In 775 AD King Trisong Detsen invited the famous monk Shantarakshita to travel from India and build Samye Monastery. When the monk entered Tibet, he passed through Shigatse, where he began spreading the teachings of Buddha and gave the prediction that Lhasa and Shigatse would become the two main centres of power in the region.
In 1447 the 1st Dalai Lama Gendun Drup, laid the foundations for Shigatse to become an important religious centre when he oversaw construction of the Tashilhunpo Monastery at the foothills of Nima Mountain. A couple of hundred years later Shigatse Dzong was built by Karma Phunstok Namgya who was part of the Tsangpa Dynasty that ruled Tibet from 1565 – 1642. The hilltop palace with turret-like fortifications and a red centre was to become the blueprint for the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Soon after its completion Shigatse was conquered by the 5th Dalai Lama, with the help of Mongol leader Gusri Khan and the capital of Tibet was moved from Shigatse to Lhasa. Tashilhunpo Monastery fell into the hands of the Gelukpa (Yellow Hat sect), an event which fuelled the rivalry between the Sakya and Gelukpa orders that continues to this day. Chö kyi Gyaltsen, a close adviser to the 5th Dalai Lama was granted the title of 4th Panchen Lama, the second highest position in Gelukpa tradition, and the monastery has remained the seat of all subsequent Panchen Lamas ever since.
The Chinese appeared on the scene in the 1950s, and Shigatse suffered considerable damage during the Cultural Revolution. Tashilhunpo however was not as badly damaged as other monasteries in the region, and many of the important artefacts survived. The Shigatse Dzong was finally rebuilt in 2007, and once again rises out of the alluvial plain at the confluence of the Brahmaputra and Nianchu Rivers as a reminder of the towns former glory.
A visit to Tibet’s second largest town makes an important stopover on the road to Everest and Nepal. It gives the traveller an opportunity to visit Tashilhunpo, one of the four most important monasteries in Tibet. The other three are all in Lhasa. No visit would be complete without walking the Kora. The pilgrim route passes through a bustling market before continuing around the monastery and on to the Shigatse Dzong for spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.