We spent nine long hours on the road today, by bus from Lhasa to Tibet’s #2 city, Shigatse. The sun was bright, the weather hot, the scenery dramatic. The road winds up and up, around hairpin curves, through areas badly affected by the drought. At higher elevations, the river beds are dry, and the herder’s homes abandoned.
Finally we reached the pass at Kambala, elevation over 13,300 feet. From the pass, a gorgeous sight appeared: Yamdrok-tso Lake, one of the holiest in Tibet, turquoise blue under blue skies.
We stopped for a picnic by the lake – spicy fried chicken burgers, French fried tofu sticks, a cucumber and an apple. The lake is huge and meandering, and the road followed alongside it for some ways, until we reached a hydroelectric dam. This dam was controversial, opposed by the then Panchen Lama, since Yamdrok-tso is not only sacred but also a “dead lake” with little inflow of water. So the water spilling over the dam may gradually drain it. The project was stopped until that Panchen Lama died in 1989, then completed in the 1990s.
No photos of dams or bridges in Tibet are allowed. But here is a gorgeous photo of a field of yellow flowers in bloom in Tibet. These are the flowers of the rapeseed plant, grown for cooking oil. We were surprised at the lovely fragrance of the flowers, whose bright yellow color livens up Tibet’s farming areas.
The farmland of the Yarlung Tsangpo River valley seems rich and fertile, and all the farmhouses had prayer flags flying from the corners of the roof, showing that they were Tibetan homes. Most of these houses are newly built, grey-brick, two-story homes. Our guide told us the government has agreed to pay for new houses for every Tibetan who wants one. Since the whole population of Tibetan Autonomous Region is about three million, and there are another two-three million Tibetans in other provinces, this is an easy way for a newly-rich China to buy loyalty, or at least gratitude, from the Tibetans, who account for less than .005 percent of China’s overall population of 1.3 billion. Most of the houses we saw, by the main road, had electricity.
We passed an impressive glacier called Kharo-la, which we were told was holy to Tibetans. Its elevation is 15,000 feet. Paul paid three Tibetan women the equivalent of $2 total to take this picture with them and their baby goats at the glacier.
What we weren’t told is that Kharo-la was the site of a battle between the Tibetans and the British in 1903, the highest land-based battle the British ever fought. It was part of the ill-fated Younghusband expedition, in which the British sent 3,000 troops to Tibet from India. They were well-armed with modern weapons, and I read that they slaughtered 700 poorly-armed Tibetans in four minutes. The British won trade concessions but were never able to take advantage of them. That’s the story in the Lonely Planet Tibet guidebook; our guide said the Tibetans were so overwhelmed they ran up a hill and jumped off a cliff. We saw a castle on a hill in Gyantse and a monument commemorating these Tibetan “heroes.”
Our major stop of the day was at the town of Gyantse. Its most famous site is the Gyantse Kumbum, the largest Tibetan white tower, a lovely tiered structure with eyes looking out in four directions. I remember those distinctive eyes from my visit to Nepal in 1978; this is the only place I’ve seen them here. The tower is 500 years old and has an endless series of murals and chapels, reputedly showing 100,000 images of Buddha.
The Kumbum is part of Pelkor Chode Monastery, founded in 1418. It is known in Tibet as one of the few where all the various Tibetan Buddhist sects coexisted. Those of you who think Buddhists are always peaceful should read up on how the various sects fought for power in Tibet. Not pretty.
Can’t we all just get along?
Mostly, we do, I guess. It’s the times we don’t that get remembered in history.
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