Sershul (སེར་ཤུལ), known as Shiqu in Chinese, is located in far northwest Sichuan in the traditional Tibetan province of Kham. This remote area has some of the best grasslands in all of the Tibetan Plateau. Located 140kms east of Jyekundo and 230kms northwest of Manigango, Sershul sits at 4100m/ 13,450 feet above sea level. Winters are extremely cold in this area and snow is possible even in the summer. There are around 45 Buddhist and Bon monasteries in Sershul county with Sershul Monastery being the largest with around 800 monks.
Sershul, knows locally as Dzachuka, is made up mostly of nomadic Tibetans who spend their lives herding sheep and yaks. During the summer, the grasslands in this area are an amazing color of green. There are mountains all over the county with the highest reaching over 5500m/ 18,000 feet. The county town in Sershul serves as a trading hub for the area. Each day nomads arrive in town, many on horseback, to buy and sell goods. Sershul has been modernizing over the past few years and now has several decent restaurants and hotels to choose. from. There are daily buses from Sershul to Jyekundo and Garze.
Sershul has a small horse festival each summer, usually in July. Nomads from across the area come to participate in dancing, yak and horse races and several different sporting events.
Most people only spend a night or two in Sershul before going to Jyekundo, Manigango or Dege. Sershul definitely has a "wild west" feel to it. Though remote and a bit wild, this area is safe and is a great place to see nomadic Tibetan culture. Though organized horse trekking is not available in the area, you should be able to hire some horses from nomads and go out for a day or two. If you arrive in town using public transportation, you can hire taxi's in the county town to take you out to the surrounding monasteries and mountains that cannot be reached using local transportation.
For more information about Sershul or any other travel related questions about Tibet, please send an email to thelandofsnows@gmail.com
If you are wandering around after-dark (even in town), watch out for the packs of dogs that like to roam the streets and harass pedestrians. That was the situation when I was there back in the Summer of 2003. Its definitely worth the visit... the scenery is amazing all around!
Posted by: Eugene | July 27, 2009 at 11:37 PM