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Published: March 3rd 2008
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EBC Trip, Thursday 8th November
Gyantse
In the morning we visited Pelkor Chöde monastery, home to the impressive 35m tall Gyantse Kumbum, the biggest chörten (stupa) in Tibet. Over six floors it houses 77 chapels containing 100,000 images (the literal meaning of 'kumbum') and statues of the many deities and buddhas; the protector deities in particular, typically found in the chapels closest to the entrance of a monastery, have quite a malevolent appearance and are supposed to ward off evil spirits.
Needless to say, it took a while to explore the whole kumbum. The protector chapel in the monastery felt rather eerie as, along with all the images and statues depicting fearsome protector deities, there was a monk sitting cross legged in the corner, reciting a mantra while deep in meditation and striking a large gong periodically, creating a very surreal atmosphere.
Halfway up the kumbum we encountered a begging nun who was pretty rude to us even though we gave her a couple of Mao's - a Mao is the equivalent of 0.7p; not a lot, I know, but it's what a Tibetan would give, and as soon as tourists start giving more they become targets and make
it worse for all who follow. However, within a few days it became plain to see that this is what has already happened quite extensively, and the problem is quite bad. It's not a nice feeling knowing that some people really do see you as a walking wallet, and one of the worse side effects of this is that it naturally makes you all the more suspicious of everyone, even the people who are genuinely nice, or even just curious.
We explored the rest of the kumbum and checked out the view from the top before making our way back down and out to wait for the rest of the group. As soon as we walked out of the monastery gates we were set upon by a group of persistent kids asking, ostensibly, for money and who kept grabbing bits of our clothing with their grubby hands and saying "keepy keepy", the little beggars! That in itself wasn't so bad; what was disappointing was that their parents appeared to have sent them over, and we felt like they were trying to pickpocket us.
Shigatse
Our next stop, Shigatse, was a couple of hours to the west and we
The best bar in the world?
Looking out over the Tashilunpo Monastery and Shigatse town arrived at around 4pm. The Tashilunpo monastery here is an impressive sprawling structure and is traditionally the seat of the Panchen Lama, the most important lama after the Dalai Lama - the current incarnation, the young 11th Panchen Lama, is currently under house arrest at an unknown location in China, and has been dubbed 'the world's youngest political prisoner' (he was abducted at the age of six in 1995, just days after being recognised as the Panchen Lama. (Info
here)
Most of us decided that there wasn't much point going into the monastery as the place is huge and the entrance fees are quite high if you don't have much time, so we all walked the kora instead, past prayer wheels and alongside pilgrims, rising up behind the monastery for a great view of the town and it's surrounds. We sat up there for an hour or so and watched the sun setting with a few beers - the best bar yet, as the pictures should show!
We walked back down into the town past a large, familiar looking castle called Samdrubtse Dzong; on first glance a near replica of the Potala Palace, however it was this castle
that was the inspiration for the Potala when it was built in the 17th century. Samdrubtse Dzong was originally built in the 14th century but was reconstructed recently after being destroyed in the maelstrom of the Cultural Revolution.
We walked through a small village back down towards our hotel and found a small restaurant. I had a horrible yak burger for my dinner (it was my turn today!) along with JP. Neither of us were sure whether it was meat we were eating or not?! Our food was accompanied by a delightful Backstreet Boys DVD on repeat which nearly caused my "yak" burger to make a reappearance - I'll never understand the inexplicable popularity of cheesy western pop music in Asia!!
Most of us went out for a drink afterwards. We were looking for a bar called 'JJ's' but couldn't find it and stumbled upon the 'Century Coffee Bar' where we ended up instead (I didn't see any coffee though) complete with dancing karaoke singing staff. JP, the Irishman, suggested a 'power hour' which involved shotting beer every two minutes for an hour to cries of the ubiquitous 'Tashi Dele!' (it doubles as 'cheers' too!), which turned out
Playing pool in the street
in the shadow of Samdruptse Dzong to be quite dangerous as the staff were always on hand to refill our glasses immediately! Towards the end some Tibetan and Chinese police officers who were also drinking in the bar (presumably off duty!!) came over to join us, and it was all downhill from there, as they were shotting beer constantly, or so it seemed! The girls made a timely exit, and the three of us who remained lasted another hour or so before making (slurring?!) our excuses and departing...
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