The Road Across Tibet Photos - Shigatse to Sakya

From Gyantse we made our way to Shigatse and we arrived with plenty of time to see the famouse Tashilumpo monastery in the afternoon before departing the next morning for Sakya.

How appropriate - there was a cycling statue in Shigatse. We so wanted to be on our bikes!!! This one looked a little like a model of a Trek 9.8 carbon mountain bike. Check out the aero wheels :)



Across from the park with the bicycle statue we found Tashilumpo...



It's a beautiful, heavily restored for the tourists, monastery (am I being too nasty to the Chinese????). It seemed just a bit too polished and there were hoardes of tourists. The destruction at this monastery was massive - many of the previous Dalai Lama remains were here - and it has all been put back in fresh new buildings with beautiful new stupas to hold the old Dalai Lama remains. The Shigatse fort was also totally destroyed and has now be freshly rebuilt...we gave it a miss. What's the point of an old fort rebuilt? Don't get me wrong - I thought it was wonderful to see the famous monastery, but Gyantse was so much more real...as were so many of the other monasteries that we visited.







A is looking good! even if her ankle is bothering her. We were going to walk the kora but it was a bit of a rough track. We headed down the back way - lovely, as it was quiet and away from the hoardes of tourists - and then had some dinner at a local place.


Just off the kora we spotted these loos...


One of the famous stories from the Jataka Tales is about the four friends. It is a story that teaches that you should respect your elders. There are images of the four friends all over Tibet...here are a few I spotted.
Read the story here: The Four Harmonious Friends




Oooo, more off-road adventures on the road across Tibet!!!! Tashi was really ripping it up when the road turned to dirt, he was usually more sedate on pavement (not unlike the behavior A shows when she's on her bicycle :)



And the top of a pass - easy to spot with all the prayer flags :)


Then we were in Sakya - easily identified by the grey paint with the vertical red and white stripe on all the buildings.


In front of the assembly hall is a statue of a lion (a Chinese lion!) but the thing about this one is the ball that it's paw is resting on - it's all been carved from one block of stone but there is a loose ball inside the outer ball and another ball inside that ball. Cool, eh? They also often have a loose ball in the mouth of the lion - it can't get out from behind the teeth, but you can roll it around in there (I know, I have done it more than once :).




The Lokapalas for this assembly hall are painted on the wall, they do not have statues at Sakya.


The assembly hall is similar to others that we have seen - dark, lots of brightly colored silk hangings, gold decorations and tankas plus the cushioned benches for the monks.





Here are some details that we spotted - this looks like a key...


...and these are maces. The pillars are made from single, huge trees - very rare at the Tibetan altitude, so who knows where they were hauled in from.


Sakya monastery was in 2 sections - we only visited the southern half. The north side is 200 years older (circa 1050 AD) but it has been completely destroyed and has not been restored. All you can see above some of the village houses (in grey paint with the red and white stripes) are ruins and the restored white stupas. We took these photos when we were walking the walls of the southern monastery.




Sakya monastery also has it's own protector chapel - very different from the one at Gyantse, but still a bit creepy :) We couldn't take photos inside of it, though (not allowed).



The massive inscense burner for juniper...


More of the area inside the monastery walls...






The monastery was in the midst of repairs...