Shigatse about 250km southwest of Lhasa, or 90km northwest of Gyantse, lies Shigatse Tibet’s second largest town and the traditional capital of Tsang province. Shigatse is a sprawling place, with dusty,uneven streets humming with traffic (even the pedestrian-only lane). As you drive in across the plains,the site of the Potala—lookalike Shigatse Dzong, high on a hilltop overlooking the town, will probably fire up your imagination, but the fort is empty and most of what you see dates from a 2007 reconstruction. It is the Tashilhunpo Mon- astery, to the west of town, that is the real draw. Since the Mongol sponsorship of the Gelugpa order, Shigatse has been the seat of the Panchen Lama, and this seat was tradi- tionally based in the monastery. The town, formerly known as Samdrup- tse, has long been an important trading and administrative centre. The Tsang kings exercised their power from the dzong and the fort later became the residence of the governor of Tsang. The modern city is di- vided into a tiny old Tibetan town huddled at the foot of the fort, and a rapidly expand- ing modern Chinese town that has all the charm of, well, every other expanding mod- ern Chinse town. During the second week of the fifth lu- nar month (around June/July), Tashilhunpo Monastery becomes the scene of a three-day festival and a huge thangka is unveiled

Day 1

Arrival to lasha

Day 2

Comming Soon...

_wp_old_slug

shigatse__trashed