Pilgrims to Lhasa traditionally performed three clockwise circuits around holy places to acquire merit. The longest path at 8 kilometers was the Lingkhor, which was now virtually unrecognizable to my Tibetan companion, who had been away from Lhasa for 17 years. Still, we found the path through a concrete maze by following old Tibetans with prayer wheels down to a small surviving path of the old Lingkhor, dense with wall carvings, prayer flags and Tibetans, and these two little boys dressed like Chinese.