Shigatse (4040m)
Standing at the confluence of the Nyangchu and Brahmaputra rivers, Shigatse is Tibet’s 2nd largest city. When Karma Tseten took power in 1565, Shigatse became the capital of Tibet with strong alliance to the Karma Kagyu School at the expense of others. An alliance was formed with the Mongols and Lhasa captured in 1605. Following years of civil war, Lhasa emerged victorious in 1642 and has remained the capital ever since. Shigatse continued to flourish as both trading center and seat of the Panchen Lamas.

Tashilhunpo Monastery:
Founded in 1447 by a nephew and disciple of Tsongkhapa who was retroactively named the first Dalai Lama. The original building was built above a sacred sky-burial site, the stone slab of which can still be seen on the floor. Tashilhunpo is one of the four great Goluk monasteries in Tibet and at its peak housed 47000 monks and still is the largest functioning monastic community in Tibet. While its extent has been reduced by two thirds, most of the buildings razed consisted of monk’s quarters. The principal temples and buildings mostly date from the 17th and 18th centuries, rebuilt following its sack by the Gorkhalis in 1972. The most amazing image is the 26m Maitreya, erected in its own Lhakhang by the 9th Panchen Lama in 1914 and covered with 279 kg of gold.

The title ‘Panchen’ means great scholar and was traditionally bestowed on the abbots of Tashilhunpo. Being an emanation of Amitabha, Buddha of infinite light; the Panchen Lama ranks amongst Tibet’s foremost incarnate succession and considered by many superior to the Dalai Lamas whom there has often been intense rivalry.

Gyantse (3950m)
‘The Royal Summit’ is named after a crag rising suddenly from the plane, which has been fortified since early antiquity – the fort (dzong) which crowns the crag dates from the C14th  Gyantse was once Tibet’s’ thirds largest town, but now a days  its status is considerably diminished. It has however preserved much of its original atmosphere and is one of the least Chinese influenced towns in Tibet. There is no record of Gyantse prior to the C14th, but it quickly emerged as a center of a fiefdom with powerful connections to the Sakyapa order and dominated the wool and timber trade routes fron Nepal, Sikkin and Bhutan for centuries. By 1440 Gyantse’s most impressive architectural achievements had been completed-the Kumbum, the dzong and Pelkor Chode monastery.

 With the complex stands Gyantse Kumbum (the Stupa of 100,000 deities) completed in 1427. Rising 35meters high, the stupa has 108 gates, 9 storey and 75 chapels and is now unique in the Budhist world. Structured according to a compendium of Sakya Tantra, each level creates a mandala and the whole represents a three dimensional path to the Buddha’s enlightenment in terms of increasingly subtle tantric mandalas. Most of the clay images are new, but many murals are original and ingood condition.

Pelker Chode
the main temple of Pelker Chode, the Tsuklakhang, was built in 1418-25 by the 2nd prince of Gyantse. It was an eclectic academy with 16 dratsang (college) belonging variously to the Sakya, Butonpa, Geluk and Kagyu schools. All the dratsang buildings have been destroyed; however the main assembly hall was preserved along with its remarkable C15th images and murals. The top chamber is decorated with fantastic mandalas in the Sakya tradition.

Shalu
In the history of Buddhism and art of Shalu is one of the most important Gompas in Tibet. It was founded in 1040 and its dhukang erected by the Sakya hierarch at the beginning of the C14th when Mangol influence was its height. It was the residence of the great scholar Buton rimpoche (1290-1364) and became the seat of the Butonpa tradition, derived from both Kadampa and Sakya teachers. Most of Shalu’s treasures have vanished, including the library of Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscripts, but its remarkable murals remain.

Pel Sakya (4100m)
Sakya is the principal seat of the Sakya School and as such played a dominant role in the political and religious history of Tibet in the 13th and 14th centuries. Founded in 1073 its fortunes rose with the Mongol conquest of central Asia as the Sakya abbots were given political control of Tibet by the Khans. Its great temples were built during the early period, but welfare, time, C16th restoration and Red Guards have destroyed the greater part of the Sakya-Mangol legacy. The oldest and principal buildings stood on the north side of the river, now completely destroyed. Across the river the Lhakhang Chempo (built in 1268) still stands, surrounded by a high, fortified wall. It contains an extraordinary wealth of symbol of the Buddha’s mind, body, and speech by which the history of Buddhism art in Tibet and surrounding regions can be traced. Although what remains is only a fraction of what once was.

Milarepa’s Cave & Nyelam Pelgye Ling (93700m)
Milarepa himself suggested the name for this small temple, the ‘Place of increase and Expansion’. It was erected around a cave where he had mediated, though it was not built until after his death. Originally Kagyu, as was Milarepa, it was taken over by the Gelukpa at the time of the 5th Dalai Lama. At on time it was home to 70 monks; today there are 8. The current structure is a construction of the one destroyed during the 1960s.

Qomolalangma & Rongbuk
Seven kilometers below base camp at the foot of the north face of glaciers Rongbuk is said to be the highest monastery on earth-5000m. Built in 1902, on the site of a hermitage for nuns from Mindroling, it originally housed 500 monks and nuns, today only a few dozens remain.
From here the views of Qomolangma (Everest) 8848 meters are simply fantastic.