Shigatse, half way between Mt Everest and Lhasa, became our stopover going to and coming from Everest base camp.

It is rather famous in its own right and on the way back we found out why on a trip to the Tashilhunpo Monastery. We arrived with our guide at 9.30am and found a large crowd waiting outside a temple. There was a real air of excitement amongst the crowd who were mostly Tibetan peasants. They carried packets of yak butter, the smell of which pervades every temple and monastery in Tibet and bundles of low denomination notes (very low - as in 1/10th of a Yuan and one Yuan is only worth 15 Australian cents). Many shiny white prayer shawls were also draped around necks, ready to be offered to Buddha.

The huge wooden temple doors creaked open at around 9.45 am and with a lot of pushing and shoving, in went the Buddhist faithful to offer up their yak butter, money and prayer shawls.  

We were caught up in the scrum and after getting up the steep ladder like steps, we came into a chapel that housed an amazingly big Buddha, made of gold and copper. It cost to take a photo but hey this one was worth it The complex occupies 70,000 square metres and was founded and built in 1447.

The morning as spent walking and climbing (lots and lots of ladders and steps) around the complex and learning more from our guide. 

There is quite a bit of restoration work being done and women are also doing the cementing and carting the heavy rocks. The renovation work is all done by hand and in keeping with the rest of the buildings. It is a credit to Tibetans that the historic monasteries are up kept.  

We have included in the pictures here some Tibetan "on the road" sights as well and there are more to come next story.