Shigatse & Gyantse

Tuesday 11th September.

Today we travelled to Shigatse, 180km west of Lhasa. We drove along a gorge between rows of high mountains. The road shared the valley floor with a river, which starts in the high mountains and runs to India. The Tibetans call this the Yarlung River but when it reaches India, it is called the Barmabutra. The current was quite strong and you could probably use it for white water rafting, except that it would be brown water rafting, such is the sediment load that it carries. Just across the gorge, probably 50 or 100 metres away, narrow goat tracks precariously followed the contour on almost vertical cliff faces. Occasionally we would spot a herdsman carefully shepherding his precious livestock along the track.

The trip from Lhasa to Shigatse took about four-and-a-half hours. First stop was the Tashilhunpo Monastery, founded by the first Dali Lama in 1447. It is one of four monasteries of the Yellow Hat Sect of the Buddhist religion. Many sacred relics are housed here and the site is 70,000 square metres in area.

Shigatse is the second largest city in Tibet and lies 4,200 metres above sea level.

After lunch and settling into our hotel rooms, we continued on to Gyantse for the afternoon. We drove through rich farm land on the flat valley floor between the rugged mountains of the northern Himalayas. Barley, wheat, beans and canola were the main crops, however there were extensive areas of vegetables under hothouses which consisted of plastic sheeting supported by wooden ribs in long rectangles with a curved rooves.

At Gyantse we toured a monastery and a Stupa, or Buddha house. The Stupa has 77 rooms, each with a depiction of one of the Buddhas in the form of a colourful statue. By climbing up internal staircases and ladders, it was possible to reach a balcony that ran around the outside of the stupa at a considerable elevation. This gave wonderful views of the surrounding town and rural areas beyond.

Gyantse was the theatre for a bloody attack on the local population by the British in the late 19th century. Britain was concerned that her rival, Russia, may take control of Tibet so it decided to do so herself before Russia had a chance. Britain attacked the fort at Gyantse and it is said that in four minutes, 700 local Tibetans were dead and Britain suffered just four casualties.

Today, like all cities in Tibet, Gyantse is well and truly run by the Chinese, via the Tibetan "Autonomous" Government. One thing that is very evident in all the ares that we have visited in Tibet, is the high level of infrastructure investment Beijing has made in this country. It seems that you can get mobile phone coverage almost anywhere. The roads are pretty good and everyone seems to have electricity.

We wandered down the streets of Gyantse, taking photos of the locals and their wares, before returning to Shigatse for a well earned rest.