This monastery, near the city of Shigatse, second largest city in Tibet, traditionally houses the residence of Banchen Lamas. The current Banchen Lama's residence is 1km away from the monastery. Bachen Lama is the equal of Dalai Lama for territories north and west of Lhasa, Qinghai province and Inner Mongolia province. Dalai Lama's influence covers territories east of Lhasa, Lhasa, and Sichuan, Yunnan provinces.
While the Potala Palace enshrines the tombs of late Dalai Lamas, Tashilhunpo Lamasery enshrines the tombs of late Banchen Lamas. The last Banchen Lama tomb took 3 years to built in 1993. Just the contribution from govt amounted to Y64million, 614kg of gold and 275kg of silver. One can easily expect contribution from the Tibetan public to be enormous too. While Potala is now a museum, with its traditional role of enshrining tombs of late Dalai Lamas in question, Tashilhunpo is functioning as a full fledge monastery, with resident monks and visiting pilgrims.
Photo#3 shows Tibetan workers flattening a new monastery floor surface. They worked in 2 groups. Each worker uses a hand-held round wooden discus and their feet to stamp the floor surfaces. Each group takes turn to work and rest, all the time stamping to the same rhythm as the songs they sing. A local Tibetan bystander told me,"That way, they dont feel tired". It was an entertainment for our eyes and ears.
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