Tibet

Tibet is amazing. It is also cold, and hot. I was surprised that the altitude got to me even though we are acclimated to mile hi...12000+ feet walking still was felt in legs and lungs..but we all survived.
Our Tibetan Guide is passionate about her country and a good historian and we saw palaces and Monasteries dating back to seventh century...the 5th Dali Lama...many Tankas painted and many representations of various Buddhas...many steps up to the palaces and monasteries..

The bus north to the Nomads showed us cropland, power ststions, Chinese flags on every house. The Chinese govt wants to remind everyone that this is China. Tibet is one of the five autonomous regions. We had yak butter tea in the home of a woman who


has two sons and a daughter. The daughter in law lives there with her with the grandchildren.


As we left our guide explained that there is a nomad custom that perhaps two brothers might marry one wife...the older brother is always the father of the children and the younger is the uncle...when the older brother might go to Lhasa to make money the younger is in charge...when the older returns all can know he is back because he puts his shoes at the bedroom door...this also happens with two or three sisters and one husband...


Yak dung is dried , collected and used for fuel...we saw it stacked neatly and we saw it in disorderly piles...but it is the fuel of choice.





The entire group was huffing a bit being at 12500 feet...but we went to 14500 to meet the nomad woman and her family





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The children are beautiful and shy but all the neighbors appeared from nowhere to greet us. I haven't mentioned that we have seen no diapers...all the toddlers have little trousers with the seat seam split...they simply squatin the street...i am not sure just when or how they transition...but we have all been taking photos of the babies!


Next we moved on to the public kindergarten with 15 students. Were they ever adorable ! They sat " very disciplined" with their hands behind their back. They sang for us and their question for us was " do you have Yak meat"? We took big long picture with them and sang "You are my Sunshine". Their teacher is barely out of high school and their cook made us more Yak butter tea...more tasty than the previous one


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This was a very special time. I am going to include a video clip not knowing if you can open it .