At the Rooftop of the World

Yikes, I've been slacking on this thing!! That's a side effect of being back in the real world and having a real full time job. Boo. But I don't want to talk about that right now. I'm going to post more pictures from the trip instead.

I'm jumping ahead a bit and going straight to Tibet, mainly because I had the good fortune of seeing the Dalai Lama speak at the Bill Graham Civic a few weekends ago. It was a two-day lecture series, for a total of eight hours of Buddhist fun. The topic was Dependent Origination, and he chose a few texts through which to teach it. I have to admit that much of what he talked about was way over my head - but I wasn't alone in that. Most people I spoke to said they struggled to understand, and in fact, the SJ Mercury ran an article after the first day discussing how much of the audience had difficulty comprehending the lectures, due to the deeply philosophical and Buddhist nature of the topic. At the beginning of the first day, and at the end of the second, His Holiness reassured us and said not to worry if we didn't understand, because Dependent Origination is something that takes a lot of study and meditation to truly understand. So that made us all feel better. But still, I'm a bit unsure why he chose a topic of that nature for such a large general audience....perhaps it was more chosen for the monastery in San Jose that invited him rather than the rest of us. But either way, I was thrilled to finally be able to hear him speak in person...he has been one of my personal heroes for many years now.

I also realized that I haven't really shown my Tibet photos to anyone yet, and it was one of the places I was the most excited about going. I'll post some of them now, and more later....and I have a lot to say about my reactions to Tibet, but I'll save that for later as well.

This is the front of the Jokhang, one of the holiest temples in Lhasa.

Full prostration prayers in front of the Jokhang.

This is the view from the roof of the Jokhang.

The Potala Palace as viewed from the Jokhang.

Prayer Wheels

The Potala Palace, former home of the Dalai Lamas.

I was really lucky with the Potala Palace actually -- there are a limited number of visitors let in each day, and you usually have to go early in order to reserve a space for the following day. I showed up my 4th day there at about 2 in the afternoon with the intention of making a reservation, but because I was only 1 person, they let me in right then.


On my 28th birthday - going to Tibet was actually my present to myself, and I made it very deliberate effort to be there on my actual birthday. I ended up meeting a girl who shared the same birthday, so we gathered a group of other travelers and celebrated by eating a yak-free dinner. You have to have visited Tibet to understand the need for yak-free meals every after a few days!