Shigatse

Cho day mo!

It was a short 2-hour drive from Gyantse to Shigatse - the second largest city in Tibet and the seat of the Panchen Lama. The latter ranks close to the Dalai Lama and is the reincarnation of the Amitabha - the Buddha of Infinite Light. Since the death of the 10th Panchen Lama in 1989, the heir currently in throne has been subject to much controversy. Following the current Dalai Lama proclamation of a 6-year old boy, Gedun Choekyi Nyima, in 1995, the Chinese government decided to choose the heir themselves so that the Dalai Lama's choice is virtually under house arrest somewhere in Beijing (or so it is believed).

Our hotel was just infront of the Tashilhunpo Monastery luckily enough especially cause I was feeling quite ill with my blocked up sinuses. I just had to go to bed the minute we got there. I thought I wouldn't get out of it when a bout of energy seemed to hit me later in the evening. So I headed off to the Ninma with rest of the group....and danced to my heart's content. The music was a kind of fusion between Indian and Chinese. Whatever it was it definitely was fun and funny as we tried to copy the locals' dancing steps bumping into each other, to say the least. Then at 10.30pm the stage was lifted and we enjoyed a good taste of Tibetan talent; folk dancing, chord playing and singing. Was great to watch especially the cute looking guys!!! At one point we had a special guest singer - a rock'n'roll midget with a punk shaved head wearing leather jacket and boots. He was a real comedian and by the end of his karoke he was barely visible under a mountain of katas! The latter are coloured silk scarves generally white, which are placed around the neck of the performer by members of the audience as a show of appreciation.
We lingered till about 2 or 3 am with the ninma show continuing till way after 4am. As we staggered out of the theatre we were chased by a few locals especially men, who took a fancy for us bustling cuties!!! We finally made it to the hotel after loosing our way in the pitch dark streets, forcing us to retrace our steps right from the start, that is the theatre.

Next day I had to force myself out of bed. I went for a small shop with Catherine. Everything was a hazey daze. Somehow, I managed to buy the secret santa gift, wrote an email or two and bought a couple of hot water bottles for 'the coldest night ever' on our tour which was only one night away. With my head still spinning I visited the Tashilhunpo Monastery in the afternoon.

The Tashilhunpo Monastery is one of the 6 great Gulukpa monasteries founded by the 1st Dalai Lama back in the 15th Centuary and which eventually flourished since its head the Panchen Lama was recoginised as the the embodiment of the Amitabha. The monastery was built in 1477 and was once inhabited by 4000 monks but nowadays only 600 remain there. The Monastery is almost like a fortified village with lots of chapels and halls separated by narrow cobbled and steep streets.
The Great Hall houses the tomb of the 4th Panchen Lama. Other tombs within the complex include those of the late 10th Panchen Lama as well as the 5th and the 9th. Each tomb has beautifully decorated stupas most of which are encrusted in gold. The Monastery also boasts of the world's largest Maitreya Buddha ; 26m tall, 300kgs of gold and 150tons of copper and brass.


















[I did not take any photos within the building and chapels out of respect]

After the tour we scouted the market just outside the monastery. I bought cedar-scented prayer beads and some fruit then just went back to bed until dinner.
That evening we just picked one of the Tibetan run restaurants opposite the monastery. The food was ok but the dessert was scrumptious (not really!) - Yuk butter cheesecake ...yuck!

I could barely sleep that night with my jammed sinuses. Next morning I was and probably looked so poorly that even Sharon suggested that I'd avoid the 'coldest night' at the Rongpbu Monastery, in other words Everest Base Camp. That made me feel twice as miserable :( :(

Did I or didn't I spend the night at the Base Camp?? ....read my next article and you'll know!

tashi delek (all the best)
Nicky

The Friendship Highway & Gyantse

hello & thanks for reading my stories!!!

I must admit that writing my personal recounts of my travels across China and Tibet are not always pleasurable especially following the recent riots of mid-March 2008, in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet. I admit fighting back tears at times and blinking hard at the screen as I type, recalling back memories of the places I visited and people I met. Just a few months ago we could but only sense the tension. Now that it has exploded, I can't help thinking 'how lucky I was to have traveled through Tibet unscathed'. Helpless and frustrated about the whole situation, writing is my only consolation and above all the only way to share my wonderful experience with the rest of the world.


Having visited Samye we proceeded to Gyantse which stands at an elevation of 3950m and is situated in the Tsang Region. Even though we had a 10-hour drive ahead of us magnificent scenes and intriguing adventures accompanied us throughout the journey not to mention lengthening it too!

Within just the first two hours of our trip we were stopped by the Chinese Military who wanted to inspect our drivers' licenses and permits for driving a group of foreigners. I couldn't help feeling sorry for our Tibetan drivers who were deprived from driving freely across their own country.

We started a steep ascent reaching an approx. elevation of 5000m. The long winding round was making some of us feel nausea and dizzy. Finally, right at the very top our eyes met the most wonderful lake situated at the highest altitude ever. This was the Yamdrok. We tried to take our photos without falling for the Tibetan sellers' temptations of beaded necklaces and yak rides! Well, then here I am on one of them complete with 'helmet'!!

The view was beyond us. The ever so turquoise lake wriggled itself motionless around the adjacent mountains. At 5000m high it was cold actually, freezing cold. Fortunately, the only tiny wooden building at the height was a squat loo. And what a loo!! Stainless steel, with a vacuum-suction flushing just like those on planes. Water would just freeze at that altitude, of course.

We started our descent and made our way to a little town called Nagartse for lunch. The long-winding lonely road stretched itself smoothly around the mountains, along the ever-so-blue river. It was brand new as the Chinese government had it constructed in time for the Olympics which were about to take place in less than a year's time.

All was smooth until we bumped into the Military Police. They stopped our vehicles and without saying a word, not even a syllable in Chinese, they thrust their hand through the drivers' windows and pulled out the key from the engine. Sharon tried to converse with them. She didn't even dare ask why we were made to stop as she knew they wouldn't even reply as they would find her questioning insulting. The only half-tempted response she got with the help of our drivers, was the approx. length of time before we were allowed to proceed with our journey, 4 to 5 hours! It was red tape at its best. The new road was probably a good excuse to make the military's domineering presence felt and being a bunch of Westerners we were probably their best catch for the day.

About 4 to 5 hours was obviously unacceptable especially for no explanatory reason. So Sharon decided to put her 'friendly' tactics into action once again. She hunted us down for snacks and Jori gave her a bag of pistachio nuts while I gave her another of salted and honey-coated nuts. Armed with goodies Sharon joined our drivers who were lulling around like toddlers waiting for their dads to give them their toys back.
They refused the nuts offering and despite her diplomatic and friendly efforts Sharon failed even pick up any form of conversation.
After about an hours wait they decided to let us go again for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, the answer to our stopping question was quickly answered as within a few minutes into our drive the road met a dead end, or rather an unfinished part so that we had to off-road across streams with large pebbly beds.

Thanks to the new road however, we discovered another extraordinary view which up till that day was hidden to any foreigner's eye. The photo just says it all.

We got to Nargatse where we had lunch at one of the two restaurants in town. Back into our Landcruisers we proceeded along the 'The Friendship Highway' only to be stopped again by Chinese road constructors within 2 miles out of Nargatse. Again there was no apparent reason why we couldn't drive along. The road, although not yet tarmacked was good and wide enough to get by. The workers lousily sipped tea in their tent as our drivers desperately tried to create conversation with them from outside. Desperate needs require desperate measures. So this time Sharon decided to play a ball game rather than offer nuts. Cleverly enough she turned traffic cones into bats and a plastic water bottle into a ball. In minutes a game of rounders was in full swing. Annoyed with all the noise and bunter the team of foreigners caused, our captives made us leave immediately!

Finally, we got to Gyantse and what a way to end such a day than a dinner at a pretty Western cuisine restaurant?! The Yak Restaurant was a true treat, not only was it across the road from our hotel but it served really yummy steak and yak burgers!!!

Despite a hot shower we were cold all night. Next morning's breakfast at the Yak restaurant made up for it though. The Tsuklahang Monastery was our first site of the day followed by its next door neighbour, the Kumbum stupa, or as it's better known as the Pelkhor Chorten, home of '10,000' Buddha images. It took us well into an hour to go in and out each one of its tiny chapels, each containing a different statue dedicated to a deity. The 8-floor Kumbum, is quite a symbolical & spectacular piece of architecture.



The next monumental building we visited was the town's Dzong or Fortress. We could have walked up the steep hill but given the altitude and lack of time our drivers took us to the foot of it. A breath-taking flight of stairs as well as view of the town and monastery on top, awaited us.


The descent was an easy one, so together with some others, we walked downhill and back into to town to a final but well-deserved lunch of Yak Burger with cheese and fries at the one and only Yak Restaurant!

Samye

Hi again ...

Having spent 5 days in Lhasa we set off to the Samye Monastery in the Shannan Region. It was a good 4 to 5 hour drive from the capital city. The journey was a very dusty one as we traversed a tiny portion of the Tibetan Grasslands or rather desert. The scenery was bright beige and blue as lovely weather accompanied us throughout. The arid dry land had mirror lakes as its beauty spots.
We reached a high view point where I decided to throw a batch of colorful 'lucky flying horses' into the air. Time and place couldn't have been more appropriate. We were the only group of people out. Other than us only the wind dared to break the silence.


We entered the small mandala-shaped city with the Samye Monastery at its heart. The only lodging was a hostel just paces away from the Monastery itself. There were some other minibuses and coaches parked tightly next to each other in the internal yard. Most of whose passengers were either locals on pilgrimage or Chinese 'local' tourists. We were practically the only Westerners there.

Our drivers and hosts helped us with our backpacks to the tiny rooms surrounding the yard. The bedrooms weren't too bad actually quite cosy looking with tonnes of bedding on them to keep our bodies warm from the cold chill air of the night. Luckily, Catherine and I got the room furtherest away on the top floor so we had a terrace to ourselves with a spectacular view of the Monastery to our right. The clean squat toilets were just at the other end of the terrace. The showers, I never saw.

We had lunch of fried rice, egg and tomatoes in the hostel's modest restaurant. Then at around 4pm went to pay a visit to the heart of the city. The Samye Monastery is the oldest one in Tibet and the only one to conglomerate the four sects of Tibetan Buddhism; Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug. The Monastery was a large and colourful as all the others we had visited so far, however different. *The whole construction is quite complex. It replicates the universe as described in the sutras. The central world Mount Meru is represented by the majestic Wuzi Hall. The Sun and Moon chapels stand in the north and south as the sun and moon in the universe. Four larger halls and eight smaller halls are distributed around all sides of the central hall, symbolizing the four large continents and eight small ones. In the four corners lie the Red, White, Black and Green Pagodas guarding the Dharma like the Heavenly Kings. A circular wall surrounds the temple as if marking the periphery of the world. The layout of Samye Monastery resembles the Mandala in the Esoteric Buddhism.

Having paid our visit, Sharon our leader wanted to take us for an 'acclimatisation walk' - a small hill climb of about 350m - just enough to get our heads clear off the high altitude and therefore have a good night's sleep. The steep climb wasn't nice n' easy and was quite slippery with no hard tracks up it. But in the end it was definitely worth it. We were so caught up with the view that we spent at least an hour up there. The small summit was a sanctuary in its self. A lonely monastery occupied by a couple of monks, adorned it. We sat on the terrace, observing the mandala-shaped town on one side and the lonely mountains on the other side. We relished the gorgeous views while exquisitely savoured the peacefulness of our surroundings. The whole experience was breathtaking not to mention the cold strong wind which almost made us feel unwelcome. As the sun lowered in the distant mountains we started to make our way down.

On our way back to the hostel we felt like a good drink. We were up for celebration that night with Sharon having just announced her new job promotion. We stopped at a typical but empty restaurant and cheered the owners with our presence. We ordered local wine which was closer to vinegar but drinkable, soda which burned your throat with the concoction of sweet additives and yak butter tea, which simply smelt and tasted of nothing but pure yak's milk. Drinks went straight to our heads and a funny episode is what we needed to just tip us over.

Jori and Flip when to the squat loo and at one point we heard Jori yelling. We were stunned and during those few seconds when you're caught in-between deciding whether the yell was a call for help or not, Aaron (her fiance) jumped over the back of the sofa and dashed to her rescue - just like Flash Gordon! There was nothing to rescue her from except a urination attack from Mysterious Flip!! How the girl had managed was beyond us. The girls were hysteric and we were were soon effectuated by their laughter and haphazard story. Having calmed down we ordered some food which turned out to be quite colourful indeed. My plate was an artist's palette; pink shredded cabbage, yellow curried potatoes, a think slab of brown meat over white rice garnished with red chili sauce.

We walked back to the Monastery in complete darkness save the light from my head torch and our mobile phones. None of us seemed to want to go to bed. I made myself an instant coffee out of a sachet and munched some tasteless Cadburys underneath a sky full of diamonds. I was captivated by the wonderful gems in the still cold night when suddenly Flip burst the door open and cracked up a laugh which peeled into the stillness night into the mountains. Wearing her woolly PJs and fluffy slippers she carried their bedroom's pee-in pot. Apparently, she had won a bet with Kate, to actually pee in the pot rather than having to go to the squat toilets across the roof terrace. Well, it was hilarious especially when Kate showed us the video of her in action.

We finally made ourselves go to bed and get a good night's kip before hitting the road again for a 10-hour drive to our next destination, Gyantse.

:)
N
X



* The following description has been extracted from the following website where you can also find more details about the Monastery:-
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/tibet/shannan/tsetang/samye_monstery.htm