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2008/2009 Nepal & India

Day 43: Shigatse, Tibet > Gyantse, Tibet

11 January 2009

We headed early to the Tashilhumpo Monastery which was given to the Panchen Lamas (PL) by the 5th Dalai Lama (DL).  We visited the first chapel and as today is a special day in the Tibetan calendar to say there was a queue was an understatement, it was like going to a rock concert.  We were luckily given VIP passes and headed to the front of the queue only to meet an actual scrum to get through the actual door at the Chapel of Tampa to view the worlds largest gilded statue (26m) of the Maitreya (future Buddha). There is a ridiculous pricing scheme making it too expensive to take photos inside the chapel.  The whole chapel was beautiful with gilding and not to mention the massive oil lanterns and offerings that everyone was bringing.

Tashilhumpo Monastery in the sunshine
Tashilhumpo Monastery in the sunshine

From there it was to the tomb of the 10th PL whose picture appears everywhere, not sure if this is in part because you can’t have photos of the DL.  This was a beautiful chapel as it is fairly new (the PL died in 1989).  We then headed to the tomb of the 4th PL (1570-1662) which was only of the original and only tomb chortens not to be destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.  It was dark and you could only just make out the painting on the walls due to centuries of burning yak butter candles.  This chorten led us to the main assembly hall, but there weren’t any chanting or music playing monks at the moment.  This is a huge hall and dates to the 15th century and holds all the scriptures.  The room is dominated by the throne which is only used by the PL and sadly that may not be used again.

The last chapel we visited was the tomb for the 5th to 9th PL and was built to replace the tombs destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.  From there we headed into the main courtyard which was full of people and monks doing monastic business.

The entire complex in the background is the monastery, quarters and chapels (it's a huge area!)
The entire complex in the background is the monastery, quarters and chapels (it

There were two koras running around the monastery, one side the monastery and one that takes you around the town.  Although the skies are blue it is freezing here, especially in the wind so we wandered through the many lane ways before heading to the car and starting the drive to Gyantse.

We passed lots of Tibetan villages and some new Chinese styles villages, but there were loads of fields, greenhouses and sheep.  We finally reached Gyantese and dropped our bags at the hotel which again looked flash but we soon realised there was no water, suppose you can’t complain about no hot water, the pipes are frozen (apparently).

We headed to a local restaurant where you choose what you want in a bowl and it comes back to you all turned into a giant veggie soup.

We headed into the Pelkon Chode Monastery, through the usual throng to get to the main chapel.  The Pelkor Chode was founded in 1418, but your eyes are drawn to the Gyantse Kumbum which is huge and largest chorten in Tibet, housing 100,000 Buddha images.  In the monastery assembly hall we listened to the monks chanting and the main chapel holds statues of the Sakyamuni and flanked by past and future Buddhas.

We escaped the throng and climbed the stairs of the Gyantse Kumbun which was 5 stories high, giving view of the monastery and the Tibetan part of the town below.  We headed down for a wander around the complex before heading back to the car and the hotel.

Are all the monasteries starting to look the same?  Or is it just me?
Are all the monasteries starting to look the same? Or is it just me?

SB and I decided to explore the town on foot eventually buying some fruit and also looking at the vegetable and meat market.  We headed back to the hotel to rug up as it was absolutely freezing – SB even has his beanie on in bed and is still cold.