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| Philip Game | profile | all galleries >> China, including Tibet and Hong Kong (15 galleries) >> Traversing Tibet (4 galleries) >> Lhasa to Kathmandu in 2018 | tree view | thumbnails | slideshow |
Four years on, the road trip west from Lhasa to Gyantse and on to Shigatse via China's Highway 318 has lost none of its interest. Turning southwest from Shigatse, the ancient monastery town of Saka, the seat of a distinctive Buddhist sect, is a highlight.
Since 2014, the access road to Qomolangma (Mt Everest) North Face Base Camp has been rerouted and tar-sealed, and the border crossing with Nepal shifted to the Kyirong Valley, well to the west - Heinrich Harrer, author of Seven Years in Tibet, declared this valley, where he spent several months, a veritable paradise.
Kyirong is no longer a bucolic village, but rather a jerry-built, bustling border town. At the bottom of the valley, a grandiose Chinese border control complex filters traffic across a rattling Bailey bridge to another, more easygoing world: Nepal and the Indian subcontinent. Read more.
These images were taken with Nikon D300 using RAW format, and are available for licensing.
 Kumbum Chorten at Pelkhor Chode Monastery, Gyantse |
 Buddha effigies in the chapels of the Pelkhor Chode Monastery, Gyantse |
 Historic Dzong or fort at Gyantse |
 Tashilhunpo Monastery, Shigatse |
 Pilgrims head for the venerable Sakya Monastery, founded 1073 AD, in western Tibet |
 Courtyard at Sakya Monastery, founded ca. 1268 AD |
 Explicit religious art at Sakya Monastery |
 Guardian demon from Buddhist mythology |
 Tibetan pilgrims at Sakya |
 A lone wolf prowls the grasslands |
 Cho Oyu, on the main Himalayan range |
 The road to Qomolangma (Everest) Base Camp |
 At 8,848m, this is the big one: Everest itself. |
 Dawn light over a lake below Mt Xixapangma, 8027m. |
 Ruined fort, a common sight along these valleys |
 Still more Himalayas, including Xixapangma (Shishapangma) |
 Pelkhu Tso, a windswept high altitude lake |
 Snow-capped peaks overlook the Kyirong Valley |
 Tibetan residents of Kyirong rehearse a cultural performance |
 Now leaving the People's Republic of China... |
 The eight-hour drive to Kathmandu begins... |
 Looking back at the Himalaya on the Tibetan border |
 These temples in the heart of Kathmandu survived the April 2015 earthquake |
 Boudhanath Stupa was quickly restored after the April 2015 earthquake |
 Boudhanath Stupa, restored after the April 2015 earthquake |
 Buddhist monks at Boudhanath Stupa |
 Changu Narayan is the most ancient temple in the Kathmandu Valley |
 A woman tends offerings at Changu Narayan |
 Bronze smiths' foundry in a corner of Patan |
 Woman hauling fodder, outside Bhaktapur |
 Woman winnowing fresh-harvested rice in the Kathmandu Valley |
 Time out, Patan |
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