Shigatse | Blue Lapis Road

DAY 9 (1/3): TASHI LHUNPO MONASTERY (བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་ 扎什倫布寺), Shigatse (日喀則), Tibet (西藏), 2017.09.24

Before leaving Shigatse for Namtso Lake, we spent the morning at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery (བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་ 扎什倫布寺). Probably the most influential monastery in the Shigatse area, Tashi Lhunpo Monastery is very popular with local pilgrims. Founded by the 1st Dalai Lama in 1447, the 70,000 sq.m monastery remains as the largest functioning monastery in Tibet. In the past five centuries, Tashi Lhunpo has been the traditional seat of Panchen Lama (པན་ཆེན་བླ་མ 班禪喇嘛), the second highest tulku (སྤྲུལ་སྐུ 活佛) in the Gelug school, just after the Dalai Lama. During the turbulence years of the Cultural Revolution, buildings and relics of the monastery had been damaged. Fortunately, damages of the Tashi Lhunpo was relatively small compared to most other monasteries in Tibet.

Walking in the labyrinth of cobblestone lanes of the enormous monastery ground, visitors can absorb the spiritual air and wander through prayer halls, chapels, chortens and courtyards, admire beautiful Buddhist artworks including the 26m statue of Jampa (Maitreya) Future Buddha, and pay respect to the tombs of the past Panchen Lamas. Other than the gold gilded statues and architectural features, what interested us during our visit of Tashi Lhunpo were the pilgrims who came from all over Tibet and China. From teenagers to elderly, the pilgrims’ gratifying expression and devoted prayers demonstrated to us how Buddhist traditions still remained strong in today’s Tibet.

All visitors to Tashi Lhunpo Monastery would pass through the lingkhor (sacred path) along the external enclosure wall.

The 70,000 sq.m Tashi Lhunpo Monastery sits on the mountain slope west of Shigatse city.

Inside the monastery ground, a network of flagstone paths led us to a village of chapels, chortens and prayer wheels.

The first objects captured our eyes as we entered to the core area of the monastery were the three large chortens.

At 9:30am the sun of the highland was already scorching hot.

Pilgrims and monks in the vivid setting of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery provided us the best subject for photos.

Many lamas we saw at Tashi Lhunpo were actually visitors from other areas of Tibet.

Jamba Chyenmu or Maitreya Temple (强巴佛殿) is the tallest building in Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. Erected in 1914 by the ninth Panchen Lama, it houses the 26.2m statue of Maitreya Buddha. The enormous statue contains 279kg of gold and 150,000kg of copper and brass.

The chorten of the Tenth Panchen Lama is one of the most popular pilgrimage spot in the monastery. The three-tiered chorten is decorated with large amount of gold, silver and gemstones.

Semi-precious stones were used to decorated the entrance vestibule of chapels (in this case the Buddhist swastika was created on the floor). Many pilgrims would knee down and touch the decoration before entering the building.

Other than statues and chortens, a number of architectural features such as a building column could also become a subject of worship for worshipers.

Outside of the monastery, we could see the beautiful mountains across the city of Shigatse.

After visiting a number of the chorten halls (chapels housing the tombs of Panchen Lamas), we arrived at the upper court of the Gyeni Chanting Hall. The gilded roofs and turrets of the Gyeni Chanting Hall can be seen from far away.

As we walked down the ramp near the Gyeni Chanting Hall, we could see right behind us the Thangka Wall used for unfolding the gigantic thangka during festivals.

Below the Gyeni Chanting Hall, we arrived at the Chuajing Duogang, the great courtyard paved with flagstones.

The Chuajing Duogang was another popular spot for pilgrims.

Surrounding the cloister of Chuajing Duogang, we could admire the fresco depicting over 1000 images of Sakyamuni (Buddha).

The Sakyamuni were drawn with hands gesturing the five symbolic poses (mudras).

Looking up from the colonnade of Chuajing Duogang, the splendid Gyeni Chanting Hall looked grand and magnificent.

Beautiful fresco could be seen all over Tashi Lhunpo, including the wall at the lower exit of Chuajing Duogang.

After a 2.5 hour visit of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, it was time for us to find our way to the exit and departed from Shigatse.

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More blog posts on Tibet 2017:
JOURNEY ABOVE THE CLOUDS, Tibet 2017 (西藏之旅2017)
DAY 1: TOUCHDOWN ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD, Lhasa
DAY 1: TRICHANG LABRANG HOTEL (赤江拉讓藏式賓館), Lhasa
DAY 1: KORA AT BARKHOR STREET (八廓街), Lhasa
DAY 2: FIRST GLIMPSE OF POTALA (布達拉宮), Lhasa
DAY 2: KORA OF DREPUNG MONASTERY (哲蚌寺), Lhasa
DAY 2: DREPUNG MONASTERY (哲蚌寺), Lhasa
DAY 2: JOKHANG MONASTERY (大昭寺), Lhasa
DAY 2 : SPINN CAFE (風轉咖啡館), Lhasa
DAY 2: NIGHT VIEW OF POTALA (布達拉宮), Lhasa
DAY 3: POTALA PALACE (布達拉宮), Lhasa
DAY 3: SERA MONASTERY (色拉寺), Lhasa
Day 4: KORA OF GANDEN MONASTERY (甘丹寺), Lhasa
Day 4: GANDEN MONASTERY (甘丹寺), Lhasa
DAY 4: TEA HOUSE AND FAMILY RESTAURANT, Lhasa
DAY 5: ON THE ROAD IN TIBET
DAY 5: MORNING IN SHANNAN (山南)
DAY 5: SAMYE MONASTERY (桑耶寺), Shannan
DAY 5: SAMYE TOWN (桑耶鎮), Shannan
DAY 6: YAMDROK LAKE (羊卓雍錯)
DAY 6: PALCHO MONASTERY (白居寺), Gyantse
DAY 6: WORDO COURTYARD (吾爾朵大宅院), Shigatse
DAY 7: ROAD TO EVEREST BASE CAMP (珠峰大本營)
DAY 7: EVEREST BASE CAMP (珠峰大本營)
DAY 7: STARRY NIGHT, Everest Base Camp
DAY 8: PANG LA PASS (加烏拉山口), Mount Everest Road
DAY 8: SAKYA MONASTERY (薩迦寺)
DAY 9: TASHI LHUNPO MONASTERY, (扎什倫布寺) Shigatse
DAY 9: ROAD TO NAMTSO LAKE (納木錯)
DAY 9: EVENING AT NAMTSO LAKE (納木錯)
DAY 10: SUNRISE AT NAMTSO LAKE (納木錯)
DAY 10: LAST DAY IN LHASA, Tibet
EPILOGUE: FACES OF LHASA, Tibet

January 27, 2018 | Categories: China, China: Tibet 2017, Tibet | Tags: བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་, Buddha, Buddhism, chanting, chorten, Chuajing Duogang, 西藏, Gyeni, Jamba Chyenmu, kora, lama, lingkhor, Maitreya, monastery, Panchen, pilgrim, pilgrimage, prayer, Sakyamuni, Shigatse, stupa, Tashi Lhunpo, Tibet, 强巴佛殿, 扎什倫布寺, 日喀則 | Leave a comment

DAY 8 (2/2): PANG LA PASS (加烏拉山口), Mount Everest Road (珠峰路), Tibet (西藏), 2017.09.23

After some good rest in the Tent 21 of the Tent Village, we get up at around 7:15am. The plan was to return to Shigatse (日喀則) for the night and visit the Sakya Monastery along the way. Outside the tent, many drivers were getting their cars ready for departure. Some travelers would return to Shigatse just like us. Some would continued heading west to Ngari (阿里) for the sacred Mount Kailash, while others would travel southwest to Zhangmu (樟木) and continued their journey into Nepal. No matter what destination one chooses to go, every car would require to take the Zhufeng Road (珠峰道) and pass by the spectacular Pang La Pass or the Kya Wu Lha Pass (加烏拉山口). At about 5200m, the mountain pass is one of the best spots in the world to enjoy the panoramic scenery of Mahalangur Himal, the section of Himalayas that includes four 8000m+ peaks: Everest (8848m – 1st, ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ 珠穆朗瑪峰), Lhotse (8516m – 4th, ལྷོ་རྩེ 洛子峰), Makalu (8485m – 5th, 馬卡魯峰), and Cho Oyu (8188m – 6th, ཇོ་བོ་དབུ་ཡ 卓奧友峰), plus Gyachung Kang (7952m – 11th, 格重康峰). We wish we had stayed longer at Pang La Pass, but even just a brief stop has already made the journey to Pang La Pass one of the most beautiful roadside lookouts we have ever been to. The scenery was so dramatic that it truly touched our hearts. The thrill of seeing all these world famous mountains was hard to describe in words.

At the Tent Village, the first place every tourists visited after they woke up was of course one of the two toilet facilities. Headlamps were very helpful even in daytime.

Unlike the night before, it was foggy and grey at the Everest Base Camp in the morning.

At 7:45, we took out our backpacks from Tent 21 and prepared for our departure from the Tent Village of the Everest Base Camp.

It was foggy everywhere. We were lucky to had such fine weather the evening before to enjoy the scenery of Mount Everest.

From 5200m at the base camp, our car drove on Zhufeng Road and gradually descended.

Along the way, we passed by highland pastures…

…occasionally farming villages in a arid context;

…fields of Highland Barley where farmers were busy harvesting.

Most areas along Zhufeng Road were dry and rocky. Ruins of abandoned houses along the way revealed the harsh survival conditions on the arid Tibetan plateau.

At 9:30am, we were approaching Pang La Pass. The first glimpse of the Gyachung Kang (7952m – 11th, 格重康峰) and Cho Oyu (8188m – 6th, ཇོ་བོ་དབུ་ཡ 卓奧友峰) excited us.

The section of Zhufeng Road at Pang La Pass includes 64 switchbacks climbing gradually from 4100m and to 5200m. The panorama includes four of the world’s six tallest mountains, including Makalu (8454m), Lhotse (8516m), Everest (8848m), and Cho Oyu (8188m).

A closer look at Gyachung Kang (left: 7952m, 格重康峰) and Cho Oyu (right: 8188m, ཇོ་བོ་དབུ་ཡ 卓奧友峰) was breathtaking.

Left of Gyachung Kang and Cho Oyu, the spectacular panorama continued to Mount Everest (8848m, ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ 珠穆朗瑪峰) and Lhotse (8516m, ལྷོ་རྩེ 洛子峰).

At Pang La Pass, we bid farewell to Mount Everest and the rest of the Mahalangur Himal peaks.

Turning our back to Pang La Pass, we continued the journey on Zhufeng Road towards National Road 318 (China-Nepal Friendship Highway).

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January 21, 2018 | Categories: China, China: Tibet 2017, Tibet | Tags: ཇོ་བོ་དབུ་ཡ, ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ, ལྷོ་རྩེ, barley, Base Camp, Cho Oyu, 珠穆朗瑪峰, 珠峰道, Everest, 馬卡魯峰, farm, Gyachung Kang, Himalayas, Kya Wu Lha, Lhotse, Mahalangur Himal, Makalu, Mount, mountains, Pang La, pass, Shigatse, tent, Tibet, Tibetan, Zhufeng, 加烏拉山口, 卓奧友峰, 格重康峰, 洛子峰 | Leave a comment

DAY 7 (1/3): ROAD TO EVEREST BASE CAMP (珠峰大本營), Tibet (西藏), 2017.09.22

Referred by Tibetans as “Goddess Mother of Mountains,” Chomolungma (ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ 珠穆朗瑪峰) which commonly known as the Mount Everest, towers beyond the rest of the Himalayan peaks along the border between China and Nepal. From the north, tourists can come close to admire Everest’s majestic north face from the Tent Village (珠穆朗瑪峰大本營), where a cluster of tent structures were set up to serve tourists, while the real base camp for climbers at 5200m is off limit to normal tourists. At 5150m above sea level, the Tent Village of Everest Base Camp was the highest point in our entire journey. Arrived in Tibet for a week’s time and we were well acclimatized for the high altitude. Our plan was to stay the night at the Tent Village to boost our chance to see the world’s highest peak. Weather was of course the biggest unknown. It was not uncommon for tourists to be let down by poor weather and find the snow-capped Everest well concealed in the clouds.

At about 8:30am we left Shigatse for Tibet’s Everest Base Camp. In the car, we were excited and kept our fingers crossed to hope for a moment of clear sky when we arrived at the base camp. We spent most of the day to cover the 350km distance from Shigatse to the base camp. The route was mainly well paved along the China-Nepal Friendship Highway, except the last 100km of gravel road before reaching the Tent Village.

Shigatse is known as the “fertile land”. Along the journey, we often passed by golden fields of Highland Barley (青稞).

Political slogan such as “strengthen ethnic unity, create a beautiful Tibet” could be seen everywhere in Tibet, even on remote mountain slope.

As we headed west on the National Highway 318 (China-Nepal Friendship Highway), we passed by a number of roadside shrines and mountain passes with colourful prayer flags.

Despite Tibet is mainly arid in climate, its river valleys are fertile and heavily cultivated.

The National Highway 318, known as the China-Nepal Friendship Highway, is a nicely paved road that connects Shigatse with the Zhangmu border town.

Some parts of the valley seems like a semi-desert, covered with sand, gravel, salt and moss.

At around 2:30pm, we stopped by a restaurant at the intersection of National Highway 318 (China-Nepal Friendship Highway) and Country Road 216 near Shelkar/ New Tingri (ཤེལ་དཀར། 協格爾鎮) for lunch.

After lunch, we journey continued southwest towards the Everest Base Camp. Before our car left the National Highway 318, we passed by some highland pastures.

In less than an hour, we finally left the highway and arrived at the gateway of Everest National Park. Sangzhu dropped us at the admission office to get our admission tickets.

We continued to drive on Zhufeng Road (Mount Everest Road) for another 2 hours. The sun was moving west as we get closer to our destination. We were a little nervous because of the unpredictable weather, but also full of anticipation. At 5:20pm, we were just minutes away from Rongbuk Monastery. Beyond the clouds in front of us we could barely make out the profile and tip of Chomolungma or Mount Everest (ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ 珠穆朗瑪峰).

At 4980m above sea level, Rongbuk Monastery (རྫ་རོང་ཕུ་དགོན་ 絨布寺) is the highest monastery in the world. It offers tourists simple accommodation.

If the sky was clear, we could see the Mount Everest from the stuba at Rongbuk Monastery (རྫ་རོང་ཕུ་དགོན་ 絨布寺). Yet, luck was not on our side. All we could see was a thick layer of clouds.

We knew Chomolungma or Mount Everest (ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ 珠穆朗瑪峰) was right in front of us, but we just couldn’t see it with our own eyes. The Tent Village of Everest Base Camp (珠穆朗瑪峰大本營) was just minutes away. All we could hope for was a moment of clear sky before sunset.

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January 17, 2018 | Categories: China, China: Tibet 2017, Tibet | Tags: ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ, barley, Chomolungma, 珠穆朗瑪峰, Everest, 青稞, highland, Himalayas, landscape, mountain, road, scenery, Shigatse, tent, Tibet, Tibetan, village, 大本營 | Leave a comment

DAY 6 (1/3): WORDO COURTYARD (吾爾朵大宅院), Shigatse (གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གྲོང 日喀則), Tibet (西藏), 2017.09.21

Shigatse (གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། 日喀則), also named Xigatse, is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, and an important base for travelers to visit the Mount Everest Base Camp and the nearby Sakya Monastery. Lying in the middle of the Friendship Highway between Nepal and China, Shigatse is Tibet’s second largest city. We arrived at Shigatse at around 8pm. After checking in at Sakya Lhundup Palace Hotel, we went for a walk in the area to look for a place to eat. The area was not particularly lively, despite we were just 300m from the Summer Palace of Panchen Lama and 500m from Tashilhunpo Monastery (བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་ 扎什倫布寺), the largest monastery in the city. On the upper level of a two-storey building across the street from our hotel, we saw the soft lighting and lively ambience of what looked like a decent restaurant.

We followed a passageway at the end of the building into a tranquil courtyard with colourful flags, lush green plant pots and patio tables. We headed up a stair beside a large kitchen and arrived at a large dining area known as Wordo Courtyard.

A small group of musicians were performing traditional music while staff were busy bringing out all kinds of interesting dishes to the tables.

The restaurant was decently decorated in traditional Tibetan style.

We ordered three dishes and yogi berry tea.

Yak meat was a Tibetan specialty.

The music performance at the central stage proved popular among the audience.

At Wordo Courtyard, we enjoyed a relaxing night of fine Tibetan food. After dinner, we returned to the hotel for an early rest. The next day would be another long day on the road, taking us to the highest point of our Tibetan journey, the Mount Everest Base Camp.

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January 16, 2018 | Categories: China, China: Tibet 2017, Tibet | Tags: གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གྲོང, courtyard, cuisine, 西藏, food, restaurant, Shigatse, Tibet, Tibetan, 吾爾朵, 大宅院, 日喀則 | Leave a comment

Blue Lapis Road ultramarinus – beyond the sea

Posts tagged “Shigatse”

DAY 9 (1/3): TASHI LHUNPO MONASTERY (བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་ 扎什倫布寺), Shigatse (日喀則), Tibet (西藏), 2017.09.24

DAY 8 (2/2): PANG LA PASS (加烏拉山口), Mount Everest Road (珠峰路), Tibet (西藏), 2017.09.23

DAY 7 (1/3): ROAD TO EVEREST BASE CAMP (珠峰大本營), Tibet (西藏), 2017.09.22

DAY 6 (1/3): WORDO COURTYARD (吾爾朵大宅院), Shigatse (གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གྲོང 日喀則), Tibet (西藏), 2017.09.21