Will the real Penchen Lama stand up in Shigatse?

The next town on our journey was Shigatse, about an hour and a half down the road from Gyantse. It is in the same valley, and so the entire time we were surrounded by fields of barley, much like Gyantse. Since they are so close together and at a similar altitude, like Gyantse, most of the crops had been harvested and were drying in the fields.

I guess that following the harvest it is adobe brick making season. All along the way people were filling molds with mud from irrigation channels and straw, for drying and then use in some construction project. If my descriptions of this part of the world as medieval have not been clear enough, our only stop on the way to Shigatse should clear it up; we stopped at a water powered mill. We had been following a fairly large irrigation didtch for a while, with minimal water being directed to the fields, and I was wondering why and now I had my answer. At the mill the water was split into three races, although only one was turning when we were there, to show the tourists. This is technology that hasnt changes in probably a thousand years. The water turns a stone plate, whichrubs against a stationary stone plate, crushing the grain in between into flour. I will say that he is getting a pretty fine flour out of it. I would guess that within the next month all three grindstones will be working as the currently drying crop has been threshed and is ready for milling.

Shigatse itself is a much large town that Gyantse and is situated on the Friendship Highway. As such, it is much more Chinese that Gyantse and has all of the modern conveniences. After a lunch of delicious yak stroganoff, we headed to the monastery, our second large monastery of the day. This is the most conservative monastery that we visited and as such we were meant to wear long pants. I had totally forgotten, and since it was so hot, it didn't occur to me to put the jeans on. About five Czech and Dutch in the group in front of us (we had run into them four times over the last three days) were refused entry by the monks. Oddly enough, though, I was let in with the shorts and to this day no one, including our guide, knows why. It is my theory that since I was wearing shoes and socks and the others were not, I was somehow considered acceptable. Or they just didnt like the Czech guy. He was pretty annoying when we talked to him.

The monastery in Shigatse is the home of the Penchen Lamas, second in importance in Tibetian Buddhism only to the Dalai Lama. So we were told, the Penchen Lama as chosen by the Dalai Lama was taken by the Chinese when he was very young, and is now 17 and no one really know where he is. As such, all the photos of him in the temples are as a 4 year old. The Chinese chose their own Penchen Lama, who lives in the Summer Palace in Beijing. Unfortunately for the authorities, now their Lama can think for himself, he sympathises with the Tibetians and so he is pretty much locked away too. I admit that I dont have a lot of knowledge in this area, but this is how it was explained to me by the people on my tour.

This particular monastery is situated on a large campus and what was clearly an influential town. Monks continue to live and worship here and I managed to get that illusive photo of a monk on a mobile phone (check the old monk in the background with the pink umbrella). Within one of the temples is the largest indoor buddha in the world, and it is quite an impressive site. Golden in color, with blue hair and semi-precious stone inlays, it is certainly the most impressive buddha that I have seen. As a side note, this is actually a statue of the future buddha. There are also past and present buddhas, which is I guess, like a Once anf Future King thing, or The King is Dead, Long Live the King. I have to admit that I am majorly confused about all the different buddhas.

I have, however, picked up a few things along the way over the last couple of days. When I go into the tomb of a lama, I can tell which carvings and murals will be there, even if I dont know what they all mean. Much like a Christian church, certain things are found in certain places. Plus I dont call the Prosperity Rat a rat anymore, it is in fact a mongoose. The two tombs it monastery are quite worth a look, and if I wasnt pretty much buddha'ed out by this point I would have enjoyed it much more.

We were lucky to be there on a day when final exams for initiates to become fully fledged monks had occured. There were celebration symbols drawn all over the ground and the monks were returning from the exams in special hats and robes.

Unfortunatley, there isnt a whole lot more to say about Shigatse. I wandered around for a bit but had a bit of a headache and the heat, dust and blaring horns didnt help. As a side note, the headache wasnt caused by the altitude or hangover, but a lack of caffeine, and so drinking a liter of Coke Zero made me feel 100%. So much for kicking that habit.

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Part of trip: The Big One

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