Shigatse Eternal Knot

An eternal knot painted on a wall in Shigatse. The city of Shigatse is the second largest city in Tibet. It is the hub of the road network between Lhasa, Nepal and Western Tibet and was the ancient capital of Ü-Tsang province. The city is at an altitude of 3,860 metres, so the content of oxygen in the air is only 67 that of at sea level the city. It is also famous for Shigatse Dzong or fort which was built by Karma Phunstok Namgyal, who ruled Tibet in the 16th and 17th Centuries and also as the place where the Mongol Khan Gusri installed the Fifth Dalai Lama as ruler of Tibet in the 17th Century. The Dzong was destroyed in 1961, during the Cultural Revolution and was rebuilt in 2007 at the same location, though on a smaller scale, with funding from Shanghai. Shigatse. The Autonomous Region of Tibet, China - 11th March 1989. (Photo by Richard Manning/Getty Images)