Sakya Monastery, Tibet

Sakya is a three-hour drive from Shigatse across empty landscapes studded with the odd village. It's a small dusty town dominated by an austere brooding monastery. There are actually two monasteries: the northern monastery which is mostly reduced to ruins and the southern, a grim, forbidding fortress with thick grey walls. Only two chapels are open at the moment so I take the opportunity instead to walk around the monastery through piles of rubble.

One of the unusual things about the town is the colour of the buildings. Unlike the whitewashed houses seen elsewhere in Tibet, all the buildings are painted in grey with white and red vertical stripes. The colour symbolises the Risum Gonpo, the trinity of the bodhisattvas and marks Sakya authority.