There is little to recommend an extended stay in the town of TSETANG, administrative center of Lhoka Province, China, a region stretching from the Tsangpo down to the Bhutan border. While it's lively enough, accommodation is a problem and much of the town is very unattractive, although you could spend an interesting few hours exploring the maze-like alleyways of the small Tibetan quarter. However, Tsetang is largely unavoidable as a base for explorations of the area.

 

Heading south from the main traffic intersection along Naidong Lu, take a narrow left turn through the small, bustling market into the Tibetan area of town, a typical jumble of walled compounds swarming with unwelcoming dogs and children scrapping in the dust. The largest monastery and the first you'll come to is Ganden Chukorlin (¥5), now bright and gleaming from restoration having been used as a storeroom for many years. It was founded in the mid-eighteenth century on the site of an earlier monastery, and there are good views of the Tibetan quarter from the roof. At the nearby fourteenth-century Narchu Monastery (¥5), restoration is less complete, but it's worth stopping by for the three unusual brown-painted Sakyamuni statues on the altar. A little farther up the hill, the Sanarsensky Nunnery (¥5) was one of the first nunneries in Tibet. It was founded in the fourteenth century in the Sakya tradition but later became a Gelugpa establishment. It's smaller and less ornate than the other two temples, with just one chapel open at present.