Greetings to everyone from the World Map Pin community, thank you for all the comments and support from my first and second post I from the past two weeks on my journey into Tibet. In the last post, I had a sharing that includes the journey into Lhasa, the beautiful capital of Tibet which allowed us to cross two amazing mountains for breathtaking sights of the Tibetan highlands. In today's post, I departed Lhasa and headed west towards Shigatse a prefecture-level city, which is commonly known as Gateway to Everest. On the journey towards Shigatse, I also visited the majestic Yamdrok Yumtso Lake as seen in my cover photo, which is one of the three sacred lakes in Tibet.
Background Recap
This is a 9 days trip span across 9 days, that me and my buddy, a fellow photography enthusiast went on.
The main cities that we visited in this trip includes: Chengdu (Sichuan Province), Nyingchi (Tibet), Lhasa (Tibet), Shigatse (Tibet) and Xining (Qinghai Province).
Mode of transport within includes an internal flight from Chengdu to Nyingchi, land cruiser driving through Tibet, a train ride out of Tibet to Xining and lastly an internal flight back to Chengdu before heading back home to Singapore.
If you've missed my earlier 2 posts about my journey into Tibet, fret not. Here are the links to them so that you can catch up on them.
Post 1 Link: Chengdu & Nyingchi
Post 2 Lhasa
So let's continue this amazing journey as we leave Lhasa towards Shigatse.
Yamdrok Yumtso Lake
After a great exploration of Lhasa where we visited the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple to experience how Buddhism influenced Tibet and also learning a little more about the history the Living Buddha Dalai Lama and we will head west towards Shigatse, where the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, the monastery where the other Tibetan Living Buddha Pachen Lama resides. And on the route towards Shigatse from Lhasa will allow us to visit the majestic Yamdrok Yumtso Lake.
This is one of the sacred lake in Tibet, the other 2 are Namtso and Manasarovar. Due to the route that I am taking, I can only pick 1 of the three, though Namtso is also a very popular tourist destination due to it's massiveness making looking like a sea in the middle tibet. Yamdrok Yumtso on the other hand is famed for it's turquoise waters. The translation in Tibetan of its name means Green Jade Lake on The Pasture.
As my buddy and I left the scenic lookout with the stone stupar, my guide told our jeep driver to stop the vehicle along the highway and told us to look afar as the Himalayas can be seen from this spot.
The view is really such a beauty that I can conclude almost anywhere along this route can get you really good pictures such as this one which I took when we took another stop to wiggle our legs from the long jeep ride.
Karola Glacier
After we depart from the Yamdrok Yumtso area, we were awed by another beautiful sight right before our eyes - a majestic glacier right before our eyes, the Karola Glacier.
Because of the time of the year that I am there, the size of the glacier is not at its fullest but to me it is majestic enough. The place is windy but it has no lack of visitors to capture the beauty of the glacier.
Shigatse
Pelkor Chode Monastery
First stop after arriving at Shigatse, my buddy and I visited the Pelkor Chode Monastery.
A unique monastery that has a circular pagoda erected upon a squarish base. The architecture was huge as we can enter the monastery via the square base area. Peaceful quiet and there is a unique gigantic large prayer staff that is right in front of the entrance showing how much devotion in prayer the Tibetans have.
Tashilhunpo Monastery
We departed from Pelkor Chonde and off to our next location, Tashilhunpo Monastery, the equivalent place of Potala Palace to Dalai Lama but for Panchen Lama instead. Again in this monastery, history of the various Panchen Lama can be found and it certainly enriched our learning by walking through the inner portions of the monastery. Compared to Potala Palace, it might not be as majestic, it also commands the same level of prestige as it is the place dedicated for a Living Buddhua.
I am so glad that as the day draws later into the afternoon, the sky condition become better and we manage to get a nice blue hue of the sky. And that marks the end of the day and we headed back to rest. What an adventure we had transiting from the beauty and majestic Yamdrok Yumtso and Karola Glacier through the works of nature to rich and diverse culture and history of Tibet from Pelkor Chonde Monatery and the Tashilhunpo Monastery.
Closing
Shigatse is no less from that of Lhasa. It definitely had it fair share of attractions for travelers to visit. For this leg of the travel, the Yamdrok Yumtso Lake amazed me the most especially it being able to let me capture so many beautiful photos from almost any angle and allow me to catch a glimpse of the Himalayas from afar.
Do you think similar to me that Shigatse is a nice place to visit as well? Share with me in the comments as I bring the 3rd post of this amazing journey to a close.
Thank you for reading my 3rd post on my journey to Tibet in this community World Map Pin! This is the furthest we go in Shigatse, though there are trips that bring travelers nearer to Tibet and allow them to have a close encounter with Mount Everest from the Tibetan side. So if you wish to explore Shigatse further, do consider heading further west and witness the beauty of the tallest mountain in the whole world.