Shigatse - Tibet's second city

  Shigatse, China
Friday, August 25, 2006

We made the two hour drive from Gyantse to Shigatse this morning and got to town in time for a good bowl of wonton soup. We ate in a great Tibetan equivalent of a greasy spoon cafe - surrounded by Pepsi-swilling, remote control-whealding monks. They livened the place up with their constant flicking over of the DVD - it seems they couldn't agree on which schmaltzy Tibetan love song they wanted to play.

Monks watch DVDs too

After eating with the monks we decided to visit the Tashilhunpo Monastery up the hill, which provided some fantasic pictures. It was built in the 15th century and was home to the Panchen Lama (Tibet's number two spiritual leader after the Dalai Lama) until the 10th one died in 1989. The next Panchen Lama, a 6 year-old Tibetan boy, was placed under house arrest and is still being held in an undisclosed location in China. Under pressure from the authorities Tashilhunpo's lamas chose the young son of a Chinese Communist Party official as a replacement - he lives in Beijing and only visits Tibet once a year.

Many buddhas

The political meddling in the monastery isn't a new thing - a small amount of damage was done in the Cultural Revolution, but fortunately it's difficult to see that now. One of the main sights there - a 26 metre high gilded Buddha statue (supposedly the biggest in the world) was defaced - it apparently took a year to repair. The thing is enormous - each of its fingers is a metre long and and more than 300kg of gold went into its coating, much of which is studded with precious stones. The tombs of the Panchen Lamas were also covered in gold.

Pilgrim on Tashilhunpo's kora

After spending a couple of hours looking around the monastery we walked a circuit of the kora - the pilgrims' route around the outer walls. There must have been 100s if not, 1000s of prayer wheels to spin. The one downer was the fort - we veered off the route to visit it, but the ruins are now partially covered in scaffolding and concrete. We're not sure if they're rebuilding it or putting up a hotel on the sight, either way it was off limits to visitors.