Shigatse Tour – Strategies of Photographing Sakya Monastery

In Shigatse tour, you should not miss the Sakya Monastery which was reputed as the "second Dunhuang" hiding on the roof of the world. In Sakya Monastery, there is a large amount of art treasures and scriptures with high cultural and historical value. Now, there are over 100,000 pieces of cultural and historical relics in Sakya Monastery. It was also named the cradle of Tibetan civilization. At the same time, it is the original monastery of Sakya Sect in Tibetan Buddhism.

The existing Sakya Monastery is a unit of typical palace style architecture which was built in Yuan Dynasty. The appearance of Sakya Monastery is very special. It is with two outer walls with crenels. On the four corners of the Sakya Monastery, there is no watchtower. Outside the Sakya Monastery, there is a city moat. The frescos which were painted in Yuan Dynasty in Sakya Monastery are over ten thousand square meters, and the most special are the images of Dharmaraja of Sakya Monastery and Stramonium. The Sakya Monastery is a very special symbol in Tibetan architectural art history. It was a monastery built to keep the city. The layout and design of Sakya Monastery show the requirement of battle, integrating Tibetan, Mongolian and Han Nationality's architecture styles.

Since from 2002, the state ever invested over 90 millions to repair and maintain Sakya Monastery. The content of maintenance includes frescos, the floor of yard, main hall, outer walls, scripture walls, etc.

Shigatse Tour – Best Location of Photographing Sakya Monastery

The outer walls of Sakya Monastery are worthy visiting by climbing up. On the outer walls of Sakya Monastery, you can overlook the whole interior scenery of Sakya Monastery and river valley and mountains in the distance. Especially, when come across the special effect of sunshine coming through clouds, it is easier to photograph beautiful scenery photos with rich plateau characteristics.

If you want to photograph the scenery of Sakya Monastery surrounded by two rivers, as well as the grand scenery of rows of monk's dormitory and Tibetan style folk residences near Sakya Monastery, you are suggested to photograph at the mountain waist of Darmakla Mountain, opposite the county town.

Shigatse Tour- Plan of Photographing Sakya Monastery

When you have Shigatse tour, you are suggested to put the plan of photographing Sakya Monastery in a two days' tour. Since the way to Sakya Monastery is relatively long, and the road condition is not very good, you are kindly suggested to spend one night in the county town after arriving in Sakya Monastery. Of course, you also can stop and photograph Sakya Monastery on the way to Mt. Everest in Shigatse tour.

In general, there is only one bus to Sakya Monastery from Shigatse in each day. In order to avoid missing the scheduled bus, you are highly suggested to figure out the departure time of the bus both in Shigatse and in Sakya County in advance. It will be more convenient to drive or charter vehicle when visit Sakya Monastery in Shigatse tour.