Tibet tour-Nyingtri

Two days trip to Nang county, known as Langxian in Chinese . It is the time to take two days trip to Nang county (langxian ) from Lhasa after the train between Lhasa and Nyingtri has been operated since 1^st July 2021. It is a great news to share with all our friends around the world that around more than 400km distance of Sichuan Tibet highway train has already been finished and for the tourists from around the world will have more choices of their traveling schedule in Tibet. In around 5-6 years, the train between Lhasa and Chengdu will be completed and the traveling time from Chengdu to Lhasa is around 13 hours so it will make very easy to travel to Lhasa by then.

Prior to the train between Lhasa and Nyingtri, the only option to travel to Nang county is that either you take a car from Lhasa to Nyingtri and then a loop tour to Nang county or driving from Nyingtri to Nang county but now it is much easier than before and it will only take around 2 hours train ride from Lhasa to Nang county and the scenery from the train is very beautiful.

The train station of Nang county is only around 1Km distance from the county seat and the road condition is very good. The elevation of the Nang county seat is around 3200mts above sea level which is much lower than Lhasa. Since the county seat is located at the bank of Bramaputra river and surrounded by many forest, glaciers, lakes and grasslands so there is full of oxygen in the county seat.

In the olden days, Nang county was one of the most important and sacred place for Tibetans as the great thirteenth Dalai Lama was born in Nang county. The family of the thirteenth Dalai Lama was called Tahkpo Langdun which is located to southwest of the present county seat at the distance of around 25km. The road condition is very good and after around half an hour drive along the Bramaputra river, you will reach the birth place of the thirteenth the Dalai Lama.

The place where the thirteenth Dalai Lama was born is called Trungkang in Tibetan which means, the birth home of the 13th Dalai Lama or Trungkang Manor. Nowadays, you can still see the main building of the Trungkang manor such as the reception rooms, family chapels, assembly halls, store rooms, kitchens, guest rooms etc. There are also many relics inside the Trungkang manor that has more than hundred years of history.

Near by the Trungkang manor, there are several huge wall nut trees and most of them have more than a thousand years history. Among them, one of the walnut tree has more than 2000 years history and in 2012, this walnut tree used to have 2000Kg of walnut which is a record in the history.

The place where the Trungkang manor is extremely beautiful as it is surrounded by a beautiful village, located nearby the Bramaputra river, it is full of beautiful walnut tree and the mountain. The Trungkang manor is said to be located on an elephant trunk like a mountain. The people in the villages are very friendly and there is one old man who is 78 years old this year. He is a relative to the thirteenth Dalai Lama and he used to save all the antiques during the cultural revolution and offered them to the manor for free which we can see in the manor today.

Take lunch in the Trungkang manor and then drive back to the Nang county seat. On the way, you will be visiting Parhoede monastery, located in Dolpa village of Nang town and Being on an elephant-trunk-like mountain on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river and it is the largest monastery in Nyingtri region.

From Nang county seat, you will drive to Bobo Nang glacier at the distance of 51km. You will drive around 35km from Nang county towards Miling county and then drive in the narrow and dense forest gorge at the distance of 16km. Eventhough the road condition is not good, the scenery is extremely beautiful. You will be driving through the primeval forest and beautiful water full, later a beautiful landscape of the pasture land surrounded by Yak and nomads. After around one hour drive, you will finally reach Bobo Nang glacier which is extremely beautiful and besides, the water fall of the glacier and the small lake in front of the glacier is tremendously beautiful. Eventhough the base camp of the glacier is above 4600mts but your body works and feel better than you are in the high altitude of over 3000mts as it is full of oxygen nearby the glacier. The group must be very happy to see the glacier and the water fall. You can do around half an hour trek from the car parking to the waterfall of the glacier and if you had more time, you can even hike on the rocky hill near by the water fall in order to step on the ice of the glacier which might take an hour to hike up but it will be a challenging and interesting hike. Continue your two days trip to Nang county and drive back to Nang county after the glacier.

The next day after the breakfast, you can continue the two days trip to Nang county and drive from Nang county to Renpuk holy water and Takpo Sherig snow mountain which is at the distance of around 90km distance. You will drive from Nang county towards Miling county at the distance of around 55km until you reach Jindong township and from Jindong township, you will take the national 219 highway. From there, you will drive around 14km until you leave the 219 National highway. From the junction to the Renpuk holy water is 41km distance. On the way, you will see some beautiful Tibetan villages and most of those villages live on little bit of farming, Nomading and depending on herbal medicine that they can sell.

The Renpuk holy water comes from the glacier of Takpo Sherig snow mountain and the local people told us that on 15th of the fifth Lunar month of the Tibetan calendar, the water becomes into milk color and it is very sweat and soft if you drink so the local people consider it as a very holy water. There is a small beautiful lake that also comes from the glacier of the Takpo Sherig snow mountain. When the weather is nice, the scenery is extremely beautiful.

After visiting Takpo Sherig snow mountain and Renpuk holy water, you will be driving back to Nang county.

If you had time enough, you can continue two days trip to Nang county and drive to Gagong gorge which is at the distance of around 35km from Nang county. The gorge is very beautiful with it’s primeval forest, beautiful pasture land, nomad camp, snow mountains and gorges waterfall. You can spend around half day in Gagong gorge and enjoy your day in the beautiful nature.

A day trip to Chubzang nunnery – Tibet hiking-Tibet trekking

If you had more days to stay in Lhasa, a day trip to Chubzang nunnery is a great choice of your day trip. Chubzang nunnery is located to the north side of Lhasa city between Pabongka temple and Sera monastery. Chubsang nunnery has a long history dates back to the time of the 5^th Dalai Lama in the 17^th century.

Chubzang nunnery was built in 17^th century by Trinlei Gyatso who was one of the most important students of the fifth Dalai Lama. The nunnery was originally built as a hermitage and Trinlei Gyatso also invited the fifth Dalai Lama to bless the hermitage. When the fifth Dalai Lama came to Chubzang nunnery, the site was completely blessed and treasured by the fifth Dalai Lama and discovered a self-risen stone image of the Buddha and you can even see this image in Chubzang nunnery today.

There is very important relics that you can see during a day trip to Chubzang nunnery is that the self-risen stone image of the Buddha is the most important relics of Chubzang nunnery and Tibetans from thousand miles come to visit Chubzang nunnery because of this sacred image. People believe that they will fulfill their praying and wishes if you go to visit and pray to this sacred image. Chubzang hermitage was originally built for 8 monks and later it was expended to 18 monks who came originally from Sera monastery. Chubzang nunnery was converted into exclusive nunnery since 1984 and nowadays, there are more than hundred nuns. They are all practicing Gelukpa sect religion.

Taking a day trip to Chubzang nunnery is very much recommended, especially if you like to take a short hiking around Lhasa city during your Tibet and the most important thing is if you like to talk with nuns by sharing their daily lives experience. You can start the trip from your hotel by around 9.30, slowly driving to Pabongka temple which takes around 20 minutes drive. You will be visiting Pabongka temple. Pabongka temple was built by the 33^rd King of Tibet called Songtsan Gampo who was one of the most important kings of Tibet who built the Jokang temple, Ramoche temple, created Tibetan own writing, invited two very sacred images of Buddha Shakyamuni, the one which is inside the Jokang temple today and another one is in Ramoche temple.

Pabongka was originally a hermitage for the Tibetan King Songtsan Gampo and later it was converted into small temple where it has some small chapels, dedicated to some of the sacred images of Buddha, Tibetan King Songtsan Gampo. There are around 20 monks nowadays and Pabongka is the branch monastery of Sera monastery. After spending around one hour visit in Pabongka temple, you will trek down to Chubzang nunnery which takes you around 30 minutes. Visit the main assembly hall of Chubzang nunnery and the small temple where the most sacred sel-risen stone Buddha image. After visiting those two most important temples, you can take a rest in Chubzang nunnery’s restaurant and have some tea.

After having tea, continue a day trip to Chubzang nunnery and you can visit one of the nun’s rooms, exchange the live experience of the Tibetan nuns, how they study the Tibetan Buddhism and how they spend their daily lives in the nunnery. While you are visiting the nun’s room, you are recommended to offer some fruit to the nuns as it is kind of Tibetan tradition. Of course the nuns will pray for the peace of the world and for the well-beings of your family. Visiting nuns and talking with them is one of the most authentic experience during your Tibet trip.

You will have lunch in the nunnery’s restaurant for a day trip to Chubzang nunnery. They have menu of fried rice, noodle soup, Tibetan momo, both veg and meat momo, rice with different vegetables.

Continue a day trip to Chubzang nunnery and trek to Sera monastery which takes 40 minutes to reach Sera monastery. You will visit the main assembly hall of Sera monastery and the most important thing that you can see in Sera monastery is the monks debating. You can go into the courtyard of the debating area and listen to the monks while they are debating. You can also ask your guide the meaning of the monks’ debating which is very interesting.

After visiting the Sera monastery, continue your day trip to Chubzang nunnery and drive back to your hotel. If you had more time stay in Lhasa during your Tibet tour, we can arrange you different kinds of unique Tibet day tours around Lhasa with some authentic experience of your Tibetan trip.

Lhasa private Tibet tours

Since Tibet was opened to the foreign tourists who live in mainland China after the pandemic, there are more and more tourists who are requesting Lhasa private tour. Lhasa is the capital city of Tibet and it is the head quarter of Tibet Autonomous Region where the most important government offices of Tibet Autonomous Region are located. Lhasa is also called a sunny city as Lhasa city shines the sun very brightly in most period of the time of the year.

Lhasa is located in the center of the Tibetan high plateau and the Northside of the Himalayan Mountain at the elevation of 3650mts above sea level. The present city is located at the shore of the Kyichu river is one of the biggest tributary of Brahmaputra river, known as Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan which starts from Mt Kailash in the western part of Tibet, flows through the western plateau of Ngari and Shigatse regions, through the Yarlung valley, Nyingtri, the eastern forest region of Tibet and finally it goes into India.

Originally, Lhasa was a small city with the Potala Palace to the west end gate of the city and Jokang temple to the center of the city and the Mosque next to the Jokang temple was located to the east end gate of the city but nowadays, the city was expended to a larger size of around 20km distance to the east side and around 20Km distance to the west side as well as around 10Km distance wider to the north side and around 8km distance wider to the south side so there are many more things to see during your Lhasa private tour.

The Lhasa private tour can take you to visit the Potala Palace, one of the seven wonders of the world and it is the most important religious center of Tibetan people. From point of the tourists, no matter domestic or foreign tourists, the Potala Palace is a must visit site when they take Lhasa private tour. Another most important place that you can visit during your Lhasa private tour is the Jokang temple which is registered as the UNESCO world heritage site and it is believed to be one of the most sacred temple in Tibet as there is a very holy statue of Buddha Shakya Muni who was the founder of the Buddhism. The statue is believed to be built according to the 12 years old of the Buddha when the Buddha was alive with more than 2500 years history so the Jokang temple is a must visit site no matter whether you are a domestic or foreign tourists. Walking around the Bharkor Bazzar is another very interesting place to go as you see many Tibetans walking around the temple, prostrating around the temple by wearing different kinds of colorful Tibetan traditional clothes. Bharkor Bazzar is also the right place to buy the souvenir from Tibet.

If you are interested in learning more about Tibetan Buddhism, then you can visit Drepung and Sera monasteries, the largest monasteries in the olden days, Ramoche temple and other small monasteries around Lhasa including Muru Nyingpa monastery, Kundeling monastery, thousand Buddha caves, Pabongka temple etc. When you take Lhasa private tour, if you like to visit more modern cities of Lhasa, then you can go to visit the Liwu newly developed city which is located to the south bank of Lhasa River, Tsochokling also located to the south bank of Lhasa city, dominated by the live show theater of the Princess Wencheng of the Tang court which is directly facing towards the Potala Palace. You can also visit a very sacred and historical monastery called Tsechokling monastery and if you want to visit the schools in Lhasa, then you can go to newly developed city, dominated by all the schools and education bureau which is located to the eastern part of the Lhasa city.

Apart from seeing temples, monasteries during your Lhasa private tour, you can also have a day trip to some of the villages around Lhasa city. During the summer time, Tibetans like to go out of Lhasa city and find a nice meadow or small grassland where there is water to have picnic so there are many places around Lhasa city that you can have picnic. One of the recommended places to go to have picnic with local people is the Taktse Painam valley which is located to the east of Lhasa city at the distance of around 25km from Lhasa city. The road condition is very good and the scenery on the way is very beautiful. You will pass by many beautiful Tibetan villages, trees, beautiful barley field, stream water flow, Tibetan Yak, nomad camp and some of the wild lives. It is very interesting to go to have picnic with local Tibetan people. Once you reach there, you can talk with Tibetan people, you can share the live experience with Tibetan people, you can share the food with Tibetan people, you can play dice in the tent with local Tibetan so it is an authentic Tibetan experience during your Lhasa private tour.

If you like a short hiking and trekking during your Lhasa private tour, what you can do is to plan a day trip to Taktse Painam valley as there is a very beautiful nomadic valley, dominated by beautiful green grassland, stream water fall, beautiful Tibetan prayer flags and the black Tibetan nomad tent. Once you reach the nomadic camp, you can do around 4 hours hiking in the valley near the stream which is extremely beautiful. On the way, you can see Tibetan Yak, Sheep, and wild animals if you are lucky enough. In the nomadic area, you can experience the Tibetan nomad lives such as how to milk the Yak, how to make Yogurt, how to make butter etc, how to ride Yak, how to ride horse etc. It is another extremely beautiful authentic experience.

If you want to take a longer day excursion around Lhasa city during your Lhasa private tour, you can take a day trip to Ganden monastery which is the mother monastery of Yellow hat school and it has more than 600 hundred years history. On the way, you can visit Dark Yerpa cave that has more than 1300 year’s history. Another day trip that you can take is a day trip to Tsurphu monastery at the distance of around 60km from Lhasa, Tsurphu monastery is the mother monastery of Kagyupa sect in Tibetan Buddhism and it is also the seat of Karmapa, the first reincarnation of the Tibetan Lama.

If you want to visit some natural scenic spots, we recommend you to take a day trip to Yamdrok lake which is at the distance of around 100km from Lhasa and on the way, you can see beautiful Tibetan villages, Tibetan farmers life experience, the most beautiful Yamdrok lake with around eleven different kinds of arms. One of the most beautiful arms of the Yamdrok lake is located to the eastern part of Yamdrok lake where you can directly drive to the lake from Gongkar airport through a pass called Tsayul la pass. This is a newly built road, finished in 2020 and the scenery from the top of the pass is extremely different than the scenery of the Yamdrok lake that you can see from the top of Kampala pass where all the tourists go. The beautiful lake, dominated by the snow capped mountain around the Yamdrok lake including Kurla Gangri Snow Mountain which is the border between China Tibet and Bhutan. Another longer distant day trip is to Namtso lake which is at the distance of 250km from Lhasa. Namtso lake is one of the four largest lakes in Tibet and it is another very beautiful lake in Tibet. The road condition from Lhasa to Namtso lake is good and on the way, you can see beautiful view of Nyenchen Thangla mountain range and some of the most beautiful landscape of Tibetan nomad camp and their Yak and Sheep.

Tibet travel permit & China visa

After one and half year’s closure, Tibet officially has been opened to the foreigners who live in mainland China so now you can apply for the Tibet travel permit and China visa through the local Tibetan travel agent which has been officially recognized by the China National Tourism Bureau and Tibet Tourism Bureau so make sure that you will find the right Tibetan travel agent to get all your necessary Tibet travel permits and arrange the best Tibet trip.
Since the pandemic has begun around the world, Tibet has remained close to the foreign tourists for more than year and half even though Tibet does not have a single case of the Covid 19 from the local community. The reason Tibet has remained close is because the Tibet Autonomous Region wanted to have the best security and safety for the Tibetan people during this bad pandemic. Through a great effort and hard work of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet indeed has gained a great result of avoiding from the Covid 19 and all the people in Tibet can move around in a normal way like before the pandemic and enjoying the lives as before.
At the same time, the Chinese government could control the Covid 19 in a very short period of time and last year from around the beginning of June, Tibet has started receiving domestic tourists and there was not a single case happened in Tibet from the domestic tourists since June 2020 so through this good result, Tibet recently has officially opened to foreigners who work or live in mainland China or the foreigners who stayed in mainland China for more than 28 days but as usual, you always need Tibet travel permit and China visa to enter Tibet.
To travel to Tibet, first of all, you need China visa that can be a China tourist visa, working visa or a business visa, all those three types of visa are fine to visit Tibet. Mostly, the foreigners who live in mainland China might be a business man or an employer in a company so to make Tibet travel permit, you need a China working or business visa and with this, you also need to prepare an introduction letter from your company or work unit that includes a short introduction of yourself such as how long you have been working in China, your position in the company, what profession you are working for etc with the stamp of a company and signature of the company head officer.
Up on above those two documents, you also need to provide nucleic acid and QR test report. Once your local Tibetan travel agent get those three documents, they will start applying for your Tibet travel permit. To make Tibet travel permit, it takes around two weeks but it also depends on where you are traveling in Tibet. If you travel to the central part of Tibet, you will only need around two weeks of applying for your Tibet travel permits. If you are traveling to the western or the eastern forest region of Tibet, then it takes around three weeks to finish the Tibet travel permit.
When you enter Tibet, not matter from which parts of the cities you enter Tibet, you always need Tibet travel permit and China visa to show. The security at the airport or train station always ask you to show the Tibet travel permit and China visa when you board the flight or train. Make sure that you will have the original Tibet travel permit and China visa otherwise the copy of the Tibet travel permit or China visa does not work so it is very important to tell your Tibetan travel agent to send you the original Tibet travel permit to you before you start coming to Tibet.
Another important thing is that you also need to ask your Tibetan travel agent to help you book your flight tickets because usually, without the original Tibet travel permit and China visa, you cannot book the flight ticket or train ticket to Tibet. Once you arrive in Tibet, what you need to do is you will give your Tibet travel permit to your local Tibetan guide who will take care of your Tibet travel permit and if you are traveling outside of Lhasa, you need to give your Tibet travel permit and China visa to your local Tibetan travel agent to make another travel permit called Aliens permit. Without this permit, you can not travel to the restricted area of Tibet.
Can you take train in Tibet?
Recently, we were also asked by some of our customers whether they can travel on the train once they are in Tibet. Our answer to this question is that you can travel on train in Tibet but sofar, we only have one train from Lhasa to Shigatse and to board the train from Lhasa to Shigatse, you need a tour guide to accompany with you. In the near future, there will be train from Lhasa to Nyingtri, the eastern forest region of Tibet and it will be a beautiful train ride from Lhasa to Nyingtri.
Can you travel to Everest Base Camp?
Many tourists are still in doubt whether they can travel to Mt Everest base camp, they are thinking there might have a new rule and regulation on traveling to Mt Everest basecamp? As long as you get Tibet travel permit and China visa, the rule and regulation to visit Everest Base Camp is still the same and you can easily travel to Everest base camp. The only the change is that the Everest base camp is a little longer distance than before from Rongbuk monastery since you can not walk all the way to the old Everest Base Camp but you can still go to the new Everest Base Camp and still get the best view of the Mt Everest from the new Everest base camp.
Can you go to Mt Kailash?
As long as you had Tibet travel permit and China visa, you can go to Mt Kailash as usual which means once you arrive in Lhasa, you are required to get another permit for Mt Kailash with your original passport. Once you get this new permit, you can travel to Mt Kailash easily with your Tibetan tour guide. If you go to Mt Kailash, the most important thing is to book the hotel in advance as most of the hotels or guest houses in Dharchen were completely destroyed and there is a huge construction undertaking so you need to make sure with your local Tibetan travel agent to book the hotel in advance as there is only one hotel available at the moment.
Can you travel to Nepal border?
Since the situation of the Covid 19 is getting worse in Nepal, at the moment, you are not recommended to travel to Kyirong border as it is a very close place to Nepal and it has become one of the most important place to be watched and controlled in order to make sure that the Covid 19 will not enter from Nepal.
How can a tourist from Maccau or Hongkong travel to Tibet?
If you are staying in Maccau or Hongkong now and planning to travel to Tibet, you need to stay at least around 28 days in mainland China so unless you had something to do in mainland China, it is not recommended to plan to travel to Tibet at this period of time because it is a boring time to wait for 28 days in mainland China. If you had something to do in mainland China, no matter whether you are traveling around or working, it is worthy to wait and plan to travel to Tibet. If you are planning to travel to Tibet only through mainland China by this time, we recommend to plan your trip after the Covid 19 is over so that you can directly fly from Maccau or Hongkong to Chengdu and from Chengdu to Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet in one day if you had your Tibet travel permit and China visa.

Things to do in Tibet Tours

There are so many good things to do in Tibet apart from normal Tibet tour packages or Tibet trekking tours. Usually, there are lots of monasteries and temples in your Tibet trip packages when the local Tibetan travel agent offers you a Tibet travel package but many of them missed to create a new Tibet tour programs or offer you some authentic Tibet travel tours.

Tibet Shambhala Adventure always tries our best to have some authentic activities or excursion during your Tibet trip. Here we have explored the 13 best things to do in Tibet in the following and they are all very interesting to include in your Tibet trips.

Dinner with Tibetan Momo cooking class after the sightseeing tour in Lhasa

After finishing Sera monastery’s sightseeing, you will join the team who is going to learn how to make Tibetan Momo in a typical local Tibetan restaurant called Lubhum Tsang, owned by a Tibetan family. Eventhough you can see Momo in other parts of the Himalayan region such as Nepal, Bhutan, India or even in the western countries but the origin of the Momo comes from Tibet so you should not miss to have authentic taste of the Tibetan Momo in Lhasa during your Tibet trip.

The momo making process starts with preparing the dough that will be used as the cover for the veg or non-veg filling inside. With the dough prepared, you will move on to adding various condiments and sliced vegetables to the minced meat before proceeding to mix them all up with your hand. The next step is perhaps the most challenging and fun part of making momos, you will now have to fold the momos to have it ready for steaming! It doesn’t matter so much if you don’t get the shape right, but you have to take particular note to ensure that the momo is sealed properly from all sides to ensure the flavour stays trapped in.

• Tour to a Tibetan traditional night club, known as Nangma

During one of the nights in Lhasa or Shigatse, we recommend you to try for a Tibetan traditional night club. It is interesting to go to a Tibetan traditional night club called Nangma. Nangma is a different club than other night clubs in Lhasa because in Nangma, from around 9.30-11.30, they perform different kinds of Tibetan traditional dances, Tibetan opera performance, Tibetan cross-talk, Tibetan Yak Dancing etc. They serve different kinds of local beer, such as Lhasa beer, Barley beer, and many other different kinds of beer, mineral water, coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Jasmine tea etc. You can ask local Tibetan people to dance with you just to have an authentic experience of your Tibet trip. This is one of the best things to do in Tibet during you Tibet trip if your fellow members are young and active.

• Visiting Princess Wencheng’s live show

Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty was in the 7^th century when the 33^rd Tibetan King, called Songtsan Gampo, invited the Princess and married her. She came to Tibet with her dowry which is the most sacred statue of Buddha Skakyamuni, housed in the Jokang temple in the present day.

The live show of the Princess Wencheng includes songs of the Tang Dynasty and different kinds of Tibetan traditional dances and Tibetan opera. They also have real Yak Dancing and a huge live show screen. It is the most interesting and largest live show in Tibet. It is located in Tsechokling which is at the south side of Lhasa river, facing directly towards the Potala Palace so you can also enjoy a great view of the Potala Palace in the beautiful light and the night view of the whole Lhasa city in the distance. If you already had Jokang temple and Bharkor Bazzar in your Tibet travel program, it is recommended to include this show as this show describes a very detailed story of how the Image of Buddha Shakyamuni brought to Tibet and how the Jokang temple was built so make sure not to miss one of these things to do in Tibet during your Tibet travel.

• Dinner with Tibetan traditional show

During your Tibet trip, it is worthy to test Tibetan meals. We can arrange you a typical Tibetan restaurant which serves different kinds of Tibetan meals including Tibetan Momo, Tibetan traditional bread, Tibetan traditional soup, different kinds of Tibetan traditional vegetables, fried yak meat, Tsampa which is the most Tibetan traditional meal, made up of Barley which grows entire Tibetan farming regions. You can also try Tibetan butter tea, sweat tea, Tibetan barley beer etc.

After the dinner, the restaurant arranges different kinds of Tibetan traditional dances, songs and Yak dance which gives you a real authentic experience of your Tibet trip.

• A day excursion to Langthang Dewachen and visit a Tibetan family.

One of the most important things to do in Tibet during your Tibet tour is to visit a Tibetan family. Eventhough you can see lots of Tibetan villages and families during your Tibet tour but it is very important to visit a good Tibetan family in a village surrounded by beautiful landscape with a historical cultural back ground.

You take a day excursion to Langthang Dewachen village which is located to the southern part of Lhasa city at the distance of around 90km from Lhasa. This beautiful Tibet day trip takes you from Lhasa to Langthang Dewachen village through Lhasa Gongkar airport and Jideshol village. From Jideshol village, you will take on the right and drive through Namgyelshol village and then to Langthang Dewachen valley.

Langthang Dewachen village has more than thousand years history and the name of the village was given by Atisha who came to Tibet from India in the 11^th century and he restored the Tibetan Buddhism which had been badly destroyed during the second last king of Tibet called Lang Dharma. The valley of Langthang Dewachen is extremely beautiful. It is very green, beautiful fields, beautiful Tibetan villages and their traditional houses with colorful prayer flags, the monastery of Bumthang, also built in the 11^th century but the present shape of the monastery was built after the cultural revolution.  During this Tibet day trip, you will visit three monasteries including Duphoe Choekor monastery, Songropling monastery and Bumthang monastery.

You will visit a Tibetan family in Langthang Dewachen and have lunch in the Tibetan family. It is very interesting to visit a Tibetan family as you can see how Tibetan farmers house is and what kind of furniture they have, how many houses in a family usually have and how do they sleep and what kind of food they usually eat in their family so it is totally an authentic Tibet travel experience that you can try during your Tibet tour.  

• A Day excursion to a nomad camp and back to Lhasa

Nomad is the ancestors of Tibet and it is the historical source of Tibet. Visiting a Tibetan nomad camp and experience their life is one of the best things to do in Tibet during your Tibet travel.

After breakfast, you will be driving to Taktse Penam town at the distance of half an hour drive from Lhasa, you will enjoy a beautiful drive along the villages and their beautiful field where they grow barley, wheat, potatoes, Radish etc. You will be reaching the Penam nomad camp and served tea and snack by our cooking team. Then you will have some activities at the camp site that they will teach you how to print Tibetan prayer flag and will provide you the printing board and cloth for printing for free, after you print the prayer flag, you can either take it as souvenir or use it as prayer flag and raise it in the mountain near the nomad camp.

After that, they will also lend you Tibetan traditional clothes for free and you can take photos in Tibetan traditional clothes if you like to. After that, you will also visit a nomad camp to experience how the Tibetan nomad live in the traditional nomadic camp life and have fresh organic Yogurt from the camp.

You will have lunch at the nomad camp with Tibetan nomad in their traditional black nomad tent After lunch, you will hike for around 2 hours up to the valley where you can meet the trail from Ganden to Samye monastery by trekking. If you like to ride Yak, then there will be extra cost of 55$ per Yak and Yak man for half day. Late afternoon, You will drive back to Lhasa.   

• A day excursion to Namtso Lake

If your trip does not include Namtso lake, you can spend more time in Lhasa and a day excursion to Namtso lake is one of the best things to do in Tibet during your Tibet tour.

After early breakfast, you will start your journey from Lhasa and drive along the Qinghai Tibet highway at the distance of 250km distance. On the way, you will enjoy a beautiful view of Nyenchen Thangla snow mountain which is the highest snow mountain around Lhasa and beautiful nomad camps with their flocks of Yak and sheep, grazing on the beautiful grassland.

Crossing Lagan La pass at the elevation of 5000mt above sea level. From the top of the pass, you can see the east side of the Namtso lake and Tashido Hermitage in the distance in the west. Continue one more hour drive, you will reach Namtso lake and Tashido hermitage. Walk around Tashido hermiate along the lake shore and enjoy the most beautiful part of the Namtso lake and Nyenchen Thangla snow mountain. At the same time, visit some sacred caves and hermitages around Tashido. Afternoon, drive back to Lhasa which takes you around 4 hours with speed limit.

NAMTSO LAKE is at (4,700Meters) is one of the biggest lakes in Tibet and is 70Km long and 30Km wide. The landscape is dominated by the snow peak of Nyenchen Thangla to the south west of the lake. Tashi Do hermitage stands on a promontory with more than 50 small caves including some small chapels. Pilgrims do a half hour walk (kora) around Tashi Do hermitage.

A day excursion to Yamdrok lake

Yamdrok lake is huge and it has 11 different arms that goes around entire Yamdrok region of the southern part of Tibet, starting from the border Tsome county located to the east of Yamdrok lake and ending from the border nearby Bhutan in the west so a day excursion to Yamdrok lake is one of the best things to do in Tibet during your Tibet travel.

Usually, all the tourists visit one of the arms of the Yamdrok lake which is located to the foot of Kampala pass nearby the road to Gyantse and Shigatse but Tibet Shambhala Adventure explored a new day excursion route to Yamdrok lake that is the eastern arm of Yamdrok lake. The distance from Lhasa to the eastern Yamdrok lake is around 120Km distance only and the road condition is very good so it will only take you around 2 hours drive by traveling through Tsayul La pass at the elevation of around 5000m. From the top of the pass, you will see the entire eastern part of Yamdrok lake that is extremely beautiful.

You will travel to Yamdrok lake differently where there are beautiful Tibetan villages, monastery in the island, beautiful grassland nearby the lake, flock of Yak and sheep, grazing on the beautiful grassland along the lake. You can see beautiful Tibetan villages and hardly see other tourists with you around the lake. The people in the villages nearby the lake are very friendly and very traditional. They are very keen and happy to see foreign tourists since they have never seen different looking people before.

Two hours walk along the Yamdrok lake is very beautiful and very interesting. You will walk along the lake and enjoy walking along the shore of beautiful Yamdrok lake, having a great view of Noejing Kangsang snow mountain and wild lives on the mountains connecting to the lake.

• Visiting a Tibetan Thangka art Gallery

One of the best things to do in Tibet is to visit a Tibetan Thangka art Gallery. During your Lhasa sightseeing tour, instead of visiting a lot of monasteries, one afternoon, is recommend to visit a Thangka art Gallery in Bharkor Bazzar of the old section of the Lhasa city. Thangka is a very important cultural relics of Tibetan people which not only shows the art and culture of Tibet but also tells the history of Tibet.

Thangka (Thang-ga) is also called Tangga. It is a transliteration of Tibetan. It refers to religious scroll paintings that are mounted on colored satin and hung for worship. Thangka is a unique painting art form in Tibetan culture which involves Tibetan history, politics, culture, and social life. Most of the handed down thangkas are works of Tibetan Buddhism.

Thangka is a unique painting art form in Tibetan culture with distinctive national characteristics, strong religious colors and unique artistic styles, it uses bright colors to depict the world of the sacred Buddha; traditionally all the paints are in gold, silver, pearls, agate, coral, turquoise, malachite, and cinnabar. Such precious mineral gems and plants as saffron, rhubarb, and blue indigo are used as pigments to show their sacredness to build Thangka of a Buddha image. These natural raw materials ensure that the painted Thangka is bright and dazzling, even though it has been painted for hundreds of years, it is still bright. Therefore, it is known as the treasure of Tibetan painting art.

Tibetan traditional Thangka drawing has strict requirements and extremely complicated procedures. It must be carried out in accordance with the rituals in the scriptures and the instruction of the Guru, including pre-painting rituals, canvas making, composition drafting, coloring and dyeing, line drawing, laying gold and silver, opening eyes of the image etc. It takes half a year to complete a good Thangka or even more than ten years to make a long one.

Visiting a day excursion to Nyenmo county to see how the Tibetan incense is made of

Visiting a Tibetan incense factory is one of the best things to do in Tibet during your Tibet trip. Nyenmo county is located to the west of Lhasa city at the distance of around 100km. Nyenmo county is a very famous place which is the birth place of Tonmi Sambota, one of the most famous ministers of the 33^rd king of Tibet called Songtsan Gampo. Sambota was born in the 7^th century and went to India to study Sanskrit. He created Tibetan script based on Sanskrit and it is also believed that Sambota created incense and offered them to the images of Buddha Shakyamuni that were brought to Tibet in the 7^th century. The Ton village is the birth place of Sambota in Nyenmo county and there is a very historical incense factory in Ton village.

You can visit the Incense factory in the Ton village and interact with the staffs of the factory and learn how to make the incense. They will teach you how to make a Tibetan incense and finally you can make a Tibetan incense by yourself and take them with you to your home so it will be a very interesting day trip and it is completely an authentic experience of your Tibet tour.

Tibetan incense is mostly used for Buddhist sacrificial activities, and a small amount of it is used to ward off evil spirits. The process of producing incense contains the essence of Tibetan culture and the main ingredients are saffron, snow lotus, musk, Tibetan kou and so on.

The Tibetan incense is also produced under the guidance of Tibetan medicine, that Sambota meticulously developed the art of making incense by hand water milling and it also has a great function of preventing infectious disease. In 2004, Tibetan incense was widely used in the whole China during Sars to prevent from spreading disease since then Tibetan incense has become more popular than before. The above 10 best things to do in Tibet are available if you consult with Tibet Shambhala Adventure.

 

Yunnan to Lhasa overland tour – Shangrila to Lhasa overland tour

Yunnan to Tibet overland tour via taking two different kinds of National Highways and for how many National Highways we can get Tibet permits?

There are three main National Highways that the foreign tourists can get Tibet permits to drive through which are G214, G318 and Qinghai Tibetan Highways. There is a good news that Tibet Autonomous Region is going to open G219 National Highway to foreign tourists soon which has another extremely beautiful scenery and the landscape. 

So-far the best Tibet overland tour is Yunnan to Tibet overland tour which starts in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan province which has lots of different ethnic groups of China including a pretty large numbers of Tibetans in Shangrila.

Is it allowed for foreign tourists to drive to Tibet from Yunnan via taking G214 and G318 National Highway?

Yunnan to Tibet overland tour is a long journey overland tour via G214 and G318 National Highway. Since 2019, this beautiful Tibet overland tour was opened to foreign tourists again and this beautiful Tibet overland tour can be started from Kunming which has lots of international flights or you can fly to Kunming and from Kunming continue connecting a flight to Dali or Shangrila and from there you can start your self-driving tour in Tibet or you can ask your local Tibetan tour operator to arrange vehicle for you waiting in Shangrila or Dali.

If you like to see more ethnic groups during your self-driving tour in Tibet, it is recommended to start the trip to Tibet from Kunming by following G214 until you reach Deqin county, one of the biggest and most famous counties in Shangrila city of Yunnan province because of Kawa Karpo snow mountain, located in Deqin county.

From where G318 National Highway is started and where it is ended and what is the total distance of G318?

From Deqin county, you will meet G318 high way. The starting point of G318 National Highway is People’s Square in Huangpu Du District, Shanghai and the ending point is the Sino-Nepal Friendship Bridge in Dzangmu border, Nyalam county of Shigatse city. The total distance of G318 National Highway is 5476Km distance. If you start the self-driving tour from Shanghai all the way to Dzangmu border in Tibet, you will pass by the administrative districts during your 318 National Highway self-driving tour which are mainly Shanghai-Suzhou-Huzhou-Xuancheng-Wuhu-Chizhou-Anqing-Huanggang-Wuhan-Jingzhou-Yichang-Enshi-Chongqing-Dazhou-Guang’an-Nanchong-Suining-Ziyang Chengdu-Ya’an-Ganzi-Qamdo-Nyingchi-Lhasa-Shigatse.

Which is the most beautiful parts of the G318 National Highway?

Staring the overland tour on G214 and G318 from Lijiang or Shangrila is the most beautiful Tibet overland tours as you can see beautiful Tibetan villages of different Tibetan regions of Yunnan, Kham and central Tibet. Usually, if your time is quite limited and mainly looking for a Tibet overland tour from Yunnan, then we recommend to start your trip to Tibet from Yunnan. You can fly to Kunming and connect the flight to Lijaing which is just around an hour flight as you can visit one of the most beautiful old towns in Lijiang and the pond of the black dragon and different kinds of ethnic group’s culture.

Driving from Lijiang to Shangrila or known as Gyelthang in Tibetan enroot visit the First Bend of Yangtze River at Shigu and the Tiger Leaping Gorge. In Shangrila, you can visit a beautiful monastery called Songtsanling monastery and one of the most beautiful old towns in Gyelthang including a visit to a beautiful Bazzar with full of colourful Tibetan traditional products.

From Gyelthang, you can continue Yunnan to Tibet overland tour to Deqin county at the distance of around 180km. In Deqin county, you are recommend to spend two nights as you will go to explore Kawa Karpo, the most beautiful snow mountain in the world. The villages in Deqin county are very beautiful and the view of Kawa Karpo snow mountain is extremely beautiful.

Where do you meet G318 National Highway for your Yunnan to Tibet overland tour?

After driving around 500km distance on the G214 national Highway, you will meet G318 National Highway after Deqin county. Deqin county is also another starting point of Yunna to Tibet overland tour where some people start their Tibet overland tour from Chengdu via Kanding, Dartsedo in Tibet, Lithang and then to Deqin county. From Deqin county, you can continue Yunnan to Tibet overland tour via Yanjing town, known as Tsakalo in Tibetan or Tsaka by Naxi ethnic group.

Which is the border town between Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan province?

The official name of Yanjing Township is “Naxi ethnic group Township as there were quite many Naxi ethnic groups but nowadays, most of the population is Tibetans. Yanjing township is under the administration of Mangkang County, Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China” Yanjing is considered as the jewel on the ancient tea-horse road so the Naxi people call it “Tsaka” or salt well, “Tsa” is salt in Tibetan, and “ka” is hole.

It is located at the southeastern tip of the Tibet Autonomous Region, between Mangkang County and Deqin County on the east bank of the Lancang River in the Hengduan Mountains. It is the first stop from Yunnan to Tibet on the Yunnan-Tibet Highway. The average altitude of the town is about 2400 meters. The northeast is adjacent to Batang ccounty located in Sichuan province, the south is bordered by Deqin county in Yunnan province, and the west is connected to Zhayu known as Zayul county in Tibetan, Bitu, and Menkong in Zuogong County, Tibet.

The climate is relatively hot, rich in crops such as barley, barley, corn, and millet, as well as apples, Pears, pomegranates, walnuts, watermelons and other fruits. Yanjing is a magical place in Tibet. Historically, it was the main route of ancient tea-horse road and it was the main place where the Tibetans exchange tea trade and to be transported to Tibet. The cultural landscape of Yanjing Salt Field is now the only surviving artificial original salt-dried landscape on the “Ancient Tea Horse Road”.

From where do you need Tibet permits for Yunnan to Tibet overland tour?

No matter whether you start your trip to Tibet from Kunming, Lijiang or Shangrila and traveling around Yunnan province including Shangrila where it is full of Tibetans, you are not required Tibet permits. You can just travel with your passport and a valid China visa. When you reach Yanjing township, the border between Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan province, you are asked to show your Tibet permits and Tibetan tour guide with a licensed Tibet tourist vehicle. Without those three important things, you are not allowed to travel and to get all those Tibet permits, you must contact local Tibetan travel agent based in Lhasa in a month advance to prepare and make necessary Tibet travel permits for Yunnan to Tibet overland tour.

How to get to Nyingchi prefecture from Yanjing township and what you can see on the way?

From Yanjing to Markham county at the distance of around 110km and from Markham county to Pachoe county via Dzogong county by passing several high mountain passes including 77 zigzag roads of the Tsa Kampala pass. After Dzogong county, you will reach Pamda where the Chamdo airport is and from Pamda, there is a junction where you can drive to Chamdo prefecture on the right handside or you can continue Tibet overland tour on the G318 National Highway towards Pachoe county.

After Pashoe county, continue Yunnan to Tibet overland tour via Rawu lake which is the border between Chamdo prefecture and Nyingtri prefecture. Most parts of Nyingtri prefecture is located in a beautiful forest gorge with gorgeous snow mountain including Mt Namchark Barwa and the grand canyon of Yarlung Tsangpo which finally goes into India. On the way, you can visit some Bon monasteries and Bon sacred mountain and the most beautiful Darksum lake and finally by taking Nyingchi to Lhasa highway at the distance of 410km distance, you will reach Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet.

What is the highlight of Yunnan to Tibet overland tour?

The highlight of this trip too many but tell the general things that you can see during this most adventurous Tibet overland tour are different kinds of ethnic groups and their traditional culture and lives, different kinds of region’s Tibetans and their traditional way of dressing, believing, way of talking, dialects etc. The first bend of Yangtse river which is a very important river for the southeast Asian countries. The most beautiful snow mountain of Kawa karpo which is also believed as a very sacred mountain by Tibetans and there are thousands of pilgrims going around Kawa Karpo every year.

Different kinds of old towns in Lijiang and Shangrila and lots of beautiful Tibetan villages and their traditional Tibetan houses, built in different architect styles by depending on the climate of each and every single village’s location. Beautiful salt well in Yanjing, lots of monasteries, beautiful green grasslands with nomads, grazing their Yak and Sheep. Yak is the most sacred animals for Tibetans, especially in the olden days. They used Yak for everything, such as yaks for transportation, Yak for meat, Yaks for making tents etc.

Driving through lots of high mountain passes with a beautiful landscaped of snow mountains, rocky hills, beautiful gorges, dense forest, wild animals, beautiful green fields of Barley and wheat, mastered-seed flowers, gorgeous lakes, ponds, river flowing and full of peach flowers if you come on the right time so Chinese tourists call G318 National highway is the most beautiful overland tour all over China.

Where is the starting and ending point of G214 National Highway?

G214 National Highway starts from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai province and it is one of the biggest Tibetan inhabitant areas where it used to be called Amdo, the north eastern part of Tibet. The ending point of G214 National Highway is ended in Jinhong in Yunnan province and the total distance of G214 is 3256Km. The terrain along the route is complex, and the climate is high and cold. The advantage of G214 National Highway which is different from other national roads is that the whole road presents the best biodiversity, geological diversity, landscape diversity, rich nature and historical culture, unique religious and ethnic customs as you are passing through through the four provinces of Qinghai Tibetan area, Kham area of Tibet Autonomous Region, Yunnan Tibetan area and Sichuan Tibetan area.

Do you need Tibet permits for G214 National Highway overland tour?

Generally speaking, most parts of G214 National Highway is located in those of the three Tibetan areas under Qinghai province, Sichuan province and Yunnan province so all those three provinces are not required any travel permits. You can travel easily with a valid passport and China visa even if you travel to the Tibetan areas of those three provinces. The villages and towns passing during G214 national highway are Kham, the eastern part of Tibet and Amdo, the north eastern part of Tibet.

You can see hundreds of thousands of monasteries if you had enough time during your G214 National Highway Tibet overland tour, vast grasslands, beautiful nomad camps, rich Khampa and Amdo people’s culture and traditions. Beautiful snowcapped mountains, rocky hills, gorgeous lakes, beautiful fields.

Where is the starting and ending point of Qinghai Tibetan Highway?

Qinghai Tibetan Highway is started from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai province and ended in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region. The total distance of Qinghai Tibetan Highway is around 2100Km and the driving distance in Qinghai province is around 1400km and around 700km is in Tibet Autonomous Region.

What you can see during your Qinghai Tibetan Highway overland tour?

You can see beautiful monasteries, huge green grasslands, lots of Tibetan and Mongolian nomads, beautiful Qinghai lakes ( Kokonor lake by Mongolian and Tso Ngonpo by Tibetan ), the most beautiful Kunlun mountain ranges, Tanggo la mountain pass at the elevation of over 5000mts above sea level, beautiful Nyenchen Thangla mountain ranges and lots of beautiful Tibetan nomad camps, black Yak-made nomad tents and beautiful villages.

Do you need Tibet travel permits for traveling through Qinghai Tibetan Highway overland tour?

For the parts of Tibetan area in Qignhai province, you are not required Tibet travel permits but you are required to have Tibet travel permits during your Qinghai Tibetan highway overland tour once you are entering in Tibet Autonomous Region where there is a small county called Amdo county which is the border county between Qinghai province and Tibet Autonomous Region, located to the foot of Tanggo la mountain pass. It is the same process getting Tibet permits as Yunnan to Tibet overland tour that you need to ask your local Tibetan travel agent to prepare Tibet permits in a month advance as you need several different kinds of Tibet travel permits.

Is G219 National Highway planning to open to tourists?

G219 National Highway is planning to open to tourists soon and many parts of G219 is driving to many villages and towns which are bordered to India, Bhutan, Nepal, Ladhak, Sikkim, Pakistan etc so you need special Tibet travel permits to travel through G219 National Highway. All the roads of G219 has been constructed and most parts of the road was paved too.

Where is the starting and ending point of G219 National Highway?

G219 is started from Kashgar in Xinjiang in the western parts of China and ended in Guanxi province. The total distance of G219 National Highway is around 10065km and it is the longest National Highway in the world.

How many Kilometers of G219 National Highway that can cover in Tibet Autonomous Region?

The distance of G219 in Tibet is 3486km and it is started from Tsawalong township in the far eastern part of Tibet, bordered to Yunnan province. Tsawalong township at the altitude of 1700mts above sea level with a beautiful Yangtse river gorge and river bend, green forest and beautiful Tibetan villages. If we drove from Tsawalong to Yunnan border, there is around 48km distance and on the way, you can visit the heart of Mt kawa karpo and V shape bend of the Yangtse river scenic spot. From Tsawalong to Zayul county is 211km and on the way, there is a nomadic town called Mouru village with a beautiful scenic spot. On the way, you will pass by several different kinds high mountain passes with average elevation of over 4600mts above sea level. Zayul county is at the elevation of 2340m above sea level and it is a nice place to spend over night in order to acclimatize. From Zayul county.

Will there be another option for Yunnan to Tibet overland tour once G219 is opened to foreign tourists?

So in the future, if this part of the G219 is opened, it will be another great option of Yunnan to Tibet overland tour as Tsawalong and Zayul county are located in a very low altitude places which is perfect to acclimatize to the high altitude slowly rather than driving to the high altitude quickly.

From Zayul county, you can drive to Rawu lake and join the G318 National High way and continue Tibet adventure tour till Nyingchi and from there, you can drive to Jindong town where there is a junction to continue to Lang county or drive to Yumei town on the left side. Yumei town is bordered to India and it is a beautiful border town through two big mountain passes and beautiful green grassland of nomadic area. From Yumei county, you can continue Yunnan to Tibet overland tour to Tsetang via Longtse county by visiting Lhopa ethnic group on the way.

After Tsetang, if you still want to follow the G219 National Highway, then it goes through Chonggye county, Tsomei county, Lhodark county, bordered to Bhutan and continue to Gyantse, Shigatse, Everest, Kyirong, Saga, Baryang, Mansarovar lake, Guge Kingdom, Rutog county, Yecheng and finally to Kashgar.

Since Tibet is a vast land, probably much bigger than entire Europe if we combine all 5 different provinces and autonomous Regions of Tibet if you had enough time, Tibet is the best place of self-driving or making adventure over landing tour such as Yunnan to Tibet overland tour, Chengdu to Tibet overland tour, Qinghai to Tibet overland tour or Gansu to Tibet overland tour or from Lhasa to Kashgar overland tour etc. You can get plenty of different kinds of Tibet overland tours with the most fantastic landscape and various different kinds of ethnic culture and religion, nomadic and farmer’s lives, beautiful green grasslands, snow mountains, plenty of lakes and ponds, wild animals and different kinds of birds and flowers that you can enjoy during your Tibet overland tour. 

A Complete Tibet travel guide

Tibet or the land of snow is located in the southwestern region of China. A question of how to travel Tibet has always been a difficult issue for the tourists who don’t know well about Tibet or how has never been to Tibet before.

For the last 20 years, Tibet has become a dreamed destination for millions of tourists no matter from outside of China or from mainland China, especially after the Covid 19 because Tibet is the only place in the world that does not have a single case of Coronavirus.

Tibet is located on a vast high plateau with an average altitude of more than 4000 meters. Tibet is known as the “ Roof of the World ’’ The entire high plateau of Tibet are Qinghai Tibetan plateau, Sichuan Tibetan plateau known as Kham, Gansu Tibetan plateau known as Amdo, Yunnan Tibetan plateau known as Horse Trading Route and Tibet Autonomous Region Tibetan plateau, known as Utsang.

Tibet Autonomous Region covers an area of 1.2284 million square kilometers which accounts for about 1/8 of the total area of the country and at the end of 2018, the permanent population of Tibet Autonomous Region was 3.4382 million. Tibet is bordered by Xijiang to the north, Sichuan to the east, Qinghai to the northeast and Yunnan to the southeast.

How to travel Tibet from Europe?

There is not any direct flight to Tibet from Europe so the only option how to travel Tibet is you can get to Tibet from Europe through different cities in mainland China. Tourists can fly to any kinds of cities in mainland China and from there, they can take a direct flight to Lhasa. The most popular airline route to fly to Tibet is via Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xian, Chongqing and Chengdu. Among them, Chengdu is the easiest way to travel to Tibet because there is a direct flight from Amsterdam and Frankfurt to Chengdu and from Chengdu to Lhasa, there are more than 50 daily flights. Chengdu is also the shortest flight route to Tibet.

How to travel Tibet from USA?

There are many travel routes from USA to Tibet via many cities in mainland China such as the tourists can get to Tibet via Beijing, get to Tibet via Shanghai, get to Tibet via Guangzhou, get to Tibet via Chongqing, get to Tibet via Xian and get to Tibet via Chengdu. The most convenient and easiest way to travel to Tibet is via Beijing as there are many direct flights from USA to Beijing. From Beijing to Lhasa, there are two daily flights and one is the direct flight to Tibet and another one is via Xian to Tibet. The tourists can also take Qinghai highway train from Beijing to Lhasa which takes around 41 hours to get to Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet.

How to travel Tibet from Asian countries?

There are also many different ways to get to Tibet. If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Singapore, it is recommended to fly to Chengdu and from Chengdu, they can travel to Tibet directly. If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Malaysia, it is also recommended to get to Chengdu and from Chengdu, they can directly fly to Lhasa. If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Thailand, it is recommended to travel to Tibet via Kunming and from Kunming, they can get to Tibet directly. If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Indonesia or Philippine, it is recommended to travel to Tibet via Chengdu. 

If the tourists are traveling to Tibet via Nepal, it is recommended to fly to Tibet from Kathmandu. The tourists can fly to Nepal and from Nepal, they can directly fly to Lhasa, the most beautiful sunny city of Tibet. There are plenty choices of flights to Nepal from Europe or USA and from Kathmandu to Tibet, there is a direct daily flight which is just one hour flight over the most beautiful view of the Himalayan Mountains.

If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Australia, they will have to fly to mainland China first and then fly to Tibet. According to today’s flight schedules, it is recommended to fly to Chengdu which is closer to Tibet but there are more direct flights to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Zhengzhou from Australia and if the tourist fly to those mentioned cities from Australia, they can easily connect the next flight to Tibet.

How to travel Tibet from England?

There are direct flights from London to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing but all those cities in mainland China are far from Tibet so it is better to fly to Chengdu even if there is not a direct flight to Chengdu from London. The tourists can fly to Amsterdam from London and then fly to Chengdu directly. From Chengdu to Tibet, there are plenty of daily direct flights and it is just two hours flight.

How to travel Tibet from Hongkong and Macao?

It is very easy to travel Tibet from Hongkong or Macao because both of these two cities are very close to mainland China and if the flight cost is reasonable, again it is recommended to fly to Chengdu from those two cities and from Chengdu, they can fly to Tibet easily.

How to travel Tibet from Taiwan?

If the tourists are traveling to Tibet from Taiwan, the best way to get to Tibet is to fly from Taiwan to Xiamen city in mainland China and from Xiamen to Chengdu or Chongqing and from there, they can fly to Tibet directly. 

How to travel Tibet with a complete Tibet travel guide?

If you are planning to travel to Tibet, your first preparation is to have a valid passport which means at least your passport with the validity of more than 6 months. After that, of course, you need to look for a right Tibetan travel agency which means the local Tibetan tour company which must have been registered under the administration of Tibet Tourism Bureau and has all the related official licenses to be able to help you to arrange your Tibet trip and Tibet travel permits.

Once you find a right Tibetan travel agent, you need to tell the agent where you like to go in Tibet and ask the travel agent to design a nice Tibet tour program for you. Make sure that you will include all the places in your program that you would like to travel in Tibet because Tibet is a completely different travel destination than other European or US cities as you need necessary Tibet permits for your trip and your Tibetan travel agent should put all the places in the Tibet permits. Besides, you also need a Tibetan tour guide who can accompany you while you are doing tour in Tibet. Without a tour guide, you cannot enter the scenic spots or cross the checkpoints on the way.

To prepare your Tibet permits, it will take two to four weeks depending on where you are traveling in Tibet. It is always recommended to book your Tibet tour in one or two months advance so that you and your local Tibetan travel agents will have enough time to prepare all your Tibet permits and other necessary Tibet trip bookings.

How is the facility of your Tibet travel?

Language guides: Since the tourism industry has become one of the most important imcome industries in Tibet, there are more different language travel guides available. You can find English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, and Mandarin speaking guides.

Accommodation: For the last 20 years, Tibet has got a huge development and in all the cities and hot destinations of Tibet travel, you can get very good hotels including five stars and luxury resorts. Food: In all the big cities where you are traveling, you can find very nice and fancy restaurants where you can get continental food. In those of the remote areas, you can get clean Tibetan and Chinese restaurants as long as you don’t mind trying local food during your Tibet tour.

Transportation: Since the roads in most parts of Tibet have been paved and there is a very good condition of the road, nowadays, most of the tourists vehicles are comfortable mini vans, vans or buses. If you require to have car or 4*4 or cruisers, you can also book but in the one hand, it is not necessary to have it with such a good condition of the road and in the other hand, it is costly.

Scenic spots and the toilet facility: Nowadays, most of the scenic spots in Tibet are running under the standard of the Chinese government scenic spot management and most of the scenic spots are clean and providing western flashing toilet.

Tibet travel condition during Coronavirus

During Corona virus, Tibet travel condition is only dependent on domestic and local based tourism in Tibet. Even though in Tibet, we can move and act like normal, the Tibet travel condition is in a very poor situation that we can only receive some domestic tourists to Tibet and the number of domestic tourists have been dropped more than 50% comparing to the previous years. Besides, there is not a single foreign tourists which is allowed to travel to Tibet because of the severe situation of the Corona virus, spread in the western countries. The entire regional financial condition has become very difficult and the business of every industry except the construction site, has very much been dropped down and many people are losing their jobs.

Tibet Autonomous Region is trying it’s best to try to push forward the development of Tibet and try to create more new jobs to the people who are losing their jobs, especially to the Tibetan students who were just graduated and looking for a new job. Tibet Tourism Bureau has been trying it’s best to continue to develop domestic tourism in Tibet and trying to push the Tibetan tour companies to produce more unique and authentic Tibet tour products to the domestic tourists and local Tibetan people.

The Corona virus is a global disaster and it is something that we human beings did not expect to happen in the world of the 21^st century. As 21^st century is the most well-known century of the science and technology and it is also the time of the universe where people have become the richest from the point of financial side. Human beings have also become the most powerful sentient beings in the world that it is supposed to be the human beings who can kill any kinds of animals and eat them, no matter whether they are flying in the sky or moving on the earth, destroy any kinds of nature, no matter river, ocean, tree, grassland or mountain so it seems like human being is the number one in this universe and feel so proud of being the king for the last 20 years without considering the well-beings of the other sentient beings.

But it is just a huge wonder why this Covid 19 hits the entire world of the human beings very badly no matter whether the countries who are very much developed with the science and technology or the countries who are in a poor condition, the Corona virus is spreading equally to all those countries. Why the world still could not find a solution even if the Covid has been more than 11 months spreading all over and killing so many innocent people? Where do the technology and science hide?  

Does Tibet have cases of Coronavirus and how Tibet travel condition is during severe Coronavirus in mainland China?

Tibet has been extremely lucky so we have a very happy and proud answer is that Tibet does not have a single case of Corona Virus from local people. When the Coronavirus was badly spreading in mainland China, a tourist from Hubei province in mainland China traveled to Tibet in the end of January during Chinese New Year holiday. Just after he arrived in Lhasa, he had the symptom and had to admit the hospital, and finally recognized that he got Coronavirus. Suddenly, Tibet travel condition has become very different and serious that is to make sure all the tourists should leave Lhasa as soon as possible.

This single patient was treated in the Lhasa people’s number second hospital and after around 18 day’s treatment, he was cured and returned home.

During his Tibet journey on the train from Hubei province to Lhasa, there were many other local Tibetans and Chinese who live in Lhasa, traveled to Tibet with him on the same train but none of them were infected which is a surprising news and something that did not happen in other parts of the world. Usually people get infected if they traveled together with a patient of Coronavirus. After this tourist went back to mainland China, Tibet did not have a case of Coronavirus any more.

However, Tibet has been closed to all tourists for more than 2 months in order to make sure to have a safe and healthy lives to the local Tibetans during the severe Covid 19. Tibet Autonomous Region does not want to have this bad virus and effect to the life of the locals and their daily activities. After around two months, the situation in mainland China was getting better and Wuhan was also opened to the other cities of China and Tibet Autonomous Region was also slowly opened to the domestic tourists and Tibet travel condition during the severe Coronavirus was getting better. Till now there is not a single case of Coronavirus in Tibet so Tibet has become the safest travel destination in the world during the pandemic period.

Why Tibet Does not have a single case of Coronavirus?   

As I am a local Tibetan, living in Lhasa and have worked in Tibet travel business for 20 years. I have come through a difficult time of Tibet travel condition and tough business during Sars in 2004 but have never gone through such a difficult time of our business during this severe Coronavirus. However, I have witnessed that Tibet did not have a single case of both of those two virus even if we had people traveling to Tibet from other provinces of mainland China.

The other name of Tibet is called a pure land or holy land, is it because of Tibet as being a pure land or holy land so that we did not have Coronavirus or Sars? Majority people consider that the Coronavirus has transferred to human bodies from wild animals or insects. The original disease of this virus is supposed to have come from people who ate different kinds of wild animals and insects and many people believe it is the result of cause and effect which was taught in Buddhism more 2000 years back. Is it because Tibetans don’t eat wild animals or different kinds of insects so that Tibet did not have Coronavirus?

Many people in mainland China believe why Tibetans are not effected by Coronavirus is because Tibetans don’t kill wild lives, don’t eat insects, besides, Tibetans believe in Buddhism with a compassionate heart. Is it because of being compassionate to other beings?

Many people also talk about why Tibet does not have Coronavirus is because Tibet has many monasteries and lots of old and very sacred statues including the images of Buddha Shakyamuni, blessed by Buddha himself during his life time and thousands of monks praying every day so it is because of the blessings of the old temples, monasteries, sacred statues of different Buddha and holy monks who give blessings to Tibetans.

As being a local Tibetan, I believe there must have a relation to those of the above mentioned questions regarding on why Tibet does not have Coronavirus and I think probably, there might be another reason that Tibetans’ lungs are much stronger than the people who live in lower altitude places so that the Covid cannot hit and effect. How would you answer to those above questions?

How is the Tibet travel condition during Coronavirus?

We have been working mainly for foreign tourists who travel to Tibet and have served more than several million foreign tourists to assist them to travel to Tibet during those last 20 years but 2020 year, because of this bad Covid 19, we don’t have a single foreign tourist who are allowed to travel to Tibet even if Tibet does not have a single case of the Corona virus. It is because of the continuous spread of the bad Coronavirus in the western countries.

Tibet is a beautiful country and it is one of the most wanted travel destination in the world. Every year, there are millions of millions travelers, traveling to Tibet from different countries in the world and normally, by this period of the time, you can see lots of western tour groups, traveling around the Potala Palace and Jokang temple in Lhasa, trekking to the Everest basecamp and adventuring to the holy Mt Kailash but there is not a single foreign tourist that you can see because of the Covid.

Since Chinese government worked very hard to get rid of the Covid 19, Tibet travel condition is getting better and better and there are more and more domestic tourists are traveling to Tibet. As the Chinese national holiday and Mid-Autumn spring festival is coming soon, many of the hotels begin to have busy booking and picking the business up.

Is it safe to travel to Tibet during Coronavirus era?

As earlier mentioned that entire Tibet does not have a single case of Coronavirus, Tibet is of course the safest place to travel during this Coronavirus era. There are more and more domestic tourists are traveling to Tibet and since many domestic tourists cannot travel abroad, Tibet has become the hottest travel destination now.

In the future, if the worldwide travel is opened, I think Tibet is the first travel destination where people can travel safely without worrying to be infected from Coronavirus since Tibet has never had Coronavirus from the beginning of Coronavirus until now. The tourists should not worry from anything. Tourists can eat wherever they want to and they can sleep wherever they want to. Tibet is a very safe place to travel. During Coronavirus era, Tibet is the only place where you can see people walking in the street, or shopping mall, eating food in the restaurant, watching movies in the cinema hall without wearing mask.

When is Tibet travel condition better and Tibet travel business returns to normal?

As long as Covid 19 is over in the western countries, Tibet travel condition is better and slowly Tibet will pick it’s travel season. Even if Tibet does not have a single case of Coronavirus, if the situation of the Coronavirus is not getting better in the other parts of the world, Tibet cannot pick it’s travel peak season business. Tibet Tourism Bureau and all the people who work in Tibet tourism industry hope that the Coronavirus will be slowly disappeared in the end of 2020 year and can bring Tibet travel business back in around may 2021 so let’s all pray that the Covid 19 will be gone soon from our universe and everyone can travel like before without any restriction.

After Covid 19, is Tibet travel condition and Tibet travel permit process same as before?

It has been a long time that all local Tibet travel agents and the people who are working in Tibet travel industries cannot work as before and their income has dropped very much than before. Many of them are waiting to be able to return to their career so as soon as the Coronavirus is over, Tibet Tourism Bureau will immediately allow foreign tourists to travel to Tibet and will remain the same process of Tibet travel permits. The duration of obtaining Tibet travel permit will be easier and shorter than before as Tibet Autonomous Region is working very hard to shorten all the permit process including Tibet travel permit.

What to eat and drink in Tibet during your Tibet tour?

Most of the Tibetan food is completely different from mainland China or other countries in the world. Originally, Tibet did not have variety of food but those of the Tibetan food was completely organic with lots of nutrition but today, since in the lower places of Tibet grows lots of different kind of vegetables like other countries, Tibetan food has devolved into many different kinds of items.

Due to the special geographical location, The higher part of Tibet is not conducive to the normal growth of ordinary plants. The main crops are highland barley, so the main food in Tibet is relatively scarce. Most of the Tibetan food is meat and dairy products.

In Tibet, the main raw materials are Yak meat, mutton, potatoes, radishes and other vegetables. In the olden days, the Tibetan food is Tsampa, made up of roast barley and Yak meat but in the present day, the diet is mainly rice, flour and highland barley. Tibetan Like oil, thick flavor and crisp food, spicy, they commonly used baking, frying, boiling and other methods.

Yak meat and mutton

Tibetan people mainly eat Yak meat, mutton and dairy products. Generally speaking, there is no so much vegetable in the pastoral area. From a single dietary structure, the pastoral area and even the whole Tibet belongs to a high-flat, high protein diet area. It is well known that Yak meat and mutton are high in calories, which help people living in high altitude areas to resist the cold. What’s interesting is that Tibetan people have the habit of eating raw meat. If you go to the houses of local Tibetan people, you will see the dried Yak meat and mutton hanging in the houses or tents. They eat dried Yak meat and mutton with Tsampa as their main Tibetan food.

Tibetan styled Dumpling, known as Momo in Tibetan.

Momo is not only a very popular Tibetan food but also a very important Tibetan food where people serve Momo to their important guests during Tibetan New Year or when somebody invites some important guests to their families. They also serve Momo when Tibetan people are having big party or celebrating some festivals or during wedding festival. There are several different types of Momo. One is a vegetable Momo, second one is a potato Momo and the third one is the Yak meat Momo which is the most popular Momo and consider as one of the best Tibetan food.  

Fried rice with wild Potato, known as Dreisil

Dreisil dish is a Tibetan special dish that people always serve during special occasion such as during Tibetan New Year, Tibetan wedding festival, special religious festivals and ceremony etc and Dreisil is the Tibetan food that people serve as the first dish because it is the symbol of auspiciousness and good luck. The process of making Dreisil is fried rice with butter, sugar and wild Potato. It is also very delicious and very unique.   

Tsampa

Tsampa is the main Tibetan food. The process of Tsampa is to dry and roast highland barley (barley, white , and grind it into flour. This is similar to the fried noodles in the north of China, but the fried noodles in the north are first ground and then fried, while the Tsampa in Tibet is first roast and then grind without peeling.

When Tibetan people eat Tsampa, they usually pour a small amount of butter tea into the bowl first, add some Tsampa , and mix them with their hands until they can be kneaded into a ball. When they eat Tsampa, they constantly knead it in the bowl with their hands. The ball is called “Ba”, which is delivered to the mouth.

Tsampa can make different kinds of Tsampa soup by mixing some vegetables , called “Thuba”. And also can be made some special Tsampa cakes as well. Tsampa is usually eaten for breakfast in the cities like Lhasa and as daily Tibetan food in the villages or remote area. The Tsampa has lots of nutrition and very good for your health.

Tibetan noodle soup

Since Tibet is a high plateau, the weather is very much changeable and usually it is pretty cold, especially during the winter time so noodle soup is a very popular Tibetan food, especially during winter time, in most of the Tibetan families, they serve noodle soup. Nowadays, in all the tea house restaurants, they serve Tibetan noodle soup and it has become kinds of new Tibetan tradition that all the local Tibetans go to tea houses and have noodle soup as their breakfast and drink sweat tea. These kind of tea houses are very similar to the coffee shops in the western countries.

Tibetan local Drinks

All kinds of local Tibetan drinks are indispensable to constitute Tibetan people’s nutritious food. Tibetan drinks include butter tea, sweet tea, highland barley wine, etc. In addition to the main Tibetan food of Tsampa, butter tea is also used as a daily drink. Butter tea and sweet tea are respectively made of butter, milk, salt and sugar.

In Tibet, it is an ancient tradition of the Tibetan people to treat guests with butter tea. Whether you go into the herdsman’s tent, or the farmer’s mud hut, or visit relatives and friends, the host will always make a yellow butter tea for you. When the Tibetans leave the country, relatives and friends come to the farewell party to present a white Khadha, a white scarf and a bowl of butter tea.They wish the travelers have a pleasant journey.

Like butter tea, they are all Tibetan drinks. In terms of taste, the butter tea is salty and the sweet tea is sweet; in terms of raw materials, the butter tea is made directly from tea, salt and butter, and the sweet tea is made from black tea, sugar and milk; the nutritional value of the butter tea is higher than that of the sweet tea, and the sweet tea is more suitable for the taste of tourists.

Another Tibetan drink is highland barley wine which is brewed after highland barley fermentation. It is drunk by men, women, old and young in Tibet, especial during special festivals, so the Tibetans brew a lot of highland barley wine before the festival.

From April to August in the Tibetan calendar, almost all traditional and non-traditional festivals, religious and non-religious festivals are displaced so during those special festivals, Tibetan drink a lot local barley wine or known as Chang in Tibetan. During summer, the people in Lhasa like to go out to have picnic by choosing beautiful and clean green grassland or pasture land where there is stream water and they drink a lot of barley wine. You can find people in groups of three or five, set up tents of various colors, while drinking barley wine, while singing and dancing, showing the charm of Tibetan wine culture.

There is a set of rules for Tibetan people to drink butter tea. Generally speaking, a cup of tea should be filled and serve to the guests. If you don’t want to drink it, don’t touch it. If you drink half of it, and can’t drink it any more, the host will fill the cup with tea. You will put it on the table and drink it again when you leave. This is in line with the habits and politeness of the Tibetan people.

Dairy products

There are many Yak in the nomadic area and more cattle and sheep and more dairy products in the farming land of Tibet. The most common are Yoghurt and milk dregs. There are two kinds of yoghurt. One is cheese, which is called “Da Xiu” in Tibetan. It is made of milk refined from butter. The other is made of milk without butter, which is called “A xiu” in Tibetan. Yoghurt is a kind of food after the scarification of milk. It is more nutritious and easy to digest. It is suitable for the elderly and children.

Milk dregs are the substances left after butter is extracted from milk. After cooking and water evaporation, the rest is milk dregs. Milk dregs can be made into milk cakes and milk blocks.

What to eat and drink in Tibet during your Tibet tour?

The above are some symbols of Tibetan food, especially the Tibetan food that people had in the olden days but nowadays, in the cities of Tibet, you can get variety types of food including continental, western, Tibetan and Chinese so on. If you are traveling to the major cities of Tibet such as Lhasa city, Tsetang city, Shigatse city, Nyingtri city, Ngari prefecture city, Nakqu prefecture city etc, you will get all kinds of food and drinks. You can find lots of Tibetan, Chinese, continental, western restaurants so you can choose any kinds of food and drinks during your Tibet travel. There are different kinds of local Tibetan beer, imported beer, whisky and red wine so there is no point to worry about the meals and drinks during your Tibet travel.

Even if you did not read about the food and drinks in Tibet before you travel to Tibet, your Tibetan local tour guide can take you to the most beautiful and tasty restaurants according to your wishes.

Mt. Kailash Kora is a must when you do Kailash pilgrimage tour or Kailash adventure tour. Mt. Kailash Kora is a Tibetan word which directly means circumambulate or go around a monastery, temple or a sacred mountain or holy lake.

MountKailash is considered as Mt. Meru, which is believed to be the earthly representation of the navel of the world, is situated in the Himalayan region of Tibet. The mountain is described as towering over its environment and being symmetrical in it’s regular shape, like a crystal.

Although we know that the altitude of the summit of Mount Kailash is not the highest on earth. The altitude of Mt Kailash is 6740m ( 221078ft), nothing special in a geographical region with the highest mountain range on earth, the Himalaya. Together with its northwest extension, the Karakorum, it includes all 14 peaks of the earth above 8000m ( 26247ft ).

There are also many mountains more than 7000m ( 22966ft ) in altitude, even in close vicinity of each other . Mt. Kailash is situated a little north of the likewise holy lake Mansarovar and directly south of this lake rises Mt Gurla Madhata ( Tibetan Nemo Nanyin ) to an altitude of 7694m ( 25243ft ) which is the third highest mountain of Tibet after Mt. Shishapangma 8027m ( 26396ft) and Mt Namchak Barwa, 7756m ( 25446ft ).

Not only is Gurla Mandhata 1158m ( 3798ft ) higher than Mt. Kailash, it is also extraordinary shape, standing way above all the mountains in it’s vicinity. However, Mt. Kailash is still believed to be the holiest of mountains and become very popular as it is believed to contact and actually bear the heavens, which sit on top of it. This is a real hub of the earth, which connects the earth to the universe. Besides, it has lots of religious stories and myths that attract the travelers and pilgrims to come to Kailash and do Mount Kailash Kora.

The exact position of Mount Kailash is situated in the far west of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, PRC. This position is about 100Km ( 63mi ) north of the northwestern edge of the border between Nepal and India and the PRC. Actually, the linear distance to the Tibetan capital Lhasa is 1280Km ( 800mi ), where’s to the Indian Capital New Delhi it is only 980Km ( 612mi ), and to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu is not more than 540Km ( 337mi ).

As a holy Mountain, Mt. Kailash is an object of religious adoration for the main religions of the old Indian and Tibetan cultural region, the Buddhist, Hindus, Bonpo ( the original religion of Tibet prior to Tibetan Buddhism ) and Jains. The largest numbers of followers of to those religions are those for Hinduism, three times more than for Buddhism, altogether around 1.38 billon people so Mt. Kailash is a very important holy site for those religious followers and it is a must for them to do a Mt. Kailash Kora during their Kailash Pilgrimage tour.

For Hindus Mt. Kailash, Kailash Parbat, represents Mount Meru, which by legend is the upholding pillar of the world’s 84000 miles high, where Lord Shiva resides with his consort Parvati. The word ‘’ Kailash “presumably comes from the ancient Indian language Sanskrit and was adopted by the British colonial power. Very likely, in the western world, we owe our knowledge of Mt. Kailash as a holy mountain to this fact. Other holy mountains and other holy sites in Tibet are much less known in the western world. For Hindus, if you have financial basis, Mt. Kailash is the holiest sites that they have to visit once in a life time and Hindus believe trekking around Mount Kailash is another big blessing for their lives. 

Adherents of the pre-Buddhist Bon-religion, the Bonpo, in Tibet were probably the first who lived in this remote landscape and really experienced the holy mountain, which they called Yungdrung Gutseg. Also the name Gang Tise is widely used; however it describes not only the holy mountain but this part of the trans Himalayan chain. For the Bonpo ,the holy mountain is dwells and their founder Tonpa Shenrap descended from the heavens. Among those religions, Bonpo do Mt. Kailash Kora anti-clockwise direction while the other religions are doing Mt. Kailash Kora clockwise direction.

Very interestingly, in the Jain religion, the mountain is called “ Ashtapada”, where Rishabha, their Adinath ( First Lord ), the first of their twenty –four Tirthankaras ( Enlightened Beings ) achieved enlightenment and entered Nirvana, the state of release from all suffering.

Ashtapada is the eightfold path which symbolizes the eight steps on the path to enlightenment. Interestingly, many travellers who embark on the Everest Base Camp Trek often pair it with the Mount Kailash trek to explore both sacred destinations. The satellite view of Ashtapada, with its northern and southern outliers, resembles eight legs, a highly emblematic feature of this holy mountain.

This aspect is something which also occurs in Buddhist mythology. There are mazing iconographic details present in the landscape of the holy mountain. Tibetan Buddhists call the mountain Gang Rinpoche, the Venerable Snow Mountain, which is also apostrophized as the Precious Snow Jewel. For Buddhists, Mt Kailash is the residence of Chakrasamvara ( Demchok in Tibetan ), meaning the circle of bliss which the cycle of rebirths is overcome, in union with his consort Vajravarahi ( Dorje Phagmo in Tibetan ), which is translated as diamond sow. Although this may seem a strange description of a goddess for Westerners, it is not for Buddhists, who regard Her as one of the highest deities on the Highest Yoga Tantra.

The Sikhs, adherents of another Indian religion, call the holy mountain Sumer Parbat, a name which refers to the old Indian scriptures. Although their first Guru Nanak Dev Ji visited Mt. Kailash during the third of his five holy journeys in 1514 to 1518, the holy mountain appears to be of less importance for them.   

Is it important to do Mt. Kailash Kora during Kailash tour?

No matter whether you are tourists or the followers of those above religions, the Mount Kailash trek and Kailash Kora is a must to do during the Kailash tour. All the followers of those above religions try their best to do Mt. Kailash Kora no matter whether the trail is very difficult or very high for them to walk but at the same time it is important to check your health condition when you are in Dharchen which is located to the foot of Mt Kailash and it is the place where you have to stay overnight to prepare for the Mt. Kailash Kora. If you have high blood pressure, serious heart problem or severe high altitude problem, you are not recommended to do Mt. Kailash Kora. Even if you are with a group, consult your local Tibetan tour guide and you would be better to wait your group members in Dharchen while they are trekking around Kailash.

What do we need to prepare before doing Mt. Kailash Kora?

Once you are in Dharchen, you need to tell your Tibetan guide to help you order packed Yak or Yak men for carrying the luggage during Kailash Kora because there is no Jeep able road and vehicles are not allowed to drive around Kailash so it is better to hire animals to carry the luggage and food. You can take the necessary food and clothes with you and the things that are not very necessary can leave with the drivers in Dharchen.

Eventhough you are healthy, it is always better to bring some high altitude medicine or oxygen just incase you have difficulty with high altitude during the trek around Kailash. If your Tibetan travel agent is a professional tour company like Tibet Shambhala Adventure, no need to worry about medicine as Tibet Shambhala Adventure brings high altitude medicine, oxygen and Gamo bags with our Tibetan guide so you are secured to do trekking around Kailash.

How Many days do we need to complete a Mt. Kailash Kora?

In general, the tourists complete a Kailash Kora within two and half days while the Tibetans complete the Kailash Kora within a day. For tourists or the pilgrims from foreign countries including Indians, they need two and half days to complete Mt. Kailash Kora. They start the Kailash trek from Tarpoche ( Sershong in Tibetan ) and trek to Dhiraphuk monastery for the first night. From Dhiraphuk, you will get a great view of the north face of Mt Kailash. The second day of trekking around Kailash is from Dhiraphuk to Zutrulphuk monastery by crossing Drolma la pass and the third day of Kailash Kora is from Zutrulphuk to Dharchen.

How many hours do we need to walk each day of Mt. Kailash Kora and what you can see while trekking around Kailash?

Day 1 of Mt. Kailash Kora: Tarpoche to Dhiraphuk, 5050m( 16568ft )/ 4Km drive/18Km/6-7hrs walk.

The total distance of Kailash Kora is 52km and the first day from Dharchen to Dhiraphuk is around 22Km distance and second day from Dhiraphuk to Zutrulphuk is around 17Km and the third day from Zutrulphuk to Dharchen is around 13km.

The first day of Kailash Kora can be started from Dharchen by walk or drive to Tarpoche which is around 4Km.

Most of the tourists take the Kailash scenic spot bus to Tarpoche and start the Kora from there. If you start the Kailash Kora from Tarpoche, in general, it takes around 6-7hrs but it also depends on how healthy and how fast you can walk in the high altitude so some people might walk faster than the mentioned time and some people might walk even slower than the mentioned time.

Tarpoche is the place where there is a giant prayer flag pole and it is the first prostration point to Mt. Kailash. There are many beautiful and colorful prayer flags surrounding Tarpoche. They are rectangular pieces of fabric ranging from the size of a postcard to a very large size and usually in series of the five colors blue, white, red, green and yellow for the five elements sky/space, air, fire, water and earth respectively.

In Tibet, they are called “ Lungta” ( wind horse ), with a horse or other sacred symbol and prayers printed on them, to be blown by the wind all over the world.

Every year, during Saga Dawa festival, thousands of pilgrims and tourists gather at Tarpoche and there is also a very important religious ceremony, held by the local monks around Mt. Kailash region. The prayer flag of the Giant prayer flags are replaced by new ones and offered lots of prayer flags and raised in the hills by the local pilgrims and tourists as well.

During the Mt. Kailash Kora, after walking from Tarpoche, you can see Choku Gompa on the left side of the valley, located on the hill at 4875m( 15994ft ), the first of the five monasteries ( Gompas in Tibetan ) on the Kailash Kora. It is a climb of more than 100m ( 328ft ) to get here but the magnificent view of Mt Kailash compensates one for the effort to climb here. There are two most sacred and important objects inside the monastery, a white conch shell and a big teapot Naropa. Naropa was one of the most famous Pandits in India, more than thousand years back.

Above the monastery, climbing up the steep rugged rocks of Mt. Nyan-ri, there are two famous caves to be found, one in which Mila Repa used to meditate. Mila Repa was a very famous Tibetan Yogi in the 11^th century who achieved the enlightenment once in his life time and he is also one of the founders of Kagyupa sect in Tibetan Buddhism as well as the founder of Sekar Gutok in Lhodark county near the border between Bhutan and Tibet. Another cave is called Langchen Bephuk, the Elephant Cave, is said that Padamasambhava or ( Guru Rinpoche in Tibetan ) use to meditate in the cave and is said to have buried sacred texts to be rediscovered after centuries.

In the slopes on the other side of the valley, above some old decaying Chortens, there is another cave where the Bon Shaman Naro Bonchung resided when Mila Repa arrived and claimed the Mt Kailash area as a Buddhist pilgrimage site. While continuing Mt. Kailash Kora along close to the sheer cliffs of the Kailash massif, the mountains on the other west site of the valley are called Palaces of Tara, Amitayus and Vijaya and the last one to the north is named after King Gesar of Ling.

There is a long thin waterfall from the vertical cliffs, called the tail of King Gesar’s horse, which can be fanned out by the wind really looking like a horse’s tail. Gesar. Gesar is a legendary Tibetan king, whose heroic deeds are told in a great central –Asian Epos. The cliffs on the east, the Kailash side of the valley appear even more inaccessible with vertical faces of up to 1000m ( 3281ft ) height. One is called Gompo Beng, after the demon, who was converted and became a Dharma protector. The next object that you can see is Guru Rinpoche’s Torma which stands like a guardian at the entrance of a narrow valley cut into the cliffs. Torma is a Tibetan word which is a ritual offering made from flour and butter, usually in conical shape like a sugar cone.

This is the western gate of Mt Kailash , the sheer summit of which is seen above the cliffs. The western face of the mountain is believed to be of ruby. Close by is the second Chaktsal Gang, the second prostration point to Mt.kailash during Kora, indicated by a cairn and prayer flags, where the pilgrims perform prostrations towards the holy mountain. After only a short distance, when the edge of Mt Kailash’s northern face comes into sight, there are some tents where Tibetans sell tea and cookies. This place, about 6Km ( 3.7 mi ) from the Chuku bridge , is called Tamdrin Donkhang at 4882m (16017 ft), the guest house of the protector deity Tamdrin ( Hayagriva in Sanskrit ), a wrathful form of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Here also is one of the Buddha’s footprint, when he nailed down Mt. Kailash as a protection against being carried away by Gompo Beng, a marked impression in the side of a rock decorated with prayer flags.

After Tamdrin tea house, the Kora path turns in a large curve from a northern to an eastern direction. There is a bridge to the other site of the Lha chu and a path, even a track for a jeep, leading to the Dhiraphuk monastery ( Gompa in Tibetan ) at the altitude of 5050m ( 16568ft ), which was built around a cave with an indentation of a Yak horn. From this Gompa, the view of the north face of Mt Kailash, believed to be made of emerald, is outstanding. There are several guest houses for Indian pilgrims, close to the Gompa, reached at the entrance of the Gangjam Chu valley with a direct view to the spectacular north face of Mt. Kailash. The best and cleanest guest house is on the other side of the Drolma Lha chu valley which is the opposite of Dhiraphuk Gompa. Dhiraphuk Gompa is the second monastery ( Gompas ) on the Kailash Kora and the third prostration point to Mt. Kailash during Kora is from Dhira Phuk Gompa.

Why the monastery is called as Dhiraphuk?

When Gyelwa Gotsangpa, a monk resident of Gossul Gompa at lake Mansarovar tried to explore the pilgrim path around Mt. Kailash in the years 1213-1217, he was surprised by a thunderstorm and had no protection from it. There appeared a dri, a female Yak, walking to a cave, and Gotsangpa followed her and found shelter. The dri made the indentation in the rock with her horn and disappeared. She was an emanation of the Lion-faced Dakini ( Senge Khandroma in Tibetan ) who protects a pass of the Inner Kailash Kora.

When Gyelwa Gotsangpa continued his exploration of the Kailash pilgrimage path, he did not know which of the high passes he could tackle. A pack of 21 wolves appeared and ran up the valley towards the Drolma La. Gotsangpa followed them and found the path to the Drolma La. The wolves, however disappeared into the Drolma Rock. They were emanations of the 21 Taras. 

Is it worthy to spend two nights at Dhiraphuk Gompa?

If you had enough time, it is highly recommended to spend two nights in Dhiraphuk because on the first day, you trek to Dhiraphuk from Tarpoche and the second day, you can trek to the base of the north face of Mt Kailash. The north face of Mt.Kailash is called Charansparsh by Indians and many of the pilgrims and tourists also call Inner Kora but this might be wrong because inner Kora is either the trail through Kangdro Sanglam or the trail in side of Gyangdark monastery, located above Dharchen.

The entire distance of the trekking to the north face of Kailash from Dhiraphuk is around 4km distance which will take you around 4 hours and the average elevation is above 5000m. On the way during your trek to the north face of Mt. Kailash, you can see beautiful flowers and small plants. Most of those flowers and plants can be used for making Tibetan traditional medicine. Some of the plants and flowers are very beautiful.

You can reach very close to the north face of Mt. Kailash and you can even touch the Mt. Kailash so it’s also called touch Kailash. The scenery around is extremely beautiful with a great view of Mt Kailash. Many tourists and pilgrims believe that you can achieve a great blessing if you can touch the Kailash but without taking this one day trek, you don’t get a chance to touch the Kailash so it is recommend to spend two nights in Dhirpahuk and have a day excursion to touch the foot of the Kailash.

Spending more days at Dhira Phuk Gompa is another interesting to explore more around the north face of Mt. Kailash.

If you spend more days around Dhira Phuk Gompa, there is a chance to explore more around the north face of Mt. Kailash. Not only trekking to the north face of Mt. Kailash to touch the north face of Mt. Kailash and get a deep blessing from Kailash but can also trek further to the right hand side of the north face of Mt. Kailash where the three beautiful mountain peaks, called as Rigsum Gompo in Tibetan are located. The mountain of Rigsum Gompo are the symbols of the Manjushri, Vajarapani and Avalokteshvara.

It is a very beautiful day trek from Dhira Phuk Gompa to Rigsum Gompo mountain and one of the most beautiful mountain peak next to Mt. Kailash is the Manjushri. You can trek almost all the way to the peak of the Manjushri and will get a surprising and extremely beautiful view of Mt. Kailash and the entire valley of Mt. Kailash Kora between Tarpoche and Dhira Phuk Gompa. If you had enough time, you could spend between three to four days around Dhira Phuk to explore those beautiful mountains and the north face of Mt. Kailash.

Day 2 of Kailash Kora: Dhiraphuk to Zutrulphuk, 4835m ( 15863ft )/ 17Km/7-8 hrs.

The climbing path starting below Dhiraphuk Gompa zigzags up to a plateau at the altitude of 5200m ( 17060ft ), passing the entrance of the Polung Chu valley, which runs parallel to Gangjam Chu valley towards Mt. Kailash, another view to the northeast corner of the mountain opens. The third valley to the east, about 3km (2 mi ) distance from Dhiraphuk Gompa, leads to the Khandro Sanglam la,5675m (18619 ft) the pass of the lion –faced Dakni belonging to the inner Kora.

Again the path gains altitude in a zigzag to the next plateau and reach a sky burial called Silvatsal ( Cool Grove ), named according to one of the eight great Charnel grounds ( Sky burial in Tibet ) in the Hindu culture. In the pilgrims’ meditation, this is the place of the death and Tibetans believe if you lie down on the ground of this sky burial and meditate as if you are dead and imagine all the sufferings that one face when one will stay in the intermediate state ( Bardo in Tibetan ) the state of up to 49 days between death and rebirth after someone dies.

After the sky burial, there are still around 3Km ( 2mi ) to reach Drolma la pass, the path leads to the next plateau of 5400m ( 17717ft ) where there are two rocks forming a small tunnel are called the “ Sin-testing stone”. Tibetan pilgrims try to crawl through this tunnel, carefully watched by their fellow pilgrims. This is much fun and if one can crawl through the tunnel between the two rocks, it is believed that the person does not have sin but if one gets stuck in the tunnel, it is believed that his Karma is loaded with many sins.

The path then climbs the last ascent to the Droma La pass at 5660m ( 18570 ft). Shortly before the pass, there is a big rock next to the path, the Drolma Rock which is much worshipped by the Tibetan pilgrims and smeared with butter, on which money is stuck and decorated with prayer flags. This part of the Kailash Kora trail is the most difficult part as in the one hand, the altitude is already very high and in the other hand, the path is very steep and difficult to walk through the boulders and small rocks.

After spending 2-3 hours steep climb, finally reach to the top of the Drolma La pass, almost throughout the year, there is snow on the top of the pass and you walk over the snow when you reach the top and the pass is covered all over with thick layers of prayer flags and is the place of rebirth for pilgrims. At this altitude, it is not only the spiritual culmination but also physically the highest point they reach. All exhaustion is overcome with the happiness and pride at having reached this summit of their pilgrimage.

Although the Kailash is not seen from the top of the Drolma La pass, many Tibetan pilgrims perform prostrations in the direction of the mountain. Others place a picture among the prayer flags of beloved ones or those who died recently or they sit down and whisper prayers. 

If you don’t have a serious altitude problem, it is recommend to spend some time on the top of the Drolma La pass and enjoy the moment of the success of the most difficult part of Mt. Kailash Kora and then start the descent from the windy pass.

Among boulders, the path steeply zigzags down from the pass. To the right side of the trail, there is the Gaurikund ( Thugje Chenpo Tso in Tibetan ), a glacial lake at the altitude of 5567m ( 18264ft ), both Tibetans and Hindus believe it is a very sacred lake. High above the path on the right side there is a cliff at the side of Mt. Sharma Ri which pilgrims call the Ax of Karma. The descent continues steeply and if there is snow on the path, it is extremely slippery.

After around 3Km ( 2mi ) steep down, finally reach Lham Chu valley, in which the Kora covers the east side of Mt. Kailash and there is a Tibetan campsite at the altitude of 5235m ( 17175ft ). Here you can get tea, water and some cookies. There is a footprint of Milarepa nearby but without a local guide who can show you the cave, it is difficult to find. If someone is really tired and have altitude problem, from here you can call a jeep from Dharchen for emergency cases only. After around 2Km ( 1.5 mi ) walk down the valley, the third prostration point of Mt Kailash is reached, where the east face of Mt. Kailash, made of Lapis Lazuli, looms over the hills. This is the exit point of the path at 5118m ( 16791ft ) where people come through the Khangdro Sanglam La pass.

Although it is easy walking in the slightly descending Lhamchu valley, the next 6Km ( 3.7 mi ) seem to stretch longer and longer, until the Topchen Chu joins the Lham chu from the east, and the river is now called Dzong Chu. After another 1.5Km ( 1mi ) the Zutrul Phuk Gompa at 4835m ( 15863ft ) is reached. Zutrul Phuk is the third Gompa on the Kailash Kora.

Zutrul Phuk designates the cave of miracles performed by Milarepa during the competition with Naro Bonchung. The two competitors were running the Kora, Milarepa in clockwise direction, Naro Bonchung counterclockwise, as the Bonpo do. When they met at this place, heavy rain forced them to look for a shelter. The rock plate Milarepa split with his hand to use as a roof was too heavy for Naro Bonchung, so Milarepa had to hold it himself with his head and one hand while putting other rocks under it as support. Then he temped it with his feet from the top of the plate. The plate with Milarepa’s hand imprint on the lower side and his foot imprint on top of it can be seen at Zutrul Phuk Gompa, the monastery built around this miraculous cave ( Tibetan Zutrul means miracle )

Day 3 of Mt. Kailash Kora: Zutrul Phuk Gompa to Zongdo

At Zutrul Phuk Gompa, a path starts which leads up the hills behind the Gompa into the Gedhun Lha Chu or ( Ganden Lha Chu ) valley via Gevo La and Shapje La to the Gyangdark Gompa. The conventional Kora crosses the Gedhun Lha Chu, a river named “the urine of Mt. Kailash” a short distance beyond the Zutrul Phuk Gompa.

For the next 6.5 ( 4 mi ) the Mt. Kailash Kora leads in a southwest direction along the Dzong Chu until the valley opens into the Barka plain at the fourth prostration point to Mt. Kailash. During today’s easy walk down the valley, there are more footprints and other sacred points marked with prayer flags. At the last part of this walk, there is a flat area close to the Dzong Chu, the Dakini Dancing Ground. Above the path is Trangser Trangmar, slope with golden and red sand, where King Gesar shot a Drong ( a wild Yak ) and the blood stained the golden sand red. There are also sands of other colors, malachite green and black, brown and ochre. All the tourists or pilgrims often prefer to complete the Mt. Kailash Kora at Dzongdo and take scenic spot buses back to Dharchen at the distance of 3.5Km ( 2mi ).  

How can you trek to Nandi Kora?

Apart from normal Kailash Kora, there is a couple of different Kailash Kora and among them, Nandi is one of them. At Mt. Kailash, there is a so-called inner Kora, which however does not lead around the holy Mountain but around an outlier in the southeast, the Nandi ( Neten Yelakzung in Tibetan ) at the altitude of 6000m ( 19685ft ). The Buddhist understands it as the landing place of the Buddha with the 500 Arhats, where it is sacred to the Hindus, who understand this mountain as a bull ( Nandi in Sanskrit ), the riding animal of God Shiva. Therefore, this path is more appropriately named Nandi Kora, instead of “inner Kora of Mt. Kailash”. It leads into the south face of Mt.Kailash , where there are the thirteen Chortens ( Serdung Chuksum in Tibetan ) and over the adjacent pass Charok Phurdod La pass at 5806m ( 19049ft ) between Mt.Kailash and Nandi.

How and when you can trek across Khandro Sanglam, known as inner Kora?

An alternative to the Drolma la, the pass of Tara is the path over a steep glacial slope to the Khandro Sanglam ( A short cut and secret path of Dakini ). Dakini is a sky-walking deity. Dakini is one of the female deities which are known as important helpers or consorts in Tantric Buddhism. The lion-faced Dakini is an especially powerful leading Dakini. This secret Dakini path does not lead all around Mt. Kailash, it only covers part of the distance of circumambulation of Kailash. It is treated as very special path, not open to the general pilgrim. Understanding the more or less, circular normal Kailash Kora as the Mandala of Mt. Kailash, these paths lead inside into the Mandala, which is understood as the residence of the deity, to which the holy site Mt, Kailash is assigned. From this it becomes obvious that the pilgrim must collect considerably more merits before being allowed to walk the tracks of these paths of the Inner Kora.

The pilgrims or tourists are only allowed to walk over Khandro Sanglam as long as one did 12 times of Mt. Kailash Kora already. Once someone does twelve times walk around Mt. Kailash Kora, one has the merits or right to walk over the trail of Khandro Sanglam.

What if someone cannot do twelve times of normal Mt. Kailash Kora but really wants to walk over the pass of Khandro Sanglam? According to the Mt. Kailash Kora, it is believed that Mt. Kailash Kora is as the circular of the Mandala and crossing over the Khandro Sanglam is something like walking over the Mandala without opening the door of the Mandala so it is believed that pilgrims should complete twelve circumambulation of Mt.Kailash on the normal Kora and when the pilgrims do thirteen times of circumambulation of Mt. Kailash Kora, it is believed that the door of the Mandala is opened and you can walk across the pass of Khandro Sanglam because Khandro Sanglam is considered as the access into the Mandala.

If the tourists or pilgrims don’t have time of doing twelve times of Kailash Kora, one can take the opportunity of just doing one time Kailash Kora during horse Year. The elements given to the animal of the year define five cycles of twelve years, a way to count cycles of sixty years. The is another way of calculating the merits of the Kailash Kora in the horse year, whereas it is said to be worth twelve times the merits of the Kailash Kora, which means that a Kora in the horse year counts as if the Kora would have been performed in each year of the twelve year cycle so when one does a Kailash Kora in the horse year, one can walk over the Khandro Sanglam pass.

When is the best time to do Mt. Kailash Kora?

In General, the Mt. Kailash Kora can be done from the end of April until the end of October. During these period of the time, usually, there is neither heavy snow fall on the path of Mt. Kailash, nor heavy rainfall as well. There might have some snow on the trail of the Drolma La pass in around end of April and beginning of May or end of October but you could still do the Mt. Kailash Kora except it is a bit colder than usual time.

The best time to do Mt. Kailash Kora is between end of May until mid-July and from the end of August until mid-October. During this period of time, usually, there is neither snow nor rainfall so it is the best blue sky weather most of the time and it is highly recommend to visit Kailash by this time.

What do we need to bring for Kailash Kora?

Here are some suggestions of what to bring for the Kailash Kora, given by Tibet Shambhala Adventure according to our many years’ experience of organizing Kailash tours.

1. Comfortable wind & water proof jacket
2. Comfortable wind & water proof trekking pants
3. Water proof rain coat
4. Comfortable trekking shoes
5. 2-3 pairs of high-quality wool trekking socks
6. Pairs of trekking underwear
7. One pair of thermal tops and bottoms
8. Two good quality T-shirts
9. One good winter coat or winter dawn jacket
10. One thick fleece
11. Gloves
12. Sun Hat with a wide brim
13. Skull cap
14. Polarized sunglasses
15. Trekking poles
16. 30-50 Liter trekking backpack
17. Sleeping bag rated between 10-15°C if you camp during Kailash Kora
18. Micro spikes (optional) If there is no heavy snow around Kailash trek, not necessary to have
19. Headlamp
20. 1-liter water bottle similar to Nalgene water bottle
21. Personal toiletries such as Sun cream Extreme SPF50+25ml,lip balm, small bottle of perfume, soap for washing hands, wet tissue(optional)
22.  Small quick-drying towel
23.  Blister &first aid kit:

Cold medicine,

Sore-through medicine

Headache medicine

High altitude medicine

Antibiotic

Amoxicillin

Gau Yuan An- very good high-altitude medicine made in Tibet

Antibioaxy blister Pads,

Under wrap,

Wrist brace,

Knee brace,

Adhesive bandages

Medical Tape- Lightweight, breathable surgical tape for blisters and cuts. 

Nitrile Medical Gloves- To prevent cross-contamination in case you need to examine someone.

Antiseptic or Alcohol Wipes- – Cleaning wounds.

Butterfly Closure Strips (3)

Dressing/Gauze – Sterile non-stick absorbent; for larger wounds.

Triple Antibiotic Ointment – Sample size tube.

Hand Sanitizer – Repackaged in a mini dropper bottle

Antihistamine Tablets (3) – For bites and allergic reactions.

Duct tape-tiny roll. Handy for any and all repairs

Antiseptic Applications – burn treatment application

Small Utility Tool – Which has knife, scissors and tweezers; e.g. Swiss army classic knife

Sewing Needle – Use dental floss for thread.

Safety Pins (2) – For slings fashioned from clothing.

Tiny Whistle – Check the sternum strap of your backpack; chances are you have one without knowing.

Mt. Kailash Kora Map

 

Different sacred mountains around Mt. Kailash