Tibet 2025

Finally after 35 years I crossed into Tibet on the train at the Tanggula Pass (over 5000m above sea level). It was a 21 hour train journey from Xining through some amazing scenery as we crossed the Tibetan plateau. Yaks, we saw lots of yaks! Once in Lhasa we visited the Norbulingka temple and the Dalai Lama’s summer residence as well as visiting the Potala Palace at night (with a hilarious taxi journey back to the hotel). We also visited the interior of the Potala Palace during the day. I wasn’t ready for how big it was. It was so impressive, though it did lack spirituality and is more of a museum now, full of tourists. We also visited the Jokhang and Sera temples and wandered round the Borkhar Bazaar. Interestingly we saw more Tibetan monks in Kathmandu than Lhasa. Then we got back on the train and travelled to Shigatse where we visited the Tashilunpo Monastery and began to see more of traditional Tibet, chatting with locals, sharing Chang with them in the monastery grounds and even getting bitten by a local dog!!!!

After some time in Shigatse we travelled by road to Gyantse where we visited the Pelkor Chode complex and visited a traditional farm where we had to turn down countless offers of disgusting buttermilk tea top ups (whilst encouraging Chang top-ups!). The final leg was travelling by road over several mountain passes at 5000m. We saw amazing mountains, lots of yaks, pikas, the sacred lakeat Yamdrok, wild goats and a Tibetan fox as well as the very impressive Karola glacier. We had a final night in Lhasa before a flight back to Chengdu to spend more tiem in China.

Tibet was everything and more than I expected. We both totally loved it, despite some very dodgy toilet facilities, facial recognition cameras everywhere, evidence of the destruction of the Tibetan way of life by the Chinese and knowing that the pace of change is very fast there.