Christmas

On the heels of Thanksgiving and after finishing all four of my finals, Christmas finally came to Lhasa. Spending the holidays away from home is always interesting and both Halloween and Thanksgiving in Lhasa had proven to be so (see my past blogs on these topics).However, Christmas in Lhasa has been the best and most interesting of the winter/fall holidays.

Initially, the only signs of the Christmas season in Lhasa were commercial. Budweiser seemed to be providing the majority of Christmas decorations around town. On store fronts and restaurants Christmas signs provided by Budweiser can be seen all over town. The image that comes to mind and that appears on many store fronts in the form of flags draped across windows is a pint glass with Santa hat shaped foam overflowing the brim. Another type of Christmas decoration is of the more traditional nature.

Tacky yet traditional, the paper Santa faces or Santa/ Christmas tree scenes taped to doors and restaurant windows are the ones most westerns would find familiar. However, disembodied Santa heads and Bud Santa pints appearing sporadically all over town are not a complete representation of what Christmas is like in Lhasa.

In our attempts to create a festive Christmas atmosphere during our time away from home, we assembled Christmas music, baked Christmas cakes and cookies, decorated our rooms, and sang Christmas songs. Thankfully, my parents and family send me some amazing Christmas music. Artists like Louie Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Vince Garibaldi, and Nat King Cole found their way into our room and really helped create a fun festive atmosphere. The last couple of days leading up to Christmas were filled with Christmas songs playing on our laptop and making baked goods. I made two different batches of sugar cookies and Italian Christmas cakes (thanks to internet recipes). I think they turned out okay, maybe they needed a little more sugar but at least I liked the taste of them. Right now I think I'm on my 10th or 11th cookie for the day. But baking and having the smell of cinnamon and sugar in the air during Christmas time accompanied by the sounds of Christmas made our holiday memories and the Christmas spirit seem not so far away.

Christmas Eve in Lhasa with the combination of old Lhasa and new Lhasa was a cultural hodgepodge of both Chinese and the West. Even though we had no snow for Christmas in such a cold place things stayed festive and interesting. Lhasa has a large shopping center/ mall like complex next to the main department store. Only a stones through from the Potala palace the mall houses a large western style grocery store on the group floor and everything from Van's shoes to Levis to computers are sold above it. I had visited the mall a day earlier and it quickly became a desired destination of mine for Christmas time cheer because (sadly?) shopping or window shopping while hearing Christmas music reminded me of Christmas back in the States. And they had a good range of Christmas music from the classic Nutcracker suite to Mariah Carry. A few days prior three of us western students went to the mall's supermarket and we ended up buying small stocking stuffer presents for each other. In Christmas fashion and fittingly there were a number of sales with Christmas decorations and monthly flier. If one had observed us separating and attempting to hide our basket full of presents from each other they would have had a chance to witness true group shopping behavior in the West. On Christmas Eve itself we ended up at the mall's supermarket again but that was after a trip to Sun Island for Christmas decorations, which were displayed as decoration but not sold at the supermarket.

Although we had picked up a miniature Christmas tree at a flower shop across from the main post office (yik sam chu) (complete with fake snow, fruit, and mini Santas) a few days earlier, we needed lights and after a last minute tip from the mall's Tibetan staff we were on our merrily way to Sun Island the very next day. It was dusk as we arrived because we had taken our time dining at a vegetarian restaurant across town.Getting a cab from dinner to Sun Island proved to be very difficult. After 10 minutes of trying to hail one, I ended up having to dash across a busy street to catch one as its occupations just stepped from the vehicle.Calling our Tibetan friend to learn the name of Sun Island in Chinese (95% of taxi drivers are Chinese and don't speak English or Tibetan), we made our way to the Christmas lights store. At dusk most shops were closed or closing which made for locating this particular shop both difficult and easy at the same time. Fortunately, on a failed bus excursion due to the new city bus system (don't take the #4 if you are trying to go toward the Bharkor in Lhasa) a week earlier I had seen the very shop the Tibetans at the mall had told me about. When we finally arrived at the shop there was one other customer and she was Tibetan. However, she left shortly there after and the shop was then primarily filled with us: five western and four Chinese shop keepers. After looking around for five minutes without being able to locate Christmas lights among the glitter of Christmas and Chinese New Year decorations, I spotted a set plugged in and my friends found them in their respective boxes at the front of store. These lights were not your common green or white icicle lights we are used to in the West, but pretty round plum shaped lights in green, red, and blue cloth and plastic covered bulbs. We all liked them and tested all eight of their settings before bargaining and purchasing them. The salesman at first wanted 30 Yuan each per lights set but we eventually got two for 30 Yuan. And a few days later, I got some different lights; some more like the traditional Christmas lights, for 12 Yuan each (New Year's decorations?).With our Christmas lights purchase victory in hand we wandered the empty streets and went to the mall's supermarket for some last minute shopping.

After picking up some sugar for cinnamon rolls, soda and snacks for the night (it was X-mas eve after all) we made our way to the supermarket register to the supermarket's closing time music (music that is actually the full length version of the "it's safe to cross" cross walk music which plays at all lighted intersections in Lhasa, see previous post "Unexpected Music"). However, as we made our way to catch a taxi we had no idea what transportation dysfunction awaited us. We waited in the 20 degree F weather for over 20 minutes and absolutely no taxi would pick us or anyone else up who was waiting with us at the taxi stand. Chinese, Tibetan, Western it didn't matter; no one was getting picked up. With 10-20 people waiting in the cold it was becoming ridiculous that no one was getting picked up. Drivers would drive by and not pick anyone up. Empty cabs would even stop and ask you where you were going and if you answered in English, Tibetan or a destination out of the driver's way, it was the wrong answer and the cab would speed off as quickly as it came. I honestly saw the same drivers circle two or three times without picking anyone up. I even almost got into a tussle with a driver after knocking on the back of his cab (New York City style) as he attempted to drive by with an empty cab. He yelled at me in Chinese still seating the driver seat fro a good 3 minutes as people tried to enter his cab. Like the Chinese man trying to get into the back of the cab with his family, I too mistakenly thought he had stopped to pick people up. I tried to motion to the driver that I was sorry, explaining in English that I didn't hit his car that hard and he should be picking people up instead of yelling at potential passengers.Needless to say my efforts weren't that effective but he eventually stopped yelling at me and drove away without taking anyone with him. Thankfully, we eventually caught a cab by walking toward another intersection. Again having to run and grab a taxi, as its previous passengers vacated. The rest of the evening was full of Christmas cooking, cinnamon rolls, and holiday music. Oh! And just for those of you who are wondering, Santa did find his way to our tree all the way in Tibet (altitude and all). And of course we left apples for his reindeer and cookies for the bog man himself.

The main event on Christmas Day was held at English Corner (EC), which is an English language club designed to encourage English conversion by present topics in English ranging for traditional marriage to science fiction literature. As you might guess this week's topic was Christmas and two friends and I planned a number of activities along with the EC staff. In terms of how the day's activities would go, the staff already had three Christmas carols on Power Point and a bunch of Christmas decorations including a Santa suit. With that as our foundation, my three person planning team decided on having apple cider, a Mrs. Claus instead or a Mister, letters to Santa or New Year resolutions exchange and a short presentation on what Christmas is in the West.Things turned out better than we had hoped because as with all events, what ends up happening in the end is always different than you planned.

On the day, we planned on showing up around 3pm to begin setting up for the guests who usually showed around 4 and for the event start time at half past four. There was a Christmas tree with lights, Santa parade or carnival flags (triangles on a line with his face on each flag), and candles set among golden acorns and bows, as well as cookies on each table. The EC had just bought new curtains so the atmosphere was very fitting through the eye of any observer.My favorite element of the décor was a last minute addition. The EC has a large dry erase board which I really hadn't noticed until we were setting up for the day's events. We ended up using it as a multilingual Christmas greeting poster (see pics) and moved it to the front of the room as a kind of backdrop. Another surprise was a guest musician who came to the party and asked to perform. When the EC staff asked me if it was okay for him to perform I was taken back for a second. I couldn't imagine a single reason why anyone would disapprove. The guest performer was an accordion player, which is music I love so I replied "absolutely yes we would love him to perform for us." The man turned out to be an exquisite player and performer. As he introduced his songs be played quickly but effortlessly and cracked jokes in between each tune. Adding a certain charm to his performance, he would forgot the names of many of his songs as he seemed to attempt to locate them in his head before beginning to play. Adding to the performance environment of the day we sang Christmas carols sing-a-long style. Surprisingly, many of the audience members already knew the lyrics (leaving me a bit un-needed standing in the front of the room).During after the sing-a-long, I was informed by the EC staff that there were a number of people who may like to come up front and sing themselves, especially a mid aged gentleman who was fond of singing Christmas songs. I ask for volunteer and made a special request for this specific man to sing his song. He sang a wonderful Christmas song I had never heard before. The day's events ended with a gift exchange from Mrs. Claus' big red sack (presents were supplied and presented in the white elephant manner and it was suggested to guests that they could trade gifts if desired). The gift portion of the day was thoroughly enjoyed by the younger crowd. An impromptu photo session in Santa hats and reindeer antlers ensued and everyone seemed to have a merry old time in the spirit of a family away from home and togetherness.I ended up with many fun pictures and a pack of colored pencils (something I really did need). Many of my classmates ended up with key chains/ charms and one ended up with a tube of toothpaste (something he needed too).I think the little girls of the younger crowd had the best time of all as they impatiently awaited the gift portion of the day and danced around with Christmas fairy princess wands, two of which featured dangling Santas and the third a reindeer ornament.

Culturally, Christmas in Tibet is a bit confusing for Chinese and Tibetans and we discovered this in an interesting way. Many Tibetans and Chinese people will say "Merry Christmas" and/ or "Happy New Year" on Christmas Eve or Day. It is not that Tibetans and Chinese don't understand what Christmas is, that it is Jesus' birthday and a time to spend with your family. Because spending time with family and gifts have a place in their cultural holidays. But it is that Chinese and Tibetans confuse Christmas with our New Year's. Sadly our Christmas songs don't aid in clarifying the timing of the two holidays. The carol "We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" just adds to the confusion because although it places "Merry Christmas" before "Happy New Year" and puts an "and" between the two, the two holiday wishes are alongside each other and spoken in the same breath. The two holiday greetings are represented simultaneously enough to the point where Tibetans and Chinese may not realize they are at two different holidays. I even tried to clarify this at EC by explaining that Westerners say "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" to each other because people's vacations prevent them from seeing each other after Christmas and before New Year's as well as greeting card efficiency. However, what I was told by my fluent Tibetan speaking German friend is that Losar in Tibetan culture doesn't necessarily mean just New Year's but represents more of the biggest holiday or event of the year in their culture.Maybe this is why Tibetans and Chinese in Lhasa always say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy New Year" on or around Christmas because they look at it as our culture's largest holiday of the year. Buon Natale from Lhasa!!!....And Happy New Year!J