The Dzong of Shigatse

I’ve visited Shigatse (also Xigazê, 日喀则) about 20 years ago – and there hadn’t been any dzong! And in 2009 I didn’t visit Shigatse. The dzong had been built in the 17^th century and looked like the Potala in Lhasa, in fact the Shigatse dzong is a smaller prototype of the Potala. After the Tibetan uprising in 1959 the dzong had been completely razed in 1961 – the Tibetans had to do this. Wikipedia writes: “During the Chinese Cultural Revolution in Tibet in 1961, the Dzong was demolished "stone by stone".” This is nonsense as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, short Cultural Revolution (文化大革命), started in 1966. It had been the Chinese military, who forced the Tibetans to tear down the dzong.

The dzong has been reconstructed between 2005 and 2007; the works have been financed by donations from Shanghai. The some controversy about the form not that it is smaller but that concrete has been used. If you look at the dzong, it looks a dzong, no matter what building material had been used; I’m pragmatic in this question.

 Overview from the kora

 

Another angle from the kora

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigatse_Dzong

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potala_Palace

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