They come by the thousands to one of the world’s most exotic, extreme and remote environments in search of something intangible. For a Tibetan pilgrim, Lhasa is the ultimate mythical, political and spiritual destination, the curtain call on the journey of a lifetime. Walk with these steely men and wiry women who have come thousands of miles on foot to reach the holiest place in Tibetan Buddhism, the Jokhang Temple, before proceeding to the abandoned Potala Palace.

Lhasa has a transformative power like no other, it is a place of soaring religious debate, reincarnation, miracles, and self-discovery. Visitors sometimes say they find this otherworldly environment oddly familiar, like a fading fragment of a half-forgotten dream. Perhaps, it represents our aspiration for a spiritual paradise in a Jungian unconscious, or perhaps the altitude plays tricks on us all.