Himalaya Adventure: DAY 21 THURS. OCT. 23 SHIGATSE

Shigatse is a happening town, stuck, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere. It has about 200,000 people, according to our local guide Jigme, which would make it a metropolis in Iceland, but here it's a speck on the map. Lots of new construction and a heavy military presence give it life.

We visited a monastery today ! I know, crazy, right? But this one, Tashilhumpo, was special. It was huge, the most spread out we've seen on this trip, and it's quite old ( 14th century ) and is the spiritual home of the Panchen Lama, leader of a huge sect of Buddhism. There are 5 large temples interconnected by a maze of passageways and plazas: many residences lie below the temple area and are home to the 300 or so monks who live here: at one time, the population of monks was over 5,000. A huge 75 foot Buddha inhabited one temple: tombs of past Panchen Lamas were in others. They were impressive.

But the best part of the visit was witnessing an assembly of the monks after lunch, a monthly occurrence that happened to fall on today. We were privileged to join a throng of local pilgrims who followed scores of monks, young and old, in their purple and yellow finery into the dark assembly hall. The press of bodies through the door was unnerving at first, but once inside, we walked in respectful silence up and down row after row of chanting, swaying monks and bowing and reverential believers. The energy carried us along into chapels and side shrines. It was a truly moving moment.

After lunch, we toured what Subash called the "junk market", a series of stalls of handicrafts that ended with the most ghoulish butcher shop I've ever seen. Forty-three drying sheep carcasses did a morbid, swaying dance in the breeze, their heads and entrails lying below them, attracting a symphony of flies. No meat for me tonight !