Memoirs of a Hayseed Physicist by Peter Martel

Part 203:

In my early days at Chalk River, Roger was my inspiration and mentor, even though at a tender age of 20 he was some 10 years my junior. He was also indirectly responsible for my learning downhill skiing. This happened since he was considered an indispensable staff member, because he produced up to fifteen papers a year in a field where two papers was considered quite adequate. The hierarchy was so scared of losing him that he was granted the privilege of taking every Wednesday off in winter to go to a ski hill some 90 kilometres away. He also had the privilege of inviting staff to accompany him.

Backpacking in the P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China)

Part: 22

The next day we went into the market place to look for a prayer
rug for one of our children. Several vendors approached us and offered to
help. They brought various items that they thought we wanted but not the
item we’d hoped for. Finally, they came up with the woollen, maroon
coloured prayer blanket so we bought it.

Backpacking in the P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China)

Part: 21 a)

I’m posting a video I found on line about prayer wheels. The one in the Jokhang Temple is much grander. The hand held one in the video is much larger that the many that I saw. They are usually about the size of a small book.

Backpacking in the P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China)

Part: 21

When we first approached Lhasa from the airport, we noticed pieces of cloth hanging from what appeared to be clothes lines. Obviously, this wasn’t the laundry. We discovered that these rectangular pieces of cloth, that were blowing in the wind, hung high from the peaks in the Himalayas were “prayer flags”. Another thing we noticed were these hand held prayer wheels. They’re little hand held gizmos that many Tibetans use everyday for hours on end. Their purpose is to provide spiritual help to all beings in the world and to purify their karma. As we entered the Jokhang Temple we were in an open spaced hall with stationary prayer wheels on each side of the hall. These wheels were activated by the people with their hand as they passed by walking down the hall. I did an oil paint of this several years ago. The temple, itself, is on the same level as the city not in the mountains like the Potala Palace, but rises up several stories. When we entered another area there were a number of priest preforming certain ceremonies. We then travelled to the upper levels. The Temple is 1300 years old and is one
of Tibet’s holiest sites. It was built to commemorate the marriage of Tang
Princess Wencheng to King Songsten Gampo and houses a solid gold
statue of the Buddha Sakyamuni as a wedding gift from the Princess. We
were free to explore the outer halls and the roof of the complex. There are
a labyrinth of shrines, halls and galleries containing some extremely fine
treasures of Tibetan art. When I hear wind chimes, I feel I’m back in Lhasa.

Backpacking in the P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China)

Part: 20

The next day, once again we attempted to find an internet cafe.
So we asked a Chinese police officer. He was most obliging and sent us to
a building where this could be accomplished. No doubt they were delighted
that we followed through and they were able to monitor everything we said.
The transaction was free too…go figure? They have had problems with
activist and trouble makers before in Tibet, so I do understand their
concern and we weren’t there to cause trouble.

Backpacking in the P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China)

Part: 19

The hotel had a lovely restaurant on premises. Peter’s stomach
was still unsettled from Chengdu, so when he mentioned this to the waiter,
the waiter was most understanding and suggested he bring him broth. I had
a Tibetan pizza. Now that was something to remember. The next day we
headed out to see the Potala Palace. It’s a bit of a climb no matter how you approach it. We walked up the side road on the left of the Palace and were
only slightly out of breath. The building itself is quite imposing. It is literally
the focal point of the city forcing one to look up to the sky. On ground level
there are often pilgrims who approach this holy site on their hands and
knees. They have these clap boards on their hands that they throw down
on the ground then they prostrate themselves as they pull themselves
forward. Monks in saffron robes are mulling about all around. We even had
one approach us begging for money. The Palace is considered one of the
architectural wonders of the world. It is 13 stories tall and contains
thousands of rooms and cost us Y40 each to enter. It took more than 50
years to construct. The layout is interesting because it has a White Palace
and a Red Palace due to the exterior colouring of the bricks. The White Palace was formerly the residence of the Dali Lama. In one of the rooms we viewed was a robe and prayer beads laid out as they had been left when the present Dali Lama escaped with his life – very touching. The Red Palace is used for religious functions. It contains many chapels – the most stunning chapels contain the bejewelled tomes of former Dali Lamas.

Backpacking in the P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China)

Part: 18

Lhasa is the capital of Tibet and at that time (2004) it had a
population of about 2.7 million people. The two main sites of interest to us
were the Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple. Of course there is much
more to see here, but with limited time one has to be selective. Lhasa is
said to be the roof top of the world, tucked in on a plateau among the
Himalayas. It is considered a holy city being the former home of the Dali
Lama. It is at an altitude of 4,000 – 5,000 meters and you can feel that
when you exert yourself. Fortunately, we had no other symptoms of
altitude sickness – no headaches etc.

Backpacking in the P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China)

Part: 17

At 5:00 am in the morning we were up and waiting in the lobby
to meet the driver who would take us to the airport. Someone else was
waiting there too. It felt rather cloak and dagger like, but we managed to get
picked up and driven through the streets of Chengdu, in the dark of the of the early morning, and taken to the airport. It wasn’t a long flight – 2
hours and 40 mins. The plane was small and there weren’t many people on
it. When we arrived we were met by a bus that took us into Lhasa proper.
We were definitely up in the mountains. The weather was decidedly cooler.
We had a few places suggested in The Lonely Planet to stay. The first
place didn’t turn out, so we went with our instincts and chose a place that
appealed to us from the exterior as we walked around the town. Our room
was on the second floor and we had to climb the stairs. This is where we
first began to feel the effects of the altitude.

Backpacking in the P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China)

Part: 16

Before we left Chengdu we ventured up hill to this magnificent
Monument of Mao. Several years later, after our visit to the city of
Chengdu, it fell victim to a horrible earth quake and suffered a lot of
damage. It will always remain special to me because of the friendly
interaction with those two young students.

Backpacking in the P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China)

Part: 15

It was my birthday so we went out to a spiffy restaurant that
night. The food was wonderful but unfortunately it upset Peter’s stomach.
The next day we went to C.I.T.S. (Chinese International Travel Service) to
inquire about a visa to go to Tibet. We wanted to do everything on the up
and up.They told us that it would take three weeks to get a visa. Well that
was a bummer. On leaving the office we noticed a small travel agency a
few buildings down from it so we decided to try there. Visa or not, we had
tickets to fly into Lhasa the next day. There’s always a way around the “up
and up” even in communist countries like China.

Backpacking in the P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China)

Part: 14

We decided that being this far east we wanted to see Tibet. Not
an easy venture. From our Lonely Planet book we were advised that the
best approach was from Chengdu. So we purchased tickets to fly there via
the Chinese airlines. Once in Chengdu, we stayed at the Traffic Hotel which
has been a hangout for backpackers for eons. It was clean, comfortable
and Y40 a night. The city, itself has a population of 11.3 million people and
seemed like a pretty modern city. The Jin Jiang River (Brocade River) runs through it. I think the river ran along the back side of our hotel. I remember
we ventured out to find an internet cafe one afternoon to connect with our
family in Canada. We ran into two young university students who offered to
help us. They spoke English very well and were anxious to learn about us.
They asked how many children we had and were amazed to hear we had
four. They were only allowed to have one child in China. They seemed
comfortable about this. One of the lads was carrying a guitar on his back.
They mentioned that the officials told the locals to be helpful to tourists that
they ran into. We took pictures of us together. They showed us a cafe that
had internet facilities so we were able to contact home to let them know
where we were. Every contact we had with the people turned out to be
most helpful and friendly and these two young students were especially
nice.