Shigatse Introduction

Shigatse (also Xigatse ) means “fertile land” is a county-level city and the second largest city in Tibet, with a population of 80,000 about 280 km southwest of Lhasa. It is the administrative centre of modern Xigaze County in the Xigaze Prefecture, a region of Tibet.

The city is located at an altitude of 3,840 metres (approx. 12,598 feet) at the confluence of the Yarlong Tsangpo (or Brahmaputra) and Nianchuhe (Nyang Chu) rivers in west Tibet and was the ancient capital of U-Tsang province. It is also the name of the surrounding county.

The city of Shigatse is the hub of the road network between Lhasa, Nepal and western Tibet.
It is expected that the Qinghai-Tibet railway will be extended to Shigatse by 2010.

Summer is usually mild and wet, and brings most of the annual rainfall. Winter is cold, dry and windy.

History
It is named xikasangzhuzi in tibetan, and xikazi for short, which stands for “a manor of the most fertile soil”, and it is transliterated into chinese as “shigatse”. in the middle of the 13th century ad, the yuan dynasty set up 130,000 hus (households) in tibet and the region where now shigatse covers was under the jurisdiction of the xialu master. In the early 14th century, great situ (minister of education in ancient china), jiangqujianzan, built pazhu dynasty to replace sajia dynasty, removing the political center in the lower reaches of nianchuhe from xialu to shigatse and setting up xikasangzhuzi there.
Zangzhuzi means “achieving what one wishes” while xika was a common name for tibet feudal manors (also suggested the primary administrative unit in the late period). Jiangqujianzan adopted xikasangzhuzi as the name to show that he had already realized his aspiration. Xikasangzhuzi was habitually called xikazi for short later, and then the name was shortened to various versions of chinese translations and finally transliterated as shigatse. According to legend, lianhuasheng, a famous monk from indian, went to tibet to build samye monastery at the invitation of the emperor zisongdezan in the 8th century. he went by shigatse where he preached and spread buddhism. the monk had predicted the center of the snowfield would be set up in lhasa and nianmai (shigatse) next. from then on, the devout believers set up zong (an administrative unit in tibet) in nima mountain, which gradually became the center of behind tibet. in the middle of the 15th century, genshuzhuba, the first dalai lama and a disciple of zhong kaba, directed the building of tashilumpo monastery at the foothills of nima mountain, laying a solid foundation for the future development of the city. The ancient buildings there maintain the tibetan style and absorb the han architectural features as well, which is shown especially in the 16 monasteries of various features and denominations, such as tashilumpo monastery built in 1447, the zong ruins in the early 14th century, xialu monastery in the 11th century, er monastery in 1429 and angong monastery in 1548. Also, there are lots of tibetan style dwelling houses all around urban and rural areas with distinct and various styles and connotations. Shigatse is a small city and big village as well, with the reputation of “granary” of tibet. it is also the seat for every generation of panchen erdeni. nowadays, Shigatse has become an important tourist attraction and transit of tibetan golden tourist route, attracting countless tourists at home and abroad with its mysterious tibetan buddhism culture.