# Shelkar

Shelkar or Shekar (Tibetan: ཤེལ་དཀར་, "white crystal"; simplified Chinese: 协格尔镇; traditional Chinese: 協格爾鎮; pinyin: Xiégé'ěr Zhèn), also called New Tingri, is a town in, and the administrative centre for, Tingri County, Shigatse in southern Tibet Autonomous Region. The town has a population of 9,528, per the 2010 Chinese census.

## History

The early British expeditions to Mount Everest in 1921, 1922 and 1924 all stopped at Shelkar Dzong on their way from Darjeeling to the northern side of Everest.

## Geography

The town lies 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) off the Friendship Highway between Lhatse and Tingri, at an altitude of about 4,300 metres (14,100 ft), at the southern foot of 5,260 metres (17,260 ft) high Gyatso La. It is approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) north-west of Mount Everest and just over 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the Nepali border in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

## Landmarks

Shelkar is famous for the Shelkar Chode Monastery, a Gelug monastery which was completely destroyed but is being restored. Despite being founded in 1266 by a Kagyu lama, it has been a Gelugpa monastery since the 17th century, and formerly had some 400 monks. Although, destroyed by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, the assembly hall has been rebuilt, and there is an active branch monastery in Boudhanath, Nepal.
* Shelkar Chode Monastery
The old Shekar Dorje dzong, or fort, is above the new town and used to enclose Shekar Chode. The ruins of the old Dzong are located on the hill behind the monastery.

## Demographics

The town has a population of 9,528, per the 2010 Chinese census, up from the 8,767 recorded in the 2000 Chinese Census.

## Footnotes

* 1 2 3 4 Harvard, Andrew (July 1984). "The Forgotten Face of Everest". The National Geographic Magazine. 166 (1). National Geographic Society: 77. (Caption for two photos- one "before" and "after" destruction. The "before" photo is shown on this page, while the 1980 "after" photo is not available)- "Casualty of Violence, the great Tibetan monastery at Xegar photographed (right) by a British group on a 1922 reconnaissance of Mount Everest, appears as a magnificent cliffside sanctuary guarded by a walled fortress on the slopes above. Xegar, whose name means "shining crystal" in Tibetan, then housed 400 monks and served as a center of Buddhist teaching and influence. The lower photograph, taken by author Andrew Harvard in 1980, shows the devastation of both fortress and monastery, with nothing remaining of Xegar but the small village at the base of the mountain. Although local residents were reluctant to discuss Xegar's fate, other sources have indicated that the monastery was destroyed by Chinese Communist forces during the Tibetan rebellion of 1959..."
* ↑ Bruce, Charles Granville; Mount Everest Expedition (1922) (1923). The assault on Mount Everest, 1922. Snell Library Northeastern University. New York: Longmans, Green. pp. 338 (Index). OCLC 220914742.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
* ↑ Strachey 1854, p. 4.
* ↑ 定日县 [Tingri County]. xz.zssi.net (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 9 January 2025. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
* 1 2 定日县历史沿革 [Tingri County Organizational History]. xzqh.org (in Chinese). 24 February 2016. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
* ↑ See Howard-Bury, Charles and Leigh-Mallory, George Herbert (1922) Mount Everest: the reconnaissance, 1921 Longmans, Green and Company, New York, pages 96 and 120, OCLC 3767054,
* ↑ Anderson, Ken "George Mallory to Sherpa Tenzing - Conquering Mighty Everest", accessed 23 August 2010
* ↑ 定日县概况地图 [Tingri County Overview Map]. xzqh.org (in Chinese). 24 February 2016. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
* ↑ Dowman 1998, p. 280.
* ↑ Dorje 1999, pp. 296–297.
* ↑ "Shelkar".