Sakya, China - Monastery

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The Sakya town is southeast of Shigatse is famous for the Sakya Monastery, which, like Shalu, is a high-walled monastery multifaceted is christened the ‘Great Wall of Tibet’. Also like Shalu, Sakya engages an important place in Tibetan history. Sakya essentially has two monasteries, on both side of the Trum-chu. The heavy, gloomy, bastions -like monastery south of the river is the more famed and if you only have time to visit one, make it this. The hillside northern monastery, typically condensed to picturesque relics, is enduring refurbishment work. One distinctive feature of the Sakya province is the coloring of its buildings. Contrasting the standard whitewashing that you see elsewhere in Tibet, Sakya’s buildings are ash grey with white and red perpendicular stripes. The coloring denotes the Rigsum Gonpo - the trinity of bodhisattvas and stands as a blotch of Sakya power. Sakya factually means ‘Pale Earth’.