Day 59 Tuesday 31 October Lhasa, Tibet

We set off to Ganden Monastery, which means back-tracking up the Kyi-Chu valley 40 ks. The road up from the valley floor is a mass of hairpins, with road gangs at intervals to make it more exciting. What distinguishes this monastery from others is that it was the first Gelugpa monastery, founded by Songkapa in 1409. This is the Buddhist order of which the present (14th) Dalai Lama is the head. The other attraction, especially for pilgrims, is Songkapa’s tomb – the usual huge chorten covered in gold and precious stones. A further attraction (for us) is the re-painting with white, ochre and yellow wash by the slapdash/slapstick method, many villagers and monks applying the paint by extremely original methods. Most of it ends up on pilgrims, other visitors or the ground! The whole place was bombed by Red Army, some say from the air, so thorough was the destruction. Rebuilding in the last 30 yrs has replaced most of the originals, with gorgeous murals, statues and carved woodwork all done by the villagers and monks – a huge achievement and one being repeated all over Tibet.

Decided we were due for a rest and a bit of housekeeping but first great sandwiches on the sunny verandah of the Dunya and then some shopping. Unpacked the car, repacked suitcases and boxes and put them all back again. They still fitted but had grown. Dinner at Nama-tso restaurant, v good pizza washed down with a bottle of Wyndhams cab sauv which had cellared well from Darwin alternating between 60C and -5C and been well shaken, not stirred. Amazing how 15000’ improves the taste. After dinner we catch up the last bit of the blog, post it to the site and send off the emails at 1am– you don’t realise how much work we (mainly G) go to for your entertainment.

Weather 1.5, Sunny
Distance today 111km
Distance from start 12,887km
Scary Road index Medium/low
X5s 2 (but one may have been a Chinese copy)