Shigatse:

April 4th, 2005 - April 5th, 2005

Surprise, surprise, day six was early to rise as we had a long day en route to Shigatse.

Our first stop was at Sakya Monastery, an old fort style building with beautiful interior halls. In fact, the inside was so beautiful that in some rooms we paid to take photos - monks ask that you make a small donation in return for them allowing you to take a photo.

The main hall was a highlight but so was the Protection Temple. Outside of the temple, over the doorway, hung the carcasses of various local animals. Inside, the room was dark. The only light came through small slits in the window. A man played a local instrument and changed words from a prayer scroll. Smoke filled the room from all the incense that was burning. The walls were black with interesting murals painted on them and large, scary masks were displayed all around the room. The whole experience was quite eerie, but well worth it.

After an expensive and awful lunch we continued down the gravel road to Shigatse. As with most roads we had traveled on, this one was under construction too. Several dump trucks operate on the side of the road, hauling rock and debris elsewhere. Often, they do not look when coming onto the main road.

We were all asleep in the back of our Land Cruiser when Jess and Cheri, the other girl in our car, screamed. Our driver had hit his horn; a dump truck paused on the side of the road, then continued towards us and as our driver swerved the massive dump truck clipped the back of our car, inches from where I was sitting.

Our driver stopped, backed the car up, and got out to discuss the situation with the driver of the dump truck. None of us were hurt, but the tail light was smashed on our car and there was a noticeable dent.

An argument went on for a while, nothing got resolved, and we went on our way, quite unhappy with the reckless dump truck driver, I should add.

Shigatse couldn't come soon enough as we were all tired of being in the car. Along the way I was invited to join the drivers during their smoke break. Now I don't smoke, but when you are offered a cigarette here it is very rude not to accept. So I coughed and hacked away with them for 15 minutes on the side of the road and had a good time making fun of the Dodge Ram vans back at Everest and other such things.

As soon as we arrived in Shigatse we walked through the Tashilhunpo Monastery - which is the tradition seat of the Penchan Lama, second only to the Dalai Lama. It was also the least ruined monastery in Tibet following the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

We viewed the two "prize" rooms of the monastery which include the tombs of the 4th and 10th Penchan Lamas. Both were locked and appeared to be closed, but both times monks came out and after a few greetings with us they were pleased to get the keys and open the doors so we could view the stupas.

Our good luck continued as we were then invited to watch the evening ceremony with the monks. We sat in their small prayer room and observed while they chanted their evening prayers and drank yak butter tea.

While that night had many highlights, I think our first shower in almost five days may have been it. After six days on dusty roads my "tan" washed away in the shower!

Our final day was a long one. We spent the morning in Shigatse before heading back to Lhasa. We sat in the tasteless Chinese square (with massive TV screen) opposite the monastery watching pilgrims doing their morning exercises while eating local bread from a nearby bakery.

A group of us went to the Tibetan Market to look at the goods on sale. It was hard to walk two feet with out having a cute lady yell "Just looking" and try and grab you over to her stall.

A few people bought little trinkets and such, but there was not too much to be had.

We wandered past the market through the old town and met up with part of the kora around the monastery. This kora was long and took in part of a mountain; making it one of the more difficult we have seen.

While standing on part of the hill a group of old ladies passed us. They all stopped and smiled, some touching us. One lady even stuck out her tongue at me - a gesture used by older Tibetans to show that they are not the devil (the devil in human form has a green tongue according to local legend).

Walking the kora with the pilgrims was a nice drift from reality as we made our way back to our hotel. Next door was a carpet shop and we received a tour and saw all the stages in making the carpets. In the end we broke down and purchased the first carpet of our whole trip.

By noon we were on the road back to Lhasa. Due to the main highway being under construction our 4 hour drive became a 10 hour marathon.

We ate lunch in a mud and stick hut along the way while our drivers fixed our 3rd and final flat tire.

By 10pm we were back in Lhasa dirty and exhausted, but quite content by our little adventure.

We will be in Lhasa until April 11th. From there we are off to Beijing for a week and then Shanghai and Hong Kong in our final week before returning to Vancouver on April 25th and Toronto on April 28th.

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