It’s impossible to ignore – and illegal to photograph — the omnipresent Chinese military troops in riot gear on the rooftops and street corners of central Lhasa. And it’s clear that the 14th Dalai Lama’s absence, even after fifty years in exile in India, is still an unspoken preoccupation for many in the capital of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.
But life in Lhasa continues to buzz in the hood known as the Barkhor around the 7th century Jokhang Temple. Pilgrims perambulate, prostrate and pray while stalls, set up each day before dawn and taken down after dark, sell everything from incense, rosemary, amulets and bracelets to teapots, prayer flags, prayer wheels, tennis shoes and watermelon.
Work, of course, goes on beyond the street-level stalls and bustling temple square.
The private Dickey Orphanage, to which my British guide Rich Beal just donated half of the $1,500 he was awarded as the Explore travel company’s “guide of the year,” is giving youngsters a shot at life.
Tibetans also come into Lhasa from a rural village to restore the roof of Jokhang Temple, a task they consider an honor to perform. And nuns don’t just run a teahouse.
![Jokhang Temple Rooftop, Lhasa, Tibet](http://followtheidiot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/IMG_1692-600x450.jpg)
Villagers perform a traditional song and dance while they manually compact a new roof atop Jokhang Temple.
Meanwhile the Dalai Lama’s empty summer palace in nearby Jewel Park, where His Holiness was staying just before he fled the country, is a serene floral wonderland this month.
Photos and Text: Joel Stratte-McClure
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