This was our last day of the tour and our last full day in Tibet. We were going to see Drepung Monastery first then in the afternoon we would be visiting Sera Monastery. Both were within a mile or so of central Lhasa. We started the day at 9:30am. The bus took us from the hotel to Drepung Monastery, via the railway ticket office. The English couple had booked their tickets online to cut commission on the train tickets (something we didn’t know was possible). They had to collect the tickets in Lhasa. At the booking office they were told it was a booking office only, they would still have to go to the train station and collect the physical tickets. At Drepung they asked the guide what to do. The station was shut over lunch and would shut around 5:30pm. They couldn’t collect on the day, the guide had warned that tickets are cancelled on the day if they haven’t been collected. After some discussion a decision was made. We’d go straight to the second monastery and skip lunch. This would give them enough time to collect the tickets in the afternoon. Maybe I’m just been selfish but we’d been in Lhasa two evenings and had most of the afternoon the day before to ourselves and they hadn’t bothered to go and collect the tickets. Now they were affecting us because they had left it to the final day! Sure, we can have a late lunch, that’s not the point! Why not go before? Argh! Anyway, group consensus, skip lunch. Drepung Monastery was the largest monastery in Tibet. It had over 7,700 monks and at busy times had over 10,000 monks. It was more of a town than a monastery! Now it’s little more than a shadow of its former self. It sits on the side of a hill overlooking the west side of Lhasa. We were taken around the many parts of the monastery, with its many shrines and to multiple thrones for the Dalai Lama, if any ever return. By now we were starting to get ‘templed out’ and the information and sights were just blurring into one. The kitchen was vast, with a range taking up most of the room and containing holes large enough for pans 2m in diameter! The amount of wood required to keep that range hot must have been staggering. Nowadays, it doesn’t seem to be used. Instead a modern rice steamer was in the corner. As with all the other monastery’s there was a camera charge for each shrine and section of the monastery and temple. Some of the rooms...
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This was to be the highlight of the tour. We were going to visit the Potala Palace, home of the Dalai Lama until the Chinese forced the 14th Dalai Lama to flee into exile. This palace is the symbol of Tibet, instantly recognisable to most people. After the palace and lunch we were going to visit Jokhang Temple in the centre of Lhasa and just round the corner from our hotel. This is the most sacred and important temple in Tibet. We left the hotel at 10am and walked to the area in front of the palace. There is a path running around the palace and there were thousands of people walking around the palace and praying as they walked. We had a specified time we could enter the palace and we were early, so the guide gave us 15 minutes to wander and take photos. Annemarie had already taken the photo of the palace and as the sun was burning hot went found some shade and sat for 15 minutes. After going through the security checks we looked around the village at the bottom of the hill. Then we were led up the steps to the entrance of the palace. The combination of heat and altitude made these steps more difficult than normal! Photography is not allowed in the palace so we have nothing to show for the tour. The palace has a mix of secular and monastic rooms. We were able to visit the room where the Dalai Lama once met distinguished guests but couldn’t see his bedroom. The palace blurs into one with most rooms consisting of statues of Buddha and scholars. There were also many tomb stupas with the 5th Dalai Lama having a tomb with 3.7 tonnes of gold and jewel encrusted decorations. This Dalai Lama was given the term Dalai Lama by the Mongolians and he was given both the spiritual and political office over Tibet. He also is famed for building the Potala Palace in the 17th century. The gold and jewels supposedly came from donations from the people who see the Dalai Lama as a living god. However the money was gained the resultant tomb was extremely impressive and beautiful. The Dalai Lama sits inside, mummified in the lotus position. Also in the palace are the tombs of the 7th to the 13th Dalai Lama but only Tibetans can go to see the 13th Dalai Lama’s tomb and only on Tibetan New Year. Inside the palace there are many thrones for the Dalai Lama. All of then have the robes ready for the Dalai Lama should he return from exile. The...
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We left Gyantse after breakfast heading for Lhasa. We were told we’d be in Lhasa for around 6pm, a whole day in the bus, but there would be plenty of stops on the way to see some interesting sights. It was only about an hour when we reached a large reservoir. We drove along side it at breakneck pace, going into corners as far as possible and slamming the brakes on halfway through the corner when it became obvious the bus couldn’t make it at that speed. We stopped at the viewpoint and climbed to the highest point on the nearby hillside. The viewpoint had a lot of trinket sellers, they are everywhere in Tibet. They sell bracelets, necklaces, ammonites, all kinds of junk. Annemarie spotted an interesting looking tea pot. We haggled down from 120 Yuan to 60 Yuan, although I still think we paid too much and should’ve gone further. A little down the road we stopped by a group of houses. The yard was filled with dwarf goats (no idea what the real name is so we’ll call them dwarf goats for now). We drove on and climbed a bit. Then out of nowhere appeared a snow covered mountain. It didn’t look any higher than the others, but it had snow on it. The ground near the road was covered with little holes and we saw the creatures running around from hole to hole. When we took a closer look we discovered they were Marmots. Further along we stopped again at the bottom of a glacier. We climbed about 50m to the top of the hill by the road. After lunch we continued and the road ran alongside the Yamdrok Lake, a huge lake 45 miles long and covering 246 square miles with fresh water. It was impressively large and looked like it would never end. At the end of the lake the bus climbed steeply to the final pass of our journey. The lake was at 4,400m, the top of the pass was at 5,000m. That small section of road climbed 600m. At the top we once again climbed to the top of the nearby hill to get good views of the landscape around us. From the top of the pass the road dropped about 1,000m. It was a windy and steep road with plenty of 90° and 180° corners. The bus driver still hadn’t learnt about going slow. He let the bus roll into each corner in a high gear then slammed the brakes on just before the corner. Most of the corners were next to sheer drops off the hillside. He then took...
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We left Shigatse heading for Gyantse. We’d be there for lunch so this was going to be a short drive. The landscape was still pretty barren but near the road irrigation allowed fields to be sown and trees to line the road. The trees lining the road were good and bad, good in the sense that they made the area look nicer and they are good for the environment, bad because they made taking photos very difficult. After a while we stopped on the side of the road. Why? Because the police checkpoints time vehicles between the checkpoints and calculate an average speed. Our driver doesn’t do slow. We had sped the whole way and now we had a 10 minute stop. I suppose it allows for a toilet stop. We wandered around the bus and I climbed up the side of a hill for a bit. We drove on further then we stopped again. We had been speeding again and had another 10 minute stop to get our average speed down. Another toilet break… But this time we stopped next to a village, which was overlooked by a ruined fort. The village was interesting, many of the doors were brightly decorated and most of the walls were covered with yak poo. We got to Gyanyse just before midday and had half an hour to ourselves. We wandered and bought some drinks and fruit. Interestingly the hotel had been washing the kettles that day and the plug was hanging out to dry! After lunch we were taken to Palcho Monastery. The main part of the monastery was interesting but the majority of the monastery was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Only a few buildings remain. The reason tourists come is to see the Kumbum, a massive stupa with 13 floors and over a hundred rooms. It’s known as the one hundred thousand holy images. We went into most rooms on the first floor, skipped the second floor and went around the third floor at a fast pace. There’s only do many Buddha paintings a person can look at! The tour was over for the day and we were free to wander. Overlooking the town is Gyantse Dzong, the fort. It is a huge, imposing building on the highest point of land for miles around. We’d asked the guide about it but he said it was closed for restoration (the Chinese had destroyed a lot of this building too!) But the views would be great from up there so we decided to go and take a look anyway. We walked through the edge of the old town and up the...
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We left Lhatse heading for Shigatse, the second largest city in Tibet. The bus climbed out of Lhatse and it wasn’t long before we were stopping on the top of a prayer flag shrouded mountain again. This pass was 4,530m above sea level. Beside the car park were some steps up to the top of the hill. Annemarie and I were fine and two German guys also made it up, no-one else attempted the short climb. The drive to Shigatse was a sleepy one. We spent most of the morning dozing on and off due to the lack of sleep from the night before. We weren’t alone, almost everyone on the bus hadn’t slept properly and were thus sleeping on the bus. We reached Shigatse at 11:30am and were taken to the hotel. This was a surprise, it was a proper hotel. We had a room with carpets, decent beds, tables, wardrobes, en-suite, etc. At midday we got back on the bus and went to a restaurant for lunch. Again it was a tourist orientated restaurant, higher prices, knife and forks and plenty of western dishes on the menu. Most people opted for western dishes but Annemarie went for a Tibetan dish. It was very sweet but nice. I had green peppers and pork with a spicy sauce. After lunch we walked to the Tashilhunpo Monastery. This is one of the most important monasteries in Tibet. It is the seat of the Panchen Lama, the second highest ranking Lama, after the Dalai Lama. The monastery was founded in 1447 and has been the seat of the Panchen Lama ever since, gradually expanding with each successive Lama. Most of the monastery was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, when the Chinese seemed to go mad and destroy most of their history plus torture and kill huge numbers of their fellow countrymen. The monastery was saved from total destruction because the Panchen Lama had stayed in Tibet and was under the yoke of the Chinese. He was probably able to broker a deal to ensure the temple still stood. Once we’d been taken around the temple we were free to do what we wanted. This was a surprise. We had always thought that in Tibet groups had to stay together at all times, but the rules have been relaxed. We could wander wherever we wanted, alone or in groups. We decided to explore the old town of Shigatse then head up the hillside to the Shigatse Dzong (fort) which is a massive fort on the hillside overlooking the city. It is an imposing sight and so we had to visit it. Unfortunately,...
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