Sakya to Shegar and the mystical conch shell
June 20
By now, you know the drill. Breakfast at 8:30, heading to a monastery by 9am.
As usual, we were the only western visitors amongst a throng of local worshipers. The Sakya Monastery was a short walk from our hotel and somehow immediately upon arrival Tyler got engaged with a pair of Tibetian monks. It was surreal to watch a Tibetian and an American chatting in Mandarin. A small crowd gathered to watch the encounter and the most interesting question was when the head monk asked who was the new US president. Not our opinion of the president, but who won! Global news is hard to come by in Tibet.
Meanwhile, Sue and Evie were watching a small group of monks doing their morning chants in the huge assembly hall. Tom and Tyler rejoined them and we continued our visit to the monastery. Incredibly each monastery seems more impressive than the last. In one room we counted approximately 2,000 scripture books, stacked floor to ceiling in a room 20m high and 80m long. The scriptures are protected by walls 3m thick! I’d show you a picture, but taking one would have cost $45!
Later, we heard the sound of a conch shell being blown and learned that it was a gift from Indian Buddhist sages to the head of the Sakya sect, who gave it to Kublia Khan from Mongolia, who somehow ended up giving it back. This all transpired over the course of a few centuries. Oh, and the shell is 4,000 years old and is the remains of Buddha Sakyamuni from when he reincarnated as a shell fish. Having the shell blown for you provides good fortune for you and your parents so needless to say we joined the line of worshippers, made our offerings, and had the conch blown above our bowed heads.
We continued our tour by circumnavigating the monastery, spinning the prayer wheels, and popping into chapels with chanting monks. Around 11am we were back in the van to drive to our next destination 4 hours drive away called Shekar. Along the way, we crossed the Gyatso-la pass at our peak Tibetian elevation of 5,248m (17,300 ft). We had planned to put up some prayer flags and Tyler negotiated some flags from 50rmb to 30, but it was too cold so we continued on. Around 4pm after passing 3 checkpoints, we arrived at our modernist hotel in Shegar.
We checked in and after a short break we got back into the van for a 30 minute drive to the old town of Shegar. Along the way we passed dozens of empty high rise buildings built in the past 5 years transforming beautiful farm lands into a concrete subdivision. More on China’s transformation of Tibet later. We parked at entrance of the monastery high up on the hill. We explored the nearly vacant monastery for a while before scampering up above the monastery to explore the ruins of a great fort. Tyler went back to the van while Sue and Evie hiked high above monastery. Tom continued even higher attempting to reach the craggy peak. He stopped about a 100m below the peak and gazed off into the distance. There, much to his surprise, he saw a sharp peak far in the distance. It was Everest.
Filled with joy, he scampered back down to the van. Sue had walked down to the village we met her at the bridge crossing the river. While she was befriending kids riding ripsticks, Tyler and Tom were buying prayer flags for 20 CNY each ($3). Back in the van, we were at the hotel around 6:30. The kids opted for oatmeal in their rooms while Tom and Sue had the 50 yuan ($7.50) buffet which was clearly designed for the Chinese tour groups.
By 9pm, we were in our beds attempting to get a good nights sleep for the next day we will be waking at 5am to catch sunrise at Pang-la (5,050m) where you can see Everest and a handful of 8,000m peaks on a clear day. After sunrise we will continue 3 hours to our final “destination” – Everest Base Camp.