CHINA - TIBET May 2018

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Lieschen at the Great Wall of China,

The Forbidden City in Beijing was of course initially forbidden to the public

but now welcomes massive crowds,

Multiple rooftops inside the Forbidden City,

A back street in Beijing, a sharp contrast to modern Beijing rising all around it,

Tasty, live scorpions can be cooked for you before your eyes

at a night market in Beijing that abuts a modern shopping esplanade,

Peter & Lieschen in front of prayer wish tags

at the Small Goose Pagoda in Xian,

Tibet: The mountain pass between Tsedang and the Samye Monastery.

Prayer flags have festooned Tibetan mountain passes for centuries,

but high voltage transmission lines are very recent.

Lieschen among the prayer flags at the mountain pass.

The Chinese government has eliminated the need to climb over many mountain passes

by building tunnels.

The Samye Monastery, the oldest (775 C.E.) in Tibet

Tibet now has 70 monasteries, down from 2,500 before Mao's "Cultural Revolution".

Guardian gods at the entrance to the Samye Monastery.

Lhasa, Tibet, at 1200 feet above sea level, the highest city in the world,

where the Han Chinese now outnumber the ethnic Tibetans.

The Potala Palace still dominates Lhasa, in spite of the construction boom.

The Potala was the seat of both the Tibetan secular and religious governments

and was the winter residence of the Dali Lama.

The golden roofs of the Jokhang (viewed from the Potala Palace),

the principal and holiest temple in Tibet

Pilgrims in front of the Jokhang Temple

A back street in Lhasa

Tibetan women leaving the Sera Monastery (completed in 1419 C.E.) near Lhasa

The monks at the Sera Monastery arrive for the afternoon "debate".

The standing senior monks lead the "debate" by firing questions at the seated disciples,

complete with extravagant gestures and hand clapping (right palm down for a correct answer).

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� Peter Bierstedt