Our dirty room and our mishap at the road side stall

SHIGATSE:Shigatse is the second biggest city in Tibet and capital of the Tsang Province. The main highlight of this place is the magnificent Tashilhunpo Monastery. It is one of the six great Gelugpa monasteries and home of the Panchen Lama - who is, by the way still hidden by the Chinese. Situated at the foot of Drölma Ri, there is also a nice Kora (or pilgrimage) around the monastery possible. Dont miss it, since you will have a great view over the huge monastery and the complete city of Shigatse. GYANTSE: Gyantse is a little town (the third biggest in Tibet though) dominated by the Gyantse Dzong from the top of a mountain. From far away you can see the Dzong reigning from the peak over this part of the fertile Nyang-Chu valley. The main attraction is the Pelkor Chöde Monastery with its Kumbum Chörten, the largest Chörten in Tibet.Gyantse offers a beautiful monastery embraced by a hillside and a defencsiv wall around it. Inside this area you also find the Kumbu Chörten (or Stupa). You can walk up all the way over five floors. Take your time, because on every floor there are plenty of rooms beautifully decorated with Bhuddas and Demons. From the top you have a great outlook over the monastery and the town all the way to the Gyantse Dzong. The whole area gets dominated by the Gyantse Dzong that reigns on the top of a mountain.Dont miss to inhale this incredible atmosphere inside the monastery!

Footage shot whilst travelling in Tibet, August 2005, part of an ongoing longer term project, this edit features music by Phil Thornton, from the album 'Tibetan Meditation'.

photos of Tibetan monasteries - in Sakya (destroyed during "cultural" revolution,being now in renovation) ans in Shigatse - Tashilhunpo monastery.

Tashilhunpo monastery in Shigatse, Tibet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigatse

Diaporama monastère de Shigatsé, Tibet

Shigatse (official spelling: Xigazê; other spellings: Rìkāzé, Shigatse, Shikatse, Zhigatsey) is a county-level city and the second largest city in Tibet with a population of 80,000 about 250 km southwest of Lhasa. It was previously known as Samdruptse and the once-imposing Shigatse Dzong, or fort, (dismantled during the popular uprising of 1959), was the seat of the kings of Ü-Tsang and the capital of the province of Ü-Tsang or Tsang In the 19th century the "Tashi" or Panchen Lama had temporal power over Tashilhunpo Monastery and three small districts, though not over the town of Shigatse itself, which was administered by two Dzongpön (Prefects) appointed from Lhasa. There were two Dzongpöns for every Dzong - a lama (Tse-dung) and a layman. They were entrusted with both civil and military powers and are equal in all respects, though subordinate to the generals and the Chinese Amban in military matters. It is the administrative centre of modern Xigazê County in the Xigazê Prefecture, a region of Tibet. It is located at an altitude of 3,840 metres (approx. 12,598 feet) at the confluence of the Yarlong Tsangpo (Wylie: yar lung gtsang po) (or Brahmaputra) and Nianchuhe rivers in west Tibet and was the ancient capital of U-Tsang province. It is also the name of the surrounding county. It contains the huge Tashilhunpo Monastery, founded in 1447 by Gendun Drup, the First Dalai Lama.It is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lamas. Until the Chinese arrived in the 1950s, the "Tashi" or Panchen Lama had temporal power over three small districts, though not over the town of Shigatse itself, which was administered by a dzongpön (general) appointed from Lhasa. Nearby attractions include: Tashilhunpo Monastery, traditional seat of the Panchen Lama and Mount Everest.

Just a few minutes of video of a morning street scene in Shigatse, with music coming from loudspeaker in shop nearby

The Panchen Lama is the second-highest-ranking lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelugpa (Dge-lugs-pa) sect of Tibetan Buddhism (the sect which controlled Tibet from the 16th century until the Communist takeover). The successive Panchen lamas form a tulku reincarnation lineage which are said to be the incarnations of Amitabha Buddha. The name, meaning "great scholar", is a Tibetan contraction of the Sanskrit (scholar) and the Tibetan chenpo (great).

Festival at Tashilhunpo, Shigatse (Tibet)

Picnic in Shigatse

We stopped at a scenic look out, a glacier at about 5000 m elevation, and Kumbum monastery. It was 300 km total.

Festival at Tashilhunpo Monastery, Shigatse, Tibet.

Monastery of the Pancham Lama

Tibet, Shigatse, people playing ping pong in a pharmacy ... Look at how they made the net :)

Festival at Tashilhunpo, Shigatse (Tibet)

Shigatse Picnic with Infected Mushroom

105 na estrada entre Llasa e Shigatse...

Tibetan monks in Shigatse

Monks

Shigatse Meat Market

Shigatse, Monsatery of the Panchem Lama... Monks in yellow dresses were singing and praying...

Tibetan monks in Shigatse

Festival at Tashilhunpo, Shigatse (Tibet)

Here, we are driving through Shigatse, Tibet's second largest city and home of the Panchen Llamas. You can see some kids waving and yelling at us and some Chinese propoganda written along a wall.