Classic Tibet

Places To See

Drak Yerpa

For those with a particular interest in Tibetan Buddhism, Drak Yerpa hermitage is one of the holiest cave retreats in Ü region. Many ascetics have sojourned here and contributed to the area's great sanctity. The site is deeply peaceful and has stunning views. The caves are accessed via the village of Yerpa, 30km (18mi) northeast of Lhasa on a good road.

Tashilhunpo Monastery

Tashilhunpo is one of the few monasteries in Tibet that weathered the stormy seas of the Cultural Revolution relatively unscathed. It is a real pleasure to explore the busy cobbled lanes twisting around the ancient buildings - the monastery is essentially a walled town in its own right.

The monastery's standing rocketed when the fifth Dalai Lama declared his teacher - then abbot of Tashilhunpo - to be a manifestation of Öpagme (Amitabha; a deification of the Buddha's faculty of perfected cognition and perception). Thus Tashilhunpo became the seat of an important lineage: the Panchen Lamas. Panchen means 'great scholar' and the title was traditionally bestowed on abbots of Tashilhunpo.

Jokhang Temple

Also known in Tibetan as the Tsuglhakhang, the Jokhang is the most revered religious structure in Tibet. Although little remains of its 7th-century origins - most of its sculptures postdate the Cultural Revolution - it is thick with the smell of yak butter and the murmur of mantras, and bustles with awed pilgrims. An unrivalled Tibetan experience.

Pre-Departure Information

When to go?

Although the Tibetan climate is not as harsh as many people imagine, be prepared for sudden drops in temperature at night, particularly in western Tibet. The most pleasant time of year is between May and early November, after which temperatures start to plummet. However, in May and June there is a wind factor to consider and dust storms are not unusual. During July and August you may find roads temporarily washed out along the Friendship Highway to Nepal. These two months usually see around half of Tibet's annual rainfall.

October is the best time to make a trip out to the east. Lhasa and its environs don't get really cold until the end of November. Although winter is very cold, many restaurants are shut and snowfalls can sometimes make travel difficult, some travellers swear by these months. There are few travellers about and Lhasa, for example, is crowded with nomads and at its most colourful.

March is a politically sensitive month (the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising and flight of the Dalai Lama) and there is occasional tightening of restrictions on travellers heading into Tibet at this time. It's worth trying to make your trip coincide with one of Tibet's main festivals. Losar (New Year) is an excellent (although cold) time to be in Lhasa. Saga Dawa (April or May) is also a good time to be in Lhasa or Mt Kailash.

Travel Visa Overview

There are three levels of bureaucracy you need to jump through to travel in Tibet: a visa to get into China, a Tibet Tourism Bureau (TTB) permit to get into Tibet and an Alien Travel Permit to travel to certain regions of Tibet. The current regulations (which could change tomorrow) state that all foreigners wanting to visit Tibet must be part of a group (though a 'group' can be only one person!). Then you can obtain the TTB permit required to buy an air ticket into Tibet. During the high season (July to September) you may also need a return ticket to either Kathmandu, Chéngdū or Golmud, and perhaps a couple of nights' accommodation.

The reality is that most travellers buy a package through a budget travel agency. The cheapest way into Tibet is an air package to Lhasa from Chéngdū, which includes the flight, the semi-mythical TTB permit (which you'll never see) and, usually, transfer to Chéngdū airport. On arrival in Lhasa these temporary 'groups' disband. It is now also possible to fly to Lhasa from Zhōngdiàn in Yúnnán by first arranging the ticket and permits through a travel agency in Kūnmíng.

From Kathmandu, you will have to sign up for a tour to Tibet to get the TTB permit that will allow you to cross the border at Zhāngmù. Moreover, it's currently impossible to enter Tibet from Nepal on an independent visa, even if you have one in your passport. Travellers will have their Chinese visa cancelled and be put on a group visa, which comes as a separate piece of paper rather than a stamp in your passport. It is possible to get your own personal group visa (!), which is well worth asking for as you are then free to travel independently after the tour ends for the duration of your group visa, without the hassle of having to split from a group visa. It is possible to extend a group visa, and some have tried changing a group visa to an individual visa. However, you cannot do this in Tibet. For this you need to go to Chéngdū or Xīníng (possibly Kūnmi'ng), and even that might not work. Ah, the Chinese Catch-22!

Once in Tibet, entry to anywhere outside of Lhasa prefecture and the cities of Shigatse and Tsetang (ie to places such as Everest Base Camp, Samye, Sakya and Mt Kailash) requires you to procure a travel permit. To get a permit you again have to be a member of a tour group arranged through an authorised travel agency. At the time of research Shigatse's Public Security Bureau (PSB) was sometimes issuing travel permits to individual travellers for independent travel along the Friendship Highway to Nepal, but generally only if travellers fibbed a bit.

Electricity

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Electrical Plugs

European plug with two circular metal pins

Health Information

Hepatitis

The vaccine for Hepatitis A (eg, Avaxim, Havrix 1440 or VAQTA) provides long-term immunity (possibly more than 10 years) after an initial injection and a booster at six to 12 months. Alternatively, an injection of gamma globulin can provide short-term protection against hepatitis A - two to six months, depending on the dose given. It is not a vaccine, but is ready-made antibody collected from blood donations. It is reasonably effective and, unlike the vaccine, it is protective immediately, but because it is a blood product, there are concerns about its long-term safety. Hepatitis A vaccine is also available in a combined form, Twinrix, with hepatitis B vaccine. Three injections over a six-month period are required, the first two providing substantial protection against hepatitis A.

China (although not so much Tibet) is one of the world's great reservoirs of hepatitis B infection. This disease is spread by contact with blood or by sexual activity. Vaccination involves three injections, the quickest course being over three weeks with a booster at 12 months.

Poliomyelitis

This serious, easily transmitted disease is still prevalent in many developing countries, including China. Everyone should keep up to date with this vaccination, which is normally given in childhood. A booster every 10 years maintains immunity.

Rabies

Officially there is no rabies in Tibet. All the same, there are an awful lot of rabid-looking dogs about. Recent surveys by the Chinese indicate that instances of rabies may have occurred in Qinghai, which borders Tibet. Vaccination should be considered if you are spending a month or longer in Tibet, especially if you are cycling, handling animals, caving or travelling to remote areas, and for children (who may not report a bite). Pretravel rabies vaccination involves having three injections over 21 to 28 days. The vaccine will not give you 100% immunity, but will greatly extend the time you have for seeking treatment. If someone who has been vaccinated is bitten or scratched by an animal they will require two booster injections of vaccine, while those not vaccinated will require more.

Tuberculosis

The risk of tuberculosis (TB) to travellers is usually very low, unless you will be living with or closely associated with local people in high-risk areas. As most healthy adults do not develop symptoms, a skin test before and after travel to determine whether exposure has occurred may be considered. A vaccination (BCG) is recommended for children and young adults living in these areas for three months or more.

Typhoid

This is an important vaccination to have in Tibet where hygiene standards are low. Available either as an injection or oral capsules. A combined hepatitis A-typhoid vaccine was launched recently but its availability is still limited - check with your doctor to find out its status in your country.

Diphtheria

Vaccinations for diptheria and tetanus are usually combined and are recommended for everyone. After an initial course of three injections (usually given in childhood), boosters are necessary every 10 years.

Weather Information

Most of Tibet is a high-altitude desert plateau over 4000m (13,123ft) and many passes exceed 5000m (16,404ft). Days in summer (June to September) are warm, sunny and dry, from low to mid 20°C (70-75°F), but temperatures drop quickly at night. Winter is not as cold as you might expect, still averaging around 7°C (44°F) during the day in January but plunging to around -10°C (14°F) at night. The best time to visit depends on what part of Tibet you're heading to, but for most areas May, June and October are the best months.

History and Culture

Pre-20th Centure History

Little is known of the beginnings of the Tibetan people. They originated from the nomadic, warlike tribes known as the Qiang. The Yarlung kings unified much of central Tibet and extended it into central Asia, northern India and Pakistan. It was through conquest that Buddhism made its appearance in the kingdom, although bloodthirsty theological disputes weakened its support and clerical monastic Buddhism experienced a 150-year hiatus, coinciding with the collapse of the Tibetan empire in 842.

By 907, China had recovered almost all the territory it had lost to the Tibetans, and the two states had little contact until Genghis Khan's arrival in 1239. The Mongols were impressed enough by the now resurgent Tibetan Buddhism that they made it the state religion of the Mongol Empire in East Asia. The collapse of the Mongol empire ended the relationship a century later.

In the 15th century, the rise to power of the Gelugpa order of monks, whose lamas were believed to be reincarnations of their predecessors, once more attracted Mongol approval. The third such lama received the title of 'Dalai', meaning 'Ocean', and implying 'Ocean of Wisdom'. It marked the Gelugpa's entry into the turbulent waters of worldly affairs. Not surprisingly, the local monastic elite saw the alliance as a threat, and conflict ensued. In 1611 the Tsang king attacked Drepung and Sera monasteries. The fourth Dalai Lama fled Tibet and died at the age of 25 (he was probably poisoned) in 1616. In 1640 Mongol forces intervened. The Tibetan king was taken captive and later executed. The great fifth Dalai Lama assumed power within Tibet, which was pacified with Mongol backing by 1656.

When he died in 1682, the Tibetan government encountered succession problems: the hastily enthroned sixth Dalai Lama was noted for his 'unbridled licentiousness'. At the same time, relations with the new Chinese Manchu Qing Dynasty quickly soured and in 1705 Mongol forces descended on Lhasa, capturing the Dalai Lama. The choice of his successor was just as controversial. He was deposed during the invasion of a rival group of Mongols in 1717, who were ousted in turn by the Chinese, who brought the seventh Dalai Lama with them. The Chinese were received as liberators by the Tibetans, and Emperor Kang Xi declared Tibet a protectorate of China - a historical precedent for the Communist takeover nearly 250 years later.

The Manchu overlordship appointed a king at one stage, but temporal rule reverted in 1750 to the seventh Dalai Lama, who ruled successfully until his death in 1757. The last Chinese military intervention took place in reaction to a Gurkha invasion from Nepal in 1788. From this time Manchu influence in Tibet receded. One significant outcome of that intervention was a ban on foreign contact, imposed because of fears of British collusion with the Gurkhas.

The Brits lost official contact with Tibet, but, fearing Russian expansion into Central Asia, decided to nip Russian designs in the bud. A 1903 expedition discovered that the Dalai Lama had fled to Mongolia with a Russian 'adviser'. However, an Anglo-Tibetan convention was signed via negotiations with a lama whom the Dalai Lama had appointed as regent in his absence. The accord implied that Tibet was a sovereign power with the right to make treaties of its own. The Manchus objected and in 1906 the British signed a second accord that recognized China's suzerainty over Tibet.

In 1910, with the Manchu Qing Dynasty teetering on the verge of collapse, the Manchus made good on the accord and invaded Tibet, driving the Dalai Lama once again into flight - this time into the arms of the British in India. It was during this period of flight that the Dalai Lama became friends with Sir Charles Bell, a Tibetan scholar and political officer. The relationship was to see the British play an increasingly important role as mediators in problems between Tibet and China.

Modern History

In 1911 a revolution in China toppled the Qing dynasty and the following year the last of the Manchu forces were sent back to China. In 1913 the 13th Dalai Lama returned to Lhasa. For the next 30 years, Tibet enjoyed freedom. British-led attempts at modernisation were resisted, and soon a conservative backlash quashed all ongoing innovations.

The present (14th) Dalai Lama was installed as the Dalai Lama in 1940. The 1950 Communist Chinese 'liberation' of Tibet prompted the Tibetan government to enthrone the 15-year-old 14th Dalai Lama, but it did little to protect the tiny Tibetan army. Britain and India, traditional friends of Tibet, managed to convince the UN not to debate the issue for fear of incurring Chinese disapproval.

The Chinese 17-point Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet promised a one-country, two-systems structure but provided little in the way of guarantees. A rumoured 1959 Chinese plot to kidnap the Dalai Lama triggered an uprising that the Dalai Lama was powerless to prevent. On 17 March, he disappeared, arriving in India fourteen days later.

The Chinese abolished the government and set about reordering Tibetan society. Ill-advised agricultural reforms resulted in mass starvation. The Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) was established in 1965, a year before the Cultural Revolution, a movement that was to cost Tibet dearly. The first Red Guards arrived in Lhasa in July 1966, continuing the destruction of Tibetan cultural and religious monuments over the next three years. Periodic uprisings were brief and subdued brutally. In 1975 foreign journalists described a land whose people had been battered by Chinese-imposed policies and atrocities. That same year, the last CIA-funded Tibetan guerrilla bases, in Mustang, northern Nepal, were closed down.

Repression costs big bucks, so Mao's successor softened the line and called for a revival of Tibetan customs. In mid-1977 it was announced that China would welcome the return of the Dalai Lama and other refugees. Before agreeing to return, the Dalai Lama sent three fact-finding missions, who returned with a catalogue of 1.2 million deaths, the destruction of 6254 monasteries and nunneries, the absorption of two-thirds of Tibet into China, 100,000 Tibetans in labour camps and extensive deforestation. China replied with a plan to improve living conditions and freedoms, dropping taxes for two years and embarking on a program of extended personal freedoms in concert with authoritarian one-party rule.

The early 1980s saw the return of limited religious freedoms, but those who exercised their religious freedoms did so at considerable risk. Talks aimed at bringing the Dalai Lama back broke down in 1983, and the Chinese decided that they did not want the Dalai Lama to return after all. Around this time, Tibet was targeted for mass immigration, and financial incentives were offered to Han Chinese willing to emigrate. In 1984 alone more than 100,000 Han Chinese took advantage of the incentives.

In 1986 tourism came to Tibet, and foreigners were on hand to witness the violent repression of demonstrations in 1987. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama had become a prominent international figure, working tirelessly from his government in exile's base in India. The Chinese rejected his peace plan, which dropped his claim to outright independence. His efforts and commitment to non-violence were rewarded in 1989 with the Nobel Peace Prize.

Tibetans have won back many religious freedoms, but at great expense. Monks and nuns are regarded suspiciously by the authorities and are often subject to arrest and beatings. Han immigration poses the grave danger that Tibetans will become a minority in their own country. Protests and government crackdowns have continued and the Chinese are no closer to reaching an agreement of any kind with the Dalai Lama.

Recent History

While Chinese authorities have trumpeted recent rapid advances in industrial and agricultural output, there is also evidence of a new approach to assimilating Tibet into the motherland. A combination of foreign investment, ongoing Han immigration and exclusive use of Mandarin in higher education ensure that only Sinicised Tibetans will be able to take advantage of progress.

On the positive side, the US government appointed a 'Special Coordinator for Tibet' in 1997, and in 1998, the UN human rights commissioner, Mary Robinson, visited Tibet. There is even talk of a rapprochement between the government in exile and Beijing, and the summer of 2002 saw the first visit to Tibet by a delegation of the Dalai Lama's envoys for a decade. However, as long as there are no further bloody crackdowns in Lhasa, foreign countries are likely to support the status quo to protect important trade relations with China.