Tibet Tour

Authentic Nepal Treks an Adventure Travel, begins in Lhasa, the ancient capital of Tibet. We will stay at the Mandala Hotel in the spiritual center of Lhasa, the Jolkhang temple and Barkhor Bazzar. Built from a dream by the sixth century Dharma King Songtsen Gampo, an emanation of Avolokitishvara, it houses Tibet's most famous statue the Jowo. The Jowo is one of only three statues that was made during the Buddha Shakyamuni's lifetime and was brought to Lhasa by the Chinese Princess Wencheng, an emanation of Tara. Above her head in the Jolkhang is actually a (rangjun) self emanating image of Tara. It is an extremely active temple with pilgrims from all over prostrating and circumambulating the Barkhor Bazzar.

The next stop is one of the most popular pilgrimages in all of Tibet, the Potala Palace. Originally there was only a small temple built there by King Songtsen Gampo but after Khubilai Khan disbanded the royal government during the twelfth century he made the Dalai Lama the ruler of Tibet and the fifth Dalai Lama built his Palace there. It took fifty years to build the Potala Palace and the fifth Dalai Lama died before it was completed so he had an attendant disguised himself as the fifth to insure the work would come to completion. The Potala Palace is one of the seven wonders of the world and towers over Lhasa sitting on the Red Hill Peak at thirteen stories high representing the thirteen levels of heaven. There are over a thousand rooms with all thirteen stupas of the Dalai Lamas, tens of thousands of statues and mandalas all made out of tons of gold and precious jewels. A magnificent sight to behold, it is a good opportunity to see how the Dalai Lamas of old lived. Then from the Potala Palace we will go on to the Summer Palace of the Dalai Lamas, the Norbulinka.

There are hundreds of large and small temples in and around Lhasa and we will get to visit quite a few of them. We will go on to visit the monasteries of Sera, Drepung, Ganden, Tsurphu, Mindolin and perhaps the most important, Samye. During the seventh century when Buddhism was flourishing throughout the Far East Tibet was still a dark land of barbarians so the wisdom Buddha Manjushri emanated in the form of the Tibetan Dharma King Trisong Detsun and under his patronage the Buddha's light began to shine upon the land of snows. With the help of abbot Shankarashita they would begin building Tibet's first Buddhist temple by day but local malovent spirits would tear it down at night. Therefore they invited the Nirmanakaya Buddha Padmasambhava from Oddiyana to help subdue these evil spirits, build Tibet's first Buddhist Monastery, and establish Buddhism as their national religion. Padmasambhava invited many great masters and translators from India and China to transmit, teach, translate and establish the complete teachings of the Buddha, most especially the Vajrayana teachings. They develop a phonetic writing system adopted from Sanskrit and Padmasambhava went on to concencrate Samye and every speck of dust in Tibet.

Samye Monastery is built as a Mandala offering of the cosmos with the central temple representing Mount Meru, the center of the universe. It is three stories high representing the three major Dharma nations of India, China and Tibet. It is flanked by four major stupas representing the four continents and the four elements. There are two major temples that ornament the monastery like the Sun and Moon, and there are innumerable stupas surrounding the temple in the outer perimeter representing all of the stars in the sky. Like everywhere else in the world Buddhism has fluctuated in Tibet and there is an old Tibetan saying that to see what shape the Samye Monastery is in is to see the condition of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism as a whole. Today there are about one thousand practitioners in residence at Samye Monastery, Samye Buddhist University, and in deep retreat at the Samye Chimpu caves in the mountain oasis behind the monastery where both monastic and nagpas cultivate all aspects of the Buddha Dharma. Many great masters come from all over Tibet, China and India to bestow empowerments, teachings and blessing and during major temple ceremonies there are usually tens of thousands who come to dance and sing in the mandala that bestows all wishes.