Military or police checkpoints are set up every few kilometers on the roads security checks are necessary to get into the main market area surrounding Jokhang temple, where soldiers carrying automatic weapons mill around, mingling with children playing on the sidewalks.ĭespite it all, religion remains a mainstay of Tibetan life. Yes, it is impossible to ignore the all-encompassing military presence, especially in the capital, Lhasa (it is also verboten to take photographs of military, police, or any state buildings). Some old “Tibet hands” claim that Tibet has become completely Sinocized in the past few years, losing everything that marks it as unique as Beijing strengthens its hold on the country. And its surprisingly sweet meat is frequently stir-fried with highland barley - known as tsampa, the staple grain of the region - cooked in a succession of hot pots, tucked into momos (Himalayan dumplings), stewed with potatoes, mixed into thukpa or soup noodles, or increasingly, shaped into patties for burgers or grilled as steaks. Its stomach is curried its tongue cooked with saffron. Its lungs and intestines are sautéed with fresh green chilies. Its hooves are boiled with a “special sauce”. This most sacred of animals in Tibet feeds, clothes and shelters the Tibetan people, warms their houses, sometimes drives their ploughs. The high altitude and the toll it takes on the land may explain the Tibetan diet: yak, yak and more yak. Better than any physical examination, the altitude pinpoints your body’s frailties with unbending cruelty. Whatever weak point you have, the thin air will attack it (for the record, mine is my pitiful lung capacity). Others have problems with gas or constipation, or its complete opposite. Some people are afflicted by sleeplessness due to the lack of oxygen (best advice: stay in your bed until morning. Tibet’s high altitude - up to a little over 5,000 m above sea level in some parts of our drive, marking its plateau as the world’s highest region - means every move, every utterance, everything that requires any sort of effort must be mentally weighed and assessed: how necessary is this action? Is it worth giving up some of my oxygen? This most essential of calculations permeates everything: appetite wanes as digestive activity tapers to a bare minimum, and pins and needles tickle your extremities and face as your body concentrates on feeding oxygen to your heart and brain. On this trip, I was seriously, perilously, unbelievably close to actually losing weight. It sounded OK on paper, exciting even - who wouldn’t want to see the “roof of the world”? How hard could a train and car ride be, right? The deal was this: a 24-hour train ride from Xining to Lhasa - where we were the only non-Chinese tourists on board - followed by a short stay in Lhasa and a car ride winding through the Himalayan mountains, skirting Base Camp and on into the Kathmandu Valley.
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