The Tashilumpo Monastery

Previous page - We arrive in Shigatze

 

A late start to our day in Shigatse

Last night I decided to sleep in my sleeping bag seeing as I’d been so cold the two previous nights. I was warm enough but I found the sleeping bag so restrictive. Ian and I kept each other awake because we were blowing our noses, coughing and sneezing all night. We even kept Jeremy awake and he is a heavy sleeper.

 

 

 

Breakfast was downstairs at a little café next to the hotel. We had been given three breakfast tokens to hand in at the café. It was quite a nice breakfast with each of us having a bread roll, a warm hard-boiled egg, some cucumber sticks, tomato, fried peanuts plus two little cakes and an endless cup of tea.

We see furniture being hand-painted

We met up with Tiki at 10 a.m. to walk from our hotel to the Tashilumpo Monastery. On the way we passed three little factories where they made highly decorated furniture. It is hand painted and watching the men paint the pieces fascinated me.  It took about 10 minutes to walk from the hotel to the monastery.

 

 

Off to the Tashilumpo Monastery

Tashilumpo Monastery dates back to 1447. It was founded by Gendun Drup who was the first Dalai Lama. Tashilumpo is a huge collection of buildings where, once, several thousand monks lived. Now there are only about 100 monks in residence. Once inside the grounds I started to feel faint. So I opted to sit down and let the others wander around without me. I found a little wall to sit on. It wasn’t awfully comfortable but I was able to rest my back against the wall of the building behind me. No sooner had Ian, Jeremy and Tiki disappeared from sight I began to get bowel rumblings. Oh, my goodness! Is there a toilet anywhere near here? I tried to ask several passing people but they didn’t understand what I meant. There weren’t exactly any bushes I could squat down behind either. Eventually the feelings subsided a little.

 

 

I chatted with some 16 year old girls who had a smattering of English and then an older lady sat down on the wall next to me. Via hand signals, she indicated her knees were very sore.

A long while later Ian, Jeremy and Tiki were back.  There was a lot to see but sadly I never got to see it. You can read here about the history of Tashilumpo Monastery. Suddenly I felt I needed the toilet in a hurry. Jeremy said he felt strange down below too (he’d been constipated for a couple of days) so the two of us high-tailed it back to the hotel. Tiki helped Ian find a bank to exchange some money and he arrived back later on.

 

Meeting up at the hotel

Ian had arranged with the guide and driver that we would meet them in the hotel foyer at 1 p.m. and we would then drive somewhere for lunch. Since arriving in Tibet we have all gone off our food to some extent. Jeremy didn’t feel like eating any lunch at all so he elected to stay back at the hotel and rest.

 

 

 

Next page - Tashi Restaurant

 

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