Colourful Tibet

Our regular blogger has just returned from her three-weeks-long sojourn in Tibet. Here, she paints her impression on Tibet in words.  

 

 

 Tibet is a regiment of colours, colors that range across the spectrum, in every possible shade and variation imaginable. Tucked in between stretches of unforgiving grey Himalayan mountains, it is as if Tibet is trying to declare its existence with strong, loud colours : green, red, yellow, blue, pink, and orange - purple, gold, vermilion, ochre, maroon, and silver. Rows and rows of bright colorful praying flags stretched across the sky - wondrously contrasted against the brilliant cerulean backdrop with gentle white tufts of the cloud.  Colours adorn every structure and every corner, every hidden turn and conspicuous facade - colors enhance the mountains, the river, the trees. In the Jokhang temple, dark purple and royal blue tapestries lined up the ceiling, embossed at their sides golden, emerald, and silver brocaded trimmings.   On the walls of Samye monasteries' infinite chapels, splashes of mineral-coloured oil painting twirl and twist and turn to form mythological creatures and centuries-old legends. Buddhas and Taras, Arahats, and Boddhisattvas, llamas and karmapas - all illustrated, engraved, embossed, sculpted in the holiest of colours, such as deep, revered crimson or lustrous, glaring yellow - such are the colours worn by the chanting monks, who pray and meditate in multitudes.   And there are other colours too. Too subtly integrated into the life of Tibet, they're almost imperceptible to the naked eyed. The use of every other senses (including that of intuition, that inkling at the pit of your stomach) is therefore of absolute imperative. Such are the warm, heavily shadowed shades on the holy walls of Potala Palace, constructed from layers of cloth and centuries of history.  Such is the melting, buttery yellow of yak butter's lamp, the warm, slippery yellow that grease and grace every stone temple walls, every steep staircases, and wooden rigs, marble carvings and golden stupas. There exist the noble colours of devotion - exuded from the devout Buddhist pilgrims who prostrate days and nights, circumambulating on the smooth stone alleys in the old quarter of Lhasa. There are also the lighthearted, silky colours of innocence and simplicity of mountain nomads, as reflected clearly in their white, brilliant smiles. Truly, the whole tibet is ablast with strident colours I had never felt so blessed to be born with healthy eyesight.  And there, outside the man-made settlements, are the colours generously and grandiosely painted by the Nature itself - colours perhaps not as cheerful or loud - but infinitely more majestic, more breathtaking, and simply irresistible.   Purplish grey shadows of rocky mountains, accented sparsely with dry, rough bushes of green vegetation. With every crease and every fold of the mountains, colours change in powdery smoothness. Beneath these, the silvery sparkle of Yarlung Tsampu river : the very origin of the holy Brahmaputra down the south. And beyond that.... golden sand dunes, so deliciously soft and malleable, providing such healthy grounds for the robust abundance of willowy greens. Fluffy and fuzzy as seen from our jeep-window distance, like those short curly trees I used to draw in crayon colours beneath my kindergarten-produced mountains. Never had I imagined that fifteen years down the road, the very same drawing of my childhood would conjure magically in front of my very eyes - only now a million time grander and more beautiful, with ten-thousands more variation of colours my then simple crayon box would have never been enough to hold.  Experience the colours of Tibet yourself this coming weekend!