Heading West, Tibet

Hi,
The day finally arrived. The permits for going to western Tibet were issued. My group included a couple from Spain that were really cool, fun to talk to, like photography, etc. and a strange Italian man, a 66 years old single guy, that speaks only a little English and hates everything about life.
We made some final arrangements and bought some goodies in Lhasa for the way, and hit the road in our old Land Cruiser driven by a Tibetan who doesn't speak English. Being the one traveling the longest in China I was in charge of communication with the driver, mainly setting up the departure times and checking how long it should take to reach the next town...
The first few hours were on paved road. We climbed up a high pass called Kamba La, at 4794m, where another one of Tibet's holy lakes came into view. Yamdrok Tso, at 4488m, is a strange looking lake, scorpion like shaped, with nice colored water. The Chinese government decided to use the natural high body of water for producing electricity, even though the lake has no regular source of water going into it. That means that the lake will dry in about 20 years because of the draining of the water out of it.
We drove around the lake and then left the paved road. We crossed another pass high in the mountains, Karo La at 5045m. This time there were some glaciers sliding down from the mountains around us. When we stopped for taking pictures another bus stopped, and some monks and locals took places by a stream, faced the glaciers, and started to meditate. Near the second glacier there is a small settlement of Tibetan nomads. They sell souvenirs and really annoy the tourists. Trying to take a picture of the glacier is impossible without their demands for money because their tents are in the frame, or because they are standing in front of the camera, or without any reason at all. One guy took a bag of candies from the car to give a few to the kids, and they just took it all away from him and started fighting over the loot. It was really ugly.
Right before sunset we arrived to Gyantse, to spend the night at a comfortable 3950m. Gyantse was a very important city in the 15th century, and there are two major architectural attractions here.
The dzong, in other words - the fort, that is built on top of a hill in the middle of the city, is very common in Tibetan cities. It is very impressive.
The other one is the Gyantse Kumbum, a huge stupa, the largest in Tibet, with four floors of chapels of all sizes (totaling 77), full of statues and murals (kumbum means 100000 images). The style of the images is a little different than the usual ones I encountered in monasteries, and has a more "Tartaric" smell, meaning a little bit more erotic, even though not too much. On the top there is a golden dome and four sets of Buddha eyes face the four winds.
I hiked up a hill at sunset for some pictures of the sites, and the next morning we visited the kumbum and the monastery that surrounds it. There were some pilgrims there who came all the way from the border area between Tibet and Qinhai provinces, and the women had their hair in the traditional style of the region - in 108 separate braids. 108 being a holy number for Tibetans.
Around noon time we moved forward to another big city in Tibet - Shigatse. Only an hour an a half away on a good road (the last real road for the next couple of weeks). Shigatse used to have a dzong, but it was destroyed in 1959 during the fighting with the Chinese. Old pictures of it show something that looks almost exactly like the Potala, only smaller.
The other interesting thing in town is Tashilhunpo Monastery, another one of the six major Gelugpa monasteries (the fourth I visit), is the seat of the Panchen Lama, the second most important figure in the Tibetan world. The current Panchen Lama is held by the Chinese for "educational reasons," trying to make sure his views are pro-Chinese. There is a great debate about weather this is the real reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, or perhaps another man is the real Panchen Lama.
All the Panchen Lamas are buried in the monastery, in nicely decorated stupas, and the seat of the Lama is in one of the chapels.
While walking around the monastery I saw some monks sitting and making dinner - the traditional mo-mo (the Tibetan name for dumpling). Was quite funny to see it - sitting in their costumes and filling up little dough dumplings with different things.
In one of the temples I witnessed a special prayer, with monks wearing customs that I haven't seen before. It included strange hats with a gold and black tip, and a little crown around it. They sang and played their ceremonial instruments, and it didn't feel right to take their picture, so you have to use your imagination.
The next few days were long driving days heading west. We drove along rivers, crossing mountains in passes every now and then. We climbed up to the Tibetan plateau, and spent most of our time at around 4500m. The hills around us didn't look so high, but they were all mountains of over 5500m. Each town or village had a temple or a monastery, there were many ruined forts on the surrounding hills, and the vegetation disappeared as we climbed up. The scenery became one of green hills (the rainy season just ended, in a couple of months it will become brown hills, or rather white hills because of the snow).
We spent one night in Saga, a sleepy town at 4600m, then a night at Paryang, a small village at 4750m, where I spent the afternoon photographing locals, and then another day of driving to Darcheng, which is the base town for the trek around mount Kailash.
The scenery became more and more of a desert, with some sand dunes along the way. We saw some gazelles, a pack of wolves trying to hunt them down, some marmots, and many birds. The population was sparse, with some nomads and small villages very far from each other.
The trek around Kailash deserves a story for itself,
R.

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