lhasa, tibet.

Day eight: Lhasa, Tibet. We made it to Tibet! The people and architecture are way different from mainland China, and it's a nice change for these next few days. The altitude is 11,420 feet above sea level (one of the highest cities in the world) and we are all feeling the altitude sickness. Today we visited a few monasteries:

^^Entering the Norbulingka palace; the traditional summer residence of the Dalai Lamas.^^

^^This was the most current Dalai Lamas (the 14th Dalai Lama) residence, until he moved to India in 1959.^^

^^Sera Monastery^^

^^Monks in a courtyard using their prayer beads and debating over their lessons they learned.^^

^^Tibetan woman praying with her prayer wheel.^^

Our guide has been teaching us a lot about Buddhism and the religion/culture is really interesting. I didn't know that the current Dalai Lama is actually a living Buddha and I'm learning about the previous 13 Dalai Lamas as well. Tibet is so colorful with prayer flags hung everywhere and bright colored doors. 

Lhasa literally means "place of the Gods" and is a small town set in between several mountains; it's quite a different lifestyle/setting than Shanghai and I love it. I never thought we'd spend the fourth of July in Tibet, but it feels so good!