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Published: December 27th 2009
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A traditional Tibetan houseClimbing out of bed at 5am on a cold, dark morning isn't normally something I enjoy, but today was different, as I was sacrificing a lie-in in aid of a trip to Tibet. For me, Tibet has always held the promise of a foreign, far-away land, and Lhasa the prospect of an enchanting city high up in the Himalayas. As required by the Chinese authorities, I booked onto an organised tour to visit Tibet, and as it was low season there were only another 13 foreigners travelling into the country at this time. So, I boarded the coach and set off with the group - Kylie from NZ, Phil and Ann from the US, Martin from Norway, Kate from Ireland, Alex, Chad and Laurie from Canada, Anna from Germany, Julien and Karin from Switzerland and Antonio and Silvana from Italy.
Within a few hours we reached Kodari and the Friendship Bridge... an impressive site spanning a river with steep valley sides - to the west Nepal, to the east Tibet. The Nepalese side was chaos, with trucks and buses trying to occupy the same space as hundreds of people, pushing and shoving their way through the Nepalese immigration counter. The
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One of the high passes on the Friendship Highway battle ended in orderly queues on the bridge itself, where stern Chinese guards checked everyone's papers before letting them proceed to the Chinese side. We formed a queue of our own, and after a few spins by the guard (inspecting our outfits??) were allowed to cross. After meeting our Tibetan guide, Tashi, and completing the formalities, we jumped into our small fleet of Land Cruisers and started the drive up from the valley floor. By now it was lunchtime, so we only drove a short way to the town of Zhangmu, which stretches out along the main road and offers great views back down to the bridge. The town was notable mainly for the brightly painted lorries parked at the top, some with flaming lips, others union flags - others with chinglish phrases that didn't make a great deal of sense!After a brief attempt by Phil and Kylie to breach the defences of the Chinese army post (which resulted in a photo next to smiling officers), we got back in the jeeps and headed north to Nayalam, where we spent the night.
The thing that made an impression first in Tibet was the bitter cold. Our dorm at Nayalam
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Monks pause for conversation at Tashi Lun Po Monastery had no heating, so with two thick blankets, thermals, a fleece and woolly hat, it was just about bearable! Our drive on the first day in Tibet began to give us a sense of the drama of the Tibetan landscape. The Friendship Highway winds its way along valley floors surrounded by dozens of snowy peaks. From 2,300m at Zhangmu, we gradually climbed to 4,350m at Xegar - the highest plateau in the world, and already higher than I'd been just a few weeks before at Annapurna Base Camp. It was a full day's driving, past ruined Tibetan forts and some of the world's tallest peaks - including, of course, the tallest of them all, Qomolangma at 8,848m. We drove over the Lalung pass at 5,050m and then the Jia Tsuo pass - the highest point on our trip (and the highest I've ever been on land!) at 5,220m. We arrived at Shigatse, our first destination, in the early afternoon and warmed ourselves with some momos, noodle soup and a mug of yak butter tea (well, Phil had the tea... nobody else was brave enough!).
Shigatse is the second largest in Tibet, and home to one of its oldest and
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The weathered face of a friendly pilgrim most sacred monasteries - Tashi Lun Po, which was founded in 1477 by the first Dalai Lama. Now home to several thousand yellow hat monks and the seat of the Panchen Lamas, it nestles at the base of a hill which dominates Shigatse and is covered in thousands upon thousands of prayer flags. We visited the monastery in the morning. Laid out like a small citadel, the monastery has high boundary walls with rows of prayer wheels, and a central gate which leads into a large open space. The buildings are all in the traditional Tibetan style - tall, square white-washed walls with black windows, dark red roofs and clusters of twigs on each corner of the roof. At the rear of the complex are a series of large halls, which contain the important religious icons of the monastery. We began our tour at the Maitreya Hall, a gold-topped building housing a 26-metre tall statue of Maitreya Buddha - one of the world's largest. The other halls contain tomb stupas for some of the Lamas, including the hugely popular and important 10th Penchen Lama. A steady stream of Tibetan pilgrims make their way through each hall, offering money and seeds,
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A young yellow hat monk and sprinkling fresh yak butter into the numerous lamps burning in each hall. We rested for a while in a large central courtyard, and spent half an hour watching people and being watched. Gradually, as the pilgrims filtered out, monks began to congregate, all wrapped tightly in their thick yellow cloaks and most wearing the tall, bright yellow hats which give the school of Buddhism its name. On cue, all the monks rushed into the adjacent hall (the oldest part of the monastery), leaving their red shoes in piles outside the entrance. A hundred or more monks all took their place inside the dark hall, sitting cross-legged on stool and rocking gently as they chanted. As the only tourists left in the monastery, we were ushered inside and made our way through the hall to the inner sanctum, which contained several gold statues. I'm an athiest an don't usually feel comfortable in religious ceremonies, but the experience of walking amongst the monks, who smiled at us as we passed and sharing jokes with the Tibetans paying pilgrimage to the shrine, all against the backdrop of the constant chanting, was very moving, and gave us an amazingly powerful introduction to Tibetan
culture.
The rest of our time in Shigatse was spent on a slightly dangerous venture as we decided to climb the hill behind the monastery to get to a small stupa at the top. Braving the sun and loose rocks, we scrambled up for a few hours past disguarded stone tablets, streams of prayer flags and copious amounts of litter, then huddled together on a small platform on the stupa itself to enjoy the panoramic views over the monastery and town. Several comedy photos later, we made our way cautiously back down and tried in vain to stay warm, with oreo cookies and hot chocolate sachets (and marshmallows!), preparing ourselves to get back on the road the next day.
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Thomas Francis
non-member comment
Re: Tibet
Hi Loved your most recent blog entry! Shigatse looks beautiful. I, like you, have always wanted to go to Tibet and now I think the opportunity is here. I having been looking for a traveler who has been recently to try and get some up-to-date information. We are basically in Nepal and are looking at booking a flight to Chengdu and booking a Tibet trip from there. Do you have any recommendations or experiences you can share, with regards visa, Chinese government and current restrictions. You went overland? How was altitude etc and also arrangement of visa’s (we want to travel on to China after Tibet!) The other concern/question I had was how alive the Tibetan culture is. Tashi Lun Po sounds like a “very much alive” answer to this question. Any info would be great Thanks Tom (And Vanessa)