Started a little later this morning, departing from our fleapit hotel at 0930 to quickly explore Shigatse before heading back to Lhasa in time to see the debating at the Sera Monastery. Shigatse is about 270 kilometers west of Lhasa and is the second biggest city in Tibet. It is on an elevation of 3840m with a prefecture population of 820,000. The population of Shigatse City is 98,700 about 97% of which are Tibetan. Shigatse means 'the fertile land'. Shigatse has a history going back more than 600 years and it is this ancient holy city that is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, one of the spiritual leaders in Tibet.



First stop was the Tashilhunpo Monastery which was founded in 1447 and is the largest Yellow Hat sect monastery in Tibet. The Tashilhunpo Monastery, literally known as "Auspicious Sumeru Temple", is the largest temple in the town of Shigatse. It is the traditional seat of successive Panchen Lamas, and the second highest ranking tulku lineage in the Gelug Tibetan Buddhism hierarchy after Dalai Lama. Therefore lots of pilgrims travel to the Tashilhunpo Monastery for a pilgrimage journey. It occupies an area of 150,000 square meters, surrounded by more than 3km long walls perching along the topography of the Nyima Mountain and enclosing 57 buildings which amounts to over 3600 rooms in the monastery. One distinct feature of the monastery is the Maitreya Temple. It's located on the western part of the monastery. The Ninth Panchen Lama ordered its construction to accommodate the 86 foot statue of the Maitreya Buddha that contains 614 lbs of gold, 330,000 lbs of copper. The statue of Maitreya there is the largest one in the world.

We then headed to the local handcraft market after having to argue with the guide and driver that it was in our contract. First they tried to take us to some carpet factory but we were a wake-up to this move and demanded to be taken to the market - which believe it or not, they had to phone someone to find out where it was! Just as well we did as many of us picked up some true Tibetan souvenirs (as opposed to the many Chinese ones in Lhasa) and felt like we were actually contributing something to the people of Tibet. OH and we have the dreaded homicidal driver again…..apparently the other group didn't like him either!!

We left Shigatse and headed along the Northern Friendship Highway glad to have the opportunity to see some more of this beautiful countryside on our way back to Lhasa. Mindful of the time we didn’t ask for any toilet stops etc and only stopped when the driver wanted to. Had lunch at some restaurant in a place that the guide didn’t tell us the name of …….then we started to realise that the driver was slowing down again!! We asked if we were going to make it in time for the debating and our guide assured us that we would……told us that we were only 40 kms away and it would take about 50 minutes. So we waited and waited and waited but could not see the sights of Lhasa. After 1 ½ hours we finally asked the guide when we would get there – we thought we had showed great patience but it was wearing thin by this time – finally the guide admitted that we would not see the debating and that we had another 60kms to go!!!! WE really got mad then and were very disappointed that our guide had blatantly lied to us. One tour group member rang the head office to complain and they phoned the driver who called us all liars and said he was driving at the speed limit (70kms) while we all agreed we would be lucky if we were doing 30kms. OMG what a nightmare having to constantly fight to get what we paid for!


Needless to say it was a very sad and sorry group who finally arrived back on Lhasa at about 1830. We have drafted a letter to the company pointing out the contract obligations not fulfilled and seeking reimbursement. We will all sign the letter tonight and send it off tomorrow. After that’s done we are heading out for a final night dinner all together …….so here's hoping for a good night to make up for the dreadful organisation and complete incompetence of this tour company!!