Blogs from Shigatse, Tibet, China, Asia - page 2

The Tale of the Smiley Skull In the forlorn town high of Shigatse, folded between the Tibetan highlands, local merchants have their devious ways to empty the pockets of trustworthy travelers. As being a worn and dusty traveler myself, this is my proud tale of the Smiley Skull mask and how it was obtained by us. On a dusty afternoon, strolling through the streets of Shigatse, where we'd arrived only a few hours before, my trustworthy travel companion Rossz Mokusom was disturbed by the shiny gloss of a skull: the Smiley Skull. Being afraid that this precious piece of local handicraft might go unnoticed and unappreciated by me, she rushed to notify me. I took then the daunting task of purchasing this precious item, but first: a thorough examination was needed. We went to the stall ... read more

This morning we head off in a convoy of 4x4's into rural Tibet. Myself, Joe and Craig are in one and our driver Phubu, who has pigeon English at best and yet nods at anything you say as if he understands it perfectly, has a serious penchant for Tibetan disco music...............you could almost call it Tibetan disco meets German punk rock I think................he has a cassette (Tibetan Disco Greatest Hits?) playing on a loop. Enough said...!!! W're driving to a place called Tsetang, which is only a couple of hours from Lhasa. The comfort of the 4x4 (the drivers music taste aside!) is unreal. Where have these been all our trip?!! In Tsetang we visit Tibets first castle and go to a Temple also. There is a bit of a climb up to the castle - ... read more

Day 12 - Everest to Shigatse When we woke up, we felt like we had all had the worst nights sleep ever. Mum had been sick in the night, i had a mamouth headache and it was cold and frosty. The view however, was clear again, which meant that we had been lucky enough to see Everest two days running, which made everything worth while. We even got our postcards stamped at the worlds highest post office (which had been shut the day before). On our way back to Shigatse, we stopped at the worlds highest Monastery in Rongbuk, which is still home to about 30 monks and quite unusually nuns as well. The other monasterys we had seen had been exclusively for monks. We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant, where the menu continued ... read more

Day 9 - Lhasa to Shigatse Today was a long driving day along the Friendship Highway. The plus points were that the roads were mainly tarmac, but how they got a wagon up there to do it was beyond us! We stopped for lunch at an interesting restaurant, which was to be the first of many where the rice is cold when you get it, the tea is lukewarm, and the menu leaves you wondering what you have actually ordered! Along the way we passed through Gyantse and stopped to see the Kumbum Temple and monestary. The monestary still has a population of monks. Kumbum means place of 100,000 images, and there are a number of small cells spread over four floors in there, and each one has images of different aspects of Buddhism, with murals, ... read more

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 ... read more