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• Motorcycle tour through Tibet With the motorcycle on the roof of the world
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Breakable

24 pictures

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Tibet by motorcycle? Currently only possible as part of an organized trip. But it burns the bikers’ hearts and minds with images that illuminate the rest of their lives.

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Motorcycle tour through Tibet: Himalayan views at their best.

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Pang La Pass with 100 hairpin bends on the way to Mount Everest.

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Yamaha XT 660 Z Tenere in Pelde Dzong, an urtibetan village on the foothills of the Yamdrok-Yumtso lake.

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Children could benefit from the progress that the Chinese bring to the country…

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… provided they speak Mandarin.

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Yaks are omnipresent, the arrival at Base Camp is a sublime moment when Everest peaks out of the clouds.

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Finally we make it, all of our dreams come true: the boss of all mountains shows his summit in the death zone for 30 minutes. Then Mount Everest hides the divine head again in snow-laden clouds…

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Potala Palace in Lhasa.

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Tibetan wind instrument for religious music.

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Monks gather at Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse.

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Sublime Buddha images are waiting in all temples.

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Buddha figure in Tashilhunpo Monastery.

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Team of horses near Tingri.

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Driving a BMW costs extra in Tibet.

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Many Tibetans, especially nomads, farmers and the elderly, cannot share in the progress that the Chinese bring.

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Younger people who speak Mandarin, on the other hand, benefit from education and technology.

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Monk in front of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

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Yakdung piles (fuel) in front of Nam Tso Lake.

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5000 kilometers to Shanghai and an extremely nice tour group.

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Tibetan Buddha statues.

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Slope on Yarlung Tsangpo.

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The heavy smell of yak butter, the omnipresent murmur of mantras – devout Tibetan women in a small monastery on the way to the Lamaling Temple.

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Slope around the Yamdrog Yumtso.

to travel

Out and about in Tibet

Motorcycle tour through Tibet
With the motorcycle on the roof of the world

Himalayan giants in lunar landscapes, monks, monasteries, nomads, pilgrims, yaks and wild slopes. Before the Chinese mania for modernization dissolves traditional Tibet, you should go here again by motorcycle.

Markus Biebricher

07/21/2011

Petrified faces behind sunglasses, fingers on the triggers of automatic weapons – that’s how they aim at the surging crowd. The Chinese snipers sit on the roofs around Barkhor Square in the old town of Lhasa. They could fire at any moment, but no one takes any notice. Merchants advertise their goods, tourists haggle, workers sing, soldiers march in lockstep or stand in glass cases as high as a man with their crosses pushed through.

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On the 60th year of the founding of the People’s Republic, Beijing shows military strength in its problem province. Hundreds of pilgrims throw themselves on the ground in front of the Jokhang Temple, which houses the holiest Buddha in Tibet. Inside, believers and monks huddle in the smoke-filled air along holy shrines and golden Buddha figures, endlessly reciting the oldest and most popular mantra of Tibetan Buddhism: “om mani padme hum”. The present dissolves into a thousand colorful films, permanent goose bumps and shortness of breath remain. A tried and tested remedy for permanent shortness of breath
is motorcycling.

Like a pressurized oxygen refueling, the wind rams into the nose and mouth. Shortly before we reach the Lhachen La pass at 5160 meters on our acclimatization tour from Lhasa towards Namtso, the engine of our Yamaha stutters. Then the view of a gigantic blue eye in the middle of a lunar landscape, with Himalayan giants resting in the distance. The Namtso shines at 4718 meters, a sacred lake for the Tibetans. Its water is salty, no other lake in the world is higher. On the descent, sporty curves, then nomad tents and yak caravans come into our wide-eyed eyes. At the lake I try yak butter tea.

Fall for this Tibetan magic potion for the rest of the trip. Tour guide Tom smiles. The rancid taste does not suit many Europeans, but the ingredients give the Sherpas strength for mountaineering and me reserves on jarring slopes. There is also euphoria among fellow travelers. They admit that riding a motorcycle in this landscape can be addicting despite being short of breath. Strong personalities spice up our group.

Heinz and Gerd, father and son from Vienna, deliver charm, drive Chinese Jialing, water-cooled 600 single-cylinder with gasoline injection in the soft enduro chassis. The characters Hans Hermann and Jan from Hanover also trust the technology of Chinese bikes. The charismatic Harel from Israel and the good soul, the walking Tibet lexicon in the person of tour guide Tom, rely on Bavarian boxer GS.

Han-Chinese Rick, our man for the threads behind the scenes, like Claudia and I, prefers the proven long suspension travel of the Yamaha XT 660 Z Tenere. On the way back to Lhasa we pass Damshung. Police checks again and again. Without Rick and his negotiating skills, we would not have a chance to travel here – neither without the overall organization and the experience of our tour operator Edelweiss Bike Travel. Permits are required for every route in Tibet, we have to hand in our passports all the time, Rick and Tashi, our smart Tibetan cultural officer, are hard at work getting permits. Then the surrounding stimuli are so great that we forget all tribulation and feel completely free between the checkpoints.

Mainly because Tom lets the participants drive alone. You meet at attractions where everyone stops anyway. No peer pressure, but the security of an organization in case something goes wrong. We are fortunate that the members of the group like one another. The Beijing – Lhasa railway runs alongside our route. This most important element of the Chinese modernization strategy has been in operation since 2006. The 4046 kilometer long prestige project devoured three billion euros.

The train has to overcome heights of more than 5000 meters on its 48-hour journey and has its own oxygen supply. A train is approaching, but our attention is due to the road, which is constantly crossed by pigs, goats, sheep and dogs or used as a place to rest for lunch. Festively dressed pilgrims with large-wheeled carts on which all of their property lies flock towards Lhasa. Sometimes it takes them a whole year to reach the magnificent, world-famous Potala Palace, seat of the absent Dalai Lama. They camp on the side of the road, light fires in their tents and disappear in the diesel soot of the trucks. Arrived at last, the pilgrims circle the Potala and Jokhang temples clockwise and set off on the “Kora”, as the tour is called. Murmur religious verses and turn their prayer wheels. In between, immigrant Chinese, who make up around a third of Lhasa’s 690,000 residents, sell detergents and cheap electrical appliances.

The interior of the Potala Palace is anything but cheap. What the Chinese left behind or put back in after the Cultural Revolution blinds our eyes. Tons of gold are said to have been used in the Buddha statues, the tombs and reliquary shrines (stupas), one room is more magnificent than the other. Scents, colors, shapes, a concentrated and intimate religiosity, which animates all Tibetans from old people to babies, take our breath away. In between, Chinese informers check the tours. Disguised as tourists, monks or firefighters, they are easy to reveal after a while. Tashi formulates his explanations with care, tears glistening in his eyes. One word critical of the regime during his statements and he ends up in jail. That doesn’t happen, instead we find ourselves one day later on the snow-covered heights of the 5000 meter high Mi La pass at the transition to the province of Kham.

We spot huge yak herds, nomad tents and trusting children in the thick snowstorm. Carefully groped into the valley, then we meet for lunch in Shungdor. Finally yak butter tea again, it has to be eight cups, then the strength is enough for the endless mogul slope to Bayi and the attention for big yaks and small, black pigs, who always have to cross the street when they hear our Yamaha approach. The next day we roll out in front of a small monastery. Except us no tourists, an intimate feel-good atmosphere made of being welcome and the willingness to share religious devotion with the strangers. The second stop is at the magnificent Lamaling Monastery, where we are privileged to visit the 95-year-old Lama and witness a large billy goat ramming its horns into the soft tissues of an obvious Chinese informant.

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On the Pang La Pass to Mount Everest.

Hermanns Jialing’s side stand breaks in the stony parking lot. Not an issue for the improvisation artists of the local blacksmiths, but a short time later, after we had followed the wild meanders of the Yarlung Tsangpo and the landscape had become barren, Hermann’s chain broke. Mechanic Jason quickly pulls up a replacement so that the journey can quickly continue along the huge sand dunes along the river to Langxian. From here a wild slope compresses spring elements and intervertebral discs. We share our picnic with a 93 year old nomad by the river. His face is as furrowed as the Himalayas. He no longer has teeth. So bananas and a cigarette.

Then the motorbikes dust the torture track to the Budrang-La-Pass (4910 meters), a challenge for man and machine. I can barely breathe, the Yamaha only takes little gas, and Hermanns Jialing pulls a threatening plume of smoke behind him. In a hairpin bend with sand, scree and ruts, a huge semi-trailer truck comes towards us, maneuvering itself millimeter by millimeter along the gorge. If it gets stuck, you can only pull it apart up here. The motorcycles make it down to the u province, the historical and cultural heart of the country, without any losses. The valley of the Yarlung Tsangpo is considered to be the cradle of Tibetan civilization, because it was the local kings who united the country in the seventh century. Numerous monasteries and temples lie like a dice between small fields and sand dunes.

With the Kamba La, the next 5000m pass sucks the intrepid group. Endless turns, then the breakthrough to the other side: a landscape that could lie on a strange planet, the Yamdrok-Yumtso Lake and distant 7000 chains take even more of the precious breath away. The Yamaha can no longer manage the Karo-La-Pass between Nangartse and Gyantse on its own. Tom’s fat BMW GS Adventure pulls us up and gives us unique views of the glacier of the 7140 meter high Nojin Kangtsang. As far as Gyantse with its gigantic fortress and its 35 meter high stupa, the single cylinder chugs reliably again, also through the desert along the Nyang River and on the “Friendship Road”, which connects Lhasa with Kathmandu in Nepal. The highest pass of our Tibet tour, the Lhakpa La at 5248 meters, is again difficult for the Yamaha to manage in second gear. A short time later, the highest mountain in the world shines in our souls. Mount Everest, which the Tibetans call Qomolangma, stands within reach in the evening light. He is still 160 kilometers away. A distance that we laboriously reduce from Tingri over a bad road with corrugated iron, sand, gravel, 100 hairpin bends and the Pang La Pass (5150 meters). At a checkpoint we are even forbidden to laugh, but the prospect of reaching Everest Base Camp by motorcycle makes all the hardship small. At the Rongbuk monastery, the highest in the world, yak caravans meet with rice, tsampa and the coveted fuel yak dung. Weather-beaten Sherpas admire Tom’s GS, which he lent Claudia and me for the base camp expedition. Finally we make it, all of our dreams come true, the boss of all mountains shows his summit in a dizzying death zone for 30 minutes. Then he hides the divine head again in snow-laden clouds, while the group lies ecstatically at the giant’s feet and is served yak butter tea and rice in one of the base camp tents. On the return trip, Lhakpa La is on our route again. A certain Yamaha runs like hell today, as if to make up for past shame and shortness of breath. The 5270 meters of the pass are not enough for her. It seduces me to drive it over loose scree to a nearby summit decorated with prayer flags, which is a good 200 meters higher. Above the view is far, Everest, Lhotse, Cho Oyu and Makalu greet over, crystal clear view, cold cuts into the station wagon. From the pass, Claudia and Gerd struggle up on foot, oxygen supplies in hand, upstairs a person is standing on top of the world and is finally breathless.

Motorbike tour China – Tibetan provinces with the MOTORRAD action team

Tour information

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24 pictures

Pictures: Motorcycle tour through Tibet

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Travel time: 14 days
Distance covered: 3000 kilometers

General: Tibet fascinates with moving history, deeply religious people and diverse, wild landscapes. The country is framed by the highest mountains on earth, which ensured the undisturbed flowering of Tibetan culture for many centuries. Nonetheless, Tibetan history is rich in clashes with China and other countries, at least on a political level. Between 1950 and 1970, China finally took control of the Tibetan plateau, exiled Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and 100,000 Tibetans to India, and systematically destroyed most of the country’s historical and cultural heritage. This included a large part of the 6,000 Buddhist monasteries on Tibetan soil. Some are being rebuilt because Beijing recognizes the tourist potential, has underestimated the power of Buddhism and fears further unrest among believers. For years, the central government has been doing everything it can to encourage the Tibetans to use the technical achievements of modern Chinese civilization, as well as communist and capitalist ideologies, which not only resulted in protests and uprisings, but also brought advantages at certain levels. Nevertheless, China’s cultural policy, including its educational content, is hard on the original Tibet. In addition, Beijing is flooding the country with Han Chinese. The number of Tibetans is decreasing, and simple farmers have no chance to participate in the rapid progress. Beijing does not provide any information on the extraction of raw materials in the resource-rich province of Tibet, nor on the subject of nuclear waste disposal sites or the presence of the army. Tibet remains a sensitive topic, but the myth of the legendary, world-remote “Snow land” can not be so
easily exterminate and magically attracts travelers.

Motorcycle tours in Tibet: Individual motorcycle tours are almost impossible due to the political situation. Rigid entry regulations, route permits, Chinese driver’s license and compulsory insurance as well as numerous military and police checkpoints would make any attempt fail. An alternative is to take part in an organized motorcycle tour. The world’s leading provider of organized motorcycle tours, Edelweiss Bike Travel from Mieming / Tyrol, offers the Tibet tour described. In addition to their own tour guide, the travel professionals provide a Chinese specialist who, thanks to years of contact, obtains all permits and is assisted by a Tibetan guide. He acts as a cultural representative in the monasteries. Edelweiss also provides an escort vehicle with a mechanic, luggage, fuel supplies, a medi-
An emergency package as well as food and drinks for the picnic are transported en route.

motorcycles: There is a choice of Chinese four-stroke injection single-cylinder type Jialing JH 600, which can be used as a soft enduro with approx
38 HP and a low seat height are well suited for less experienced pilots who (still) lack the last quantum of technical perfection. Yamaha XT 660 Z Tenere master even difficult slopes with good off-road chassis, while BMW R 1200 GS pamper you with distinctive travel comfort and power reserves.
Costs: between 4800 and 7980 euros, depending on the type of motorcycle and room requirements. All information: www.edelweissbike.com or toll-free from all over Europe: Telephone 0 08 00/3 33/5 93/4 77. Prices and effort are high, but the tour is a terrific experience.

Requirements: Off-road experience and endurance are necessary, even if the number of adventurous gravel roads is decreasing thanks to the Chinese craze for asphalting. Tibetans and Chinese have a stark driving style,
to which you have to get used to. Just like a lack of oxygen and climatic conditions-
conditions that include capricious weather conditions and extreme temperature differences.

Book tip

The Tibet Guide by Oliver Fulling from Stefan Loose Verlag for
22.95 euros came from the Tibet travel guide-
Offer for the authors as the most informative
and the most useful work crystallized.

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