Limping Marathon Runner

It has been a really eventful day. Moments of highs and lows (and I mean really low). Let us start with Potala Palace. Reaching there early, the way up that we took was interesting. Vast land (and mountains) as view on our way up and it is just awesome. Potala Palace is said to be a must visit attraction. Reconstruction work is spotted around the paths. Once we are ready to enter to the Red/White Palace, no picture taking is allowed. We walked around to various chambers used for prayers or tombs for Dalai Lamas. The inscriptions around and transcripts of teachings in pigeon holes were simply facinating. Seeing all the Buddhist statues around, I was overwhelmed with emotions. Yet, in my head, I felt blank. The feeling is beyond explanation. Probably, I felt empty, hollow and insignificant in such a majestic architecture. Some parts of the Palace seem to be built or carved out of rock or part of a mountain, where the rest of it seems to be built from straw or wood and topped patched up with cement on the surface. This grand structure (red and white Palace) is simply spectacular. Too bad, pictures are not allow. There are CCTVs, guards and motion sensors all around. Religion can be sensitive. We have to respect that.

We finished our walk in Potala Palace around 1pm or so, where Saya wanted to head back to the hotel. I think she needs a rest. Kenny and I hopped onto a trishaw and went over to Jokhang temple to meet up with Jeffrey. The three of us stopped at New Mandala Restaurant which happens to have a roof top seating overlooking the Jokhang Temple. I ordered a vegetable noodle soup and honey lemon tea. Nice! This restaurant has a roof top toilet too! Pee with a mountain view, anyone? Awesome.

We finished lunch by 3pm and made our way towards Jokhang Temple. Though a little disappointed that Jokhang Temple's main doors were closed, we still see devotees praying towards it. I took a few shots around the area. Okay. We walked around part of the Kora route where there are stores selling decorative stuff and handicrafts all around. It was at one stretch, I pointed out that there seems to be some prayer wheels around. There is a row of smaller prayer wheels surrounding a small building, housing a huge prayer wheel. There were pilgrims spinning the huge prayer wheel. We walked around the building and then down the lane. We saw some people walking into the next building which seemed like some living quarters. But, it turned out to be a small temple of some sort. We followed the locals and found a two storey high Buddha statue in the building. At level one, we were at the statue's feet and had to peep up to see the Buddha's facial features. Walking up to the second level, we came face to face with the Buddha. After a while, we got out of the temple and carried on along the lane. Stopping just outside a door, a beggar asked for some money. We stepped through a door that seems to lead to some attached corridor where there were plenty of locals moving around. We followed through, passing a row of prayer wheels with a chapel on our right before reaching a cooking stove area where some people were boiling water. Just at the left bend, we saw something that blew my mind off. In a small assembly area (a square of some sort), there were 100-150 pilgrims sitting around, chanting. The pilgrims were really friendly and invited us to walk around by motioning to us. We signaled not to take pictures in the compound. There are two long Tibetan horns in the temple and we walked to level two and three. Each level had pilgrims sitting all around and chanting. At level three, there is a small room, filled with religious items. We paused for a while before taking the flight of stairs back to level one, facing the two Tibetan horns. We wanted to walk out to the front. But, we did not know if it was rude to do so. When someone walked in, we followed them to move out to the square and made our way out to the main road. It was not too long that we reached Jokhang Temple after walking along the main road. Passing by the side door of Jokhang Temple only made us we realised that it was not closed for the day at all (as opposed to what we thought). Jeffrey did not want to go into the Temple and went off to walk on this own. EndlessTrail and I proceeded to visit chapels in Jokhang Temple and taking pictures on the roof top. There is a long row of prayer wheels surround the chapels compound and I did not count them as I spun them while walking.