"Lhasa! Lookie Lookie!" a Lhasa Travel Page by Confucius

Perhaps no other destination in China offers such a wide variety of souvenirs. It's hard not to pick up a prayer wheel during your first day in Lhasa. I was eager to try spinning one and then got introduced to the singing bowl and those elongated trumpets. That's how I learned my first words in Tibetan: "Lookie lookie!"

The Potala is a magnificent structure, but it is a lifeless museum with time restrictions for visitors. You'll spend more hours at the bustling Barkhor Market area surrounding the Jokhang Temple. This is where you'll see various people from every corner of Tibet all walking around in the same direction.

It's fun taking pictures of people in Lhasa. You'll see Tibetans wearing different costumes and ornaments according to their region of origin. With that in mind, I developed a checklist of Tibetan people photos that you commonly see in guide books and travel brochures.
For example, here is a woman wearing one of those round amber head ornaments with a piece of coral in the middle. She is the only Tibetan I paid money to for taking a photo so that I could cross "round amber head ornament" off of my checklist.
(See travelogue below)