Lhasa

The valley of the Kyi River held small settlements long before it became a capital, but the city's story begins in the seventh century, when Songtsen Gampo, ruler of the Tibetan empire, moved his seat here and built a fortress on Marpori hill. Tradition credits his Nepalese and Chinese consorts with the founding of the Jokhang and Ramoche, which were built to house Buddhist statues they brought with them, and the marshy site was drained to make room for the temple. The name Lhasa, place of the gods, came into use as the Jokhang made the town a destination for pilgrims.

The empire broke apart after 842 and Lhasa lost its political role for centuries, while power passed to Sakya and other monastic houses. The Gelug school founded by Tsongkhapa in the early 1400s built Ganden, Drepung and Sera around the city, and in 1642 the Fifth Dalai Lama became head of the Ganden Phodrang government and made Lhasa the capital again. Work on the Potala began three years later. From the 18th century Qing representatives and garrisons were stationed in the city, and a British expedition forced its way in during 1904.

Chinese troops entered Tibet in 1950, and the city has been governed from Beijing since; the circumstances remain disputed, with Beijing describing a peaceful liberation and the exile government describing an invasion. After an uprising in 1959 the Fourteenth Dalai Lama left for India. Monastic buildings were badly damaged in the Cultural Revolution and later partly rebuilt. Protests in the late 1980s and in 2008 were followed by tighter security, and the railway from Xining, opened in 2006, accelerated the growth of the modern city around the old quarter.

Lhasa's public life revolves around Tibetan Buddhism. Pilgrims arrive from across the Tibetan plateau to walk the Barkhor around the Jokhang, the Lingkhor around the old city, and the circuits at the monasteries, always clockwise, turning hand-held prayer wheels or prostrating their full length along the stones. Juniper smoke rises from incense burners at dawn, butter lamps are refilled in the chapels, and families come to make offerings before travelling on to other holy places. The older Bon tradition, which walks its circuits anticlockwise, also has followers.

The monastic calendar sets the year: Losar at new year, Saga Dawa in late spring, the bathing week at the end of summer, and the Shoton festival in August, which ends the monks' summer retreat and fills the Norbulingka gardens with Tibetan opera. Religious life operates under state supervision, and monasteries are managed by official committees.

Tibetan is the language of the old city and of daily life, written in its own script, with Mandarin used in government, business and schools; signage is bilingual. Manners follow religious custom: circuits are walked clockwise, heads are not touched, and a khata scarf is offered with both hands. Tibetan opera, mask dances at monastery festivals, and the guitar-like dramyin accompany celebrations, while sweet tea houses, a legacy of Indian and Nepalese trade, serve as the city's informal meeting places.

About 870,000 people live in the wider Lhasa municipality, with several hundred thousand in the built-up city, making it the largest city in Tibet and, after Xining, the most populous urban area on the plateau. Most Tibetan residents live in and around the old quarter and in the newer estates beyond it, alongside a substantial population of Han and Hui migrants, many from Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai, who run restaurants, shops and building firms. The old city, with its whitewashed courtyard houses, has been progressively rebuilt and tidied, and is now encircled by a much larger grid of avenues, malls and apartment blocks.

The economy runs on government, tourism, construction and trade. Domestic tourism is overwhelming in scale compared with foreign visits and peaks in summer, filling the hotels around the palace. State investment pays for roads, railways, housing and public works, and many residents are employed by government or state firms. Outside the city, households farm barley and wheat in the valley and herd on the higher grassland, and the spring gathering of caterpillar fungus provides cash income.

The day starts early: pilgrims and older residents walk the circuits before sunrise, offices open mid-morning, and the sun keeps squares and rooftops warm into the evening despite the cold air. Long lunch breaks are usual. The issues people notice include the pace of migration and development, Mandarin-medium schooling, restrictions on religious practice and on travel abroad, the cost of housing, and the strain that visitor numbers place on the temples at the centre of the old city.

Tibetan cooking here is shaped by altitude and by what grows at 3,650 metres. Tsampa, barley flour roasted and then kneaded with butter tea into a stiff dough, is the staple, eaten at home more often than in restaurants. Po cha, butter tea churned from brick tea, salt and yak butter, is drunk through the day and topped up after every sip by a host. Yak meat appears fresh in stews, air-dried in strips hung in kitchens, and minced into fillings, and hard cubes of dried cheese, chura, are chewed for hours.

The restaurant staples are momos, dumplings steamed or fried and filled with yak meat, vegetables or cheese, and thukpa, a noodle soup with meat and greens. Shapale, fried meat pastries, and thenthuk, hand-pulled noodle pieces in broth, fill the same role. Yoghurt from yak or dri milk is a speciality of the late summer, when the Shoton festival is named after it. Bakeries sell flat breads, and pilgrim supplies of barley, butter and tea fill the market stalls.

Two outside traditions are woven in. Sweet milk tea, brewed strong and served in glasses from flasks in large tea halls, arrived through trade with India and Nepal and is now thoroughly local, as are the halls themselves, which double as places to sit, talk and eat a bowl of noodles. Sichuanese restaurants brought by migrants are everywhere in the modern city, serving hotpot and stir-fries. Chang, a mild barley beer, is brewed at home for festivals, and Lhasa Beer is the local lager.