The first stop on our trip was the Yamdrok Tso, the thirdlargest lake in Tibet. Thato, our driver, had
to really flog the engine in order to reach the Khampa La Pass where the lake viewpoint is found. Here we had excellent views
of the surrounding mountains and Yamdrok Tso.
Our first night (20th October) we stayed in Shigatse. The monastery here is unique as it is
the seat of the Panchen Lama. This lama is considered the most important after the Dalai Lama. The Panchen Lama is the one
who helps to choose the Dalai Lama and vice versa. The most recent reincarnation was chosen in 1995, but the 6 year old boy
was kidnapped by the Chinese aurthorities to become the youngest political prisoner in the world. His whereabouts are still
not known despite international condemnation, and since the Chinese have installed their own Panchen Lama. In India, 2 rival
Tibetan Buddist orders have supported their own candidates. So now there are 4 where there should be wrong- a huge mess that
lies squarely at the feet of the Chinese! Imagine what will happen when the current Dalai Lama dies…
Despite all of this, Tashilhunpo monastery is beautiful and holds the tombs of the former Panchen Lamas.
The 10th Panchen Lama led a miserable life. He was imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese yet depite this he continued
to speak out against them and was duly punished. His death in 1989 was controversial; poisoned or natural causes, no one knows…
Gyantse was the next monastery town on the list. By this point, all of the group including Laure and
I were sick of monasteries. We decided to peek inside rather than go inside. We met an affable Texan called Chad who told
us all about the rafting he’d done on various rivers around the world, and showed us pictures of shark-diving off Cape
Town- something I wish I had done!
We climbed the Gyantse Dzong, a fortified hill southeast of the monastery and took in the views from
there. The British killed hundreds of Tibetans here during the 1904 invasion under Colonel Younghusband. The Tibetans were
totally outgunned and suffered many casualties compared to 4 injured on the British side.
We walked through a traditionally Tibetan side of Gyantse with low roofed houses made from soil dung
and straw. There were cows tied to a post outside of each huse we could hear bells tinkling in the gentle breeze. There is
now a sizeable Chinese quarter manifested by concrete cube shaped buildings of several stories high. We believe Gyantse would
have been a different 10 years ago when Marie and Henri came here.
The long drive to Sakya took us past the barren landscape that was almost martian in its appearance.
The hills and mountains were hued with many shades of brown overlooking floodplains of arid soils. In Sakya itself we again
skipped the monastery, this time in favour of the mountainside chapels and stupas. I wore the punk rocker-lama hat in the
streets and provided humour for the entire town (some women couldn’t walk because they were laughing so much!). As we
passed by the monastery we observed the way in which the Tibetans painted the walls. Basically they tip entire pots of paint
down the side of the walls- we were lucky not to get any on our heads! The women did the bulk of the physical work by mixing
the powder with water in huge tanks using a shovel with a rope attached, and it was the women who carried the paint in large
canisters on their backs to the top of the wall for the men to tip. A recurring theme in less economically developed countries
is that women do most of the hard work (at least that’s our observation!).
We ate chicken sizzlers for dinner and drank Lhasa beer while playing cards with the increasingly polarized
group. The dour Dutch were, well, dour; and fired several offhand comments and the Ozzy was in a constant grumpy frame of
mind and lacked (or chose not to use) basic politeness. Laure and I got on very well with Julie from Shropshire (who lived
in Wales) and the three of us socialized all the way to Kathmandu in Nepal.
On October 24th we stopped at the top of Pang La Pass (5150m) and saw Mount Everest for the
first time in the distance- albeit the vast base of Everest, as the summit and upper reaches were covered in cloud. We descended
into a barren valley towards the village where we would spend the night. Laure and I walked around the village and were accosted
by various boys and girls shouting “Hello money!”. I would unsurprisingly reply with “My name’s not
money, it’s Tom!”. For the first time our group ate separately with Julie, Laure and myself eating in a restaurant
across the road from the guesthouse. It was a meal by candlelight, as the solar powered village hadn’t seen enough sunlight.
The next day was the THE day of the trip. Destination: Mount Everest. We rose at 5am to get there for
sunrise at 8am (time here is a bit confusing as the clocks are set by Beijing time, when Tibet is actually several time zones
behind). 20 minutes out of the village the minibus broke down. Thato heroically fixed the problem in –10 degrees C without
any extra clothing. The car started, only to stop another 20 minutes later- this time a little adjustment to some nuts and
bolts. Finally, we were off again. Thato developed a hacking cough for his efforts but was determined to get us there.
We reached Rongbuk monastery- the highest in the world at 4980m above sea. It was a 7km hike to Everest
base camp, and we were well wrapped up and tanked up with oxygen for the occasion. Laure and I completed the march in 2 hours;
and stood on the mound covered in prayer flags that marked Everest base camp, to behold the gigantic monster called Qomolungma
in Tibetan, Zhumulangma in Chinese, and Mount Everest to the rest of the world!
After some mandatory photo taking we watched the surrounding mountains, marveled at Everest (on its clearest
day in 8 months) and imagined the previous expeditions going up those steep ridges. Edmund Hillary (New Zealander) and Tenzin
Norgay (Nepali) were the first undisputed mountaineers to gain the summit in 1953. George Mallory and Andrew Irvine led an
expedition for the summit in 1924 and those two men disappeared within sight of the peak. Mallory’s body was found in
1999, and to this day it’s not known whether they attained the summit ornot. Mt. Everest normally needs a large number
of Sherpas and a huge sum of cash to make a serious attempt, so we both knew this was probably as high as we will ever get
(barring any crazy ideas in the future!).
After viewing Mt. Everest it was time to head for the border. Along the Friendship Highway on board our
slow minibus it always took us twice the amount of time to cover the same distance as a jeep but we were happy to know that
our money was going straight into a Tibetan driver’s pocket. We stayed in Nyalam for the last night of the trip. On
the way there we saw one of the most beautiful sights we had ever seen (at sunset to boot!). The Kung La Pass afforded excellent
views across the brown hills and behind them the extraordinary panorama of the Himalayan mountain range.
We set off from Nyalam on October 27th straight to the border, stopping now and then for photographs
of the breathtaking views. Gradually the Himalayas faded from snow clad arêtes and peaks into lightly vegetated mountainsides,
interspersed with waterfalls to more densely forested, sharp alpine slopes with the Bhote Kosi river roaring below. Now that
we had crossed the ‘hump’, we passed through the Chinese border controls and over Friendship Bridge without incident
and were propelled into a whole new world…
