Things to do in Lhasa Tibet tours & best trek in Lhasa
Lhasa sightseeing tour is a cultural Tibet tour around Lhasa, during this tour, you can visit Lhasa, the historical capital city of Tibet, straddles the banks of the Kyichu river, where the valley opens out to its fullest extent. Lhasa is also the cultural, religious and political center of Tibet. As you know, the Potala Pace and Jokang Temple were famous historical buildings that represents the highlight cultural sightseeing of Tibet.
The Potala Palace was built on the mountain named Marbori in the center of Lhasa city. It is an outstanding representative of the Tibetan ancient architecture. The palace is more than 200 meters high, 13 floors in appearance. In front of the Potala Palace, there is the Potala Palace Square, which is the highest city square in the world. The Potala Palace was originally built by Songtsan Gampo, the 33rd King of Tubo Dynasty in 7th century and at that time, the Potala Palace was believed to be a 9 story high Palace. The present size of the Potala palace was built by the fifth Dalai Lama from the 17th century. The main building is divided into the” White Palace “and the” Red Palace”. The White Palace contains the main ceremonial hall with the throne of the Dalai Lama, his private rooms and audience hall are on the uppermost level. The Red Temple is the Dalai Lama’s stupa hall and various Buddhist halls.
Tickets for the Potala Palace are limited and you need to book before several days in advance. After a security check, follow the other visitors to the stairs up into the palace. Usually the price of the ticket is 200 yuan from May to October, the opening time is from 9.00 Am-4:30PM. During the summer, by around 9: 30 in the evening, you can enjoy a great view of the Potala Palace in a beautiful light and the beautiful fountain on the square which is infront of the Potala Palace. You can take evening walk around the square with local residents and enjoy the most beautiful bright light view of the Potala Palace.
After visiting the Potala Palace, you can go to Bharkor Bazzar which is located to the east side of the Potala Palace. It will take you around twenty minutes by walk. Bharkor is the busiest street where you can get all kinds of Tibetan souvenirs such as Tibetan tradition clothes, special jewelry and so on. Bharkor is also the place where all Tibetans gather together, especially lots of Tibetan pilgrims coming from different regions are walking around the Jokang temple. You will enjoy being in Bharkor Bazzar which is around the Jokang temple and you can also wear Tibetan traditional clothes and take photos here but if you want to take pictures of local people, please ask them first before you take photos just to pay respect to them.
During your Lhasa sightseeing tour, visiting the Jokang temple and Bharkor Bazzar is something that you should not miss to visit. Jokang temple was originally built in 7th century during the reign of 33rd King of Tibet for the most sacred statue of Buddha Shakyamuni which was brought to Tibet by Princess Bhrikuti Devi of Nepal. According to the legend, when the Jokang temple was built, the construction work that people did during the day time was destroyed during the night time. Later, the Princess Bhrikuti Devi knew that the Princess Wencheng was very good at geomantic calculation so she requested Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty to check what was really going on. As a result of her geomantic calculation, the Princess Wencheng told that the land of Tibet was located on a body of Supine ogress and the place where the Jokang temple was constructing was located on the heart of the Supine Ogress so those of the evil spirits did not want to have Buddhist temples on the heart of the Supine Ogress therefore they destroyed all the work that people did during the night time. Finally, King Songtsan Gampo decided to build 108 different temples all over Tibet in order to press down all parts of the body of Supine Ogress including arms and legs so on so they built 8 different small temples including Traduk temple in Tsetang that you can see today in order to press down the arms of the Supine Ogress and many other smaller temples. As a result of building all those small temples, finally they were successful to build the Jokang temple. There were some destruction for the temple by fire and even during cultural revolution but later in around 1980s, the government rebuilt the Jokang temple to the present site as well as many of the relics and statues inside the Jokang temple were renovated.
The entrance fee is 85RMB per person and, the opening Hours from 7:00 to 17:30, while from 7:00 to 11:30, it’s mainly opened for pilgrims.
During your Lhasa sightseeing tour, there are many other things to visit around such as Drepung and Sera monasteries which are the largest monasteries in Tibet and they are the most important monasteries of the Gelukpa school in Tibetan Buddhism. There is an extremely sacred and beautifully designed built statue of Buddha Meitreya or the future Buddha in Drepung monastery and the most sacred statue of Tamdrin, Buddha with horse headed one in Sera monastery. All the Tibetan Buddhists believe in Buddha Maitreya in Drepung monastery if you go to Drepung to pray to the Buddha in Drepung, you will fulfil all your prayer and will be reborn surrounding Buddha Maitreya during his period of the Buddha. At the same time, if you go to visit Sera monastery and pray to the Buddha with horse headed one, Tibetan Buddhists believe in that the Buddha will bless you with fortune and good luck and will disappear your misfortune, especially, when the children are sick and cry much in the night time, people take the children to the Buddha and ask the monks to get a black dot on the children’s eyes in order to get rid of the suffering of the children. Once the parents take the children to the Buddha, the children can sleep well and recover from their suffering. Another very interesting in Sera monastery is the monks’ debate that monks are having philosophical debate and you can also interact with the monks which really give you a unique experience during your Lhasa sightseeing tour with Tibet Shambhala Adventure.
If you like to visit more monasteries, temples and palaces, there are many more things to visit such as you can visit Norbu Lingka, the summer Palace of the Dalai Lama, Ramoche temple which was also built in 7th century, Muru Nyingpa temple, Ani Tsangkung nunnery and many small temples and chapels around the old section of Lhasa city.
There are some nice hiking trips around Lhasa city as well. You can have a day hike from Pabongka temple which is near Sera monastery to the Sera Wutse. Sera Wutse was a small hermitage where Tsongkapa, the founder of Gelukpa school used to take meditation there in 15th century and nowadays, there is a small chapel with hermitage and there are monks doing meditation. From this Sera Wutse peak, you can have a great view of the entire Lhasa city with a beautiful golden roof top of the Potala Palace and Jokang temple. The hike from Pabongka to Sera Wutse takes you around a half day and it is indeed a very interesting short trek around Lhasa city.
During your Lhasa sightseeing tour, not only visiting lots of temple and monasteries, you can also take a day excursion to a Tibetan nomad camp at the distance of around one hour drive to the east side of Lhasa city. There is a beautiful nomad camp where you can enjoy taking a short trek or riding Yak or Horses, visiting a Tibetan nomad camp. At the Tibetan nomad camp, you can taste real fresh Tibetan Yogurd and butter tea.
You can also visit different kinds of factories such as Tibetan incense factory, Tibetan Tahngka Gallery, Tibetan handicraft shops and factories, Dropenling artisan work etc.
If you like to take a longer day excursion during your Lhasa sightseeing tour, Tibet Shambhala Adventure highly recommends you to have a day excursion to Ganden monastery which is located to the east side of Lhasa city at the distance of 60km. You can enjoy visiting beautiful Ganden monastery and on the way, you will pass by beautiful Tibetan villages and their green fields along the Kyichu valley. You can also have day excursion to Dark Yerpa cave which is around 45km distance from Lhasa and you can enjoy having a great view of the entire Kyichu valley. You can also take a beautiful short trek of around 2 hours to Derk Yerpa. If you like to see more nature and beautiful lake, a day excursion to Yamdrok lake is another every interesting day tour. Yamdrok lake is located to the southwest of Lhasa city at the distance of around 200km and you will have to cross Gampala pass at the elevation of 4700m. From the top of the pass, you will get a great and extremely beautiful view of Yamdrok lake and Noejing Kangsang snow mountain. Since the road condition is very good, it will only take you around two hours and half to reach Yamdrok lake. To have more information about Lhasa sightseeing tour, please visit Lhasa sightseeing tour of Tibet Shambhala Adventure.
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