Qinghai. Tibet. Nepal

2019 Summer
Steve Leung Travelling Scholarship Report
Qinghai . Tibet . Nepal
TING Wing, Ginny

About my
Journey
I am very glad that I have accepted this challenge, to step
on this journey. To adopt in an unfamiliar environment,
step outside of my “comfort zone”. Get inspirations from
different things and people that I encounter during the
journey, to stay humble and learn from others. Although
the journey is not always going as planned, everything
did turn out well eventually. I would like to thank my travel
partners, drivers, tour guides, and everyone that I have
meet along the journey, without them I would not have
completed the journey. Last but not least, a big thanks
to Steve Leung Travelling Scholarship, that have been
financially supporting my journey.

Dunhuang
Mogao Caves
The Cresent Lake
Jiayuguan
Zhangye National Geopark
Gansu
4
5
6
Qinghai
Travel Routes & Destinations
3
2
1
Xining
Kumbum Monastery
Qinghai Lake
Chaka Salt Lake

The Potala Palace
Jokhang Temple
Sera Monastery
Drepung Monastery
1
3
2
4
Tibet
5
Travel Routes & Destinations
Nepal
Tashilhunpo
Monastery
Yamdork Lake
Mount Everest Base Camp

塔 爾 寺
Taer Monastery
Altitude: 2729m
Taer Monastery (also called Kumbum Mosque), which is
located in Huangzhong County is a typical religious building
with a history more than 400 years. Taer Monastery is a
wonderful architectural complex contains 9,300 structures,
including Buddha halls, scripture halls, Buddhist pagodas and
lamas residences.
The magnificent temples and halls are, in architecture, a
perfect combination of the Han’s style of palace buildings with
upturned roof-eaves with Tibetan style under-eave walls and
decorations. The spectacular Lamasery is scattered with tall
ancient trees and Buddhist pagodas.
Taer monastery is famous lama temple in China, it is the
birthplace of lamaism shamanism founder Tsongkhapa, is also
the center of northwest Buddhism activity. The building group
combined with Tibetan and Han artistic style.

A
Buddhist
University
Taer temple is the first temple I visited in this trip. The first
impression I have is that the scale of the temple is much
larger than I expected. It wasn’t just a simple “temple” we
normally see, it is a complex of buildings which includes
numerous temples, pagodas, stupas, and living space for
llamas, that stretches through the mountain, with an area
of 450,000m2 .
It is one of the 6 most significant temple of the Tibetan
Buddhist society. Acting not only a place for pilgrimage,
but also an educational place for the lammas to study,
which is like a Buddhist version of modern university. The
temple has stored a collection of Buddhist books, covers
from literature, philosophy, medicine, laws, etc.

Dresscode
I didn’t have much knowledge about Tibetan Buddhist
society at that time, we didn’t realize that they have a
strict dress code for the temple, visits with clothes that
are too revealing cannot enter the temple area. Gentleman
should wear long pants and shirts with sleeves; ladies
should wear tops that cover their shoulders and bottoms
that covers below our knees. The rule was setup to
protect the lammas that are living inside the temple, to
stay away from temptations.

Temple
Interior
The temple was crowded with tourist, we need to queue up to
enter every temple and have only a short glance of the temple.
Inside each temple is usually a golden statue of a Buddha or
Guanyin, dark and sacred, walls are covered with paintings,
carvings and colorful embroidered fabrics, you can also smell
the strong scent of a special butter that burns as candles.
People come to pilgrim, make offers, pray and get blessings
from the buddha. No photos are allowed inside any temples,
and all we can do is to look up and appreciate the breathtaking
Buddhist culture, that shown in every corner of the space.

莫 高 窟
Mogao Caves
Altitude: 1334m
Mogao Caves is a shrine of Buddhist art treasures. A
network of plank reinforced roads plying north to south
1,600 meters (5,249 feet) long lead to the cave openings,
which are stacked five stories high some reaching up to
50 meters (164 feet). By the way, Mogao means high up
in the desert.

The Caves
The Mogao Caves is one of the site that I am most looking
forward to visit. One of the most famous cultural heritage
in China, Located in the dessert of Dunhuang, the border
area of Ancient Chinese history, and an important terminal
of the “Silk road” ancient trade route.
The development of Mogao Caves started from the Qin
dynasty all the way through the Tang dynasty, spent
almost a thousand years to build. The caves are dig on a
cliff on Mingsha mountain, stretches a length of 1650m
and 50m high. After the busiest days of building in Tang
dynasty, the caves stayed quiet for another thousand
years before the reveal during Qing dynasty.
Mogao caves is now under very strict protection, and
only a limited numbers of visitors are allowing to enter the
caves daily, in order to control the CO2 inside the caves.
Even though we booked the ticket we are only allowed to
enter a few caves that are selected by the tour guide.
In the past, rich families donate money to build a cave
temple to show their religious devotion. The scale,
craftsmanship, patterns, colors, and materials used
reflects the background of the cave owner. The more
money they donate, the more luxurious the cave will be.
It is fascinating that different configurations of the space,
paintings on the wall, colors used, facial expressions and
posture of the sculptures, everything have a meaning
behind. The rich religious background given every simple
element a special meaning, and when you all the elements
together, it becomes a unique story of each cave.

Cave
No.96
One of the most significant cave must be the 9-floor tower,
it is a cave donated and built for the only female emperor
in the Chinese history – Empress Wu Zetian. Inside the
9-floor tower is an enormous buddha statue, when I walk
in, I can only see the giant feet of the statue. I feel like an
ant, looking up I only can see the buddha in a very strange
angle, looking at its chin and nostril. It’s also one of the
biggest sitting Buddha indoor.

布 達 拉 宮
Potala Palace
Altitude: 3700m
This amazing palace has the honor of being the highest
ancient palace in the world, with its highest point
reaching 3,750 meters (12,300 feet) above sea level,
towering 100 meters (300 feet) above the city of Lhasa.
It was built as the center of Tibetan government by the
fifth Dalai Lama in 1645.
This 13-stories-high palace has over 1,000 rooms, and
covers over 13 hectares (32 acres). The stone walls
measure 3 meters (10 feet) thick on average.

City
Planning
of Lhasa
Lhasa is one of the biggest and most developed city in the
Tibet area. Even though their economy is getting better
and better, you can’t find any skyscrapers or tall buildings
anywhere in the city.
In the old town area, taking Jokhang Temple, Barkhor
Street as the center of the city, and stretches 1 km from
the center, have a very strict height control, to make
sure that all buildings in cannot exceed the height of
the Potala Palace. It impress me that how their religion
can impact the city so much not only the buildings, but
also their urban planning. The respect the Tibetian are
showing to the Potala Palace are impressive. And due to
this planning, almost every building can be able to see the
Potala Palace without any blockage.

The Palace
The day we visited the Potala Palace is piping hot, one of the
hottest days ever in Lhasa in over 50 years, probably impact
from the global warming issue.
As the palace is built on a mountain, it was exhausted to climb
the long stairs under the hot sun on a high altitude. From the
exhaustion I have experienced, I realise how difficult it is to build
the palace during the ancient times, when they don’t have any
help from machines, but the strength and believe of humans.
The Potala Palace is built with a long history, it started during
the 7th century, when the king chooses to move their capital
to Lhasa and start building the Potala Palace as administration
usage and soon in 9th century the Palace is forgotten as the
kingdom falls. Then in 1642, the 5th Dalai Lama take over the
palace and started develop the “Red Palace” mainly temples
and stupas. The palace been through over 1300 years of
continuous building to develop into this look now, with an area
of 400,000m2.

Building
Materials
The tough palace was built without a single bit of
concrete. It was built with a special technique of the
Tibetan called “ Agah” ( 阿 嘎 土 ), using a mix of pebbles,
soil and water on roofs and floors, and workers would
repeatedly beaten with wooden sticks while singing
Tibetan songs together. I think that this is a cultural
heritage that should be preserved and protected. Unlike
any other modern architecture nowadays, all built with
cold steel and concrete. The traditional architectures
in Tibet, gives people a warm and cozy feeling which
treasurable and unique.
The walls of the white palace is painted with special
“sweet” paint made with limestone, milk, sugar and honey.
It have a function for preserving the walls, the palace will
paint the walls with this special paint every year.

大 昭 寺
Jokhang Temple
The Temple was included on UNESCO’s World Heritage
list in 2000 as part of the Potala Palace, the Jokhang
Temple is the ultimate pilgrimage destination for Tibetan
Pilgrims.
The Jokhang Temple is a four-storey timber complex
with a golden top. It adopted the architectural styles of
the Tang Dynasty, as well as those of Tibet and Nepal.
Standing in its square, one can view the entire complex.
On the square there are two steles, one recording an
alliance between the king of Tibet and the emperor of
the Tang, the other portraying the teaching of the local
people to prevent and treat smallpox, a once incurable
disease in that region.

All about
the Details
The Jokhang Temple wasn’t as crowded as the Potala
Palace, it was much more comfortable to explore around
without being packed in crowds like the Potala Palace.
When we have more time to look around, we looked into
the details of the architecture and the level of details blows
me away. The architecture have the finest detail in every
corner, handcrafts, painted walls, colourful fabrics, wood
joineries, etc, everything in the Temple has a meaning and
a story behind it.

The
Holy Land of
Buddhism
Tibetan believes that the temple was built before the
city Lhasa was established. (「 先 有 大 昭 寺 , 後 有 拉 薩
城 」) The temple have a central position in Lhasa, not
only geographically, and also socially in people’s minds.
Surrounded the temple is the busiest street in Lhasa
called “Barkhor Street” ( 八 廓 街 ), where you can see a lots
pilgrims performing “full-body prostrations” ( 磕 長 頭 ) from
day to night, making their way slowly towards the Temple.
I was mezmeried by their determination.

哲 蚌 寺
Drepang Monastery
Situated at the foot of the Mountain Gambo Utse,
5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the western suburb of
Lhasa, the Drepung Monastery is known as the most
important monastery of Gelugpa in Tibetan Buddhism.
It is considered one of the ‘Three Great Monasteries’
(the other two are the Ganden Monastery and the Sera
Monastery). Covering an area of 250,000 square meters
(299,007 square yards), it held 7,700 monks in total
and possessed 141 fazendas and 540 pastures in its
heyday, and is the largest-scale monastery among the
ones of the same kind. Seen from afar, its grand, white
construction gives the appearance of a heap of rice. As
such, it was given the name ‘Drepung’, which, in the
Tibetan language, means ‘Collecting Rice’.

The Debate
Everyday at 3 p.m. the Lamas gather together in a pebble
courtyard to debate. It is a learning activity for them
to gather around and discuss about the knowledge of
Buddhist books, similar to our group discussions. One
of the lama will sit, and the other standing. The standing
one will ask question to challenge the sitting lama, while
clapping their hands. It is a very interesting activity to
experience, even though we don’t understand what are
they talking about, by observing their facial expression
and body language, you can feeling the passion in their
religion.

珠 穆 朗 瑪 峰
Mount Everest
Altitude: 8848m (5200m for base camp)
Mount Everest, known in Nepali as Sagarmatha and in
Tibetan as Chomolungma, is Earth’s highest mountain
above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal
sub-range of the Himalayas. The international border
between Nepal (Province No. 1) and China (Tibet
Autonomous Region) runs across its summit point.

On the Border of China...

On the way to the Everest Base camp, I passed through
miles and miles of grasslands, over a mountain and
another, then all I see is sand and rocky roads. It is literally
the middle of nowhere. And then after a 4-5 hours of
bumpy ride, a small village appear, and the driver said
we are staying here for lunch. I cannot believe that the
place actually serves lunch boxes. A village so far away
from urban, no proper road, no natural resources, just the
burning sun during and day and freezing during the night.
While we are finishing our lunch boxes, I saw a family, a
young mother holding a baby trying to stop him crying,
and a little boy waving his hands towards us. It was hard
for me to imagine what kind of life they are having, how do
they live here? Why do they live here? It make me reflect
a lot on my own life and how lucky I am I be a girl living in
Hong Kong, how to chance to have proper education and
chance to pursue dreams.

Mount Everest
Base Camp
I choose to stay in the Mount Everest base camp for one
night to experience the living conditions on one of the highest
altitude spot in the world.
Staying overnight at a high altitude is at high risks, the oxygen
level is low and the longer time you stay on high altitude the
more risk that you will have high altitude reaction (which could
be fatal). Our tour guide warned us about the risks, and make
sure that we have all got enough warm clothes and oxygen with
us. I did spend $300 dollars on an oxygen bottle, even though I
didn’t need that much, it’s more like an insurance of the night in
the tent.
We arrive the camp at around 8 p.m., just in time for the
famous sunset of the Mount Everest. The mountain facing
towards the setting sun, the golden rays of the sun reflected by
the white snow, and the Everest is shining in gold. We call it “ 日
照 金 山 ”. At night after we had hotpot inside the tent for dinner,
I sneak out again to see if I was lucky enough to see the galaxy.
The temperature dropped drastically at night, it was freezing.
I stayed in the cold dark night for about an hour, finally get a
satisfy photo of the galaxy under the Mount Everest.

Pashupatinath Temple
Thamel
Bhaktapur Durbar
Square
Swayambhunath
Temple
Kathmandu
Travel Routes & Destinations
Kathmandu
Patan Durbar Square
Kathmandu Durbar Square

Kathmandu
Durbar Square
Kathmandu Durbar Square, a UNESCO World Heritage
Site, is one of three squares within Kathmandu Valley
in Nepal. Durbar Square (durbar translates to “palace”
or “a court held by a prince”) is an important site for
Buddhist and Hindu rituals, holy ceremonies, royal
events, and kingly coronations.
Surrounded by fountains, ancient statues, small ponds,
and a series of courtyards such as Mohan Chok
and Sundari Chok, Kathmandu Durbar Square is a
meditative, religious site for spiritual seekers. Within
the inner complex of Durbar Square is the site of the
Old Royal Palaces (referred to as the Hanuman Dhoka
Palace Complex). The Royal Palaces used to house the
kings of the Shah and Malla Dynasty, who ruled over the
city until the 19th-century. The palaces have since been
turned into museums.

The
Wood City
Kathmandu Durbar Square is located in the center of Kathmandu,
surrounded by the busy streets in Thamel, it is a place for locals to
worship and social center. However the earthquake in 2015 have
damaged a lot of the architecture on the site, even now I visited 4
year later, a lot of building are still under maintenance.
“Kat” in Nepalese means wood, “mandu” means city, and together
“Kathmandu” means the wood city. The architecture in Kathmandu
are build with old, and carved with a lot of details. Unlike the
colourful walls and golden roofs in Tibet, Kathmandu keeped
the original colour of the wood, it give me a more organic and
welcoming feeling.

Hindu X
Buddhist
Nepal is located in between the border of China and
India, the two totally different culture come together in
Nepal and made another unique culture. A local Nepalese
brought me through the small alleyways in Thamel
and arrived a special temple of the locals. The temple
is located at the center of a courtyard, surrounded by
residential buildings. He explains to me that it is a temple
share by both Hindu and Buddhist Gods.

Swayambhunath
Temple
(Monkey Temple)
Resting on a hillock 3 km west of Kathmandu,
Swayambhunath is one of the holiest Buddhist Chaityas
in Nepal. It is said to have evolved spontaneously when
the valley was created out of a primordial lake more than
2,000 years ago. This stupa is the oldest of its kind in
Nepal and has numerous shrines and monasteries on its
premises.
Swayambhu literally means “self-existent one”.
According to translations from an inscription dating back
to 460 A.D., it was built by King Manadeva and by the
13th century, Swayambhunath had developed into an
important center of Buddhism.

Overlooking Kathmandu

The Monkey Temple is located on the mountain in
Kathmandu, from there I can get an aerial view of
Kathmandu. Unlike the busy streets in Thamel, the air at
the Monkey Temple is refreshing, after walking the long
stairs up to the Temple, you can enjoy the light breeze.
While I am sitting on a bench enjoying the view, a little
girl come to me and ask if she can sit beside me, and we
started our conversation. When she know that I am from
China, she start greeting me with Chinese. I was shocked
because I didn’t expect that a 10 year old girl in Nepal
speaks Chinese. She said that there school teach them
Chinese, today is the school’s picnic day and she was
here with her teacher and classmates. They are very warm
and welcoming.

Bhaktapur
Durbar Square
The ancient city Bhaktapur lies on the Eastern part of
Kathmandu valley which is also known as Bhadgaon
or Khwopa, Bhaktapur. It is regarded as the abode of
traditional Nepali culture, custom and unique arts of
wooden and potteries. The historical monument on
around signifies medieval age culture and tradition of
Nepal and this old city is inhabited by indigenous Newari
people in large group. The main attractive monuments
are Nyatapola Temple, statue of King Bhupatindra Malla,
Peacock Window, Golden Gate and fifty-five windowed
palace of Bhaktapur Durbar Square.

Nepalese
Architecture
Bhutan Durbar Square is also a complex of different
temples like Kathmandu Durbar Square, as it is further
away from the Kathmandu city center and spot is less
touristy and less crowded with people. I explored around
and found a small entrance to the museum and exhibition
inside the temples,there are barely any people inside. The
interiors of the temple building are very interesting, and
totally different from any thing that I have seen during this
trip. A pool in the centre of the courtyard, tilted balcony
corridor, and large decorated wood windows. Created an
unique space that can only be found in Nepal.

The
Journey
will not
End Here.