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The next stage of our tour took us along the newly built roads connecting Lhasa to one of TIbet's other big towns, Shigatse.

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The views from our minibus window were constantly impressive, something which helped take our minds off the Formula 1-style driving that our driver was doing on mountain passes...

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Shigatse was a pleasant town, full of many friendly people interested to see the group of foreigners that had arrived (visitors from overseas have been particularly scarce due to China's COVID-related restrictions).

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Located on a hill in the center of the city, the full name in Tibetan of the monastery means "all fortune and happiness gathered here" or "heap of glory". Captain Samuel Turner, a British officer with the East India Company who visited the monastery in the late 18th century, described it in the following terms:

"If the magnificence of the place was to be increased by any external cause, none could more superbly have adorned its numerous gilded canopies and turrets than the sun rising in full splendour directly opposite. It presented a view wonderfully beautiful and brilliant; the effect was little short of magic, and it made an impression which no time will ever efface from my mind." (Wikipedia)

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The town certainly stood in stark contrast to the much more basic villages that we passed on the journey.

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