Oct. 29- Yamtso Lake, Tashi Lhuan Po Monastery

On Wednesday we got up at 7:30 in preparation for our next journey. We left the hotel at 8:30 and began the 7 hour drive from Lhasa to Shigatse. The first part of our drive took us by many local dwellings. The one thing I noticed with every house no matter how small or old it was was that they all had colors. Whether it was around the door trim or along the roof line every home was painted with blue, red, yellow, and green. I thought that was incredible. Later we drove along the Lhasa River which flows through the river valley. The river was huge and eventually turned into the Brahmaputra River that flows all the way down to India. The way the Ganges mountains reflected on the river like a mirror was awesome. In places it was as still as glass and in others it rocked like the ocean. We drove along the river for about an hour and then passed over a bridge. Once we crossed that bridge we were no longer in the Gandes mountains but instead we were driving through the Himalayas. Along the base of some of the mountains we noticed ladders that were painted in white. Joe said that the Tibetans paint them on the base of the mountain because they believe the mountains lead to heaven and the ladders act as their wish to some day reach it. It reminded me of American Indian cave paintings.

As we climbed up the mountains a certain beloved aunt came to mind as we wound back and forth in a zig zag pattern for at least an hour. The highest point we came to was 5000 meters up and you could see the river below us. Before the river had looked enormous but from that hight it looked like a snake curving it's way through the valley. We came parallel with the clouds for a moment which was really cool. Once we passed over to the other side of the pass we came upon the Yamtso Lake. It's one of the holiest lakes in Tibet and it was beautiful. I've had a hard time describing it but I will do my best. Where the sun hit the water it looked like turquoise with diamonds sparkling on top. With the water below, the snow covered mountains looked even brighter in the background. And we thought Lhasa was cold! The frigid wind up there went through your bones and didn't leave until we were in the van for several minutes. I took many pictures of the lake so hopefully they will better convey the image of it better than my description. After driving for another hour in the van we could still the lake. I kept taking pictures through the window because the light kept striking the water in different places. It looked utterly untouchable tucked away in that Himalayan pass.

We drove through snow covered mountains for a few more hours and then stopped to eat lunch in a small town. We had yak jerky, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, rice, and potatoes. The yak jerky was pretty good and was a lot like beef jerky but it was a little tougher. Our favorite thing was the scrambled egg with tomato and we hoped we would be able to have it again. I started laughing in the middle of the meal because never in my life did I think I would be having lunch in the middle of the Himalayan mountains while exploring Tibet. After lunch we drove some more and stopped to look at a glacier at the top of a mountain. It looked like jagged snow hanging off in shelves from the peak. About an hour after that we stopped in the city of Guantse, I think but I can't remember how Joe said it, and saw a fortress built up on a small mountain. He said that in 1904 Guantse was a hero city in Tibet because the British tried to invade and they were stopped at the fortress. After the city we began to drive through the agricultural valley that was close to Shigatse. We could see many Tibetan men and women working in the fields and along the road. It amazed me to see the women carrying bales of hay or barley that were four times their size on their backs. Their strength is incredible. Also along the road we could see herds of sheep, donkeys, cows, and yaks. Wild dogs also ran around freely. The donkeys and sheep hung the closest to the roads while the yak stayed secluded in the fields. It was so cool to see how most of the Tibetans spend their days. They work, and by the looks of it, tirelessly.

We arrived in Shigatse around 3:15 and Joe let us unwind for about an hour before taking us to the monastery. Shigatse is the second largest city in Tibet with about 50,000 people while Lhasa has around 250,000 people. When we got to the hotel we were given a key and led into room 2207. After resting for an hour we met Joe down in the lobby and drove to Tashi Lhuan Po Monastery. It was built in 1447 and houses the Penchan Lama when he lived in Tibet. The Penchan Lama and Dalia Lama are on the same level. The stones in the monastery had been worn smooth from centuries of being walked on. The workers and monks were repainting parts of the walls because at the end of every rainy season they put new coats of paint on. The first room we entered housed the largest bronze indoor Buddha in the world. It was 30 meters tall and used a half a ton of gold plating on it. It was magnificent and I was surprised when Joe told us that the inside is hollow despite the heavy bronze and gold layers. The next room we entered was the tomb of the 1oth Penchan Lama. It was HUGE and used 600 kilos of gold plating. On the walls around the tomb there were thousands of Buddhas and other murals. Joe said all the Buddhas looked the same but when you looked closer you could see that their hands were in different positions. That's how they can tell all the Buddhas apart, by their hand position and sometimes what is draped around their necks. The last room we came to was a tomb for the 4th-9th Penchan Lamas. The ceiling of this room was much higher than the others and the outside architecture was more detailed. As in the other tomb, their were small Buddhas painted on the walls but these were not filled with color, they just had a gold outline. Joe said that all Buddhists strive for emptiness so these Buddhas were showing that desire. Because this tomb was much older than the 10th Penchan Lama's the walls had turned black from so many years of burning candles. We exited the tomb and walked back down through the monastery and I discovered that I envied them the solitude that the monastery provided. It was in the middle of the city but it so peaceful and you couldn't hear a single car.

When we got back to the hotel we tried to open our door and a red light kept coming up on the lock. We kept wondering why this was until we looked at our key and saw that it had 2201 on it and not 2207. Because we were led to our room we didn't think to check that they led us to the right one. It was really humiliating trying to explain to the front desk that our key was for 2201 but our bags were in 2207 because when they asked why we couldn't really explain. We definitely felt stupid when they had to open room 2207 so we could move our bags down to room 2201. Joe took us to dinner at a local Tibetan restaurant that caters to foreigners. Like all Tibetan restaurants it was very colorful and they had the scrambled eggs with tomatoes! After dinner we headed back to the hotel and ended up talking for about 2 hours about everything from family to handwriting to boxing. It was a good bonding talk, as if the two of us need to bond anymore :)