They are trekkers and seekers, backpackers and Buddhist followers, and they come here for both spiritual sustenance and for rugged hikes amid ancient monasteries and snowcapped mountains.
Flying over Ladakh, the landscape appears bleak, brown and empty across a corrugation of immense, lifeless ranges, so it feels as though we’re landing on the moon.
Over the centuries, countless explorers attempted to enter the spiritual heart of Tibet – Lhasa. Most failed, and many even died in their attempt. The lucky few who managed to see the magnificent Potala palace at the top of the world
Tibet may have been encroached upon by crass modernity,but only in the towns. Elsewhere, it is essentially unchanged, and remains a deeply mysterious, still forbidding land.
We were close to the sacred city of Lhasa when finally I saw it: the legendary Potala with its golden domes and white and deep-red palaces. Here, at last, was the holy of holies; the fabled Shangri-la that was for so long off-limits to travellers from the West.
If you are seeking the old, magical Tibet, now trampled by Chinese rule and depredations, venture to this pine-green, far-flung valley guarded by snowy Himalayan peaks and peopled by lamas and pious laity.
It was a September afternoon and I was freezing in the bus as it laboriously chugged up the mountain pass. The bus was old and rickety, the windows wouldn’t close and holes in the floor allowed me to see the road.
In the very early history of Tibet the dead may have been buried in the ground, but with soil at a premium and firewood equally scarce, Tibetans have spent the last few centuries coming up with alternative ways to get rid of remains.
