Group picture In front of the Budala Palace from distance. We were told by our local tour guide that the area we are standing on will be turned into an amusement park soon. It is about a mile from the Badala Palace, the symbol of Tibet Buddhist religion.
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On Top of the Budala Palace I posed a picture on top of the Budala Palace on the side of the Red House. Notice that the walls of the building are in dark red color, hence the name. The admission fee is about 90 Chinese Yuan (11 US$ ).
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Tibetan Tour Guide I am with our local tour
guide. She is only about 20 years old and seemed to be a heavy smoker.
She told me that she live in Hangzhou for a few years on Chinese government's
study program. That's where she studied English and Mandarin.
When I visited Tibet in 1987, most of the tour guides were Han Chinese.
There are more Tibetans working in public and government jobs than it used
to be over a decade ago.
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Working on the Roof Local Tibetan people are working on top of a roof to their singing rhythm. They are in fact trying to smooth the roof using the most primitive but enjoyable way to do it. The statue is the Buddhist Cycle of life with two rams on both sides.
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Monthly Feast Monks in a Buddhist temple are preparing their monthly feast, dough noodles. The monk to my right hand side later invited us to visit his living quarter behind the temple. Signs inside the temple say "Photos Not Allowed," but the monks let us take some pictures.
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A Tibetan Monk Speaks Good English We had
a good visit with this Tibetan monk who speaks good English. He said
that he listens to Voice of America every night, despite there are rules
within the temple. He lives in a one bedroom apartment. He
uses gas for cooking.
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Tibetan Monks' Living Quarter We were invited
to visit the living quarter of the Tibetan monks behind their temple.
The monks either have a single room or a roommate in the building behind
us in this picture. The rooms are very tiny just enough for the monks
to have a bed and a corner as kitchen. They use a communal rest room
inside the building.
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Monk's Bedroom This monk comes from China's
Ganshu Province. He said that his parents pay for his tuition to
study Buddhist texts in the Temple. He works a little bit in the
temple to pay for the room and board. They get their food mostly
from public and private donation. The entrance to the
bedroom is to the right side of the picture and to the left hand side is
a small corner for him to use as a kitchen.
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Amy With an Army Guy Amy poses in a picture with a Chinese Army officers. This is the exit stairs of the Budala Palace. This is also the 'White House" area since all the buildings on this side of the palace are all in white color.
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Yak Ride I am riding on a yak attended
by the Tibetan monks in front of a temple. It costs 5 Chinese Yuan
to ride and take pictures. Many fun things have been commercialized,
just like in most part of China. In fact, Lhasa has been better than
else where in China.
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Devoted Prayers Local Tibetan people are
praying. Behind them is the busiest market place in Lhasa.
Tibetans vendors, like most Chinese vendors, are good in negotiating prices
with tourists. We bought some T-shirts with yak design for
30 Chinese Yuan (about $4) each. The vendor asked for 50 Yuan
at first. We bargained down to 30 Yuan.
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Dalai Lama's Palace Dalai Lama's
Palace is well preserved for local Tibetans and tourists to visit.
No picture is allowed inside the palace. When we walked into the
living room of the palace, there was a little mount of paper money tribute
in the center of the room, all in Chinese one or two cents paper bills.
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