拉萨：太阳和影子

The first thing I did in Lhasa was nothing at all.

At the airport my friend said to me: don't walk today, don't shower, drink lots of water.

I said: I'm in good shape.

She said: this has nothing to do with being in good shape.

Lhasa sits at more than three thousand six hundred metres.

There's a third less air here than in Beijing.

On the first day, my head ached a little.

I slept in my room for a long time.

The next morning, I was much better.

We went out for a walk.

The sky was very blue and the sun was strong, but the wind was cold.

My friend said: here, the sun and the shade are two different kinds of weather.

Standing in the sun I was hot; step into the shade and I was cold.

In the morning we went to the Potala Palace.

It's built on a small hill, and you can see it from a long way off.

The white part and the red part were built at different times.

The earliest part is more than a thousand years old.

Most of what you see now was built about three hundred years ago.

A lot of people look at it from the square below, and take photos here.

In the afternoon, we went to the Barkhor.

The Barkhor is a road that goes around the Jokhang Temple.

The road is a circle.

People walk along this road, all in the same direction.

I asked my friend: why does everyone go the same way?

She said: because this is kora.

People walk and recite at the same time.

Some hold something in their hand that keeps turning.

She said: that's called a prayer wheel.

There are old people on the road, and young people.

Some walk it several times a day.

Some arrive at five in the morning.

We walked one circuit too.

One circuit isn't long, about a kilometre.

But I walked slowly, and by the end I was still a bit tired.

I sat down at the side of the road to rest.

Someone in a shop nearby offered me tea.

The tea was white, a little salty, and a little oily.

I took a mouthful and thought it was strange.

But I took another mouthful.

My friend said: this is butter tea.

She said: somewhere this high and this cold, the body needs fat.

Drink it for a few days and you'll like it.

She was right.

On the third day, I bought a cup myself.

There are tourists on the Barkhor, and local people.

The tourists walk fast, taking photos as they go.

Local people walk slowly, and many don't look at the shops beside them.

Two kinds of people on the same road, doing completely different things.

My friend said: people who come here often want one very special photograph.

But the most important thing on this road is that people walk it every day.

In the evening, we went to look at the Potala again.

The lights came on, and the white on the hill turned gold.

There were still a lot of people in the square.

I thought about what my friend had said that morning.

In Lhasa, if you walk fast, your body tells you no.

This place makes everyone slow down.

On the fourth day I was leaving.

I found that I'd already got used to walking slowly.

And I'd got used to that tea.

When you go somewhere very high, will you rest for a day first, or go straight out to look around?