Words Fail Me

Starting in 1755, the Dalai Lamas would decamp from the Potala Palace to summer in the nearby park of Norbulingka Palace.
  Visiting in autumn gave everything a hushed, haunted feeling. This boarded out building almost looks like it’s straight out of a horror movie.
Gaunt, leafless trees receding into the distance.  This building, with the silent water fountain out front, was intended for the 14th Dalai Lama.  It remains unchanged from how it was when he went into exile in 1959, as if frozen in amber.

Potala Palace has been the chief residence of the Dalai Lama since the 5th Dalai Lama began construction in 1645 atop an early palace erected by Songtsän Gampo (of course.)
It is now a UNESCO world heritage site which puts the Chinese government in the somewhat awkward position of needing to maintain the home of the 14th Dalai Lama whom they forced into exile in the 1950s.This is a statue of a snow lion, a celestial animal of Tibet.
Stairs.  So many stairs.  The walls are as thick as a fortress.

We visited the famous Sera Monastery to see the monks engage in logical debate.
It was forbidden to photograph, but inside the building to the left was a giant statue of embodying the Wisdom of Buddha.  The statue’s head inclines to the side — toward the courtyard where the monks debate — as if listening in. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

The side streets & markets of Lhasa were as bustling & lively as any in other developing parts of the world.
They even had yak meat by the truckload. 

For lunch on Thanskgiving Day, I had yak dumplings and stirfried yak.
For dinner I had chicken butter curry at an Indian restaurant.  Presumably, this is what the Indians ate at the first Thanksgiving.

The mighty Tibetan ruler Songtsän Gampo married a Nepali and a Chinese wife, each of whom brought Buddhism with them.  Jokhang Temple is the most sacred temple in all of Tibet.  It is home to the statue one of the queens brought with her from Nepal.
  
  
From the rooftop, you can see the Potala Palace in the distance.  Deer are sacred animals in Tibet.
  
Overlooking Barkhor Square from the rooftop.  You can see the devout walking the kora clockwise around the temple.I found it notable that the Tibetans weren’t enlightened enough to carry Diet Coke.

From the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, watching the sunrises on the northern peaks of Tibet.

Before leaving Qinghai behind and heading up through the mountains into Tibet, we stopped at the natural resource-rich city of Golmud out by the Xinjian border.  Just long enough for me to take this horrible, horrible photo.

A mere month after tracking all the way out to Qinghai to see the lake, here I was whizzing by it on the train to Lhasa.

I have seen the future.  And it is cola.

The buffet at the Chengdu Sofitel had intermingled Skittles and M&Ms.  Like barbarians.

Has such a short man ever been made to look like such a towering figure?

Personally, I like the standardize my capitalization of letters.