May 16, 2009:
At 3:40 PM it was time to meet our guide again and Heidi was feeling pretty good but I was still suffering from a headache. Regardless, I didn’t want to miss out on Jokhang Temple so I popped a couple of aspirins and we headed out. Jokhang is located in the Barkhor area which is an old part of town where pilgrims walk around in a clockwise direction carrying their prayer wheels and beads. This is also the place to buy souvenirs!
Similar to Potala Palace, no photography was aloud inside, unless you want to pay extra for each temple and that can get expensive. Out front many pilgrims perform a prayer (prostrations) which is also an excellent form of exercise where they get down on their knees then lie flat on the ground before getting back up, moving forward a few inches and then perform the ritual again. Some will do this 500 times in a row!!
Jokhang Temple is the most important in all of Tibet. It was sacked by the Chinese military during the cultural revolution and was restored in the 1980s, but much of the original structure and temples have been lost forever.
A few hours later the aspirin had finally started to work or I was finally starting to get acclimatized to the elevation. I was feeling like my normal self and so was Heidi! As a precaution we both took our altitude herbal medicine before bed, but for me, I was not able to sleep! Another symptom of altitude sickness is insomnia!!
