Lhasa's days are long and bright, and the city has developed a set of indoor pastimes to fill the afternoons. The most visible is snooker: halls with two or four tables are common in the old town and along the newer commercial streets, used mainly by young men, with tea and soft drinks and low hourly rates, and they are open from morning until late at night. Pool and snooker arrived in Tibet relatively recently and were adopted quickly, and the standard of play in a plain neighbourhood hall is often high.
Dice and card games
The older Tibetan game is a form of dice played with three dice, a wooden bowl, a mat and counters, in which players compete to reach a target score and the calls are shouted rather than spoken quietly - a game you will hear before you see. It is played in tea houses, in courtyards, in family homes during festivals, and in the shaded parts of the Barkhor. Card games are also widespread, and mahjong, imported from the Chinese provinces, is played in the same rooms as snooker. None of this is staged for visitors, and it is one of the easiest ways to spend an hour in a Tibetan town without doing anything in particular.
Tea houses as clubs
Much of the gaming happens in the sweet tea houses, the plain rooms where a cup of sweet milk tea is poured continuously and a plate of momos or a bowl of noodles can be had at any hour. They function as social clubs: the same men occupy the same tables every afternoon, a television is on in the corner, and the room is warm, loud and entirely informal. Lhasa has hundreds of them, from the famous ones around the Barkhor to anonymous rooms in the residential lanes. There is no entry charge and no obligation to do anything but order tea.
Practical notes
Join a game if you are invited; the usual arrangement is that the loser pays for the tea. Bring small notes and coins, since change can be awkward. Photography inside tea houses and gaming rooms should be asked about first, and some rooms will refuse, which is entirely reasonable. Foreign visitors to Tibet travel on a permit and with a guide, and a guide is also the easiest way to find these places and to explain the rules, which are worth learning - the dice game in particular is simple once you have seen it played twice.
