would boil it for us for tea. I love this photo of Tashi out collecting our morning water.
19) Our final view of Lake Manasarovar as we were leaving was from this pole of prayer flags. We stopped to offer up a prayer at this spot on both the way in and as we drove out. It is really a beautiful, beautiful place.
Go back to the fourth '06 Tibet Photo Page.
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