Baima Hotel Xigaze

... regain its<br>independence and the Dalai Lama would return as its leader. <br>Consequently, the Chinese threw the Panchen Lama in jail for 14 years<br>where he was tortured for criticizing China. He was released and<br>stayed pretty quiet for awhile but shortly before his death he spoke<br>out again against the Chinese government when he went on official<br>visit to Beijing. 3 days after returning from Beijing he reportedly<br>had a heart attack and died ...

<br><br>We organised a road trip to take in Yamdrok-Tso Lake (not the famous Nam-Tso Lake, but a stunning lake all the same, viewed from the top of Kamba-la Pass at 4800m), Gyantse and Shigatse (Tibet's second largest city). This was an amazing drive through some of the most beautiful landscape and views we had ever seen. Such contrasts as mountains to one side and desertland to the other, spotted with planted ...

... with visitors bringing offerings of butter, tsampa and money, making their clockwise perambulations around the shrines. The monastery is encircled by a seemingly never-ending wall of mani wheels, and a never-ending trail of pilgrims processing around the holy route after making offerings at the monastery. Some of the really devout (or else really procrastinating) complete the circuit in a painfully slow series of ...

... passes, desolate villages but a better road, and some yaks from close up. In Xigatse itself we finally get to do some sightseeing. The Tashilunpo Monastry offers not only marvelous views over the town below and the castle towering over and behind on a mountain but also is a quite attractive collection of buildings in itself. One of the main structures is the palace of the Panchen Lama - the great teacher - a counterpart of the Dalai Lama ...

... a group of people that meshes well with your own plans is often a matter of luck. tam and i gave up on our first attempt to leave lhasa...we wanted to go to nam tso lake, a holy lake a few hours drive from (and 1 km higher than) lhasa. the huge rise in elevation can be dangerous, but we had been in lhasa for four days and felt pretty good about the altitude. we were further buoyed by how easily we managed the potala palace stairs (of which there are a lot) on our fourth ...

... September 29th: Today we packed all our stuff and got it ready on the jeeps before heading off for the day's sightseeing in Gyangtse. We went to see the Baiju Temple and Kumbum. The temple had all its walls painted over in tar during the cultural revolution, and u could see some bits of the building were actually damaged by the chinese too. Our Tibetan guide dug out some 3000 year old scriptures from the library tho, they were awsome. Next ...

... at the centre saluting the fight against British imperialism (forget that the troops gave medical treatment to wounded Tibetans after the battle and didn't actually occupy the fortress, because they didn't intend to stay). Anyways, the park is all overgrown, and is full of cattle grazing and wild dogs going at it, in all senses of the expression. There was ************e in the square; I don't know if its a kind of quiet ...

... the flailing about in our Toyota Landcruiser produced numerous head injuries that made forget about any discomfort below the torso. We have great confidence in our driver though. Passam (or is it Pasang?) has an air of relaxed confidence about him--sort of an old-man-of-the-Tibetan-plateau aura, which is definitely not in evidence among the half-crazy Chinese drivers that pass us every hour or so. He chain smokes. He tries to scare small half-naked children from ...

... Or perhaps it's just the crazy ginger buzz!!! I vow to stay well and send my friends healthful vibes. I am grateful for my healthy immune system. Before arriving in Shigatse, one of Tibet's major cities, we visit Pelkor Chode, a monastery built in 1418, with the help of the first Panchen Lama. I believe this is where we start learning more about the sad story of the current Panchen Lama, because it is not easy to talk about the politics of Tibet or religion openly while in ...

... maze of tibetian monasteries and chaples on the whirling cobblestone street. Flanking on both side, aged and grand tibetian buildings stood irregularly on both side. Every step would lead you to a different perspertive to this mainly red-stone-walled complex. I think it was better to name it as a small hilly town for the lama. Certainly, it killed me a lot of memory in SD cards and it was an unbeatable monastery so far i had visited.