One of my highlights of my visit to Tibet was the visit to Bakhor Street, in the heart of Lhasa circling the Jokhang Temple. It means “a pilgrim’s inner circuit”, and is the earliest street of old Lhasa city. It is “a saint road” in the eyes of Tibetans. Now it’s also a shopping street filled with wonderful shops and vendor stands. It’s an old district with colorful Tibetan features. Tibetan houses line the street, and the ground is paved with man-made flagstones, preserving the ancient look. In the street, you can find all sorts of local souvenirs and artwork, and experience the mysterious “one step one kowtow”. It dates back to the foundation of the Jokhang and is an essential pilgrim route. Often, while we were shopping or taking pictures on the street, we would see a traditionally dressed Tibetan old lady suddenly throw herself down to the ground, kowtowing towards the temple, right next to us. I recalled that there was a saying that a true kowtow has five parts of your body touch the ground to demonstrate your faith. With each kowtow completed with five parts touching the ground, and one step one kowtow, and considering their age, I can’t help but touched by their pure heart and faith!
My fun memory came from my shopping experience on Bakhor Street. I wanted to find some real Tibetan souvenir back home and finally I found a beautiful carved bronze incense burner. It was very elegant and carved with dragon and other Tibetan lions on the incense burner. When I started asking price, as I expected the owner, a Han people (ethnic Chinese) looked at me trying to figure out where I’m from. You see part of the art of negotiating is knowing who you are dealing with. I spoke mandarin with him and told him that I’m no tourist, so to get rid of his confusion about whether I’m not a real Chinese. He was quite impressed by my standard Mandarin, but still suspiciously looking at my husband and a friend who were with me, and both of them are Caucasian. I started countering his price with one third of his asking price, as I expected he wasn’t offended at all, and just kept asking me to increase the offer. I told him we had almost finished our circle in Bhakor Street, so I know the market price pretty well. He agreed to drop one third, however we still haven’t got agreement yet. Many locals, including vendors, Tibetans, and tourists stopped by and started to watch my bargaining. Even the Tibetan monk who was sitting behind the vendor started to emerge and show interest to our negotiation. … Eventually I got it in between one third and one half of his asking price, which is quite a good deal in my opinion. The onlookers seemed didn’t have enough of the show and were reluctant to leave; so I teased them and said the show is over. The vendor appreciated my business and carefully wrapped my incense burner for me. After I went back to our group meeting place, I showed our guide Lobsong my hard-bargained incense burner and told him the price, he gave his signature sunny smile first, and as I expected he said “It was okay…” I knew by his smile that I could have got better deal if he was there. But I had great fun there, and even today that beautiful incense burner is still the center piece of our dining table, reminding me all those fun times I had in the Holy City – Lhasa!
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