Xigaze Things to Do

In the Tashilhunpo Monastery complex you can find the great Hall of the Maitreya, but also nearby the Great Hall with several pagodas of former Panchen Lamas. Here you can see frescoes and statues depicting the life of Tsong Khapa and his disciples.

Many of the other buildings in Tashilhunpo are dismantled during the Cultural Revolution. The most serious loss was the burning of the sutras.

Walking around in the huge monastery I admired the beautiful colours of the buildings of the monastery with a lot of ocre and brown, but also turquoise and yellow.

The biggest building of the Tashilhunpo monastery is the Matreya Temple. This temple, built in 1914-1918 for the 26M high Buddha Maitreya, is looking like a fortress.

The matreya is the Buddha of the future or Champa in the Tibetan language. The Champa of 26 M high is a gold-plated bronze image, sitting on a lotus seat. From the third storey you can see his head from nearby.

Tibetans believe, that Champa will return and rule the world, when all human beings have earned deliverance from suffering.

The great Tashilhunpo Monastery is the seat of the Panchen Lama This famous monastery is built in 1447 by the youngest disciple of Tshong Khapa. The monastery is rather large with a lot of buildings.
When we walked to the monastery early in the morning and looked in the direction of the monastery, we saw that the complex looked like a small town itself.

We saw a lot of monks along the road. Tashilhunpo is known as a rather active monastery. The monks spent most of the time with doing chores and reciting scriptures. Young initiates, wishing to become a lama, can follow a one year course in Tibetan language in Tashilhunpo.

Every day the monks have at least one ceremony in the main assembly hall. When we visited it was at 16:30. The monks come to the assembly hall with their yellow caps on.
There were many young monks at the time of our visit and they didn't object to our cameras, in fact many asked to be in the picture. The older monks often said no.

Not far from Xigaze is the Shalu monastery. It may look familair when you approach it, as it is the monastery that starts in Tintin in Tibet.
The monks here specialize in meditation, and as the book of Tintin states they are said to have the ability of floating.
The monastery dates back to the 11th century.
Special is the chinese style of the monastery complete with green ceramic roofs. Pictures of this will be in the travelogue.

The Tashi Lhunpo Monastery was founded In 1447 by the first Dalai Lama. It is seat to the Panchen Lama, the second most important spiritual leader of Tibet. It is cared for by the monks of the Gelugpa (yellow caps)order.

During the 4th Panchen Lama, there were more than 3,000 monks in the Monastery and by 1959 there were 5,000. After the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959 and the Cultural Revolution from 1966-80 there are only a few hundred left.

In the monastery you will find the largest Buddha statue in Tibet, a 26 meter high image of the future Buddha.

In another building there is the tomb of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989. A large golden stupa holds his body.

The next building holds the tomb of the 4th Panchen Lama, also a large stupa, with lots of gemstones and gold.

During the 5th to the 9th Panchen Lama there where unstabile times in Tibet, and all of them are united in one tomb in the next building.

The assembly hall is also worth a visit. A stone in the middle of the hall used to be a sky burial place. A cloth hanging above it symbolises the spirits going to heaven.

Opposite the large Tanka Wall you have a great view over Xigaze.

Tashilhunpo Monastery is the biggest monastery in the Tsang region of Tibet. It is located in the town of Shigatse and was founded by Gedun Drup, a disciple of Tsongkapa, thefounder of the Gelugpa Sect. Gedun Drup was later recognized as the first Dalai Lama. It was formerly built in 1447 and continuously expanded by the syccessive Panchen Lamas. The Ngagpa College (Tantric College), one of its 4 monastic colleges, was the residence of the Panchen Lamas. The most amazing image in this monastery is the statue of the giant Maitreya (Future Buddha) erected by the 9th Panchen Lama in 1914, and took 4 years for its establishment. This giant statue stands 26 meters in height and 275kg of solid gold, great quantity of precious things such as pearls, turquoises, corals and ambers have absolved for its construction. The 4th Panchen Lama's funeral stupa was built in 1662 and it stands 11 meters high and is covered with solid gold and silver.

Walking through Shigatse you reach a huge park-like area with several hills, where the people of Shigatse do their pic-nics. Climb up one of those hills and enjoy the surrounding view...nice!