Postal Hostel Xigaze

... that are
shown throughout the T. monastery are of the Chinese-appointed
Panchen Lama – the other kid is a political prisoner and hasn't
been seen for years. Crazy.




As
far as the grounds the most happening area was the courtyard where
monks basically hang out. We watched them as they assembled for
their daily chant at 5pm in the assembly hall. The coolest thing
about watching these monks is seeing how normal ...

... dress or some enormous dogs, also in fancy headwear. We drove down to the lake, which was crystal clear up close (turquoise from above) and took in the landscape. Tibet is really so beautiful.



Onwards to Gyantse, reputedly the least Chinese influenced of towns, passing a mountain range, with a height over 7000m and snow caps. We also stopped beside a glacier. Amazing.



In ...

Que camino. Por la manana desayunamos, yo pedi agua caliente, y me pusieron te, asi que me tome un cafe, con te y azuquita. No te puedes quejar mucho por aqui y ademas no te enteinde asi que bueno tampoco importa. Yo me comi una tortilla con pickle cabbage super picanton. la verdad es que me ha gustado mi desayuno hoy!!!! el camino es muy bonito pero como hemos subido mucho mi cabeza sigue el proceso y me duele bastante ...

... has been leaking and my feet are getting wet in the puddle around the bowl. It's really cold and I race back to bed to shake myself warm under the blankets again. 10 minutes later I cook up a second serving. Back into the cold air and the wet floor to release some more Popeye's Punch. The third time I get the added bonus of projectile vomiting and I feel a lot better immediately. I'm empty, frozen and exhausted and sleep uninterrupted until daybreak.

... as we had information that we could get a bus there without a permit. shigatse is the second largest city in tibet, and the only other city outside of lhasa that tourists are allowed to enter with relative ease. the information we had about the bus (buses in general, really) was pretty sketchy. supposedly there were public buses for shigatse that leave from the main bus station, as well as private minibuses that troll the main drag of the tibetan quarter looking for people ...

Shigatse sits at an elevation of approximately 3,900 meters, or approximately 12,800 feet. This is less than 1,000 feet of elevation gain from Lhasa (3,650m/12,000 ft), but the air is definitely getting thinner, and those of us who've struggled to aclimitize can feel the difference. Located some 250km southwest of Lhasa, Shigatse is also Tibet's second-largest city, with a population of around 80,000. Some reports say that the Qinghai-Tibet (trans-Tibet) railway will ...

Tra tutte le popolazioni asiatiche che ho avuto il piacere di incontrare finora, i tibetani si piazzano al primo posto del Premio Simpatia. Tradizionalmente la popolazione si suddivide tra drokpa (nomadi), rongpa (gli agricoltori delle vallate, e shanga (la comunità ecclesiastica di monaci e suore). Nonostante essi conducano vite estremamente diverse, tutti condividono una profonda fede buddista. É essenziale quindi ...

... is Shishibangma?" Tenpa: "I don't know. Driver will tell us." Poor guy. Tenpa may not have been crucial informationally to the trip, but he did have his official purpose. Ever independent group in Tibet must be accompanied by an official guide to keep an eye on rascally foreigners. Apparently the Chinese government slackened the rules a bit last year, only to have a group of protesters unfurl a huge "Free You-Know-What" banner on the slopes of Everest. Since then ...

... look at the Tibetan market which had everything from spices, clothes and DVD's. Then this afternoon we had a tour around the Monastery. This monastery had the largest Buddha in the world - Huge! Well, tomorrow we are off again, and then the next stop after next will be EVEREST!! We will be staying in the same monastery that Michael Palin stayed in, in the documentary "Himalaya" Its the one where he wakes up in the middle of the night and complains ...

... stories of oppression. This visit to the Panchen Lama's home invigorates our spirit. We fight our nature to get angry and try to follow the examples of the peaceful Tibetans. I am reminded of Marianne Williamson's mantra, "stop fighting the world and start loving it instead." In that spirit, we vow to tell these stories when we get out of the country and to tell everyone we know to give to the International Campaign to Save Tibet. I hope you will. http://www.savetibet.org/