Phil's Fabulous Tibetan Journey: Part 9--Shigatse

Our traveler having seen the sights in Guyantse, such as they were, he decides not to spend much more time in that locale. Besides from the impressive dzong and the magnificent kumbum, there really is nothing else to see in Guyantse; by nothing else I mean Guyantse consists of one road which runs from the monastery to the dzong and has the town clustered around it.
Without much more ado than eating breakfast, our traveler once more boards the vehicle to continue on with his journey. The day’s drive is not long, nor is it remarkable, sticking to the flat plains of the valley all the way into Shigatse. These plains are by far the most fertile plains our traveler has yet seen in Tibet; you might almost call them green.
Shigatse, the second largest town in Tibet, is on the friendship highway proper, not the Southern branch. As far as town’s go, not especially remarkable, but Shigatse does have several claims to fame. First is the Tashilhungpo Monastery, which is the seat of the Panchen Lama, second is Shigatse’s dzong which more remodeled and refurbished than Guyantse’s is practically the same as the Potala, only smaller. The dzong stands on one hill and the monastery rises up another. There are also several markets in Shigatse but these are disappointing and our traveler spends little time there.The Tashilhungpo Monastery, on the other hand, is a wonder befitting this grand land. The monastery is, as our traveler expected, large, covering a goodly portion of the hillside. It’s golden roofed monuments stand out against the dry brown of the hillside and the pale white construction of normal monastic buildings. Our traveler, despite his inherent reluctance to spend money, pays the entrance fee and begins to wander around the monastery.
Walking through the narrow streets of the monastery flanked by the high steep walls, our traveler gets the feeling he is in some medieval fortress. The walls are almost all white-washed like those of the Potala. But there are occasional portions of the monastery which are still tan-colored and in ruins—these are the parts of the monastery which have yet to be refurbished.
As our traveler makes his way through the monastery following signs which tell him to “come this way” he finds himself moving through chamber after chamber, darkly lit and smelling of incense. Each room has its own little sign which informs the visitors “For to take picture in this room, is x kuai” the traveler soon discovers that he can judge the importance of a room by the size of the fee to take pictures there. Our traveler finds himself before a curtained door. He debates for a few moments whether or not he should enter, but eventually decides, it couldn’t hurt and pushes his way through the heavy curtain.
The first thing which meets his eye is a picture of one of the panchen lamas. Not a particularly astounding sight—looking past this picture though, our traveler sees something more intriguing. It looks to be a massive foot. This massive foot is attached as it happens to an equally massive Buddha. In fact it is, as the nearby sign proclaims in very bad English, the world’s largest guilt statue. The Buddha is a towering 87 and a half feet tall, covered from head to toe in a thin coat of pure gold. While this picture does not really do the statue justice, for reference you might imagine that his hand was as large as our traveler's 6'7" traveling companion. The Buddha’s half closed eyes stare down from their lofty height at our traveler, and he thinks this Buddha looks as though he were stoned. When our traveler comes to think of it, most Buddha have a distinctly "under the influence" look—half closed, red-rimmed eyes. Perhaps this was yet another way to attain enlightenment.
Among the other sites of the Tashilhungpo Monastery, are the various tombs of the panchen Lamas, huge golden stacks of metal with intricately carved characters on top. These dominate the buildings which house them, which is saying quite a bit since these rooms have 1000 golden painting of Buddha as their wallpaper. The view from the highest point of the monastery is stunning, with the golden capped roofs framing the sprawling city of Shigatse and being framed in turn by the looming mountains far in the distance. To the left of the monastery rises the dzong of Shigatse, not quite as high and seemingly unimportant compared with the majesty of Tashilhungpo Monastery.