I woke up early this morning and walked a kora around Gyantse monastery. As always, the weather was perfect allowing me to enjoy more great views of the rising sun. I was even able to sneak within the monastery walls before opening hours, avoiding the high entrance fees for which Tibet has become notorious. This nearly worked to my disadvantage when one of the many dogs that guard the monastery (Buddhists believe dogs are reincarnations of lamas, or important religious figures) attacked me.

I had been warned about the danger of dogs in Tibet, but I have been around dogs all my life, and I never thought an attack would be that bad (or that it would happen to me). As I nearly found out the hard way, a dog attack can be awfully vicious. Fortunately, I was able to land a good kick to the jaw with my shoe before throwing the dog down and running off. With my heart pounding, I couldn’t help wondering if any monks were rolling in laughter – when the dog first came after me, I screamed and stumbled backward in shock... I can still picture the bloodshot eyes of the dog that attacked me.

For the next hour I made sure to stay well clear of the dogs in the complex, although there were packs of them roaming all over the place. It turned out to be worth the risk because I witnessed the morning Buddhist rituals, and was even able to sneak video of the proceedings. I have discovered a clever technique of putting my camera on video mode while holding it at my side with my tour book.

Later in the morning we drove to Shigatse, Tibet’s second largest city. Shigatse’s foremost attraction is Tashilhunpo Monastery, seat of the Panchen Lama (the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism). With the Dalai Lama outlawed as the number one enemy of the state, the Panchen Lama is arguably the most influential figure in Tibetan politics because he is backed by the Chinese Communist Party.

The story is the following… The Dalai Lama’s selection for the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama was rejected by the Chinese Communist Party in 1995 in favor of another child. The boy has since been under house arrest at an undisclosed location – making him the world’s youngest political prisoner. This becomes important because the Panchen Lama is not only Tibet’s second most important figure, but he is also charged with finding the re-incarnation of the Dalai Lama upon his death. Given that the exiled Dalai Lama is in his 70s, the Chinese are hoping to use the imprisoned Panchen Lama to select the next leader of Tibet!

Tashilhunpo Monastery is quite impressive as it was one of the only monasteries to escape destruction by the Red Guards (the Panchen Lama at the time was also under Chinese control). A couple of the more memorable aspects were a 26m tall gilded statue of the future Buddha (over 300kg gold plating, fingers over a meter in length, taking over 900 artisans and four years to complete), and another Buddhist ceremony. There were over 200 monks gathered into the main hall chanting mantras (a head monk says something and the rest of the monks repeat it in unison) with the trademark yellow hats and thick smell of juniper incense.

From Shigatse, we went off-roading for several hours in order to avoid the Chinese patrols. Many parts of Tibet are off limits to foreigners, but between bribery and off-roading, there are ways around the restrictions. Unfortunately, there are not too many ways around breakdowns… We were stuck in the middle of the desert for a couple of hours until another jeep happened by us (oddly enough, it was the same one as before). They were able to get us going again, and we reached Lhatse to rest for the night.