Our first evening in a “real” Chinese town was rather funny: finding a restaurant whose menu had at least a few photos wasn’t easy, but that way we at least had a rough idea of what would end up on our plates. The next day we went to the Yumbulakhang, which can be seen from far away on a ridge above the valley.
Yumbulakhang, Tibet’s oldest building
According to legend it is the oldest building in Tibet, and from above, looking down into the valley, its shape is particularly impressive. In the evening we explored the small town and briefly looked into two temples that apparently still see hardly any tourists. After that the search for a restaurant began all over again. The Yumbulakhang stands around nine kilometres south of Tsetang above the Yarlung valley and is considered the original palace of the Yarlung kings. It was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and later partly rebuilt.
Visible from far away: the Yumbulakhang on its ridge, prayer flags in front.Flags with riders and script hang on the stone wall at the Yumbulakhang.White walls and red roofs on the rocky ridge – the Yumbulakhang, partly rebuilt after the Cultural Revolution.The sun stands behind the Yumbulakhang, a mast with prayer flags in front.A dark standard with a gold border on the roof of the Yumbulakhang, the valley behind.Yellow flowers in pots in front of the red roofs of the Yumbulakhang.Butter lamps of copper and gold lie on dark stone in the Yumbulakhang.Painted beams and strips of cloth hang under the red roof cornice of the Yumbulakhang.The Yumbulakhang with its white tower and golden roof, by legend the oldest building in Tibet.In front of snow-covered mountains a man stacks prayer flags at the Yumbulakhang.Blurred prayer flags in front of the Yumbulakhang, the brown mountainside behind.The Yumbulakhang on the rocky ridge, about nine kilometres south of Tsetang, over the Yarlung Valley.Yellow and green prayer flags, densely printed, folded by the wind.Four golden prayer wheels in a niche at the Yumbulakhang, a white cloth above them.A white stupa with a golden spire, the fields in the valley behind it at the Yumbulakhang.The golden spire of a stupa between red walls at the Yumbulakhang.A stone path runs between a white house and a stupa at the Yumbulakhang.Stone slabs on the forecourt, the sun standing behind the Yumbulakhang.By the white wall of the Yumbulakhang, a woman with prayer beads and a black hat.A red figure in a blue circle on the yellow wall in the Yumbulakhang, small bowls beneath.A decorated yellow door behind the entrance in the Yumbulakhang, cloth garlands above it.A large prayer wheel between the columns in the Yumbulakhang, in black and white.Painted columns frame the passage into a yellow room in the Yumbulakhang.The long white Trandruk temple near Tsetang, a mast with prayer flags in front.Small butter lamps stand in a row in the dark of a temple near Tsetang.A gilded figure with a pointed hat and white cloths in a temple near Tsetang.Flames in a bowl of liquid butter, in a temple near Tsetang.Golden prayer wheels, a village in the valley and the mountain behind them near Tsetang.A golden roof and a lattice window on the Trandruk temple near Tsetang.Two cattle by the whitewashed wall, a green cloth above them, in Tsetang.A pale hide hangs under the painted canopy of a temple near Tsetang.A drum with a red body hangs under the roof of a temple near Tsetang.Children laughing at the camera in front of a red door in Tsetang.In the yard of a house in Tsetang stand a donkey and a sheep lying down.
