Blogs from Shigatse, Tibet, China, Asia

The distance from Gyantse to Shigatse is a mere 100kms, but for reasons similar to the trip from Lhasa, it took several hours to complete. We had a reprieve from further increases in altitude, with quite an amount of relatively flat farmlands in the immediate vicinity of the highway, showing off the tail end of what had clearly been a considerable crop of high altitude barley, the only crop that will grow successfully in this soil at these altitudes and cold temperatures. While all the crops had been cut (presumably all by hand) prior to our arrival, we saw a lot of activity of family groups rounding up their product, feeding it through cutters to break it down, then transporting it to mills where it was ground into a flour. This is the staple diet for ... read more

Woke to another clear blue sky day but a chilly7c. Gyantse is a remarkable place in that it has escaped much of the Chinese influence evident in other major Tibetan towns. High on a hill the town is dominated by the recently rebuilt replica of an ancient fort (Shigatse Dzong). The fort was besieged by British forces in 1904 during the famous Younghusband Expedition which was essentially an invasion. We also visited the octagonal shaped Kumbum Stupa built in 1444 inside the Gyantse Monastery & founded by the 1st Punchen Lama. The Monastery was vast but has been significantly destroyed. It is now only sparsely occupied & somewhat rundown but it original grandure is evident with the extent of the frescos on all the walls. Shigatse is only 95 km from Gyantse but still a 2.5 ... read more

Hier die Fotos die ich während der Kora gemacht habe. Kora wird die Umrundung des Berges zu Fuss genannt. (Durch die besondere Form und Lage, die den Kailash als Berg Meru identifizieren, zählt er im Tibetischen Buddhismus, Hinduismus, Jainismus und Bön – somit für eine große Anzahl von Menschen – zu den bedeutendsten spirituellen Orten und gilt als heiligster Berg. Eine Umrundung des Berges (tibetisch Kora oder Sanskrit: Parikrama) auf einem ca. 53 km langen Weg, der bis in eine Höhe von ca. 5700 Meter über den Drölma La (tib. „Pass der (Göttin) Tara“) führt, ist die wichtigste Pilgerreise für Anhänger dieser Religionen. ) Zu meinem Vorteil wurde mir das Ausmass der Anstrengung für den physischen Körper, eine Pilgerwanderung auf einer Höhe von über 5000 Metern zu machen, erst im Nachhinein bewusst. Steffi, mit der ich ... read more

I came downstairs at 8:15 for my 8:30 meeting with Pussang, only to find he and Kate were already there and the driver was waiting! I was starting to realize that Pussang is often early. So we started off on what I thought was a five hour trip to Shigatse with a stop at the Yamdrok Tso Lake on the way. Turns out, we didn't arrive until after 3:00 in Shigatse. The drive displayed some of the most beautiful scenery and stark landscapes I have ever seen. We stopped for a few photo opps along the way, and the lake was an amazing shade of blue on one end and green on the other. I had high hopes for Shigatse after seeing this. We stopped at a village that pretty much existed to feed tour groups, ... read more

What a day! Early morning wake up and checkout, and on the road at 8am from Lhasa to Shigatse. It was around a 7 hour trip, and an amazing one at that. I wanted to sleep at some times, but I was so afraid I would miss something if I did! Between the villages, streams, farmers working their fields, and the yak and sheep dotted hills and mountains, it was quite the scenic ride :) I felt a bit screwed over by my hostel/travel agency though, as they took all my cash the night before (knowing it was all my cash) and didn't tell me you had to pay for driving the pass that goes by Yamdrok Lake. All this stuff was supposed to be included in the 3,200 I gave them, so now I'm really ... read more