Another sacred lake

Here is another sacred lake that I visited on my Tibet trip. The Yamdrod Lake is one of three sacred lakes of Tibet. It has the altitude of 4441 meter (14570 ft.). It is plateau Barrier Lake. Different with Namtso, Yamdrod is an irregular shape lake, on the map it looks like the spread-open wings of swan. So it also can be called the “Swan Lake.” Also it is a big lake with a surface area of 638 km² (246 sq. mi). There is no way for people to see the full picture of the lake.

the blue Yamdrod 

the green Yamdrod

Yak &Yamdrod

Yamdrod has a very high status in Tibetans’ minds; every year they ride horses around the lake. They think through this they can get happiness and luck from the god of the lake. For me, the lake is the most beautiful water that I have ever seen. It could be blue or green in different views. When you see it close up, the water is pure, like a crystal. When I stood on the mountain and looked at the lake, it looked like a blue necklace circling the mountain. That made me thinks that if there is heaven, Yamdrod is it.

The First Lady’s Tibetan Experience

When I was searching on the Internet to find some information for my blog, I found a very interesting post on The White House’s blog. This year the First Lady  made an official visit to China; she got a chance to experience some Tibet culture: TheFirst Lady's Travel Journal: A Taste of Tibetan Culture

Actually, the First Lady did not go to Tibet, she visited a Tibetan teahouse in Chengdu. Chengdu is the capital city of Sichuan Province, which is near the Tibet Plateau. It is also a big cluster region for Tibetans. I think to visit a Tibet teahouse is a very good way for her to learn some Tibetan culture rather than actually visiting Tibet. Chengdu has better weather and lower altitude than Tibet that will make people feel more comfortable. In her post, she mentions some background information about Tibet, such as its beautiful landscape, Mount Everest, the food and Buddhism. And also she compared the difference between the Tibetan culture and American culture. She thought the uniqueness makes Tibetan culture special, while the diversity makes American culture interesting. I really agree with her.  

I am very glad to read this blog because it depends on a foreigner’s perspective. It can help me find what kind of things that a foreigner would be interested in and then I can give more details in my future blog posting.

Where is my Wikipedia?

Weeks ago, I edited the Namtso Lake post on Wikipedia. What I edited was based on my own experience there and some facts that every Chinese person knows. But only 10 minutes later after my edit, someone deleted my post. And he sent me a message, which said “I noticed that you made a change to an article, Namtso, but you didn't provide a reliable source. It's been removed and archived in the page history for now, but if you'd like to include a citation and re-add it, please do so! If you need guidance on referencing, please see the referencing for beginners tutorial, or if you think I made a mistake, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you.” I thought this person has no idea and no background knowledge about what I edited. He only found that I don’t give some reliable sources, and then he deleted my edit. When I went to his page, I found he has done this kind of delete several times and many people gave comments to present their indignation about his thoughtless delete. I understand that Wikipedia is a place that everybody can edit, but I never imagined that there is this kind of person thinks he is the police of Wikipedia and unthinkingly deletes other people’s edits. I feel very disappointed and angry.

Tibetan Food Part 3—Yak

Weeks ago, I talked a lot about Tibetan food, I talked about Tsampa, Tibetan sweet tea, Tibetan dumplings and Tibetan noodles. There is one thing I forgot to mention,  Tibetans are not vegetarians and meat is also their staple food. Animal husbandry is flourishing in Tibet, so the Tibetan eat their herds. Their two major animals are sheep and yak. Since sheep is a very normal animal I want to talk more about the yak.

Yak is special animal, which only lives on the altitude more than 3500 meters (11,483 ft.). It is a kind of cattle; unlike the other cattle, which live on a plain, yak has a very long hair. Black hair is the major color of yak, white hair yaks is very rare. Many tourists think white yak looks adorable, so Tibetans capture white yaks to rent them to the tourists and let them take picture with the white yaks. The black yak is for eating，transportation or some agricultural use. The meat of yak is very delicious and has special flavor. One of the popular cooking methods is the air-dried meat. To make that kind of meat, Tibetans will boil the meat and spices, and after the meat will be dried on the air to dehydrate it. This kind of cooking method can preserve the meat for longer time without a refrigerator. Tibetans also drink the yak milk and use that to make Tibetan butter and Tibetan yogurt. Every year at the beginning of July, Tibetans will celebrate a festival called Sho Dun, which is a festival about eating yak yogurt.

A cute white yak

Black yaks

Air-dried yak meat

Welcome to Tibetan and have a taste of the delicious yak.

བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས！Tashi delek!