TIBET A SENSE OF WONDER...

These worlds are the title of a Van Morrison tune but, also are the only worlds wich allow me to express my emotion the first time i have seen the NAM TSO lake. This lake is 4.700m altitude and its surface is 1.900 squared meters and it’s surrounded by mountains height 7.000 meters.

During the summer there’s a camping but in November the place is almost desert except a Buddhist Temple.

It’s very difficoult for me to describe what was our (my wife and me) feeling : only the cold wind, the silence, the sensation to be very close to the nature…the  landscape was almost desert, only buzzards hunting small mammals.

Why we decided to visit Tibet in November? First of all because there, is low season so probably the best period to visit a country, despite in November Tibet is cold and some hotels don’t have heating! The second reason because in November peasants don’t need to care the fields anymore, so they can take time to go to  pilgrimage to Lasha (pron. Hasa) which is the capital but also the sacred city.

Just few words about pilgrimages : some pilgrims move by bus and the trips could take at least twenty days, but some pilgrimages last two or three years (yes YEARS) infact some pilgrims they move from very remotes corners of the country by walk, is quite usual to meet them walking (and sleeping indeeed) along the road. But at the end of their adventure the sacred city is still await for them. Belive me it’s an eruption of joy and happiness to see the pilgrims invasion in the centre of Lasha. It’s a melange of pure fun due to the fact those people wich come from small villages deep in the mountains can visit the capital and in meantime they can light inceses or candles in the temples of the SACRED CITY….

NOTICE THE CHINESE ARMY ON PATROL. THEY 'RE EVERYWHERE IN THE OLD PART OF LHASA : EVERY CROSSROAD THER'S A CHECK POINT ON THE RƠOF OF THE BULDINGS TOO.