Qudi

It’s famous for the wide grassland Qiang Tang, one of the five biggest grasslands of China. The average height of the grassland is about 4,500 meters above sea level, so the local people call it Qiang Tang.

Qiang Tang means the northern highland. Qudi means Black River in Tibetan, there are many natural scenes and cultural heritages, like the Heavenly Lake Namco, Nianking Tanggula Holy Mountain, the ruins of Xiangxiong, the cave frescos in Dangxiong, KulouQiang(the Wall constructed with hundreds of skulls). It’s also the fairyland for wild life.

Tibet antelopes are the most precious. The western part Qiang Tang is called “no-man land” and spreads about 200,000sk.km, The average elevation is over 5,000 meters above sea level. It’s considered the forbidden zone of life and is regarded as the purest area of Tibet as it is without human footprint. There are over 370 lakes in the western part of Qiang Tang, thousands of water birds live there. Some of them came from the Mediterranean.

Shannan

How was this colorful civilization constructed by Tibetans on a plateau over 4,000 meters above sea level? The answer can be found only after researching around Shannan.

It is here where the elevation of the highest river of the world Yarlung Zangbo, passes by. This is the cradle of the Tibetan civilization.

A fable has been told around the plateau for thousands of years, the fable is that the macaque is the ancestor of human beings. This idea about the origins of human life was spread from Zedang(the capital of Shannan), over the plateau.

Zedang means “the playground of the macaques” in Tibetan. In Shannan there’re many architectural ruins from ancient times. Yongbu Lakhang is the oldest palace in Tibet, it’s constructed on a hill, which looks like a female deer. Hence the name Yongbu Lakhang, which means “the palace on the leg of a doe”.

This structure and location of the palace influenced the later ones. All buildings, such as temples and palaces were constructed on a hill and have a similar style. Samye Monastery, Changzhu Temple, Tombs of Tibetan Kings, Yamdrok Yamtso Lake, Sunding Monastery(it’s the seat of the only female Living Buddha Dodge Pamu of Tibet), Changkhor Gou Cultural Heritage etc are also quite famous.

Xigaze

One of the most colorful areas in Tibet with spreading grassland, rich bottomland, subtropical forests and glacial plateau, etc. There’re five peaks which are over 8,000 meters above sea level, in this county, so famous for mountain climbing.

Thousands of travelers, most of them are experienced climbers, come from every corner of the world to see and climb these beautiful mountains per year.

Xigaze is also a city with long history and flourishing culture, it’s the seat of the Panchan Lama. Just as in other counties, there’re many religious seats, some of them here are Baiju Monastery, Zhaxi Lhunbo Monastery, Xialu Monastery, Sakya Monastery. “Xiga” means manor in Tibetan, once there was a palace, which was called Potala.

It was the second one built on the Jiong Mountain where the center of the manor. It’s said that when the seignior of Xigaze heard Potala Palace was quite grand, he decided to build a similar palace immediately. But there was no blueprint of the Potala palace.

A craftsman, after visiting the palace, made a model of it with a big radish. Subsequently, a palace was built using the radish as the model. The result did not seem as grand as the Potala Palace. The radish had dried out and shrunk after the long journey and the palace built using it as a model, was a great disappointment. It’s just a joke, but the ruins of the palace are still there today.

Lhasa

The capital of Tibet. “Lhasa” means the land of Gods in Tibetan, so we can image it’s the center of Buddhism. In fact, 100 percent of Tibetans are Buddhists.

As the center of religion in Tibet have many religious buildings. Some of them are Jorkhang Temple, Ramqe Temple, Norbu Lingka, Gedan Monastery, Sera Monastery, Drepung Monastery and Potala Palace, etc.

One thousand of visitors have one thousand ideas about Lhasa, The details of local culture are so rich and colorful, and somewhat mysterious that ones imagination runs wild. As a visitor, you must realize you are standing on “the ridge of the world”, and close to the holy land, because it is so near to the sky.

Around the foot of Potala Palace, there are thousands of houses built in the local style, at the top of every house, there’re always flapping some small burgees(“Jingfan” ), the colors of them are blue, white, red, green and yellow, the colors are in vertical stripes. blue means sky、white means clouds、red means fire、green stands for rivers and yellow, the earth.

In the Tibetan mind, everything has a spirit; from a mountain to a rock, Buddha exists everywhere. So, in Lhasa and other areas of Tibet, you will notice that a lot of natural objects, like rocks, trees are marked with special signs, and the Tibetan people walk around them from right to left when they pass.

Potala Palace at Night

So beautiful and holy.