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Note from Jonah: This is the continuation of a photo series from the Great Himalayan Mountain Range. The photos document a journey by car, foot, boat, plane and elephant from Tibet to Nepal. If you’re just joining now, here’s what you’ve missed:

1. Road trip on the Himalayan Shelf
2. Lhasa: City of Sunlight, City in the Sky
3. In Tibet, People’s Liberation Army (mostly) out of site, but not out of mind
4. Attn: Crayola — a new color for you — Tibetan Blue
5. Tibetan Cloudscapes
6. Tibetan Prayer Flags Littering Roof of the World
7. Should you pay for photos? The ethics of travel photography
8. 29 Minutes and 15 Seconds on Mount Everest
9. Desertification stretching from Inner Mongolia to Tibet
10. ‘The journey not the arrival matters’
11. Namaste and welcome to Nepal
12. Kathmandu: The greatest place on earth to get lost
13. Kathmandu: Full of mystery, culture, history — and trash
14. ‘A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles’
15. Who has the strongest necks in the world?
16. Hey hey, they’re some monkeys
17. After the Himalayan: The Terai
18. Watch where you step: Chitwan National Park
19. At the end of the road: Pokhara
20. Final Destination 8 (in 3D): The luckiest travelers in the world
21. Tibet to Nepal: ‘The Journey Not the Arrival Matters’

This photo series begins in Lhasa, the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Lhasa is at an altitude of 3,490 metres (11,450 ft) and is the birthplace of Tibetan Buddhism.

While I have very mixed feelings (some very negative which I’ll get into in a later post) about travel in Tibet, when looking back on the trip, Lhasa was actually one of the more exciting parts photographically. Especially, in terms of people and street photography.

I was there during the slow monsoon season, which keeps a lot of tourists out. However, it does not stop the Tibet Pilgrims from traveling to their holy city.

An overwhelming amount of people in Lhasa still dress very traditionally and Buddhist pilgrims from around the world voyage to Lhasa to pray and see an ancient part of their history. Photographically, this is just awesome.

Tibetan and Buddhist culture in general is very colorful. The monks and pilgrims clothing combined with the monasteries can make for some colorful photography. Unlike many religious areas, most monasteries allow photography (however, many charge an extra fee, per room that you want to photograph). The photograph above is from the Jokhang Temple.

In many ways, I found street photography more interesting than photographing monasteries in Lhasa. While the temples are all still active places of prayer, there is a little bit of a Disney feeling to some of them. While outside on the street, things seemed much more real.

Devoted pilgrims pray as they walk through the streets. Many come from very far away doing this, standing, praying and laying down in the street with bricks on their hands. From above, this obviously a slow method of walking makes some interesting pattens in the flood of pilgrims and tourists.

Pilgrims walk everywhere spinning pray wheels, holding beads and chatting as they walk clockwise around temples in the old Tibetan district of Lhasa. People hold these wands spinning scrolls around throughout Tibet. However, in Lhasa, the large concentration of people makes these wands almost dangerous.

While some people crawl through the streets praying, others simply sit and practice their religion when they feel like it.

While monks do fill the streets, thousand of other Buddhists also pray in the streets of Lhasa. In 2004 1.1 million people visited Lhasa, mostly ethnic Chinese. However, by 2020 this number is supposed to jump to 10 million visitors.

Given tourisms effect on the region already, the future for Tibetans is a bit scary. An increase in tourism this big will certainly fuel the erosion of indigenous culture in Tibet. Many sites have been renovated so many times, the authenticity has certainly been changed. The UNESCO World Heritage Site the Potala Palace which many say has been degraded to a “Disney-Like” site.

The Potala Palace is:

The Potala Palace, winter palace of the Dalai Lama since the 7th century, symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration of Tibet. The complex, comprising the White and Red Palaces with their ancillary buildings, is built on Red Mountain in the centre of Lhasa Valley, at an altitude of 3,700m. Also founded in the 7th century, the Jokhang Temple Monastery is an exceptional Buddhist religious complex. Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama’s former summer palace, constructed in the 18th century, is a masterpiece of Tibetan art. The beauty and originality of the architecture of these three sites, their rich ornamentation and harmonious integration in a striking landscape, add to their historic and religious interest.

While this “Disney-effect” is evident, its also important to note that the site will be preserved forever. Things do get old — especially given the harsh Tibetan environment. Travelers in other parts of South Asia have seen what happens when these sites are not protected. Later in this series, you will see many Nepalese temples covered with trash and following apart.

While I believe in cultural preservation and protection, there needs to be a balance between saving sites and protecting authenticity.