Monday was a very interesting day. We learned about Buddhist history, Chinese bureacracy, and Tibetan dance all in one day. We began the day with a trip to Norbulingka which was the summer palace for the Tibetan government. The palace was founded by the 7th Dalai Lama in 1755 and from then on it was used as the summer administrative headquareters for the Tibetan government and home to the Dalai Lama. It is from here that the current (14th) Dalai Lama escaped the Chinese invasion in 1959. For that reason Norbulingka received heavy damage from the Chinese and is in disrepair. But you could still tell that it must have been an incredibly beautiful and tranquil place in its day. We visited the 14th Dalai Lama's bedroom and it seemed strange that we could take a tour and visit his bedroom and his things but he can not. A couple of us cut our tour short to help our guides get tickets to go to the Potala on Tuesday. It is quite difficult to get tickets to the Potala these days and the process is a consultant's nightmare =) Our guides lined up at 5am on Monday morning and literally fought there way through other guides and lines to get a place in line to get tickets. Apparently this took a long time and required the assistance of our Tibetan guide (Geishi - I'm not spelling this correctly I'm sure but this is close to how I pronounce it.. which is probably a little off too but he's too polite to correct us). Around 7am Gelu got David to come take his place in line so he could make other plans for us for the day. So by 9am Geishi and David had secured the promise of tickets for 8 of us (Gelu and Geishi are not allowed in since they are guides ...weird). Then we had to return at 11am to stand in line for an hour with the promise of the tickets (written on David's arm). Gelu had to show all 8 of our passports so the government could keep track of who enters the Potala. By around noon with the help of Geishi, Gelu, and David's arm we finally had 8 tickets for 9:20am on Tuesday. Quite a process. Then Gelu and Geishi took Vicky and I to a Tibetan tea house for lunch. (David wasn't feeling well so finally once we didn't need his arm anymore - for the tickets! - we sent him off in a rickshaw to sleep). Lunch was great because Gelu and Geishi were able to order and we had a nice conversation. Then after a little free time our group met again in the afternoon to go to Sera Monastary. Sera is one of the largest monastaries in the area and has great views from its location on the hill above Lhasa. It was founded in 1419 and had little damage in the Cultural Revolution so it was nice to wander around. The reason we went to Sera in the afternoon is because that's when the monks 'debate'. The term is deceiving. Its really more of a quiz I think. The monks are in a courtyard in groups of two - six, approximately. The standing monk asks questions and the sitting monks answer. The standing monk slaps his hands together to signify right or wrong answers (top hand palm up is wrong, palm down - like a clap - is correct). It is very animated. I found it a little intimidating but Geishi said its not really bad. The standing monks look a little scary or intimidating but they aren't really mad. Geishi used to be a monk at Sera so it was fascinating to go to the monastary with him. He knew a lot of the other monks of course and could tell us about all the sights. But it was obvious he misses being a monk and it was quite sad. He is legitimately hesistant to talk about it given the climate he lives in but we do know he was forced out by the Chinese goverment. He says he 'made a mistake' and we've also heard he doesn't speak Chinese but we can't quite learn the whole story. In any case, its very sad to see a devoted monk who misses the life so much forced to find other work. For dinner our group went to a local restaurant that serves a buffet dinner and then performs traditional Tibetan dances. It was a fun show. Our group had a good time. The power went out throughout town that evening around 10 which was surprising because infrastructure here is so good but it didn't last long and apparently is pretty rare. I've uploaded a few photos from Kathmandu and Lhasa. I'll upload a few more from Lhasa tomorrow. I've got so many great photos from here but its time consuming to upload on these machines. So I'll bore some of you with hundreds of photos of ancient doorways and scenic views when I get home. More tomorrow!