Beautiful Tibet!

We were met at the airport in Lhasa by our smiling guide Nema. We could not have asked for more informative and interesting introduction to Tibet. He is a devout Buddhist, and kindly presented us with prayer scarfs when we arrived. Nema started off his carer in tourism as a Sherpa carrying packs up Everest. He had climbed it many times! He loved his job and only became a guide when he and his wife started a family. Tibet is so clear and fresh such a stark contrast to the other places that we have visited. It is considered an "autonomous prefecture" by the Chinese government.
Tibetan culture is unique and singular from the Chinese culture. The language (Tibetan) is written with a 30 letter alphabet and is derived from Sanskrit. Tibetans are Buddhists, but a very different kind of Buddhism from China that mixes it liberally with Confucianism. Obviously the Dali Llama is very important to Tibetans and consequently reincarnation in general is BIG BIG BIG! Basically if you are reincarnated, you never really go to heaven until you reach Nirvana. Just re-incarnation over and over! (with hopefully some chance of enlightenment). I am telling you if any one is going to Nirvana it is the Tibetans, they were praying and visiting temples, doing prayer wheels and chanting ALL THE TIME. They are seriously spiritual!
The landscape is an inspiration to spiritually as well. Just to start off, Lhasa is at 12,000 feet. the sky is blue blue and the mountains are all around. Nema told us that on average there are 7 hours of sunlight a day. There are no trees on the mountains as they are all above the tree line, but that makes the peaks all the more impressive, as they are just huge rock masses looming overhead.

We arrived at our hotel with a few stopes along the way to see Yaks. We could all feel the altitude, and were happy for an afternoon free looking at the view from our room. Bottom photo. The Potala Palace.