Mark Gibson

Gyantse Dzong

Posted on August 29th, 2006 by mark.
Categories: General News, Tibet 2006.

Bright and sunny the next morning we headed for the dzong (the fort which towers over the town) and sat outside for 45 minutes as the appeared to be working to “flexible” working hours! This was one of the most fun places to visit as the government were using it to show that the rule before the “peaceful invasion” was one of tyranny and despotism under Gyantse’s previous rulers.

The fort itself has pretty much nothing in it except the life size plastic models of prisoners, tax inspectors and a courtroom, with a bailiff sitting on the prisoner as he is being whipped. However you do get a feel for the place and what it must have been like to live and fight here as you can climb over the whole complex and get into most of the empty and decaying rooms. We did however see signs of renovation, hopefully in preparation for more plastic models I couldn’t quite get enough of those!

There is also a monument to all those who threw themselves off the cliff called “jump of cliff” during the British attack on the fort.

I’ve included some photos of the streets of Gyantse as this was quite a bustling town but in contrast to Lhasa the main mode of transport was a mix of truck and horse!

In addition to the dzong is the anti-British Imperialists museum now re-located to the town which gives a sadly hilarious account of the British invasion in 1904. (Did you know we invaded Tibet? Apparently they refused to trade with us!)

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