The second-largest city in Tibet sits at 3,800 meters altitude and houses Tashilhunpo Monastery, a sacred Buddhist site dating from 1447 with giant Buddha statues.
Shigatse sits at 3,900 meters in the valley where Nyang Chu River meets the Brahmaputra. You can walk through the halls of Tashilhunpo Monastery where hundreds of monks still study and pray, climb the steep steps of the rebuilt Shigatse Dzong fortress, or use the city as your starting point for an expedition to Mount Everest Base Camp.
Ancient Monasteries
At Shalu Monastery, 20 kilometers from the city center, you'll find 14th-century murals painted with mineral pigments that cover the walls from floor to ceiling. The artwork depicts Buddhist deities, mandalas, and scenes from Buddhist scriptures in deep blues, reds, and golds. The monastery's walls rise in multiple tiers, topped with golden roofs and decorated with colorful glazed tiles.
The Sakya Monastery lies 160 kilometers southwest of Shigatse. Its thick grey walls, marked with distinctive red and white horizontal stripes, house one of Tibet's largest collections of Buddhist manuscripts - 40,000 texts - along with Tibetan paintings, sculptures, and religious artifacts.
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