Bus excursion to Shigatse

After two days of exploring around Lhasa Boris and I would have liked to get out of the city for some hiking. Or we would have liked to jump on the bike and explore the surrounding. This however is not easily possible in Tibet, not even around Lhasa where foreigners are allowed to walk around freely. As soon as you want to go a bit outside of town, you need a special permit from the Chinese government. Whatever you intend to do: hike, take a local bus, visit another monastery, you need a permit and possibly a guide.  As we were not aware of this we decided to join Horst and his family to travel by bus to Shigatse and back. What a good decision, this turned out to be a stunning, fun bus ride through spectacular scenery.

With a driver - who we though undertakes his first bus drive after changing over from Yak riding - and our two guides (our tour guide and the one of Horst’s family) we pottered along the Friendship highway. From the over the 4700m high Kampa-La pass we had a fantastic view down on Lake Yamdrok-Tso. It is one of the most holy lakes in Tibet and one of the most stunning ones that I’ve seen so far as well, with its fabulous deep turquoise water. We drove along its edge for a couple of hours and then again over the next high pass. The landscape up ion these high passes, but also in the wide river valleys is very barren. Rocks dominate; there are no trees only a few bushes and grassland plains. Every time we pass a small Tibetan village we wondered:  How do people survive here in the cold? What can they make a living of, when it is too scant to grow only a minimal amount of crops? 

The colors of the landscape were stunning and changes from one minute to the next as clouds drifted passed the sun.  Boris with his eye for wildlife spotted a herd of Tibetan antelopes and again some giant vultures circling in the sky. My attention was drawn more to the geology and to the geomorphology. Because there was hardly any vegetation we could see the different layers of rock how they were stacked over each other and folded into bizarre forms when the Himalayan Mountains formed. As learned from the study books (it’s been quite a while) we could see how the landscape was shaped by the large glaciers that covered the plateau longtime ago. We could also see how the processes found in this permafrost region leaves behind frost boils and stone rings. Fantastic to see all this in such great dimensions.

On our way to Shigatse we stopped at Gyantse - Tibet’s third city, behind Lhasa and Shigatse. Here we visited the Pelkor Chöde Monastery. The town and its historic sites were a pleasure to stroll through as the atmosphere was much more relaxed as in Lhasa were everything seems quite restricted and one feels constantly watched by the omnipresent military guards.

Before leaving Shigatse the next morning we of course dropped in to Tashilhunpo Monastery, one of the few monasteries in Tibet that was not affected by the Chinese Cultural Revolution and today remains relatively unscathed. Shigatse has been the seat of the Panchen Lama, and this seat was traditionally based in the monastery. Hence we got to see the opulently decorated tombs of the past Panchen Lamas.

On our way back we had the pleasure of seeing the stunning landscape again, coming from the other side. It was a long journey back, about 8 hours of sitting in the bus and Horst, Boris and I already missed having our own control of the street. After passing again over Kamba-la Pass the rode was blocked due to construction. Instead of sitting and waiting Boris and I decided to run down the mountain slopes and let our bus pick us up when bypassing – we still have sore legs from this spontaneous action. Shortly before reaching Lhasa we passed a snow-hail-rain storm which created a wonderful rainbow of enormous color intensity. It guided us right back home and made the last stretch of the journey very entertaining for the whole bus-gang.