Gyantse to Shigatse

Sunday 2^nd July 2006

Gyantse to Shigatse (3,900m)

Palkor Chode Monastery is surrounded by a long red earth wall that snakes its way across the hillside rather like a mini version of the Great Wall of China.

Last night I just fell into bed dead tired but didn't sleep well at all - that's two nights like that in a row now. Don't know why, too hot, too cold, too whatever!

This morning we took time out to have a look around Gyantse, a town which seemed to have much less Chinese influence than Lhasa. The main sight in this town is the Palkor Chode Monastery (spelt variously Palkor, Palkhor, and on the old sign at the entrance, Palchoi). It's surrounded by a long red earth wall that snakes its way across the hillside rather like a mini version of the Great Wall of China. There’s also a large solid structure, with a windowless façade facing towards the city, over which, on special days, a huge thanka, a beautifully painted and/or embroidered religious wall hanging, is hung. Some of these are so large they take up to fifty monks to carry them.

The main hall of the monastery was built in the early 1400’s. The ground floor area features a "Chanting Hall' with 48 columns, each decorated with old silk 'thankas'. It also features an 8m (26ft) high bronze statue of 'Maitreya' made from 1.4 tons of bronze. It's not going anywhere in a hurry! On the second floor there are various statues from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) enshrined in chapels. On the roof, a chapel houses a collection of 15 "mandala" murals each of which are ten metres in diameter. This monastery also houses a large collection of silk, embroidery and tapestry costumes worn in Tibetan opera which were made in the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, that is, from 1368 to 1911. These are a real treasure.

This monastery is different from other monasteries in that it is thought to be the only one to house monks from three different orders or philosophies: Gelugpa, Sakyapa and Kahdampa. As a result, the deities and murals housed here are very special.

Without a doubt, the most significant feature of the Palkor Chode Monastery is its huge 'Bodhi stupa' known as 'Kumbum' meaning 10,000 images. This stupa is said to be the most elaborate and also the best preserved temple of its type in all Tibet. Begun in 1412 and completed ten years later, this spectacular, huge white stupa covers a space of 2,200 square metres. It consists of hundreds of chapels housing about a hundred thousand images of various icons. It also houses upwards of 3,000 statues giving it the name of "Myriad Buddhas Stupa". Now, that's a lot of icons and statues in any one's book! From outside, the building looks like layers of scalloped circles in pyramidal form surmounted by a circular drum shaped building with an elaborate conical spire on top of that. Its unique architecture incorporates 108 gates and 77 chapels, each with its own dominant religious figure. It is said that this stupa represents a total model of the Bhuddist cosmos or vision of the universe.

It really is an amazing and much photographed building and is well represented on Google Images on the Internet if you are interested. There you can also find images of the awe inspiring Dzong or fortress that stands most impressively high on a hill above both the monastery and the town.

After lunch in the town - vegetable chicken soup and more lemon tea, RMB 21 = AUD a bit less the $3 - we continued on our way. There were more of the inevitable hold-ups for yet more road works. Each village supplies workers to do 'their' section and therefore the whole length of the highway is being done at the same time. At one pass we had to wait for some blasting to be completed and then for the rubble to be cleared. That was a good chance to film them at work.

These road works necessitated a change or two to our itinerary. A few place names were mentioned but, I'm afraid, as unfamiliar place names don't mean much, it was a case of in one ear and out the other. Everything, I figured, would happen in due course and I don't have to worry about any of it …this time I am not the tour guide. What was important though, was what would these changes mean for us. We'll now have to stay in places with no hot water for showers for a couple of nights and we'll need to make a couple of early starts each day before certain sections of the roads are closed. It's not uncommon for a road to be closed for a day from 0700 to 1900 for road works.

Later, we stopped at a typical Tibetan village. I question 'typical' as all the homes in this village were large and looked particularly wealthy with glass window panes in the houses and lots of livestock outside. It stood, like so many of the villages do, beside a small stream in a picturesque valley surrounded by fields of bright yellow canola and deep green barley that give way to the barren brown of the ever present hills.

Barley is the main crop grown in these valleys on the plateau. Tsampa (ground roasted barley) is a staple throughout Tibet. It's made into dough, noodles, momos and it's also offered to the gods. Further on we stopped at a mill where the power to grind the grain was gained in the traditional way from a swiftly flowing stream. Three large grinding stones still do the work. There were lots of kids around as this is a well-known stopping place for tourists and the kids all wanted something - anything!

And so, finally we made it to Shigatse. The hotel is rather palatial, for a Tibetan Hotel that is, but not much else of the town I've seen so far is worth writing home about. It's full of those boxy, grim, dim, all the same, concrete buildings that the Chinese have made their own as far as architectural standards go. However, it was good to get out and stretch the legs and do some 'people watching' and filming. As usual it was fun to show the resulting film to 'the stars' and watch their reaction - as always, a broad smile. It's a great way to break down barriers and make contact with the locals.

And now to the weather report. Well, so far the weather has been kind to us. Last night it got down to 8 degrees C and the forecast is for 23 degrees C tomorrow. Most of us have found that it is hotter than we'd expected. I've found no need to wear much more than a short sleeved polo shirt and pair of long trousers for most of the time. Even with a cool morning, it has warmed up pretty quickly after the sun rises. Now you would probably get a different weather report from the four Queenslanders who may tend not to agree with my appraisal. The altitude hasn't been too much of a problem other than the lack of oxygen has slowed us all down. At times, on the high passes, there's only 52% of the oxygen we are used to at sea level. Even walking up the stairs in a hotel has had us breathing heavily. But we are all surviving well so far.

Postscript!

At Shigatse, after a shower to wash off today's layers of dust, I decided that it just might be possible to get an email home to you all …but that was not to be. I could type up my thoughts but I couldn't send my email. Nor could I get a back-up hard copy even though there were 12 computers in the business centre. The centre's 'minder' couldn't work out how to print a document from one of the computers to the lone printer and I had no chance to work it out for myself as all the pull-down menus were in Chinese. So …what was I to do after all that time spent typing? The solution - I videoed the monitor screen, to give me a copy of sorts and now that I'm back home, I have retyped it all. At least the hard work of composing the notes again was averted.