Gyantse Dzong (Jiangzi Zong Shan)

Description:

• Towering above the settlement, this awesome fortress (ca. 13th c.) immediately catches your eye as you approach Gyantse. It's a stiff hike up, but views of Pelkhor Choede, the ancient alleyways, and the jagged surrounding peaks are breathtaking. The Hall of Anti-British provides entertainment for fans of the Chinese practice of "using the past to serve the present." Pick your favorite saying, though it's hard to beat "They [the British] tried to occupy the fertile land of Tibet" (so why did they leave?). Another says that the Tibetan troops were fighting for the unity of the [Chinese] motherland, of which "Tibet has always been an inseparable part." The Tibetans drove disunited Chinese forces out of Tibet less than 10 years later, and the Seventeen-Point Agreement signed in 1951 provides recognition that Tibet had strayed from the fold of the motherland. Beyond the crude propaganda, a photo of Tibetan soldiers clasping spears and clad in medieval armor shows why they were butchered by the poorly conceived Younghusband expedition. Next is an exhibit of the torture methods of "Old Tibet," said to include tearing out a man's intestines and forcing him to eat them. In New Tibet, more sophisticated methods, such as the electric baton, are preferred.

• © Frommer's 2012