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Shigatse is the hub of the road network connected Lhasa, Nepal and western Tibet. It is a destination of wonders, such as Mountain Everest, Tashihunpo Monastery, Sakya Monastery, Shalu Monastery and so on. Just follow the previous people’s visiting footprints to this mysterious land to experience the wonderful journey! Today I’ll take you to the one of the biggest well-preserved manors in Tibet-Pala Manor.
Pala Manor is located in about 4 kilometers southwest of Jiangzi County, Shigatse, Tibet. Jiangzi is very well-known as “hero city” by Tibetans because of a fierce defensive battle has been broken here to against the enemies. As one of the influential manors in Tibet in the past, Pala Manor was just as its name implied, was owned by Pala family which has more than 400 years old history.
The ancestor of Pala family has been a monk (lama) to be chosen to take over one famous temple by the king of Bhutan in Bhutan and became the chief of a tribe after a few years. The ancestor has migrated to Tibet and was among in the main nobles of Tibet during his contribution in the civil strife of Bhutan. To the end of the 19th century, the development of Pala family was very fast, the family became one of the twelve great nobles in Tibet. Plenty of manors, farms, cattle or even serfs were owned by this ancient family. It was a great influence family in Tibet in the past.
But early in 1959, the lord of Pala Manor fled for some political reasons so that the Pala Manor was taken over by the Chinese government. The government treats this ancient farm as a special cultural relic, maintains and repairs it for many times. As a result, Pala Manor is only one well-preserved old Tibet ancient manor.
Para Manor is spectacular, it have about 57 existing homes, which cover an area of 5,357.5 square meters. The three floors main building was with elegant decoration and the luxury furnished. Inside the room of the host, a lot of painting, carvings, jewelries, and other gorgeous display were seen everywhere. Moreover, Para families used so many expensive foods, golden and silver tableware, imported wine, precious fur clothes, watches and so on. The family lived a luxurious life in the past.
In addition, Pala Manor has distillery which can provide a lot of good wine for the lord. Nevertheless, under the luxurious life of Pala family, as a lot of slaves were controlled by the noble family, they need to do heavily work for the family from day and night. The whole slave family can only live in a dull and cold small house without any window. The food provided to the salves were terrible, they also have not any freedom. If they made some mistakes, they would be punished by the lord.
When visiting the Pala Manor, you will get more knowledge of the life of ancient Tibetan. You will certainly be shocked by the two different ways of lives between the nobles and the slaves. One is luxury while the other miserable. When we know more about the history, we will find it is not easy for today’s peaceful life, we begin to cherish more about what we have owned.