Everest Trip: Day 2
Got up today at 8:00am in Gyantse to a not-as-cold-as-expected morning. I didn't sleep well because at 4000m I tend to breathe too heavily during my sleep and I had a blocked nose as well - I woke up feeling like I hadnt slept at all. Fortunately today was almost a full day of driving as we had to move 250-300km southwest from Gyantse to Shegar via Shigatse.
It was only a short 1 hour drive to Shigatse over a paved highway and by 10:30am we were walking around the Tashilunpo monastery, one of the largest in Tibet. We were able to catch the monks in the middle of their mid-late morning chants and prayers as we walked the pilgrimage circuit around the monastery. The pilgrimage circuit or 'kora' as its known in Tibetan took us through a number of chapels and some monk assembly halls and in some ways it was more enchanting than the Potala because its a 'live' monastery.
The Potala, although architecturally impressive is not much more than a tourist attraction nowadays with the Dalai Lama unable to return to Tibet but Tashilunpo has a small army of monks residing within giving it life. The interior adornments are also more beautiful (I sneaked photos once again) and better cared for. The most impressive chapel was the Jamkhang Chenmo - it had a gilded chorten inside holding the remains of a deceased Panchen Lama, I'm not a Tibetan Buddhism expert so some of my descriptions could be wrong as I try to match the commentary in the Lonely Planet to what I see.
The main attraction for me wasn't the gilded chorten with the gold statue on top but rather the frescoes on the roof and the walls. There are also heavy fabrics that hang from the ceiling and these are the most colourful and intricate I've seen so far during my trip. One neat touch the chapel had was an open window in the ceiling covered by lightweight curtains - everytime a breeze blew, the curtains would part slightly to let in rays of sunlight to rest of the gilded statues head. Nobody speaks inside the chapels, there's only a slight murmur as the monks pray and the pilgrims prostrate themselves infront of the buddha statue.
As we moved on we walked into an assembly hall full of monks chanting and every so often making a racket with their simple percussion instruments - cymbals and bells. I guess it was some sort of prayer ritual, very religious for them and equally as interesting for us tourists who had the priviledge of watching. Some old Tbietan guy even brought in a painting scroll for the head monk to bless.
After more chapels, assembly halls and admiring the exterior architecture I was templed out (its easy for me to get templed out) and we had Yak burgers with fries for lunch. Food is really expensive in Tibet because nothing grows here and it's so expensive/hard to ship food here. There's only Yak meat and starchy dishes like potato, bread, heavy dumplings and thick noodles.
The drive to Shegar save for the final hour was boring - just brown barren mountains in the desert with a paved highway winding through. Close to Shegar however we crossed a 5200m pass that marked the entrance into the Qomolangma Nature Reserve otherwise known as the Mt Everest National Park! The road became unsealed and littered with rocks once again making for a bumpy ride - bumpier than usual as I'd copped the Landcruiser kiddy seat in the boot today with all our rucksacks. We have to take turns at being on 'backseat duty' in the Landcruiser. At least there were the Himalayan peaks to gaze at in the distance as we wound our way down to Shegar at 4050m.
Entering the Qomolangma Nature Reserve - getting close to Mt Everest
Shegar is quite frankly a one-street shithole - The beggar kids crowd around the 4WD as soon as we stopped with cries of 'money money', the electricity for the hostel is produced by a diesel generator that is only turned on for a few hours a night, the stoves are literally powered by dried Yak dung and the toilet is a cesspit that drains into a creek! Needless to say there won't be hot showers from now on, even washing hands is difficult. At least the food in the hostel is decent and its warm and comfortable in the restaurant, so even though sanitation has been kicked off my list of 'needs', my nutritional and shelter needs are taken care of so I'm still happy.
Shegar Guesthouse with 2 'cruiser loads of backpackers.
Got up today at 8:00am in Gyantse to a not-as-cold-as-expected morning. I didn't sleep well because at 4000m I tend to breathe too heavily during my sleep and I had a blocked nose as well - I woke up feeling like I hadnt slept at all. Fortunately today was almost a full day of driving as we had to move 250-300km southwest from Gyantse to Shegar via Shigatse.
It was only a short 1 hour drive to Shigatse over a paved highway and by 10:30am we were walking around the Tashilunpo monastery, one of the largest in Tibet. We were able to catch the monks in the middle of their mid-late morning chants and prayers as we walked the pilgrimage circuit around the monastery. The pilgrimage circuit or 'kora' as its known in Tibetan took us through a number of chapels and some monk assembly halls and in some ways it was more enchanting than the Potala because its a 'live' monastery.
The Potala, although architecturally impressive is not much more than a tourist attraction nowadays with the Dalai Lama unable to return to Tibet but Tashilunpo has a small army of monks residing within giving it life. The interior adornments are also more beautiful (I sneaked photos once again) and better cared for. The most impressive chapel was the Jamkhang Chenmo - it had a gilded chorten inside holding the remains of a deceased Panchen Lama, I'm not a Tibetan Buddhism expert so some of my descriptions could be wrong as I try to match the commentary in the Lonely Planet to what I see.
The main attraction for me wasn't the gilded chorten with the gold statue on top but rather the frescoes on the roof and the walls. There are also heavy fabrics that hang from the ceiling and these are the most colourful and intricate I've seen so far during my trip. One neat touch the chapel had was an open window in the ceiling covered by lightweight curtains - everytime a breeze blew, the curtains would part slightly to let in rays of sunlight to rest of the gilded statues head. Nobody speaks inside the chapels, there's only a slight murmur as the monks pray and the pilgrims prostrate themselves infront of the buddha statue.
As we moved on we walked into an assembly hall full of monks chanting and every so often making a racket with their simple percussion instruments - cymbals and bells. I guess it was some sort of prayer ritual, very religious for them and equally as interesting for us tourists who had the priviledge of watching. Some old Tbietan guy even brought in a painting scroll for the head monk to bless.
After more chapels, assembly halls and admiring the exterior architecture I was templed out (its easy for me to get templed out) and we had Yak burgers with fries for lunch. Food is really expensive in Tibet because nothing grows here and it's so expensive/hard to ship food here. There's only Yak meat and starchy dishes like potato, bread, heavy dumplings and thick noodles.
The drive to Shegar save for the final hour was boring - just brown barren mountains in the desert with a paved highway winding through. Close to Shegar however we crossed a 5200m pass that marked the entrance into the Qomolangma Nature Reserve otherwise known as the Mt Everest National Park! The road became unsealed and littered with rocks once again making for a bumpy ride - bumpier than usual as I'd copped the Landcruiser kiddy seat in the boot today with all our rucksacks. We have to take turns at being on 'backseat duty' in the Landcruiser. At least there were the Himalayan peaks to gaze at in the distance as we wound our way down to Shegar at 4050m.
The backseat of the 'cruiser - cramped as with the packs on my right!
Entering the Qomolangma Nature Reserve - getting close to Mt Everest
Shegar is quite frankly a one-street shithole - The beggar kids crowd around the 4WD as soon as we stopped with cries of 'money money', the electricity for the hostel is produced by a diesel generator that is only turned on for a few hours a night, the stoves are literally powered by dried Yak dung and the toilet is a cesspit that drains into a creek! Needless to say there won't be hot showers from now on, even washing hands is difficult. At least the food in the hostel is decent and its warm and comfortable in the restaurant, so even though sanitation has been kicked off my list of 'needs', my nutritional and shelter needs are taken care of so I'm still happy.
Shegar Guesthouse with 2 'cruiser loads of backpackers.
Not the cleanest nor the warmest but a bed is a bed.
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