- Day 1: Arrival in Lhassa, tsf to city (3650m/60km). Hotel in Lhasa
You will be warmly welcome by our Tibetan guide and driver and accompany you to the holy city of Lhasa along with the view of Bharmaputra, known as YarlungTsangpo in Tibetan and a giant stone carved Buddha with more than a thousand years history.
- Day 2: Lhasa sightseeing: Potala, Jokang temple and Bharkor. Hotel in Lhasa
Sightseeing Potala Palace, winter Palace of the Dalai Lama, Jokang temple, the oldest and most sacred temple of Tibet, Bharkor, the ancient market of Lhasa and the most oldest and sacred pilgrimage path in Lhasa.
- Day 3: Lhasa sightseeing: Drepung& Sera monasteries. Hotel in Lhasa
Sightseeing Drepung monastery, the largest monastery in Tibet and one of the six biggest monasteries of Gelukpa sect in Tibetan Bhuddhism. Sera monastery, the scond largest monastery of Tibet and it is very interesting to watch the monks debating in the monastery.
- Day 4 Fly to Ali Kunsha airport and transfer downtown Shiquanhe (4280m/80km)
After breakfast, drive to Lhasa airport and take a direct flight to Ngari prefecture. It is a two hours flight and you will enjoy a spectacular panoramic view and it is one of the most beautiful Himalayan mountain flights. You will enjoy seeing lots of small and big lakes, full of snow capped mountains, vast grassland and Tibetan high plateau. The Ali Kunsha airport is the highest airport in the world and it is just located near Mount Kailash and Mansarovar. After arrival in Ali Kunsha airport, you will be driving to the downtown and rest.
- Day 5: Drive Senge Tsangpo-Namru-Longala pass (5160m)-Dungkar (4250m/139km) Lodge in Dungkar and Peyang on BB
After having a great night and rest in Senge Tsangpo, the northern route to Mount Kailash continues to the further south, the highway passes through Namru after 23km, where there is an important turn off leading to Tholing, 144km distant, in the upper Sutlej valley. Namru was formerly the seat of the Namru Chieftain (Namru Pon), a rank initially conferred on Hor Dodrak, chieftain of the Hor troups who migrated from Namru near Lake Namtso, after being mustered by the Mongolian governor Ganden Tsewang in 1679. Continuing along the Gar Tsangpo valley on the paved highway, you will soon reach Gar Years, the ancient summer capital of the Ngari viceroy, and Sogto village. Crossing Longala pass which is 5160m above sea level and 41km before reaching Tholing, there is a turn-off on the right that leads west for 13km to Dungkar where spectacular caves have recently been discovered.
- Day 6: Morning visit Dungkar & Peyang and afternoon, drive to Tholing (3650m/54km) Hotel in Tholing
After breakfast, explore Dungkar and Peyang and afternoon drive to Tholing at the distance of 54km. DUNGKAR PIYANG has around 1100 ye ars history and the murals in the cave are possibly the oldest in Ngari region. The oldest temple at Dungkar is attributed to Princess Lhei Metok, daughter of King Yeshe-O in the 10 th century, but the building that is most prominent nowadays is Tashi Choling. Tashi Choling was built for Tsongkapa's student Ngawang Drakpa in the 15 th century. Piyang is around 3Km from Dungkar at the far end of the valley. The oldest building in Piyang was the Karsak Lhakhang, attributed to King Yeshe-O. Both Dungkar and Piyang have extremely gorgeous paintings. Afternoon, drive to Dharchen and prepare for the three days Kailash trek.
- Day 7: Tholing- Guge Kingdom, 20Km , Visit Guge Kingdom- Tholing, Visit Tholing monastery. Hotel in Tholing
Morning, drive to Guge Kingdom which is just 20km to the west of Tholing or Tsamda county. GUGE KINGDOM was founded in the late 10th century by lineages of Lang Dharma, King Palkor Tsen's son Kyede Nyima Gon after the Tsenpo period was diminished in the late 10 th century and it was resided by 16 lineages of the Kings respectively. The citadel of Guge is situated up on a giant cliff and it has (300Meters) in height and 18,0000 square Meters in length. Eventhough the citadel of Guge was heavily destroyed, it still remains important Buddhist arts in Tsaparang. The wall paintings and the statues paint were influenced by Kashmiri style in 11 th century, Newari style in 14 th and 15th century, and Tibetan style in 17 th century respectively. The least damaged temples now are White, Red and Demchok temples and you can see damaged heads or shoulders of the statues and destroyed wall paintings on the wall in those temples. The Tholing complex originally comprised six major buildings. The most impressive building at Tholing is at the western focal point of the entire complex. The wall remains of King Yeshe-O’s Mandala chapel are unlike any seen elsewhere in Tibet.
- Day 8: Tholing to Tirthapuri, 43300mts, 240Km. Lodge in Tirthapuri. Guest house in Tirthapuri
Kailash northern route adventure tour turns to the east site and drive to Tirthapuri. There you will enjoy a bath in the geothermal hot spring and visit Zhangzhung or Kunglung Guru Gyam.
- Day 9: Drive Tirtahpuri to Dharchen (4660m/60km) Hotel in Dharchen
Morning, drive to Dharchen was formerly an important sheep station for the nomads and their flocks. Dharchen gradually transformed into a town where all the Kailash tour groups stay over night for the preparation for their up-coming three day Mount Kailash trekking. From Dharchen, you will have a great view of twin lakes of Mansarovar (4590m) and Rakshas Tal (4584m), shared respectively like the sun and moon, and which which are said to have associations respectively with the forces of light and dark. Further south, just on the edge of the Tibetan plateau and near the Himalayas is another snow-capped peak Mount Nemo Nanyi ( Gurlamandata 7728m) which is one of the highest inside Tibet. Its three peaks and four ridges form a Swastika, an ancient symbol of the infinity of the universe.
- Day 10: Dahrchen trek to Dhiraphuk (5210Mts/18Km) camp or Lodge
Today is the first day of your KailashKora which is totally around 53Km . You start your Kora from Darchen and after like 2 hrs walk, you will face DarpoChe where there is a huge prayer flag pole which is annually replaced by the pilgrimages on 15 th of forth Lunar month, known as Saga Dawa festival, As well as Trulku monastery on your leftside up on the hill side. You can also see ibex and blue sheep running in the rocky hillside while you are walking and then you will reach DhiraPhuk which was a monastery before but nowadays you can only see the ruins of the monastery as the monastery was destroyed in the cultural revolution.
- Day 11: Trek to Zutrulphuk(4810m) via crossing Drolma la pass(5636m/15KM) Camp or Lodge
Today is the second of your KailashKora which is indeed the hardest day of your three days trek. You will have to climb up to the top of Drolma La pass which is more than 5000Mt. There will be three sloppy hike to get to the top of Drolma La pass from DhiraPhuk and then pretty steep down hill with rocky path all the way to the valley. On the right side of the down hill path, there is a small lake called Thuje Lake, meaning compassionate lake.ZutrulPhuk was the cave where Mila Repa and NagroBonchung debated for their religion sects and nowadays, it is a small monastery.
- Day 12: Trek to Dharchen and then drive to Mansarovar east ((4590Mts/50Km) Guest house in Mansarovar on BB
Today is the easiest and last day of your Kailashkora as you will trek down in the valley with beautiful distant scenery of Rakshas Tal lake .From here you will depart your Yak men and kind Yak and shift to jeeps. You will meet your drivers and continue your tour to Lake Mansarovar. Rest and free afternoon around the lake.
- Day 13: Mansarovar east-Seralung-Trugu Gompa- Chiu Gompa (4590m/50km) Guest house at Chiu Gompa on BB
Enjoy a marvelous view of the entire Mansarovar and Mount Kailash during your breakfast. You will start the holy Mansarovar lake by vehicle which is 70Km distance in total and 20km distance was already covered when you come to Mansarovar lake from Mount Kailash last day Kora. You will be driving along the Mansarovar lake, with a fantastic view of Mansarovar, Gurla Mandata snow mountain which is over 7000m and Mount Kailash. On the way, stop for Seralung and Trugu Gompa. Lake Mansarovar or Mapham Yum-tso (victorious lake ) in Tibetan, is the most venerated of Tibet's many lakes and one of it's most beautiful. With it's sapphire-blue waters, sandy shoreline and snow-capped-mountain back drop, Mansarovar is immediately appealing , and a welcome change of venue from the often -forbidding terrain of Mount Kailash.
- Day 14: Mansarovar-Shiquanhe (4280m/260km) Hotel in Shiquanhe
Morning, enjoy a great hike along the Mansarovar lake west with a fresh air and blue sky, beautiful view of the Mount Gurla Mandata, the entire Mansarovar. Visit Chiu Gompa ( Sparrow ) monastery enjoys a fabulous location atop a craggy hill overlooking Lake Mansarovar.The main chapel contains the meditation cave of Guru Rinpoche. It is the best place to focus on the lake views. afternoon, drive to Shiquanhe.
- Day 15: Fly to Lhasa-Chengdu-home.
After breakfast, drive directly to Shiquanhe airport at the distance of around 80km and the road condition from Shiquanhe downtown to airport is paved. Take a two hours flight from Ali to Lhasa airport and continue fly to Chengdu for two more hours.