The golden dome,which is mounted right at the top of the prayer pole,
is the most sacred object of all.
Or it will be,once it's retrieved.
The old Shamanic beliefs of Tibet ascribed magical powers to the landscape.
But there's a far more tangible source of power here
which owes nothing at all to magic.
Strewn across the plateau are boiling thermal springs,
the evidence of mighty natural forces which have been at work over millions of years.
Deep below the surface,the vast continental plates of Asia and India are crashing into each other.
The turmoil below erupts in clouds of sulphurous steam.
It seems unlikely that scalding mineral springs should support life.
But one unlikely creature thrives here precisely because of them.