Phil's Fabulous Tibetan Journey: Part 8--Guyantse

The story obviously continues, you will no doubt have guessed that our fearless traveler does not perish in an explosion. Indeed, it will come as no surprise to you that the "bomb" of Samdim's somewhat poor English was not some terrorist plot to rid the world of freedom and prosperity. Not at all. Instead this "bomb" was a stellar example of the Chinese method of road construction. The general way of things if you happen to be a Chinese worker building a road through the Himalaya, is that the landscape should change to fit your road and not the other way around. So there we have Wang Peng the Chinese worker, building a road through all these annoying mountains and hills and rivers and lakes. He comes to this incredibly annoying hillside which simply would be right where he had planned on putting a nice flat road. Now it is unthinkable to Wang Peng that he would change his plan to go around this large mound of rock. Instead Wang Peng, a person with a little bit of vindictiveness in his nature, decides that he is going to make that mountain pay for it's inconsiderate location. Wang Peng's Solution? Dynamite.

This was the nature of the bomb our traveler came upon high in the mountains. And as he waited uneasily not yet understanding this, the worker's triggered their bomb. The explosion was strong enough to shake the car and turn the general atmosphere into a dusty, smoky mix impossible to see through. The driver, intrepid explorer that he was, does not require sight to pilot his land cruiser and so before the just has any chance to settle, our traveler finds that they are once more on their way.
In very little time he finds that they are out of the mountains and on the long straight stretch of the road which leads into the town of Guyantse. Guyantse itself is perhaps the third or fourth largest town in all of Tibet and is not big. Situated 13,000 ft. above sea-level, it is not that much higher than Lhasa. However it feels nothing like the capital city. The massive dzong (fortress) rising high above the city, this fort is situated on a rugged hill, more suitably described as a pillar of rock. Like the Potala the Guyantse dzong is white washed with deep red trim. You can see it perched on top of the hill above the city.
The Guyantse dzong, as opposed to the Potala, has not been restored at all and is entirely open to visitors. In the first moments our traveler is there he sees no other living souls. Eventually he does stumble upon someone who extracts the entrance fee from him. Despite this 30 kuai sadness, the dzong is still impressive. After ascending a lengthy staircase which switch-backed up the hill, passing through various gates and guardhouses, the traveler finds himself in the dzong proper. Below him stretches out a view of Guyantse’s old town and the new town slowly building itself up around it. To the west of the dzong, the traveler can see the walled in Pelkor monastery with its squat, but massive kumbum (a round monument called a chorten with 100,000 images of Buddha in it).
After taking some time to survey the surrounding area, our traveler continues up, hoping eventually to reach it’s highest point, more than 500 ft above the town. On his way he sees such sights as the Dungeon, the Chapel of the Righteous King, and the cannon platforms complete with rusted cannon (mostly on the west side of the dzong). Just a ways up the path from the cannon the traveler sees a sign which reads “this way to jump off cliff” Feeling this to be a sign worth investigating our traveler hikes along the way indicated by the sign. In a few moments he comes to a small battlement, literally perched on the cliff. Looking over the edge, the ttraveler can see broken rocks hundreds of feet below. A large memorial reads “Eternal glory to the jumpers of the cliff.” A smaller explanatory note below this says that the dzong was attacked by the British in 1904 and being overrun, many of the Tibetan defenders jumped off the battlements at this point, rather than surrender.
Continuing on up the rickety iron staircases inside the dzong, the traveler after making his way through the many dark and barren layers of the dzong, finds himself on top. A large brass thing (for lack of better word, perhaps a chorten) covered in prayer flags dominates the small 10ft square space. But the traveler is afforded a panorama of the entire valley with its guardian mountain ranges, the small city of Guyantse, the Pelkor monastery, and even a smaller monastery far back in the hills, supposedly only inhabited by 8 monks. Two large birds of prey, perhaps hawks, soar around the top of this tower, close enough for the traveler to see the sun glinting from their eyes. Large, ponderous rain clouds move down from the north along the ridgelines, and the descending sun casts long shadows throughout the city far below.
When looking at the picture of the Pelkor monastery to the right, you will notice a many-tiered building capped with gold. This is that kumbum which was mentioned earlier. Our traveler did get a chance the next morning to explore this interesting little building. Between it's seven levels it has 77 little chapels, each filled with various statues and paintings of Buddha or one of his companions. It is a famous aspect of Buddhism that the Buddhas' hands have various postures which imply certain meanings. Our traveler is largely unaware of these meanings, but there was one gesture which he understood. Imagine his surprise as he steps into yet another one of these chapels, perhaps in the thirty-seventh or so, and finds himself looking at a statue which is flipping him off. He conjectures that this is a more recent addition meant for the many pesky Western tourists, a sort of "here's what we think of you" sort of thing.