We arrived in Lhasa and checked into the Shangbala Hotel which is one-third of a block from the Barkhor Bazaar. It was very near the center of old Lhasa. We were perhaps a quarter of a mile from the Jokhang Temple and about seven-tenths of a mile from the Potala Palace. We had lunch after arriving and then our guide suggested that we take two hours to rest and acclimate to the 12,000 foot elevation. But four of us felt fine and couldn’t wait to explore old Lhasa.

Barkhor Street is the old Lhasa downtown and popular both for pilgrims and as a commercial center. The public square around the Jokhang Temple is a polygon and sort of a spiritual center and destination for pilgrims from all over Tibet. The Jokhang Temple is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery built in the 7th century.

You can see the public square in the first photo which I took from the roof of the Jokhang Temple. You can see the Potala Palace in the background which is less than a mile away. The second photo was taken standing in the square. Barkhor Street was filled with pilgrims chanting prayers and spinning prayer wheels, people shopping, and tourists, plus lots of beggars which were mostly women with children on their backs. The beggars were dirty, had ragged clothes, and begged for money. They would hook our arms and try to run us in circles. The third photo is just one of the vendor’s booths. The trays of dried fruits, nuts, and produce particularly appealed to me but all the fresh produce looked good. The vendors in the square, for the most part, left us alone. Vendors seemed content to wait for us to approach them. Everything was for sale with many brilliantly colored items such as flags, purses, and wall decorations.

The next photo is the front of the Jokhang Temple which stands at one end of the square. In the following photo, we ventured down the streets right behind the Jokhang Temple and you can see that the other streets were not very well maintained. I should add that I found the Tibetan people to be some of the most interesting looking people that I’ve ever seen. They have great variations of head shape, skin color, hair style, facial features, and complexion. Some have skin that is extremely dark but not black. They look so unique and similar in some ways but also very different from each other in other ways, but still they all look somehow clearly Tibetan.