Native of Lhasa: The most devout believer

As the capital of Tibet, the Lhasa people are synonymous with piety and kindness.

Magical Tibetan region Traditional Lhasa people

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the world's three poles along with Antarctica and the Arctic, has experienced many vicissitudes and crustal ups and downs to reach its current height. The ancient Tibetan people lived here for thousands of years, forming a unique plateau cultural system dominated by Tibetan culture.

Although Lhasa was established as a city more than a decade after the founding of the People's Republic of China, it had a name more than a thousand years ago. In the "Kaqiong Monastery Stele" erected by the Tibetan king Tride Songtsen, there is such a sentence: "In the life of the holy ancestor Songtseng, he began to practice the right method of Yuanjue and built the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa." This is the first time that the name of the city "Lhasa" has been officially recorded in writing.

In colloquial Tibetan, the word "Lhasa" is translated as "yes," meaning that Lhasa people only need to follow the Buddha's holy will to do things, without questioning or changing. The name of the city also reflects the foundation of Lhasa as a sacred place of Tibetan Buddhism and a Buddhist temple.

Therefore, walking on the streets of Lhasa, there are large and small temples, the most famous of which is the Potala Palace. As a complex specially built by Tubo Zampu Songtseng Gampo to marry Princess Wencheng of the Han Dynasty, Potala Palace integrates Han palaces and Tibetan temples, and is the largest and most complete ancient palace and fort complex in Tibet so far, known as the "pearl on the roof of the world".

The word "Potala" is a transliteration of Sanskrit, which originally means "Buddhist holy place". However, after many wars and dynastic changes, the Potala Palace is no longer a place where Lhasa people live and live, but has become a tourist attraction that every tourist to Lhasa must open.

Unlike the inhabitants of other big cities, the people of Lhasa have their own unique identity. The open Shenzhen is plastered with signs saying "Shenzhenese when you come", but the traditional Lhasa can only be called Lhasa people if they have lived here for generations, and the rest of those who come to Lhasa are just tourists and Labaeu.

A shiny bluestone slab in front of Jokhang Temple

Lhasa is a city united by shared beliefs.

Many years ago, a group of Buddhist people came here and built the Jokhang Temple, which then gathered more believers of the same faith, and then built the city of Lhasa. The Jokhang Temple appeared more than a hundred years before the city of Lhasa was founded. Therefore, as a sacred place of Tibetan Buddhism, the Lhasa people's devotion to Buddhism is deeply rooted in the marrow.

When tourists come to Lhasa, the must-see attraction is the Potala Palace; When Buddhists come to Lhasa, the only destination is Jokhang Temple. The reason why Jokhang Temple has a unique position in the hearts of Buddhist believers is that it enshrines the 12-year-old statue of Shakyamuni, which was brought by Princess Wencheng when she was with her relatives.

On the day of the festival, nearly 20,000 monks from the three major monasteries in Tibet gather at Jokhang Temple to pray together to the Buddha statue of Shakyamuni in the temple. But for Lhasa, Buddha worship is not just a program of traditional festivals, but part of their daily lives.

When you come to the gate of the Jokhang Temple, you will hear the sound of "brushing and brushing", which is where Lhasa people kowtow. For us Han people, during feudalism, we would kowtow to our superiors and elders, and after the founding of New China, this red tape was discarded as the dregs of feudal culture. Therefore, our generation of young people, whether they worship God or filial piety to their elders, have never been asked to kowtow to show filial piety.

On the contrary, the saying "men have gold under their knees" is very deeply rooted in people's hearts, and no one will want to kneel and kowtow casually. But when they come to Lhasa, kowtowing is just a very common scene in the daily life of devout Lhasa people, and many people come to the Jokhang Temple every day to kowtow, and the bluestone slabs at the Jokhang Temple gate are polished by the clothes of the believers.

The so-called kowtow is a ritual of Tibetan Buddhism to worship the Buddha.

First, stand with your feet together, then gently recite the tantric "True Treasure" of "Ahh

Every Lhasa person is convinced that "there are gods who raise their heads", so every day at the gate of the Jokhang Temple, countless Lhasa people who come to kowtow to their heads stand up and stand up again and again, and this is the case for years. Because they are convinced that only if they are sincere and faithful, they can be blessed by the gods.

Although kowtowing is a very complex ritual, it is part of Lhasa's life. When outsiders get there, they may not understand their piety, but once they are in it, no matter what your own beliefs are, they will surely be touched, and they will not even dare to speak out loud, for fear of disturbing them.

A priceless treasure for the people of Lhasa

In this ancient place of Lhasa, there is a herd of equally ancient animals -- yaks. The yak was one of the first animals tamed by the Tibetan ancestors, and it can adapt to the cold climate at high altitudes and is the only mammal other than humans that can live at the highest altitudes in the world.

It has survived along with the entire long history and splendid culture of the Tibetan people and is the closest partner of Tibetan compatriots. Lhasa people say that the yak's whole body is full of treasure: its skin can protect it from the cold, its milk can be drunk, its meat can be eaten, and even its dung can be used to burn fire for warmth.

In Lhasa, yaks are the wealth of the Lhasa people, and it is said that the price of an adult white yak can be as high as 20,000. So, when you walk the streets of Lhasa and see a Lhasa man dressed in ordinary clothes or even a little scruffy, maybe he has a herd of yaks in his house, a hidden millionaire.

In addition to yaks, beeswax, and amber are also unique specialties in Tibet.

Unlike the Miao, who make their silver jewelry into particularly huge jewelry and wear it all over their bodies, Tibetans hide their amber and beeswax at home, and a very small number of people will take them to the street to sell. Even if you meet a Tibetan who comes to sell beeswax, what he is holding in his hand is not necessarily a high-quality product.

Only when they meet buyers who genuinely want to buy good goods will they take out the good things hidden in their clothes? As the saying goes, "A thousand years of amber, ten thousand years of beeswax", a good bead can even sell for millions, but in Lhasa people's households, basically, every family will have a large string of such beads.

Amber and beeswax were formed in the Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago, and buried in the ground for 30 to 40 million years before they became what they are today. Due to its unique geographical structure, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has experienced several ebb and flow times to receive so many gifts from nature to mankind. It is the people of Lhasa who have been able to overcome such harsh conditions and live here for many years and have been able to harvest so many treasures.