The Shotun or Yoghurt Festival is one of the most important in the Tibetan calendar. It is held in the first week of the seventh lunar month. The referance to Yoghurt is the offering the local population give to the monks as they are not allowed to leave the monastry during this period.

We chose Drepung monastry as the site for our Pilgrimage as this offered the best Thankha to go and see as well as the main point for the Lhasa people.

We joined thousands of others moving from Lhasa up the hills to the monastry passing through plenty of peoples requesting alms, many of these were fake monks, even though the locals seem to know this they didn't seem to mind, we also passed from cloud to cloud of thick smoky insence, made from buring piles of juniper or sage pretty much for most of the day.

Once we reached the monastery we did visit some of the temples and assembly halls but we were drawn away by the sounds of chanting and the long tibetan horns being played from the hillside.

Above the monastery in the photos you will see the massive buddhist Thankha which everyone came to pray before and to throw their recently bought white scarves over from the top as an offering.

Me..? I came to see the music...horns, chanting and one other instrument which I was offered in the Barkhor a woodwind instrument played through a small reed a bit like a clarinet.

This event was reported all over the Chinese news and there were a few cameras about on the day I'm sure my hat must have been in shot somewhere.

Well after way too much Yak it seems that I have developed something of a "delicate" stomach so it seems like a short (very short) trip to the local Tibetan medicine college is in order to further the bounds of science and to see if they can identify the problem.

Mind you if you look at some of the street scenes I've included in this photo album you can probably see what caused the problem for yourselves!

Anyway after a short taxi ride I am greeted by an English speaking guide who shows no surprise at my appearance and proceeds to answer all my questions on Tibetan medicine. It appears that the diagnosis is identical to Chinese medicine, it is just the treatment that differs. They offer 3 forms of treatment, massage, herbal medicine and what seems from her description like bloodletting! The Thankhas on the wall of the hospital had pictures of medical issues instead of buddhist ones which was unusual but interesting I think I caught some of these on camera.

Some of the herbs I readily recogonised from Chinese medicine, including ginseng, red dates, liquorice, deer horn and deer penis (yes, they have both of these in stock and are prepared to ship these abroad I have the telephone number if anyone wants it!) and many more, but they also use many typical plants and minerals local to Tibet that are not common in regular Chinese medicine, the minerals I'm not too sure on but they include these in their pills and also yak penis!

OK now time for my check up! The doctor was a doctor professor and one of the most senior in the college who had been practicing for 38 years. He proceeded to take my pulses and look at my tongue and then told me that my condition wasn't good and I had severe digestive problems amongst other things. Well he hit the nail on the head there, his office was a bit far from the loo for that particular morning but I was holding in there! So after asking some not so subtle questions about the state of my wallet he prescribed me some pills.

Well on getting home I took these as prescribed, which was take with hot water and chew well. DO NOT EVER follow this advice as these were the worst tasting thing I have ever put in my mouth and the taste stayed with you for hours. (I never knew yak penis tasted like that!) I decided that I'd swallow them straight, but since each felt like the size of a half-brick it isn't easy. Oh well off to the pharmacy!

If you click on the following image you'll be taken to the photo gallery

Pelkor Chode monastery in Gyantse we could see from the river before we reached Gyantse. We could see the high walls of the monastery, the kumbum and the dzong towering over both (I'll explain the terms in a minute!)

The monastery was founded in 1418 and is unusual in that it was once a group of 15 monasteries which brought 3 different orders of Tibetan buddhists within the walled compound in a rare show of tolerance. (elsewhere they used to send the boys in to solve doctrinal disputes using a specially trained group of heavies) We climbed all over this one and went right up the hillside to see if we could get into the rarely visited building you will see at the top of the monastery, the highest building. It was a climb and was open, but typically it was empty however the views from the roof were spectacular

The other unique element of this monastery is the Kumbum which means 100,000 images which is the stupa or chode which contains 100,000 buddhist images (I didn't count them) on 6 floors subdivided into tiny rooms. This did take us a little time to go through, stooping through each doorway into unlit rooms attempting with our guide to determine which deity, buddha image or lama the individual icon was meant to represent. We became quite good at working out past, present and future buddhas, the Tara's as well as the god of power etc but some of the others you would need to be an advanced lama to know about, I did enjoy the pink elephants though!

The last unique feature is the fort or Dzong which overlooks and protects the valley and monastry, more of which later.

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!)