Tibet is full of surprises to the unsuspecting traveller.  For instance, you wouldn’t normally use the words barren and beautiful together, like beautifully barren or even barrenly beautiful.  But once you leave Lhasa you enter into another domain of huge rugged mountains which are barren of any life and yet beautiful for the rivers between them, the huge sand dunes on them and people who live among them.

We left the big smoke of Lhasa on a crystal clear blue day, tracked back to the airport through a series of tunnels on the new divided four lane freeway, then headed east on the southern side of the Yarlung Tsamgpo River.  This river snakes through the imposing mountains all around it, provides irrigation for the farm land on its banks and creates a barrier that only a rare bridge or a more common ferry can manage. 

We were particularly taken by the huge sand dunes, almost Sahara-style, that appeared high on the mountains, low in the valley, sometimes blowing across our road and even touching the river.  Sure, this is a barren land but so many huge sand dunes in such a variety of positions on the landscape made the drive along the river quite spectacular.

We were also amused, searching for a friendly word to describe it, by the frequent police stops along the way.  These seem to take on one of two forms, although on one occasion they combined purposes.  In one form you stop at the police check, show your IDs of course and then are given a little time sheet that shows the time you are passing through.  You need to hit the next police check after the allotted time or there will be trouble.  For instance, at our first station we were given 45 minutes to get to the next station.  If we got there too early the driver would get a speeding ticket.  Really.  Getting there too late apparently is okay.

The other form of a police check had something to do with quarantines or stopping the spread of bad things.  The car would be stopped on this wet red carpet laid across the road and all passengers would have to get out and stomp their feet on it.  This carpet presumably had some sort of disinfectant in it so after our stomping we could then get back in and drive away.  Men in long white doctor’s coats would supervise this important activity and by the look of them laughing was not allowed.

We passed through the third largest city of Tibet called Tsetang, which is almost 100% Chinese and was built at the sight of a small Tibetan village.  The town is desperate for atmosphere but we stopped to pick up our next set of permits and then crossed the bridge back onto the north side of the river and headed for the town of Samye. The drive followed the river on its northern banks through stunningly beautiful but barren landscape, with mountains looking more like the moon, including a switchback climb over a 3,900 metre pass to Samye, home to the first monastery in Tibet. 

We had lunch in the Monastery Restaurant, checked into the Monastery Hotel and after giving Julie a well-deserved afternoon off, our driver Pemba, Kelsang and I headed up another series of steep switchbacks to the end of the road and began our pilgrim climb up to the Chimpuk Hermitage.  It sounds so easy saying it.

The Chimpuk Hermitage is actually a series of caves high up on the mountain with commanding views of the distant valley.  Our old 7th century friend Guru Rimpoche, who we also got to know in Bhutan and is credited with bringing Buddhism to Tibet, is said to have meditated in these caves for many years.  Now it is a pilgrim haunt, including the building of extremely basic little huts on the hillside so that people can spend days or weeks there meditating. 

The climb starts up past a vibrant nunnery (which has the Guru’s footprint in stone as its feature item) and then basically goes brutally straight up the mountain, passing these little huts and thousands of prayer flags along the way.  Pemba came with Kelsang and I which was a bit surprising until I realised he was doing it as a pilgrimage and took the whole event quite seriously.

But this is heart thumping stuff and by the time we got up to the little temple we were over 4,500 metres, an astounding height to be climbing straight up; surprisingly I felt quite strong.  The small dark incense-filled temple was packed with monks and pilgrims chanting to the beat of an ancient drum and putting us back in time 500 years or more.  I was the only westerner within cooee and the whole experience was quite moving.  The views of the valley far below would have taken my breath away if I had had any. 

The walk down gave us a chance to observe these extremely basic dirt floored huts more closely and take in the expansive views.  Where can you see snow capped mountains and seas of sand dunes from one vantage point?  When we got down to the nunnery there was some mild excitement as a beautiful young grey spotted leopard was on the wall of the compound seemingly stalking the local long haired goats.  I stood within three metres of this graceful cat but his mind was on goat for dinner.

That night the four of us all ate dinner together as the only guests at the local restaurant.  Pemba the driver literally doesn’t speak a word of English but it appears after today’s lunch and dinner performance all four of us are going to eat together at each meal.  At least we had Chinese TV dubbed into Tibetan to keep us entertained.

The main reason we came to the Yarlung Valley, and particularly the town of Samye, is because this area is regarded as the birthplace of both Tibet and Buddhism in Tibet. The valley’s centrepiece, the Samye Monastery, was originally built in the 7th century as Tibet’s first and today is a living museum of the religious history of this region.  It is built within a unique circular wall (within which we ate two meals) and we were able to climb the steep steps up into the top level to get the full picture of Buddhas, monks, kings, protectors, gurus, demons and everyone else that has made this place so special.

We then conquered what is called Hepo Ri, a climb which gained 400 metres elevation up a hill outside of town and gave commanding views of the valley and the mountains around us, almost a helicopter perspective of the spectacular Samye Monastery below us and bragging rights to say we stood at the place Guru Rimpoche subdued the demons with his powerful mantras so that Buddhism could be established for the first time in Tibet. 

We retraced our steps back up the valley along the river, past the sand dunes and over the bridge to the town of Tsetang and then onto the Trandruk Monastery, another 7th century temple which was significantly enlarged and renovated numerous times, heavily raided and wrecked by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution and since repaired.  There was no power in the district when we arrived so the internal rooms were a bit dark (darker than usual!) and hundreds of elderly locals in their timeless garb were swinging their prayer wheels and waiting to be fed by the monks. 

After a traditional bowl of wheat noodles in a spicy hot broth we headed further up the valley to Yumbulagang, said to be the first building in Tibet, a fort perched high on the ridge of a hill overlooking the valley with its gold roofs sparkling in the hot sun.  Lying at the base of this escarpment below the temple is what is said to be the first cultivated field in Tibet.

Yumbulagang has some wild mythological stories about kings and sacred texts and the like falling on this spot from heaven but given the 28 degree weather and the prospect of another steep climb at high altitude we opted for a novel way to get up to the palace – horses.  For about $3.50 each we hopped on a little horse and escalated up the hill to the base of this historic structure.  The commanding views and historical significance of the setting was definitely worth the (horses’) effort.

Back into Tsetang for another night at another Chinese hotel, lacking any atmosphere and seriously needing some maintenance.  Rising damp, cigarette smell in the lifts, a ‘Recreation Teahouse’ on the top floor featuring Chinese men drinking tea, chain smoking and playing cards and the ‘power shower’ with pulsating lights and disco music will be our lasting memories.

We leave the cradle of Tibetan life and religion tomorrow to move further west but this strong introduction of their history and culture seen through the eyes of their monasteries (including the four we did today!) has been great fun.   The Yarlung Valley has been quite a special experience.