The Roof of the World Himalaya with Michael Palin

Hmm.

Well, Everest as we know it, or Chomolungma, as the Tibetans have known it for much longer,

has been very good to us, but now it's time for me to head to the heartland of Tibet.

I'm going to take the high road to Lhasa.

'The Tibetan Plateau, shielded by the Himalaya from the monsoon rains to the south,

'is a virtual desert, nearly three miles above sea level.

'We shall cross it via Shigatse and Lhasa to Yushu,

'the northernmost point of our journey.

'Shigatse boasts the country's second biggest monastery, Tashilunpo,

'home to the second most powerful monk in Tibet, the Panchen Lama.

'In contrast to the hard, dry hills around,

'the lush decoration is evidence that religion is not just important, it's at the heart of Tibetan life.'

It's an amazing place here.

I mean, is that the biggest monastery in Tibet?

I suppose Lhasa's got bigger.

'I visit Tashilunpo on a cold bright morning with Tibetan guide, Migma.'

This is belong to...

how can I say, Gelugpa order, Gelugpa sect.

There are 800 monks here.

New ones seem to be joining all the time.

It's an honour for a family to send their sons to Tashilunpo.

Monasteries are usually like a college or a university

and the monks can study Tibetan medicine and philosophy, history,

something like that, Tibetan culture, also astrology,

so Tibetan most famous master or doctor graduated usually monastery.

Yes, I see, I see. So the top professional people in Tibet

would be from a monastery, would have been monastery educated.

Exactly, yes, graduated from monastery.

This makes Shigatse...

..very important. Was it an important city, anyway?

Yes, in this city there has 500 years old.

500 years old.

It is the second biggest city in Tibet.

Why was it so important?

Because this is the Panchen Lama's residence.

The Panchen Lama, who is the second spiritual leader.

There are two highest spiritual teachers here.

One is the Dalai Lama and one is Panchen Lama.

The Dalai Lama, he is living in Lhasa, it is Central Tibet, and this is belong to Western Tibet.

-At what age do the boys get sent away to be monks?

-To the monastery?

-Yeah.

It is...most of them six years old.

-Six?

-Yes.

-Six.

-Yes, six years old.

So, they leave home and they, do they, are they allowed to go back home?

Just one time one year.

'Religion dictates everything here, including the colour scheme.'

Why is, why is that there, when everything else is white?

-Why is that colour there?

-The red colour?

-Yeah, the red colour.

-The red colour is to symbolise the temple -

important Buddha inside.

-Yes.

-Only the white colours, there are no Buddha, just a dormitory for the monks.

-Yeah, yeah, I see. I see, so this... The temple only would be painted.

-Yes.

'This Buddha is 80 feet high and reputedly the biggest gilded copper statue in the world.

'It attracts pilgrims from all over Tibet.'

Is it one of those things in Buddhism, where you get better Karma the more you come here?

-Yes.

-The more you come here, the better your next life will be?

-Or, is that...

-Yes.

From the Buddha they get some power or wisdom,

and for their next life is better.

'Lamps, signifying the light of wisdom and purification, are fed with yak butter.'

So this statue, it's 27 metres high and 11 metres wide,

and it's made from copper ore.

Is it very...? So it's very important, the act of pilgrimage in Tibet still?

Yeah, pilgrims usually come every day,

because the monastery's very close to their home town.

-Oh, the local people come every day.

-Yeah, every day.

'Pilgrims are kept to two of the staircases.

'The middle one can only be used by the Dalai Lama or the Panchen Lama.

'This may be his home, but after a disputed succession, no-one knows where the new Panchen Lama is.

'The Dalai Lama's candidate mysteriously disappeared,

'and a rival Chinese candidate is hardly ever seen.

'Heading east out of Shigatse,

'we go to Gyantse - a town which grew rich from the wool trade with India...

'..and remains one of the best preserved of all the old Tibetan cities.

'100 years ago, Tibetans gathered on these walls to repel an invasion...

'not by the Chinese, but by the British.

'The Viceroy of India, irritated by having a "closed country" so near his northern border,

'sent an army in to open it up.

'Francis Younghusband crossed the mountains with 10,000 men.

'After fierce fighting on the plain below, the fortress fell,

'allowing the British to take Gyantse and move on to Lhasa,

'puncturing Tibetan pride and ending their isolation.'

Ooh-ah.

A tea bar and a ball of string.

It's the old...

the markets of Gyantse.

Is there still a wool trade... of clothing or anything here?

Well, now today it's a...

most of the wool is carried to Lhasa.

-So now we can see no wool.

-So it doesn't...?

-Just some clothes we can buy here.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I read an amazing thing in a guide book which said that before they made synthetic materials,

-all the beards for the Santa Clauses in the American department stores were made of yak fur!

-Exactly.

It doesn't seem to be a particularly big, thriving city.

I mean, it's busy here, but the city seems to be quieter now.

Yes, because from Nepal to Lhasa, the main way, is not here.

It's changed, after nearly 20 years. It's changed.

'I leave Gyantse with some regret.

'There is a real sense of history here - of the days when Tibetans were monks, merchants and warriors.

'Tibet is not a cosy country.

'The centres of population are few and far between,

'and separated by hundreds of miles of wild and astonishingly beautiful landscape.

'Tibetans have great respect for their surroundings.

'Mountains are goddesses and lakes are sacred.

'My first sight of Lhasa, once called the Forbidden City,

'suggests very little is forbidden any longer.

'Chinese communism has created a capitalist paradise

'and Lhasa's now about as dark and mysterious as Disneyland.

'But all is not lost.

'Astride a rocky outcrop in the city is one of the most charismatic buildings in the world.

'13 storeys high, it looms over Lhasa like a giant Buddha.

'Chairman Mao wanted to blow it up, and I can see why.

'If a nation could be symbolised by a single structure, Tibet was the Potala Palace.'

I remember seeing this extraordinary building in photos in my encyclopaedia when I was young,

quite unlike anything else I'd seen - the essence of foreignness.

I never expected to see it, because at that time Tibet was closed and there was no chance of seeing it.

Now I can come here, Tibet's open again,

but sadly the Dalai Lama whose palace it was...has gone, and it's now just a museum.

'The Potala Palace was completed in the 17th century,

'and no expense was spared to make it a home fit for a god-king.

'Before the advent of skyscrapers, the Potala Palace was the tallest building in the world.

'It had no running water and everything had to be carried up these endless stairs.

'If you make it to the roof, you'll find the most enchanting of all the palace's 1,000 rooms -

'the Eastern Sunshine Apartment.

'This was the Dalai Lama's bedroom,

'and from here he could be the first in Lhasa to catch the rays of the morning sun.

'If ever there was a place to feel monarch of all you survey, this was surely it.

'It's almost half a century since the present Dalai Lama, the 14th,

'looked out over his city for the last time.

'He'd probably recognise very little of it now -

'only the heart of the old city has so far staved off the encircling concrete.

'The Barkor, the traditional market area of old Lhasa,

'remains the most important meeting place for Tibetans.

'But now they're outnumbered in their own city by Chinese immigrants

'and things will never be quite the same again.'

During the past 20 years...

the Barkor has already changed, completely changed, I'm sure.

That's because we can see there are so many...

businesses, shops here, around Barkor.

All shops, there are no families living, just the second floor, just people living...

Oh, I see, so there are fewer Tibetan families here, more businesses...owned by Chinese?

Um, there are, there are Tibetan also, some of Muslim people. Also, how can I say? Han people.

-Han Chinese, so the Chinese have put money in here too.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

'The Chinese authorities have failed in the half century they've been here

'to curb the Tibetans' devotion to their religion.

'Pilgrims still come to prostrate themselves in front of the Jokhang, the most sacred temple in Tibet,

or do the kora - the traditional walk around it.

So why are so many people here, at this particular spot, Migma?

Because it is the most holiest palace in Tibet because of this temple.

This temple, we call it Jokhang, is Buddha's house, that means Buddha's house.

'They say a third of all Tibet's dairy produce once went into the creation of butter lamps.

'The Chinese, anxious to drag Tibet into the modern world, banned their use.

'Now they've relaxed the rules and butter's back in a big way.'

These people who are doing the kora here, they...

they look like they're out of town? They've come from the countryside?

Yes, exactly. Most of them from Kham area, eastern part of Tibet.

And at this time, in eastern part of Tibet, leaving...

-nomads area. So, winter time there are no more work.

-No more work.

'The pilgrims' progress can take many different forms.

'Prostration is seen as an important way of gaining merit and some spend years dragging themselves to Lhasa.'

Tell me about the significance of the juniper and those incense burners.

So the smoke next to the sky and the earth, so the Buddha believes that that smoke comes down to earth.

Oh, so it makes a route between earth and sky.

-Ah, right.

-So this is from Tibetan native traditions not Buddhism customs.

-So, that's before Buddhism.

-Yes, before Buddhism.

I like the idea of that -

-you put in some juniper and create this roadway.

-Yes.

'Migma and I break our kora at a cafe.

'This was the haunt of Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth and naughtiest Dalai Lama,

'from whom a Western traveller noted,

'"no girl, married woman or good-looking person of either sex, was safe."'

He stayed with girlfriend...wrote several books about love stories.

-Ah, this was his place for romantic trysts. Ah.

-Yes.

-Wow. Did he have any children?

-No. THEY LAUGH

-It was platonic. They just read books.

-Yes.

Because maybe it's for his writing, maybe he's need some idea from girl.

So he wrote poetry, or...?

-Yeah.

-Have you read it?

-Yes, I read it.

-What's it like?

Er, actually he's a very clever and a very funny...

yes...Dalai Lama.

Well, Dalai Lamas don't have girlfriends any more, do they?

Er, the sixth Dalai Lama, especially.

'Potala Square, a windswept open space of the sort beloved by the Chinese,

'was created to mark the 13th anniversary of the day Tibet officially ceased to exist,

'and became instead the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

'30 years in which a deeply conservative, religious society

'was rudely forced to confront the modern world.

'For an insider's view of these traumatic years,

'I've been given official permission to talk to Taschi Tsering.

'Once imprisoned by the Chinese, he's remained here in Tibet,

'and became the first professor of English at Lhasa University.'

I am at the right place. How do you do? How do you do, Taschi? I'm very, very pleased to meet you.

-Oh, thank you.

-Honoured to meet you.

When I was in Lhasa...

in the early '50s, the Chinese Revolution Army arrived.

When they first came I was so curious...

and shocked and curious.

And then also they started building roads and establishing some small clinics,

and then also at the same time they were propagating all kind of "isms",

like feudalism, capitalism, socialism, communism,

all these 'isms' which I have never heard of before,

and made me even more curious,

and, er, started to think that definitely...

Tibet, the Tibetans, the life, bound to be changed.

The peasants of Tibet who lived like animals

through countless generations of serfdom have stood up.

The joyful days which they have long dreamed about are here at last.

The serfs are now free!

The government issues seeds to the peasants as interest-free loans.

These are truly the seeds of happiness.

'But the seeds were to bear a bitter fruit.

'After the Chinese invasion, the Dalai Lama, then a 16-year-old god-king,

'was effectively stripped of his political power as Mao made no secret of his dislike for religion.

'The Dalai Lama met Chairman Mao in Beijing to discuss how Tibet should be reformed.

'It seemed amicable enough for a while, but in 1959, things came to a head.

'A Tibetan uprising began and was brutally suppressed.

'It was the end to any pretence of Tibetan independence.

'The Dalai Lama, facing imprisonment or death if he stayed in Lhasa, fled his palace.

'Heavily disguised, he and a few trusted followers made their escape across the plateau

'and through the Himalaya to the safety of India.

'The Dalai Lama never returned.

'Taschi Tsering, then being educated in India, was asked to work with him, but he had other ideas.'

A lot of Tibetan exiles were either staying away or leaving Tibet.

You chose to come back in 1964. Why was that?

I...began to think about...

accepting the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,

and after some time I was... I was thinking to take the socialist road.

For what?

For coming back to Tibet, to co-operate with them,

to modernise Tibet, to raise the living standards of the Tibetans.

When I came back and suddenly I ran into the Cultural Revolution,

and at the end of that I was labelled an American spy

and an advocator for Tibetan independence...OK?

And then I was thrown into prison and, you know, for a few years until Deng Xiaoping...

the rise of Deng Xiaoping's power.

So, since then, now over 20 years, more than 20 years,

I'm glad that this government, even though it did not trust me,

however, they are not bothering me.

'Nor it seems, are they bothering the Buddhists.

'Politically and economically secure,

'the Chinese government is now happy to keep Tibet's monasteries open.

'This walled garden is in Sera Monastery.'

That is amazing!

'If you want a good argument, you've come to the right place.'

Mass debating!

'The Buddha was insistent that his word should never be accepted without question,

'so the monks developed a sort of verbal martial art, trading propositions instead of punches.'

Who is debating what? And what do all the gestures mean?

-So, this is the debating Buddhism philosophy. They are debating about this.

-Philosophy, yeah.

Monks, sitting monks usually give the answer.

Oh, the sitting monk asks the questions, yeah, yeah.

-So, the sitting monk gives the answer.

-Yeah.

-So, do this - this means that you are wrong.

-Oh, right, yeah.

-My answer is correct.

So, the more points you can make the better,

-because you demolish this man's argument - you say, "what about that?"

-Yeah.

'The great thing about this school of argument

'is that if you get really worked up, you punch yourself!

'My time in the capital is nearly over and looking for a last chance to taste the city's delights,

'Migma and I head for Lhasa's top nightclub.

'Beers are bought in slabs of 12.

'The audience is treated to Tibetan culture as seen through a showbiz filter.

'A little later on it gets truly weird and I find myself experiencing profound feelings of deja-vu!

'Oh, no! Oh, my God! It's the Eurovision Song Contest!'

THUMPING DANCE BEAT

'Migma tells me she's 19 and studying architecture.

'Early in the morning of my final day in Lhasa, I'm up in the hills above the city.

'This is Nechung, once the home of the State Oracle, the third most important monk in Tibet.

'He fled to India along with the Dalai Lama and now his monastery,

'destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, is being restored.

'The work is all done by hand...

'and sometimes foot as well.

'Here a work team flattens out a clay floor with a sort of restoration line dance.

'They even have people here on work experience.

'The walls at Nechung are like libraries,

'covered in images intended to teach as well as decorate.

'It's more than a monastery that's being preserved at Nechung,

'it's a culture and a history which, thanks to Chinese communism,

'at one time seemed dangerously close to extinction.

'Leaving Lhasa we pass works that will have profound implications for the future of Tibet -

'the foundations of a 700-mile railway across the high plateau.

'From 2008, the year of the Beijing Olympics, high-speed trains will,

'for the first time, connect Lhasa with the Chinese rail network...

'for the benefit, says the poster, "of all the peoples of China."

'As one ethnic group, the Han, makes up 91% of all Chinese,

'it's clear who'll benefit most from this impressive engineering.

'About 100 miles north of Lhasa, amidst swirling steam,

'I discover a totally unexpected Nirvana.'

Oh, phew!

Oh, wonderful!

The problem with Tibet is, it's a very big place and very difficult to heat.

This is the first time I've been warm in two weeks in Tibet,

and I've had to come to this Olympic-sized swimming pool,

north of Lhasa at about 14,000 feet, to really be warm, and it's lovely!

Who needs clothes when you've got the hot springs?

Ah, ha-ha-ha! Ho-ho-ho!

'Not all the water on the plateau is as friendly.

'These are the icy shores of Namtso Lake, 15,000 feet -

'4,700 metres above sea level.

'Namtso, Tibet's largest salt water lake is a very cold, very holy, very busy place.'

Well, it really says something for the dedication of and devotion of Tibetan pilgrims

that here on the edge of Namtso Lake,

on the onset of winter, when it's really cold and windy out here that they've all turned out,

because it's a very important lake, this is a very important year, the Year of the Sheep.

It's a very auspicious year for people to come to the lake and walk round and do the kora -

the devotional walk - and there's so many of them there must something in it, so I'll join in and see.

'Namtso is one of the four sacred lakes of Tibet

'and great merit is gained from braving the ferocious elements to come here.

'There's one circuit around the rocks for day trippers,

'but the truly dedicated can attempt a circuit of the lake itself - that's an 18-day walk.

'Having walked with people in this numbing cold,

'I found myself puzzled and perhaps a little envious of the degree of devotion

'that can turn such a remote and unforgiving lake shore into a sanctuary.

'The only other signs of life around Namtso Lake are the herds of yak

'for whom extreme cold is a perfect environment.

'I'd been warned to be wary of yaks.

'They look docile, but can get dangerously perky.

'In return for a bit of help with the herding, Ganden, the local cattle baron,

'invites me in for yak snack of butter tea and a slice of dried thigh.

'And that luxury of luxuries, a fire.

'Yaks, he says, are a man's best friend and provide him and his family with wool, milk, cheese.

'He's a nomad, not a farmer, and life is very hard.

'Most of the year they live outside in extreme weather - cold and snow.

'Luckily, he tells me, the Communist Party of China

'helps him overcome all these hardships, and he's very grateful.

'I think I've just walked into a commercial!

'400 miles north-east of Lhasa, summer has arrived on the plateau

'and the yak are fattening themselves up.

'Sonam and his brother are moving their herd to make the best of the fresh pasture.

'The easy way to do it is on the family motorbike.

'Sonam's wife prefers the traditional herding methods -

'a whistle and a clod of earth on the side of the head.

'I just pretend I'm a tour guide!

'I'm not a natural farm boy, but being a busy time of year, I offer them what limited skills I have.'

Well, nothing seems to be happening.

I'm totally unqualified for any milking of any kind, let alone yak milking!

Come on, then. Come on.

There you go. There you go.

Come on. Come on.

Just a drop, just a drop.

Sonam says I must be much firmer with the udders.

Which ones shall I...?

There's so many!

OK, all right? Yeah.

I'm not milking a yak, of course, because a yak is actually a male,

so this is a drey - a drey is what you milk.

There we go.

We'll soon have enough for a cappuccino!

'He's a bit of an enigma is Sonam.

'Does he always wear a suit or is it just because we're here?

'The relationship between man and yak seems almost embarrassingly one-sided.

Yaks provide milk, cheese, butter, meat,

fuel, fur, rope, skins and transport and in return they get a bell round the neck and a very silly haircut.

Ah, thank you.

It's a bit warmer in here than out there on the high plateau. ..Hello.

Hello, little ones. I'm Michael.

'The tent that is their summer home is predictably yak dependent.

'It's made from their hair and heated by their droppings.'

I've come in with the yaks

from the winter pasture to the summer pasture,

which you only spend about three months of the year, yeah?

And I got a bit of yak herding practice,

and a bit of milking practice and this is incredible, this is a tent, a yak-hair tent.

Everything you see here, there's cupboards, sideboards, and these big pots,

everything is brought on the back of a yak and it's all carried in by yak.

Um...and, um... and this is where you spend,

this is where you spend your summer with your family, out on the fields there.

It may look warm, but actually it was quite chilly this morning, so I could use this hot tea.

We've not known each other for long, Sonam,

but somehow although we can't speak each other's language,

we somehow know what we're on about -

eating, sharing food, children... Children are always the same, aren't they?

Always one of them's looking very happy, and the other one's going "Wa-ah-ah!"

It's the same in England, it's the same in Tibet, wherever you are.

Funny thing that, isn't it?

Who needs phrase books?

Hello. Hello.

'I like to think my help can give the family a bit of a breather,

'even if I do feel a bit like the au pair.'

The whole pace of life, sort of, changes...

up here.

Most of the things they do, most of the movements,

most of the time spent, is doing something fairly leisurely like this, making cheese.

There's no great rush.

Gossiping goes on, of course, outside.

But those of us stuck in the kitchen

get into this rather gentle rhythm of life, and it's awfully pleasant.

This would probably be the major occupation of the day for somebody.

It beats presenting!

Hey!

I saw that. I saw that!

That's what happens when I leave it.

If you don't stir it, it just gets a mind of its own. ..Oi!

Cheese, in the bowl.

I saw that and your friend, all right? I'm a reasonable... Eh!

Right over.

It wants to be stirred, you see?

Stir me, stir me. OK, I understand your point of view.

It's you three over here, you're the trouble makers.

This side, absolutely fine. Oi!

That one there, you're a new one. You're a stroppy one!

I'm not having you in my cheese, so there!

Hello, again.

Don't look so sad, I've come here to work.

Must be making butter in there.

How does that work?

Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I haven't done. This is one I haven't done.

Excuse me.

So just...push it down.

You show me, you show me.

Right down...and then up.

Good manly plunge.

Hmm.

I wonder how long you have to do this for?

A long time?

An hour? Two hours?

She says, "Yes!"

At the end of it, it's really delicious butter.

'When the time comes, I somewhat reluctantly tear myself away from the warm bosom of Sonam's family.

'He's agreed to give me a ride to the horse fair in the nearby town of Yushu.'

OK.

'We don't bother waiting for the bus.

'After days on the sparsely-populated plateau,

'the metropolis of Yushu comes as something of a culture shock.

'The town, springing fully formed out of nowhere, alive and buzzing with shops, restaurants and hotels.

'And right next door, another town is taking shape.

'The week-long horse fair that fills the valley outside Yushu

'is the biggest gathering on the Tibetan Plateau.

'Few people can make a living from the harsh conditions on the Roof of the World,

'but those that do have come here, often from hundreds of miles away, to meet and celebrate.

'Nomads bring their tents and their families here

'to meet other nomads they'll probably never see for the rest of the year.

'The atmosphere is a mixture of home comforts, holiday camp jollity,

'and highland games, with the yaks joining in...

'..not always happily.

'There are retail opportunities,

'with a constantly expanding high street of cafes, stalls, businesses and side shows.

'Elaborately decorated tents go up around the camp,

'creating a bizarre mix of Henley Regatta and the Wild West.

'Much of the time is just spent hanging out.

'A local woman has moved her cafe from Yushu to the fairground,

'and it's here that I meet Sonam's English-speaking friend Duker,

'from whom I learn more about the secret life of a yak herder.'

Later on when he was a teenager, did he come here to meet girls?

For instance!

DUKER INTERPRETS THE QUESTION

Yeah, he met lots of girls!

Did he fall in love with any of these girls, or were these just girls he met at the festival?

DUKER INTERPRETS THE QUESTION

He did fall in love. Ah.

Did she find the love of her life here?

DUKER INTERPRETS THE QUESTION

She said that is her privacy.

Oh, OK. Well, that's absolutely fair enough.

Let's talk about politics!

THEY LAUGH

The opening ceremony is all about politics

as local administrators join with high-ranking members of the People's Liberation Army

to mark the achievements of the Chinese government in opening up the wilderness of the west

and providing a brighter future for the people of this benighted land.

CHINESE NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS

As the last chords of the Chinese national anthem die away,

a good old socialist drive-past begins, which could as well be in Red Square or Tiananmen Square.

Whilst massed tractors and farm vehicles roll by, the commentary in Chinese and Tibetan

extols the miracles that modernisation has wrought here

and the promise of even better days ahead.

The children seem to be having a ball, but the discreet presence of authority

seems to inhibit some of the older participants.

These horsemen are Khampa people,

the only Tibetans to put up any serious resistance to the Chinese liberation.

I wonder what Sonam makes of all this?

What's he love best about it?

DUKER INTERPRETS THE QUESTION

-The horses.

-The horses. Ah, right. Yeah, well, of course...

Cos you have your yaks and all that.

Is he a horseman, as well?

-Yes.

-Ah, yeah. Does he do the musket?

Do you do the firing?

-No, never. Dangerous.

-That's dangerous.

It's a bit dangerous. He's got a wife and family. He can't be doing things like that!

'But there are plenty of people who will do it, with impressive results.

'The gathering up of the scarves on the other hand, gives the horsemen a few problems.'

OK, where are we going now - to get chilled?

We're going to see some coral.

-What?

-Cor-al.

-Coral.

-Coral.

Coral. I know what coral is.

'As we both feel the need of a break from the fair, Duker takes me shopping in town.'

It's motorbike land. It's kind of like the Wild West without the horses, and motorbikes instead.

Oh, look at this one.

Ah, right.

Hello.

Yeah, and these... Do you wear these, do you?

-Do you wear them?

-Yes, it's for decoration - a necklace.

-Oh, right. So, like an amulet, sort of thing, yeah.

-Mm-hm.

And for example, this coral, the dark red - very expensive - and this is the real "zu".

-Is it real?

-Yeah.

-This is zu.

-Zu? What's it called?

-Zu.

Zu. It's called a zu.

And if you have a zu touch your body, this can protect you.

Oh, right, if it touches your body. How much are they?

HE INTERPRETS

-Er, 30,000 yuan.

-30,000 yuan?

Wow, so, ten to a dollar, that's about 3,000 dol... 3,000?!

30,000 yuan is more than 3,000.

30,000 yuan, divided by ten, that would be 3,000, wouldn't it?

Am I right, please?! I always get this sort of thing wrong!

Much nodding from the financial department.

Can we afford one?

No. I thought not! Half?

You should be sitting in a bank, you know, you've got so much money around your neck!

You should have security guys around. Maybe they ARE.

Well, I don't think I want a "zu"...

I wouldn't mind a "zzz", but not a "zu".

By now, we've caught the attention of the Men In Hats. It's time to move on.

What sort of things are they buying and selling? What's in there?

-Well, it's called caterpillar fungus.

-Caterpillar fungus?

-Yeah, it's a very, very expensive..

-Can we see it?

-It's a very expensive herb medicine.

-Oh, right. Can I touch it?

-You see it's an insect, actually.

-Yes, oh, yes, there's the head.

And then six feet here, you'll notice some feet, and this is...

And that's... What is so good? What's this?

-The caterpillar's tail? Is that...?

-No, this part is.

-What is that, then?

-Grass.

-Grass, I see, yes.

-It comes out like this.

-Oh, I see. What's it used for? Why is it so valuable?

It's a medicine. Herbal medicine.

-What does it cure?

-It cure everything.

-Cure everything?!

Well, no wonder it's so good!

Will it cure filming sickness brought on by deep fatigue?!

-Yeah, you can...

-No, only joking. We love it.

-Can I have 30s' worth?

-How much is that?

'The caterpillar fungus, or cordyceps sinensis, sets me back a pound a shot.

'Still, if it cures everything...!'

Thank you. That's very precious.

I'll go and sell them to somebody else now. These are high currency.

Ah-hah-hah-hah! Eh-heh-heh-heh!

Let's go now.

Back at the fairground, in the glamorous world of parasols and international photographers,

there's still plenty going on.

Stimulated by the heady scent of burning juniper,

Duker and I investigate one of Tibet's less well-known pastimes - hoopla.

-One yuan each, five yuan for six.

-OK, let's have three each.

Good, six.

Every prize is a pack of cigarettes, which for a non-smoker like me is a bit of a bummer.

Go, go, go!

-Hey!

-Ah, do you smoke?

-No, so...

Useless. We've found the only tobacco hoopla.

Is there any sort of luncheon meat or smoked oysters down here?

-Cigarette, cigarette, please, please!

-Ah, no!

What with this, and things like karaoke, there are quite a number of outside influences

on what is essentially a Tibetan festival and I wonder if Duker has problems with this.

Do you think there's a danger that you'll lose the Tibetan culture

if people all speak Chinese as well? Tibetan will become less important?

Yeah, probably. I mean, if you do only speak Chinese, or Tibetans only speak Chinese and English,

then of course we will lose. But now we are learning Chinese and Tibetan both,

so, yeah, we are still keeping our culture and actually we're trying.

So the Chinese and the Tibetans - do they mix quite happily?

Happily? You mean...harmony?

-Yeah, in harmony.

-Yes, it's fine now. It's really fine.

-Was it difficult to get that harmony?

-No...

-I mean was it always like that?

-Yeah, it's fine.

For me, I mean, I didn't really feel any, just like tension or...

It's just quite getting along well.

So, your son, in 50 years' time, he will be as Tibetan as you were

and as Tibetan as your father was, is that right?

My son - if I have chance, I will let him to get best education.

That mean he have to learn Tibetan, Chinese and English also,

and if possible I will send him the best university in Peking -

-er, Oxford.

-OK.

So...that's right. If he goes off to be a big businessman

owning a multinational in Shanghai and London, you wouldn't mind?

No, never mind where he... If he had a better life, it's fine.

-But you wouldn't like it if he forgot how to speak Tibetan, would you?

-No. He would not,

because I will let him have a very deep feeling about Tibet when he's...childhood.

-Yeah, well...

-In his childhood.

You see, I liked being up on the plateau, I enjoyed that.

That was really nice. That was much better than being in noisy London, or anything like that.

We can't all have everything we want.

I never thought Tibet would ever remind me of my summer holidays, but it kind of does.

There's a very similar atmosphere here to going away to Norfolk

like we used to do and picking a beach hut, and people next door...

"Who's coming this year?" "Oh, hello, it's those people again."

There's very much that same feeling here, of people letting their hair down for a few days

and it's not just that it's picnics and it's tents,

it's also sort of people dressed to the nines,

the parades and all that sort of thing that go on here.

I think what I sense here is an extra intensity of the enjoyment,

because for eight months of the year, this is such a severe life here on the top of the plateau,

that when they do get together, it really is a party and they obviously know to party!

These are the headwaters of the Yangtse River,

where it gathers momentum for a 4,000-mile journey from here to the sea.

This place where we've just seen the horse fair is the furthest north I shall go on the Tibetan Plateau,

and then I'll be following the Yangtse south until it reaches the very eastern edge of the Himalaya.

Next time on Himalaya - I brave the whirlpools of the Yangtse,

walk the Tiger-Leaping Gorge,

see what the doctor orders,

learn seduction techniques

and join a Chinese hoedown.

Back in India I take a train,

show my stomach to a head hunter,

search for the perfect cut of tea,

see boys playing girls,

watch dancing drummers

and give an elephant a bath.

Himalaya - the highest form of entertainment!