Tibet - It rises above all... !

The Tibetan flag

Hi dear followers, 

As promised we travelled more south-west towards Tibet, After a couple hours driving we arrived in Tibet. Tibet is first and for all the highest region on earth, with an average elevation of 4,900 metres !! So you can say that Tibet is a big, very big plateau located northern of the Himalayas. the right picture is the Tibetan flag also known as the snow-lion flag, it was first introduced by the Dalai Lama. The flag is used to symbolise the pro-Independence that Tibet wants to achieve. The flag has been adopted as a symbol of the Tibetan independence movement, and has become known as the "Free Tibet flag". The dominant religion in Tibet is Tibetan Buddhism, though there are Muslim and Christian minorities.

The Tibetan economy

The Tibetan economy is mainly focused on subsistence agriculture, this means the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed their families. luckily tourism has become a growing industry in Tibet. But to return to the subsistence agriculture, it's really sad to see how people have to put everything they have together to be able to have enough at the end of the month. Most of the farmers use livestock such as sheep, cows, yaks and dzo ( kind of yak ). If they however decide to grow crops, they'll grow wheat, buckwheat, rye, potatoes, and assorted fruits and vegetables. luckily tourism saved a lot of poor families, the Tibetan handicraft (hats, jewellery and wooden  items) became very wanted by the tourist and made this poor area slightly more wealthy.

Tibetan culture and their religions

Because the Tibetan are really religious people we couldn't leave their culture and religion out this blog, first of all Tibetans when you come in to any random house in Tibet you will always find a picture of the Dalai Lama. Their believe in the Dalai Lama is enormous , you could even say the Dalai Lama rules Tibet. The Tibetans believe that the Dalai Lama can't die, but when he dies  his body will merge into a young child his body and live on. (Reincarnation) 

Religion is extremely important to the Tibetans and has a strong influence over all aspects of their lives. In Tibet they have 4 main traditions linked to their religion;

• Gelug(pa), Way of Virtue, 
• Kagyu(pa), Oral Lineage.
• Sakya(pa), Grey Earth.
• Nyingma(pa), The Ancient Ones

Mountain Biking

We decided to do a very sportive trip and so we moutainbiked from Lhasa to Kathmandu.

Traversing the high road between Lhasa and Kathmandu and including the 4-day off-road excursion to the Rongbuk Valley, beneath the stunning north face of Mount Everest. This trip was really magnificent, we first flew to Lhasa which is the capital of Tibet and did a litlle sightseeing in the village and then started to mountainbike from Lhasa and Kathmandu travelling over 6 major passes.

It was a really nice and refreshing experience which we all shared very happily. After a day of resting and relaxing we decided to move on. Thats all for now, we will keep on updating you all about our numerous adventures here and hope to hear you all soon !!

Greets 

The travel crew :)