Day 7: Shigatse - Shegar

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We visited another monastery today. Tashilunpo Monastery in Shigatse. From afar, you could really see it's grandeur with "layers" of chapels by the foot of Tara Mountain.

Inside Tashilunpo, there's this chapel called the Maitreya Chapel which houses the biggest Future Buddha statue! According to the Tibetan's belief, we are in the era of the Present Buddha which has the life span of 100 years. In the future, the Future Buddha will come and reign the world. In that time, human will be born short and small and has the lifespan of only 10 years. As such, Tibetans are praying hard to increase the lifespan of the Future Buddha and built such big Future Buddha statue for the same reason too.

As we wander around the monastery, we realised that the monks were pretty busy...in fact busier than usual. It was only later that we realised that the 11th Panchen Lama (China approved) were to visit in a couple of days.

Guide tried to bring us to the Shigatse Dzong as well. Unfortunately, it was under construction. So off we go in a slow trip to Shegar! After Shegar, it will be Everest Base Camp which is when we will part from the rest of the group and continue on our journey

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