Before heading on towards Mount Everest, in the morning we visited the well-known Tashilhunpo Monastery, which today, with around 600 monks, has the liveliest religious life of any monastery in Tibet. Then we drove on to the small village of Shegar at the edge of Mount Everest National Park – Qomolangma in Tibetan.
A night without heating in Shegar
It was our first night without heating, in simple but clean accommodation. In return, in the morning we could draw on the windows, frozen from the inside. Tashilhunpo stands on a hill in the middle of Shigatse, the second-largest city in Tibet; the first Dalai Lama founded the monastery in 1447, and it is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lamas.
Monks in the courtyard of Tashilhunpo, white buildings on the hill behind – the monastery with the liveliest religious life in Tibet.Red façades and gilded roofs against a deep blue sky.A strip of sunlight on a painted wall.A monk in red and ochre, bowls and offerings before him.A golden Buddha face glows out of the darkness.Two monks at the cauldron of butter lamps.Turquoise stones set as a mosaic in the monastery floor.An orange wall with round emblems beneath the eaves.A painted gallery and banners with the endless knot.A painted pillar beneath a white cloth hanging.A young monk between red pillars in the inner courtyard.Hundreds of painted Buddhas on the wall, two visitors in front.Red-and-white windows and a golden finial on the roof.Snowy peaks above brown highlands – on the road from Shigatse to Shegar.A white farmstead by the road, a yak in front.Dried dung cakes on the stone wall – fuel for the winter.Snow-covered mountains above the valley near Shegar.A flock of sheep crossing the dry riverbed.A woolly hat, prayer beads and a broad smile by the roadside.Yaks on stony ground between the mountains.Colourful prayer flags in the snow at the edge of Qomolangma National Park.Welcome to Mount Qomolangma – the gate near Shegar.Prayer flags above the wide snowy plain.The national park emblem on cracked stone.A pointed snowy peak above the valley.Snowland Restaurant in Shegar – before our first night without heating.Prayer flags on a pole above the ridge.A rounded mountain in the warm evening light.Prayer flags in the meadow, snowy peaks behind.A snowy ridge silhouetted against the evening sky.
