Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition: The Ultimate Kailash Northern Route Loop

20 Days
Terms & Condition | How To Pay? | Enquiry
The Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition is one of the most ambitious, deeply spiritual, and truly life-changing overland journeys available anywhere on earth — a magnificent 20-day crossing of the Tibetan Plateau that carries you from the golden rooftops of Lhasa to the sacred black pyramid of Mount Kailash, from the turquoise mirror of holy Lake Manasarovar to the crumbling palace walls of the long-lost Guge Kingdom, and back across the breathtaking empty grandeur of the northern Tibetan plateau. The Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition has been carefully and passionately crafted by Tibet Shambhala Adventure for travelers who want the complete, unfiltered Tibet — not just the familiar highlights visible from a tour bus window, but the remote, the sacred, the wild, and the profoundly human. Every single kilometer of this extraordinary Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition reveals yet another different and unforgettable face of the world's highest and most spiritually mysterious plateau. If you have ever dreamed of combining two of the greatest natural, historical, and sacred wonders of the entire Himalayan world into one single overland journey, this is the expedition that was truly and uniquely created for you.
Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition: A Journey That Begins at the Roof of the World
Your Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition begins in Lhasa, the eternal spiritual heart of Tibet, where golden monastery rooftops catch the soft morning light and the ancient scent of juniper incense drifts gently across cobblestone alleyways that have remained largely unchanged for centuries. A few carefully planned days of acclimatization in Lhasa are absolutely essential before pushing west across the high plateau, and they are days exceptionally and richly well spent. The iconic Potala Palace, the deeply sacred Jokhang Temple, and the endlessly fascinating winding lanes of the Barkhor bazaar together offer a rich, layered, and profoundly moving introduction to Tibetan civilization — its extraordinary art, its living and unbroken faith, and its remarkable cultural resilience across centuries of change and hardship. This meaningful opening chapter sets the perfect spiritual and emotional tone for everything that follows on this Sacred Mount Kailash Journey and your Kailash and Manasarovar Pilgrimage across the vast western plateau.
From Lhasa, the overland route heads purposefully southwest toward Shigatse, proud home of the magnificent Tashilhunpo Monastery, the traditional and historic seat of the Panchen Lama and one of the truly great monastic institutions of the entire Tibetan Buddhist world. Beyond Shigatse, the landscape begins its dramatic and endlessly compelling transformation. The fertile green valleys of central Tibet gradually and beautifully give way to increasingly open, wind-swept, and elemental terrain as the road climbs steadily through Gyantse and pushes onward into the high-altitude wilderness of the western plateau. One of the most powerful and emotionally overwhelming reasons to choose this particular Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition is the magnificent opportunity to visit Rongbuk Monastery and the northern base camp of Everest along the way. Standing at 5,150 meters with the entire breathtaking north face of the world's highest mountain completely filling the horizon is a moment that demands absolute silence — and one that leaves every single traveler forever and profoundly changed at the deepest level.
The Sacred Shores of Lake Manasarovar
No Kailash and Manasarovar Pilgrimage is ever truly or fully complete without deeply meaningful and unhurried time spent at the sacred shores of Lake Manasarovar itself. Sitting at a soaring elevation of 4,590 meters on the vast and wind-swept Ngari Plateau of western Tibet, this breathtaking high-altitude lake is widely and universally regarded as one of the most sacred and deeply revered bodies of water in all of Asia. Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Bon practitioners have faithfully made the long and demanding pilgrimage to its sacred shores for thousands of unbroken years, drawn irresistibly by the ancient and enduring belief that its crystalline, ice-cold waters carry the extraordinary power to cleanse not just the physical body but the deeply accumulated spiritual weight of many past lifetimes. On a perfectly still and calm morning, the lake reflects the surrounding snow-capped Himalayan peaks with flawless mirror-like clarity and breathtaking beauty, and the profound silence that settles gently over the water at dawn is unlike anything you will ever encounter anywhere else on this earth. Camping peacefully beside Manasarovar under a vast sky blazing brilliantly with a million stars is one of the most profoundly defining and deeply moving experiences of this entire Tibet Kailash Expedition — a sacred memory that stays tenderly with every traveler for the rest of their lives and calls many of them back to Tibet time and time again. This sacred lake crossing is one of the most treasured highlights of the entire Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition and a moment that no traveler who experiences it ever truly forgets.
Circumambulating the Sacred Black Mountain: The Spiritual Heart of the Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition
The undisputed spiritual and physical centerpiece of the entire Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition is, of course, the great and sacred mountain of Kailash itself. Rising dramatically and powerfully to 6,638 meters from the remote and wind-battered Ngari region of western Tibet, Mount Kailash is universally and without question regarded as the most sacred mountain on the entire planet by four of the world's greatest spiritual traditions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and the ancient Bon tradition that predates Buddhism in Tibet by many centuries. It has never been climbed by any human being, and in all likelihood it never will be — not because it lies technically beyond human reach, but because its profound and absolute sanctity firmly places it in a realm entirely beyond ordinary human ambition or conquest. The Kailash Northern Route Tour takes devoted trekkers on a magnificent, deeply moving, and spiritually transformative three-day clockwise circumambulation of the mountain, universally known as the Kora, covering approximately 52 kilometers of sacred trail through some of the most dramatically beautiful and spiritually charged terrain found anywhere on the entire Tibetan Plateau.
The awe-inspiring northern face of Kailash — the great and perfectly symmetrical black pyramid of ancient rock and gleaming eternal ice that gives the mountain its otherworldly and almost supernatural divine presence — is most powerfully and memorably experienced from the Dirapuk valley, where trekkers spend their first sacred and deeply contemplative night on the Kora. The second and most demanding day of the sacred circuit requires trekkers to cross the legendary Dolma La Pass at 5,636 meters above sea level, a high and wind-battered point considered among the most sacred in all of Tibet by devoted Buddhists, who hold the deep conviction that passing over it completely washes away the accumulated sins and heavy karmic burdens of an entire lifetime. The long and deeply rewarding descent brings you through a timeless landscape of glacial lakes, prayer-flag-draped sacred stones, and vast ancient moraines before the trail finally and triumphantly completes its full sacred loop back to the starting point at Darchen village. Every traveler who completes the Kora as part of this Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition returns to Darchen with a quiet and unmistakable sense of inner transformation that is genuinely difficult to put into words.
The Lost Kingdom of Guge: The Crown Jewel of the Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition
What truly and decisively separates this Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition from any standard pilgrimage itinerary anywhere in the world is the remarkable and extraordinary inclusion of the ancient Guge Kingdom — one of Tibet's most hauntingly beautiful and least-visited archaeological and historical treasures. Perched dramatically and almost impossibly on a crumbling desert ridge above the deep Sutlej River canyon near Tsaparang in the remote Ngari region, the haunting ruins of Guge tell the extraordinary and deeply melancholy story of a once-flourishing and sophisticated Himalayan civilization that vanished almost entirely without historical trace during the turbulent 17th century. The ancient monasteries that miraculously survive within its deeply eroded and weathered mud-brick walls contain absolutely breathtaking frescoes — vivid, richly expressive, and remarkably well-preserved against every odd — that rank confidently among the finest and most historically significant examples of early Tibetan Buddhist art found anywhere in the world today. Walking slowly and reverently through the haunting and wind-worn ruins of Guge at golden hour, with the impossibly deep canyon dropping dramatically away far below your feet and many centuries of profound accumulated silence pressing in closely from every direction, is one of those genuinely rare and privileged travel experiences that fundamentally and permanently changes how you understand human history and civilizational fragility. The Guge Kingdom is not merely a sightseeing stop on this Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition — it is a profound, humbling, and deeply emotional encounter with a lost world that very few travelers on earth ever have the rare privilege of witnessing firsthand. This is the true and beating heart of the Ngari Adventure Tour Tibet — the unwavering commitment to reaching sacred, forgotten, and profoundly meaningful places that most travelers in the world never even know exist.
The Northern Plateau: The Grand Finale of Your Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition
The long and contemplative return journey across the vast and elemental northern Tibetan plateau is itself a deeply profound experience that brings this extraordinary Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition to its most natural, fitting, and deeply satisfying conclusion. The immense landscape of the northern plateau is completely and overwhelmingly elemental in character — vast beyond easy comprehension, wind-scoured over countless millennia, ancient beyond imagination, and almost entirely untouched by human presence or any form of modern interference. Brilliant salt lakes shimmer magnificently across the sweeping open plain in every breathtaking shade of turquoise, cobalt, and deep emerald green, changing color hour by hour as the extraordinary plateau light shifts across the enormous sky. Wild kiang, the noble and magnificently fleet-footed Tibetan wild ass, graze in large and completely undisturbed herds across the sweeping high-altitude grasslands of the plateau. The extraordinary sky here, at this extreme altitude and in this immense and deeply humbling emptiness, seems somehow larger, cleaner, and more luminous than anywhere else on the entire face of the earth. This dramatic and unforgettable northern loop completes the full overland circuit triumphantly back to Lhasa through remote and rarely traveled terrain, making the Ngari Adventure Tour Tibet not simply a pilgrimage or a conventional sightseeing journey, but a genuine, demanding, and profoundly life-changing expedition into one of the last truly wild and sacred places remaining anywhere on our extraordinary planet.
Tibet Shambhala Adventure's Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition via the spectacular northern route is designed with the greatest care, deep expertise, and profound respect for travelers who truly understand that the most meaningful and unforgettable journeys in life are rarely the most comfortable or the most convenient ones. This is the complete and uncompromising Tibetan experience — sacred, remote, physically demanding, spiritually enriching, and utterly and permanently unforgettable in every possible way. If you are genuinely and wholeheartedly ready to cross the roof of the world on this ultimate Mount Kailash & Guge Kingdom Expedition, Tibet Shambhala Adventure is ready, deeply experienced, and truly honored to take you every single step of the way there.
Days Trip Outline Daily Activity Accommodation Guide & Driver Meal
Day 01: Arrival in Lhasa, Altitude: 3,650 m Driving distance: 55 km, Driving time: 1–1.5 hours Lhasa Kyichu valley-View of Potala Palace-Round Jokang & Bharkor Bazzar Hotel in Lhasa Local Tibetan B
Day 02: Visit Lhasa: Altitude: 3,650 m Driving distance: 5 km Walking time: 1–2 hours Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple & Barkhor Market Hotel in Lhasa Local Tibetan BB
Day 03: Visit Lhasa: Altitude: 3,650 m Driving distance: 28 km Walking time: 1–2 hours Drepung Monastery & Sera Monastery Hotel in Lhasa Local Tibetan BB
Day 04: Lhasa to Gyantse via Yamdrok Lake Altitude: Gyantse 3,980 m Distance: 260 km Driving time: 6 hours Walking: 1 hour (viewpoints) Lhasa-Quxui County-Gampala pass-Yamdrok lake-Karola glacier-Gyantse-Visit Palchoe monastery-Kubum Pagoda stupa Hotel in Gyantse Local Tibetan BB
Day 05: Gyantse to Shigatse Altitude: 3,850 m Distance: 90 km Driving time: 1.00 hours Walking: 1 hours Shigatse-Visit Tashi Lhunpo monastery-Tashi Lhunpo monastery Kora Hotel in Shiagtse Local Tibetan BB
Day 06: Shigatse to Sakya Monastery Altitude: 4,300 m Distance: 150 km Driving time: 3 hours Hiking: 1.5 hours Shigatse-Tsola pass-Sakya monastery-Hiking to the old ruins of northern Sakya monastery Hotel in Sakya Local Tibetan BB
Day 07: Sakya to Tashizom-EBC Altitude: EBC 5,000 m-Tashizom- Distance: 340 km Driving time: 6–7 hours Walking: 1 hour Sakya monastery-Pangla Pass-Great view of Himalayan Mountain range-Everest Hotel in Tashizom Local Tibetan BB
Day 08: Tashizom to Saga Altitude: 4,640 m Distance: 327 km Driving time: 5-6 hours Everest Base Camp-View of Mt Everest-Pekutso-Bramaputra River-Saga Hotel in Saga Local Tibetan BB
Day 09: Saga to Manasarovar Lake & Darchen Altitude: 4,670 m Distance: 480 km Driving time: 8–9 hours Saga-Drongba county-Sand dome view point-Baryang town-Duktso lake-Mansarovar lake-Kailash Hotel in Dharchen Local Tibetan BB
Day 10: Manasarovar Exploration Altitude: 4,670 m Driving: 80 km Walking: 2–3 hours Dharchen-Mansarovar lake-Chiu Gompa-Chiu Gompa Hotel in Dharchen Local Tibetan BB
Day 11: Kailash Kora Day 1 Route: Darchen to Dirapuk Distance: 20 km trekking Walking time: 6–7 hours Altitude: 5,080 m Dharchen-Tarpoche-Viewpoint of Gyangdark monastery-Dhiraphuk monastery-Viepoint of Mt Kailash Northface Dorm basis Local Tibetan BB
Day 12: Route: Dirapuk to Dolma La Pass to Zuthulpuk Distance: 22 km Walking time: 9–10 hours Highest altitude: Dolma La Pass 5,630 m Dhiraphuk-Sky Burial-Drolma la pass-Zutrulphuk Drom basis Local Tibetan BB
Day 13: Finish Kailash Kora & Drive to Tirthapuri Walking: 3-4 hours Driving: 60 km Zutrulphuk-Yamadewa-Dharchen-Tirthapuri Guest house Local Tibetan BB
Day 14: Kyunglung & Tholing Altitude: 3,800 m Distance: 260 km Driving: 5 hours Kyunglung Guru Gyam-Bon monastery-Tholing-Tsamda Hotel in Tholing Local Tibetan BB
Day 15: Guge Kingdom Exploration Distance: 34 km Driving: 1 hour Walking: 2 hours Guge Kingdom Sun Rise View-Visit Guge Kingdom-Visit Tholing monastery Hotel in Tholing Local Tibetan BB
Day 16: Tholing to Shiquanhe via Dungkar & Peyang Cave Complex Altitude: 4,255 m Distance: approx. 255 km Driving time: approx. 5–6 hours Tholing-visit Dungkar & Peyang cave-Shiquanhe known as Ali prefecture Hotel in Shiquanhe Local Tibetan BB
Day 17: Shiquanhe to Gertse Altitude: 4,450 m Distance: 480 km Driving: 8 hours Shiquanhe-Gegye county-Western plateau-Encounter Wild Animals-Salt lakes-Nomad Camp-Huge grassland-Gertse county Hotel in Gertse Local Tibetan BB
Day 18: Gertse to Sangsang Altitude: 4,500 m Distance: 450 km Driving: 8 hours Gertse-Tsochen-Tagyeltso-Tarabtso-22 Road workers station-Western Tibetan grassland- Sangsang Hotel in Sangsang Local Tibetan BB
Day 19: Sangsang to Lhasa Distance: 520 km Driving time: 10 hours Sangsang-Ngamring County-Ngamring lake-Shigatse-Lhasa Hotel in Lhasa Local Tibetan BB
Day 20: Departure from Lhasa Gongkar Airport Altitude: 3,650 m Distance: 55 km Driving time: approx. 1.00 hours View of the Great Potala Palace-Lhasa city-Kyichu valley-Lhasa Gongkar Airport End the trip

Inclusive

  • Accommodation as mentioned in the Kailash trekking program above or similar category, upgrading hotels are available for extra payment (Single room supplement required when single room is required or when single room is not available to be shared with others
  • All entry fees to the sites and monasteries mentioned in the above Kailash trekking program
  • Breakfast for entire Kailash tour
  • All necessary Tibet tour entry and road permits
  • Special Kailash permit
  • 1 Knowledgeable English speaking Local Tibetan tour guide
  • Kailash tour transportation by one good conditioned mini van, van, mini bus or bus according to the group size One time from downtown Lhasa to Gongkar airport transfer is included so the majority of the group transfer is included ( If your flight schedule is not the same as majority group, supplement of the airport transfer will be charged )
  • Mt. Kailash and lake Mansarovar tour conservation fee
  • Mt. Kailash trip conservative bus fee
  • Yamdrok lake conservation fee
  • Karola glacier conservation fee
  • Everest conservation fee for all members, guide and driver
  • Everest base camp conservative bus fee for both members and guide
  • Welcomed scarf, a bottled of mineral water
  • Touris accident and travel agent liability insurance
  • First aid kit, such as bandages and other necessary things
  • Different kinds of snack including biscuit, cheese, dried fruit, toast, coffee, tea, Jam for breakfast during the Kailash trek
  • Oxygen in the Tibet tourist vehicle incase needed

Exclusive

  • Both international and domestic flight ticket ( We can help you to book both international and domestic flight ) Train tickets ( We can help you to book your train tickets )
  • Lunch and dinner for entire Kailash tour
  • Service of maindland China or Nepalside ( If you need tour service in Nepal or mainland China, we can help you to arrange. Please tell our travel consultant about your required service details )
  • Riding horse for Kailash trek
  • Sleeping bag
  • Personal airport pick up and guide
  • Insurance including personal, medical, travel and evacuation insurance
  • Personal expenses such as (alcoholic beverages, laundry, phone call, etc)
  • Pack Yak and Yak men for Kailash trekking
  • Porters for Kailash trek
  • China visa ( We can assist you to get China group visa from Kathmandu )
  • Single Room Supplement: Hotels are typically based on double occupancy with twin-bedded rooms. If you prefer a single room or cannot share a room, a single room supplement will apply. For exact pricing, please contact our travel consultant.
  • Gratuities for the guide and driver: If you are pleased with their service, it is recommended to tip $7 (50 RMB) per person per day, to be divided between the guide and the driver.
  • Any extra cost in the event of landslides or any other personal nature expenses that are not mentioned above or Additional costs incurred due to unforeseen circumstances (such as natural disasters, traffic restrictions, loss of valuables, visa processing delays, flight disruptions, cancellations, etc.)
  • Day 1 – Arrival in Lhasa Altitude: 3,650 m Driving distance: 55 km Driving time: 1.00 hours. Overnight in Lhasa.

    Your expedition begins the moment the aircraft descends through bright Himalayan skies toward Lhasa Gongkar Airport. The approach alone is a spectacle — the wide, luminous valley of the Yarlung Tsangpo River unfolding below, flanked by dry mountain ridges and threaded with the silver braid of Tibet's greatest river. The drive from the airport to Lhasa follows this valley for 55 km, passing through traditional farming villages where barley fields and whitewashed farmhouses sit beneath fluttering prayer flags. After nearly two hours the city of Lhasa gradually appears, crowned by the unmistakable silhouette of the Potala Palace on its red hill. Today belongs entirely to rest. Altitude acclimatization is not optional on a journey of this scale — it is the foundation upon which everything else depends. Lhasa sits at 3,650 meters, and your body needs time to begin the quiet physiological adjustments that will eventually allow you to cross passes above 5,600 meters. Drink water, eat lightly, and move slowly. Those who feel well may take a gentle stroll around Barkhor Square as evening approaches, absorbing the rhythm of pilgrims completing their circuit, the smell of juniper incense drifting from stone censers, the murmur of mantras and the spin of prayer wheels. This is your first taste of Lhasa — let it be unhurried.

  • Day 2 – Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple & Barkhor Market Altitude: 3,650 m Driving distance: 5 km Walking time: 1–2 hours. Overnight in Lhasa.

    No visit to Tibet is complete without standing before the Potala Palace, and no description fully prepares you for the experience. Thirteen stories of white and crimson stone rise from Red Hill above the city, commanding the Lhasa Valley with an authority that is both architectural and spiritual. Built upon foundations laid by the 7th century Emperor Songtsen Gampo and expanded into its present form by the Fifth Dalai Lama in the 17th century, the Potala served for centuries as the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, a seat of government, a monastery, a treasury, and a mausoleum. Inside, gilded chapels house the jewel-encrusted tombs of past Dalai Lamas, their ceilings blackened by centuries of butter lamp smoke. Sacred thangkas hang in the dimness. Assembly halls the size of cathedral naves echo with the footsteps of pilgrims and the distant sound of chanting. The views from the upper terraces across the Lhasa Valley are alone worth every step of the climb. In the afternoon, the Jokhang Temple draws you into the very center of Tibetan religious life. Built in the 7th century to house a precious statue of the young Shakyamuni Buddha brought to Tibet by the Chinese princess Wencheng, the Jokhang has been the most sacred destination in Tibet for nearly fourteen centuries. The flagstones before the entrance are worn smooth and dark by the bodies of countless prostrating pilgrims. Inside, the air is thick with the warmth of butter lamps and the scent of incense, and the golden face of Jowo Rinpoche — the most revered image in Tibet — gazes out from the innermost sanctuary with an expression of infinite calm. Surrounding the Jokhang, the Barkhor Bazaar completes the afternoon. This ancient circular street is simultaneously a pilgrimage circuit, a market, and a stage for the full theater of Tibetan street life. Pilgrims in traditional dress turn hand-held prayer wheels and mutter mantras as they walk. Traders sell everything from yak butter and incense to silver jewelry and woven textiles. The Barkhor is not a tourist market that happens to have pilgrims — it is a pilgrimage circuit that happens to have traders, and the distinction matters enormously.

  • Day 3 – Drepung Monastery & Sera Monastery Altitude: 3,650 m Driving distance: 28 km Walking time: 1–2 hours. Overnight in Lhasa.

    If the first two days introduced you to the imperial and devotional face of Lhasa, today reveals its monastic soul. Drepung Monastery, founded in 1416 on the lower slopes of Gephel Utse mountain west of the city, was once among the largest monastic institutions in the world, housing a community of up to ten thousand monks at its peak. Walking through its whitewashed lanes — past assembly halls, residential colleges, storerooms, and kitchen courtyards — feels less like visiting a monastery and more like exploring a small city that happens to be dedicated entirely to the pursuit of enlightenment. The views from the upper terraces back across the Lhasa Valley, with the Potala Palace visible in the middle distance, are among the finest in the region. Sera Monastery, visited in the afternoon, offers something entirely distinct. Founded in 1419, Sera is famous throughout the Buddhist world for its tradition of dialectical debate. Each afternoon in the monastery's shaded courtyard, monks gather in groups of two — one seated, one standing — to engage in formalized philosophical argument. The standing monk fires questions, punctuating each point with a dramatic clap of the hands and a stamp of the foot. The seated monk must respond without hesitation. The courtyard fills with the sound of clapping and the animated voices of dozens of simultaneous debates, creating an atmosphere that is at once intellectually electric and deeply theatrical. To watch the debate is to understand something essential about how Tibetan Buddhism transmits its deepest teachings — not passively, but through rigorous, joyful, combative engagement with ideas. These two great monasteries prepare the mind and spirit for the long journey into western Tibet that begins tomorrow.

  • Day 4--Lhasa to Gyantse via Yamdrok Lake Altitude: Gyantse 3,980 m Distance: 260 km Driving time: 6 hours Walking: 1 hour (viewpoints) Overnight in Gyantse.

    The expedition departs Lhasa before the city fully wakes. The road climbs steadily southward through the dry foothills above the Yarlung Tsangpo valley, gaining altitude through a series of broad switchbacks before cresting Kampa La Pass at 4,794 meters — and suddenly, without warning, the world below changes completely. Spread across an enormous basin thousands of meters below the pass, Yamdrok Lake appears in a color that seems impossible: a deep, shifting turquoise that is neither blue nor green but something entirely its own, changing with every degree of the sun and every movement of cloud shadow across its surface. Yamdrok is one of the three great sacred lakes of Tibet, believed to be the earthly manifestation of a protective deity, and its presence in this landscape is overwhelming — not just visually, but in the quality of silence and stillness that surrounds it. The road descends to trace the lake's northern shore before climbing again and revealing the Karo La Glacier, one of the most dramatic encounters between road and ice anywhere on earth. The glacier descends in massive broken walls almost to the edge of the highway, its blue-white seracs towering above passing vehicles. Meltwater streams cross the road and vanish into meadows below. The historic town of Gyantse sits in the fertile valley of the Nyangchu River, surrounded by the ruins of a great fortified wall that once made it one of the most defensible towns in southern Tibet. Arriving in the late afternoon, there is time for an evening walk through the old town before rest.

  • Day 5 – Gyantse to Shigatse Altitude: 3,850 m Distance: 90 km Driving time: 1.5 hours Walking: 1 hours. Overnight in Shigatse.

    Gyantse preserves some of the finest 15th-century Buddhist art in all of Tibet within the walls of Pelkor Chode Monastery — a broad, walled monastic complex that once housed monks from three different Buddhist sects simultaneously, a rare and remarkable arrangement reflecting Gyantse's historic role as a place of convergence rather than division. The monastery's assembly hall contains murals of extraordinary delicacy and power, their colors still vivid after six centuries. The true architectural marvel of Gyantse, however, is the Kumbum Stupa — a massive multi-storied structure unique in Tibetan religious architecture. The word kumbum means "one hundred thousand images," and the stupa earns its name: across its nine stories and 77 chapels, thousands of painted and sculpted figures of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and protective deities crowd every surface. Climbing through the stupa is a journey through the entire iconographic universe of Tibetan Buddhism, level by level, from the outer courtyards to the golden crown at the summit. The short drive to Shigatse follows the fertile Nyangchu valley through farmland and small villages before arriving at Tibet's second city — larger, more commercial than Gyantse, but still anchored by the magnificent Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, founded in 1447 and the traditional seat of the Panchen Lamas. The monastery's golden rooftops glitter above a complex large enough to feel like a small town, with towering assembly halls, lavish tombs of past Panchen Lamas, and a chapel housing one of the largest gilded Buddha statues in Tibet. The afternoon kora walk around the monastery perimeter, among streams of pilgrims turning prayer wheels, is one of the most meditative hours available in any Tibetan city.

  • Day 6 – Shigatse to Sakya Monastery Altitude: 4,300 m Distance: 150 km Driving time: 3 hours Hiking: 1.5 hours. Overnight in Sakya.

    The road west of Shigatse crosses open windswept plains where the sky seems larger than anywhere else in Tibet, the horizon a clean unbroken line between tawny grassland and deep blue. After three hours the dramatically distinctive walls of Sakya Monastery appear — a great fortress of dark grey stone decorated with broad horizontal bands of white and red, the colors of the Sakya sect, which once governed all of Tibet under Mongol patronage in the 13th and 14th centuries. This is a monastery that carries the weight of political as well as religious history. Inside the southern monastery — the older and better-preserved of Sakya's two main complexes — an extraordinary library houses one of the largest collections of Buddhist manuscripts in Tibet, some dating back eight centuries, stacked on shelves that rise from floor to ceiling in an ancient hall that seems barely to have changed since the Mongol era. The assembly hall contains thangkas and sacred objects of exceptional age and rarity. A hike across the hillside above the valley brings the ruins of the northern Sakya complex into view — crumbling walls and collapsed towers spread across the slope, reclaiming slowly into the earth. From this vantage point the full scale of what Sakya once was becomes clear: not just a monastery but a center of civilization, a place where art, philosophy, medicine, and political power converged for two extraordinary centuries.

  • Day 7 – Sakya to Tashizom-EBC Altitude: EBC 5,000 m-Tashizom- Distance: 340 km Driving time: 6–7 hours Walking: 1 hour. Overnight in Tashizom.

    Today is a day of revelation. The road from Sakya climbs steadily through highland valleys and crosses a succession of high passes before entering the Mount Everest National Nature Reserve — and the mountain itself begins to reveal itself incrementally, at first as a distant white triangle on the horizon, then as a towering presence that seems to fill an unreasonable amount of sky. For most travelers, the first clear sighting of Everest from Tibetan soil is a genuinely profound moment. From the north, the mountain presents its most severe and uncompromising face — no foothills soften the approach, no forests obscure the view. The peak simply rises from the plateau with the blunt authority of something that has no need to announce itself. Rongbuk Monastery, the highest monastery in the world at 5,050 meters, sits directly beneath Everest's north face as though placed there deliberately to hold the mountain's gaze. Founded in 1902, it has served as a spiritual waypoint for pilgrims and climbers alike for over a century. The monks who live here year-round occupy one of the most extreme human habitations on earth, their days structured by prayer against a backdrop of permanent snow and the sound of glacial wind. From Rongbuk, the road continues to the Everest Base Camp viewpoint at 5,200 meters, where the full sweep of the Himalayan range stretches across the southern horizon — Everest flanked by Lhotse, Cho Oyu, and a dozen other giants whose names are legends in the mountaineering world. The scale of what you see from this point is genuinely difficult to absorb. Descend to Tashizom as the afternoon light fades.

  • Day 8 – Tashizom to Saga Altitude: 4,640 m Distance: 327 km Driving time: 5-6 hours. Overnight in Saga.

    Leaving the Everest region is its own kind of transition — a return from the vertical drama of the Himalayan wall to the horizontal immensity of the western plateau. The road stretches ahead through landscapes that grow progressively more remote and elemental as the day advances: broad river valleys give way to rolling grasslands, which give way to open plains where the distance between settlements grows and the silence deepens. This is the Tibet of nomads and sky and wind — a landscape without clutter, without distraction, where the mind naturally empties and the eye learns to find beauty in subtlety of light and landform. Occasional nomadic camps appear in the grasslands — clusters of black yak-hair tents surrounded by grazing herds of yak and sheep, the smoke of dung fires rising in thin columns against the enormous sky. These families follow routes that their ancestors have followed for generations, reading the land in ways that no map can fully capture. Saga, when it arrives after a long day on the road, is a modest frontier town with the particular character of places that exist primarily as waypoints for journeys to somewhere else. It is a town of truck drivers, pilgrims, and travelers, and it serves its purpose well.

  • Day 9 – Saga to Manasarovar Lake & Darchen Altitude: 4,670 m Distance: 480 km Driving time: 8–9 hours. Overnight in Darchen.

    Among the great driving days of any Tibet expedition, today's journey across the western plateau toward Kailash and Manasarovar belongs in a category of its own. The landscape through which the road passes grows increasingly raw and primordial as the hours advance — fewer villages, fewer signs of settled life, more sky, more space, more of the austere and magnificent emptiness that defines western Tibet at its most essential. And then, as the road bends around a long curve, Mount Kailash appears on the horizon. Even from a great distance, the mountain's form is unmistakable — a perfect dome of dark rock capped with permanent snow, rising symmetrically above the surrounding peaks like a statement rather than a mountain. Kailash is sacred to four of the world's great religious traditions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and the ancient Bon faith of Tibet. In each tradition it occupies the center of the cosmos, the axis around which the universe turns. Standing in its presence for the first time, it is not difficult to understand why. Shortly after, the sacred waters of Lake Manasarovar spread across the plateau in a vast shimmering expanse — one of the highest freshwater lakes in the world, its surface an extraordinary shade of deep blue that mirrors the sky with perfect fidelity. Chiu Monastery clings to a rocky outcrop above the lakeshore like a bird's nest made of stone, a tiny human structure against an immense sacred landscape. The monastery's ancient chapels contain relics associated with Padmasambhava, who is said to have meditated in a cave nearby. Darchen, the small pilgrim town at the foot of Kailash, serves as base camp for the sacred circumambulation that begins in two days.

  • Day 10 – Manasarovar Exploration Altitude: 4,670 m Driving: 80 km Walking: 2–3 hours. Overnight in Darchen.

    Manasarovar deserves more than a passing glance from a moving vehicle, and today gives you the unhurried time to truly inhabit this extraordinary place. The lake sits at 4,590 meters on a broad plain between the Kailash massif to the north and the Gurla Mandhata range to the south, its waters so clear that the bottom is visible at considerable depth. Hindu pilgrims bathe in its sacred waters regardless of temperature, believing that immersion cleanses the accumulated sins of lifetimes. Buddhist practitioners walk its 90-kilometer circumference as an act of devotion. Even those who come without religious intention tend to find something quieting and clarifying about this landscape — the extraordinary quality of light at this altitude, the reflections of snow peaks in still water, the vast and undisturbed silence. Spend time walking the lakeshore, sitting in the stillness, watching the light change across the water and the mountains. These are hours that cannot be scheduled or organized — only experienced. Return to Darchen in the afternoon to make final preparations for the Kailash Kora.

  • Day 11 – Kailash Kora Day 1 Route: Darchen to Dirapuk Distance: 20 km trekking Walking time: 6–7 hours Altitude: 5,080 m. Overnight in Dirapuk.

    The Kailash Kora — the sacred circumambulation of Mount Kailash — is one of the most significant pilgrimage walks in the world. Hindus believe that completing one circuit of the mountain washes away the sins of an entire lifetime. Tibetan Buddhists hold that 108 circuits bring enlightenment. Even for those who carry no specific religious conviction, the walk carries a weight and a quality of attention that is difficult to explain and impossible to dismiss. The first day follows the western flank of Kailash through a broad valley where the scale of everything — the mountain above, the sky beyond, the prayer flags strung across the trail — seems calibrated to make the human figure feel simultaneously small and essential. Pilgrims of many nationalities and traditions share the path, each carrying their own reasons and their own pace. The landscape shifts from open grassland to rocky moraine as altitude increases, and by mid-afternoon the extraordinary north face of Kailash — a sheer wall of dark rock and hanging glacier that rises nearly 2,000 meters from the valley floor — dominates the skyline directly above Dirapuk Monastery.

  • Day 12 – Kailash Kora Day 2 Route: Dirapuk to Dolma La Pass to Zuthulpuk Distance: 22 km Walking time: 9–10 hours Highest altitude: Dolma La Pass 5,630 m. Overnight in Zuthulpuk.

    This is the day that defines the Kailash experience — the crossing of Dolma La Pass at 5,630 meters, the highest and most sacred point of the entire kora. The ascent from Dirapuk is long and steep, gaining over 700 meters through a landscape of boulders, glacial moraine, and thin air. The trail demands a slow, deliberate pace, and many pilgrims stop to pray at significant points along the way, adding stones to cairns and tying prayer flags to the lines that cover every available rock. At the summit of Dolma La, thousands upon thousands of prayer flags transform the pass into a cathedral of color — a place where the wind carries the written prayers outward in every direction across the mountain. The energy at the top of this pass, among pilgrims who have climbed through exhaustion and altitude to arrive here, is unlike anything else on the Kailash circuit. Some weep. Some prostrate on the frozen ground. Most simply stand in the wind and look. The descent from Dolma La passes Gauri Kund, a sacred glacial lake of extraordinary stillness and color, before dropping through a dramatic valley of eroded ridges and scattered boulders toward Zuthulpuk Monastery, where the final night of the kora is spent.

  • Day 13 – Finish Kailash Kora & Drive to Tirthapuri Walking: 3-4 hours Driving: 60 km. Overnight near the region.

    The final stage of the kora is a gentle descent back toward Darchen — a quiet, reflective walk that allows the experience of the previous two days to settle. Many pilgrims find this last stretch the most meditative of the entire circuit, the mind finally quiet after the exertion and emotion of Dolma La. From Darchen, the road continues to Tirthapuri, a pilgrimage site of great antiquity associated with Padmasambhava, the Indian master who brought tantric Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century. Hot springs bubble from the earth here, their sulfurous steam rising beside ancient rock carvings and prayer flags. Pilgrims collect sacred white stones from the riverbed and circumambulate a small stupa believed to contain relics of Padmasambhava himself. Tirthapuri has none of Kailash's grandeur, but it has its own particular power — intimate, warm, and deeply layered with the accumulated devotion of centuries.

  • Day 14 – Kyunglung & Tholing Altitude: 3,800 m Distance: 260 km Driving: 5 hours. Overnight in Tholing.

    The drive toward the ancient region of Kyunglung takes you through landscapes of extraordinary geological drama — the western Tibetan plateau carved by millennia of wind and water into a terrain of canyon, cliff, and eroded tower that feels more like the surface of another planet than any conventional idea of mountain scenery. Kyunglung, in the valley of the Sutlej River, is believed by scholars to have been an early center of the Bon religion, Tibet's indigenous spiritual tradition that predates the arrival of Buddhism. The remnants of cave dwellings, fortifications, and ceremonial sites scattered across the canyon walls hint at a civilization of considerable sophistication that flourished here long before recorded Tibetan history. Tholing, reached by late afternoon, was the first great monastery of western Tibet, founded in the 10th century by Rinchen Zangpo, the great translator who carried the Buddhist renaissance from India back into the Tibetan world. Though much of what remains today is a remnant of what once existed here, the surviving temples retain murals and architectural details that speak to a golden age of artistic and religious creativity. Tholing is a place of quiet contemplation — a reminder that the westernmost reaches of Tibet have their own ancient depth.

  • Day 15 – Guge Kingdom Exploration Distance: 34 km Driving: 1 hour Walking: 2 hours. Overnight in Tholing.

    There are few archaeological sites in Asia as dramatically situated or as historically haunting as Tsaparang, the ancient capital of the Guge Kingdom. Built into and across a towering cone of eroded clay and rock rising from the floor of the Sutlej valley, the city spreads across multiple levels from the valley floor to the summit — palaces, temples, monks' quarters, granaries, and defensive walls stacked in tiers above one another like the layers of a civilization made visible. At sunrise, the clay walls glow a deep amber gold against the blue sky, and the silence of the abandoned city is profound. The Guge Kingdom flourished between the 10th and 17th centuries, producing some of the finest Buddhist art in the Tibetan world. The surviving temples at Tsaparang contain murals of extraordinary quality — figures of bodhisattvas and deities rendered in rich mineral pigments with a precision and elegance that rivals the best religious art of medieval Europe or Tang dynasty China. The kingdom ended abruptly and violently in the early 17th century, its population scattered and its ruling line extinguished. The reasons remain debated by historians, but the result is a ghost city of remarkable preservation, abandoned so completely that its art survived where more accessible sites were destroyed. Spend the full morning and early afternoon exploring at a slow, contemplative pace. This is not a site to rush.

  • Day 16 – Tholing to Shiquanhe via Dungkar & Peyang Cave Complex Altitude: 4,255 m Distance: approx. 255 km Driving time: approx. 5–6 hours.

    After breakfast in Tholing, the journey continues eastward across the vast landscapes of western Ngari toward Shiquanhe, the administrative center of the region. Soon after leaving Tholing, the road follows the wide valley carved by the Sutlej River, where ancient civilizations once flourished along these remote desert plateaus. Along the way we stop at the remarkable Dungkar & Peyang Cave Complex, one of the most significant but least visited cultural sites in western Tibet. Hidden within towering cliffs, this enormous system contains hundreds of ancient meditation caves, temples, and monastic chambers carved directly into the rock face. Archaeologists believe that these caves were used by monks and hermits as early as the 10th–11th centuries during the Guge Kingdom, serving both as meditation retreats and religious centers. Walking through the narrow paths and terraces of the cave complex reveals a fascinating world of ancient murals, small chapels, and stone stairways, offering a glimpse into the spiritual life of the early Buddhist communities of western Tibet. The site feels both mysterious and timeless, standing quietly above the barren valley that stretches toward the horizon. After exploring the caves, the journey continues across Ngari's vast open plateau. The landscape becomes increasingly expansive, with distant mountain ranges rising beyond wide gravel plains and dry riverbeds. In this remote corner of Tibet, the sky seems endlessly large and the sense of space overwhelming. By late afternoon we reach Shiquanhe, the administrative and commercial hub of Ngari Prefecture. Compared to the small settlements encountered along the route, Shiquanhe feels almost metropolitan, offering comfortable hotels, restaurants, and supplies for travelers crossing this immense western region of Tibet. The evening provides a welcome opportunity to rest before continuing the journey across the high plateau.

  • Day 17 – Shiquanhe to Gertse Altitude: 4,450 m Distance: 480 km Driving: 8 hours. Overnight in Gertse.

    North of Shiquanhe, the landscape shifts again into something wilder and less inhabited than anything yet encountered on this expedition. The northern Tibetan plateau — known in Tibetan as the Changtang — is one of the largest and least-explored wilderness areas remaining on earth, a high-altitude steppe of extraordinary ecological richness despite its apparent barrenness. The road crosses this plateau through a landscape of shallow salt lakes, rolling grassland, and wide river valleys where wildlife appears with the casual abundance of an ecosystem largely undisturbed by human activity. Tibetan wild donkeys — kiang — move in herds across the open plain, pausing to observe passing vehicles with aristocratic indifference. Tibetan antelope — chiru — graze in scattered groups, their distinctive straight horns catching the light. Black-necked cranes, the only crane species that breeds exclusively on a high-altitude plateau, pick their way through the margins of wetlands with deliberate elegance. This is a landscape that rewards patience and attention. Gertse, a small town in the heart of the plateau, provides shelter for the night.

  • Day 18 – Gertse to Sangsang Altitude: 4,500 m Distance: 450 km Driving: 8 hours. Overnight in Sangsang.

    The penultimate day of the expedition continues across the rolling plateau landscapes of northern Tibet, the road gradually arcing southeastward as the journey bends back toward central Tibet. The light on the northern plateau has a quality that painters and photographers have struggled to capture — clean, direct, and unfiltered by humidity, it renders colors with a precision that makes the landscape feel hyper-real, as though the contrast and saturation of the world have been turned slightly higher than usual. The grasslands here have a different character from those of the south — drier, more open, grazed by nomadic herds whose movements across the plateau follow the ancient logic of seasonal pasture. The approach to Sangsang marks the gradual return to more settled landscapes, the grasslands of the northern plateau giving way to the wider valleys and river systems of central Tibet.

  • Day 19 – Sangsang to Lhasa Distance: 520 km Driving time: 10 hours

    The final day of the expedition is a long drive and a slow return — through the river valleys of central Tibet, past farmland and monastery walls, through towns that feel increasingly familiar after the remote wilderness of the past ten days. The Yarlung Tsangpo valley appears again, wide and golden in the afternoon light, carrying the journey back to where it began. There is time on a long drive of this kind to let the full weight of nineteen days settle — the faces, the landscapes, the cold at Dolma La, the silence of Manasarovar, the golden ruins of Guge at sunrise, the north face of Kailash above Dirapuk in the last light. Tibet has a way of accumulating inside a traveler, image by image and experience by experience, until the total is something that resists summary. What began in Lhasa nineteen days ago ends here, at the airport, with a depth of experience that few journeys of equivalent length can match.

  • Day 20 – Departure from Lhasa Gongkar Airport Altitude: 3,650 m Distance: 55 km Driving time: approx. 1.00 hours

    After breakfast, our team will transfer you from your hotel in Lhasa to Lhasa Gongkar Airport for your onward flight. The drive follows the broad valley of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, offering one final view of Tibet’s high plateau landscapes before departure. As your journey comes to an end, we say farewell after completing an extraordinary expedition across Tibet — from sacred monasteries and ancient cultural centers to the vast wilderness of the Himalayan plateau. End of the expedition with Tibet Shambhala Adventure.

Start DateEnd DateAvailabilityPriceBooking
No Date Available Yet

Note: Contact us if the departure dates doesn't suit you. We can also arrange you a personalized trek according to your convenience. For more details, Contact Us

Inclusive

  • Accommodation as mentioned in the Kailash trekking program above or similar category, upgrading hotels are available for extra payment (Single room supplement required when single room is required or when single room is not available to be shared with others
  • All entry fees to the sites and monasteries mentioned in the above Kailash trekking program
  • Breakfast for entire Kailash tour
  • All necessary Tibet tour entry and road permits
  • Special Kailash permit
  • 1 Knowledgeable English speaking Local Tibetan tour guide
  • Kailash tour transportation by one good conditioned mini van, van, mini bus or bus according to the group size One time from downtown Lhasa to Gongkar airport transfer is included so the majority of the group transfer is included ( If your flight schedule is not the same as majority group, supplement of the airport transfer will be charged )
  • Mt. Kailash and lake Mansarovar tour conservation fee
  • Mt. Kailash trip conservative bus fee
  • Yamdrok lake conservation fee
  • Karola glacier conservation fee
  • Everest conservation fee for all members, guide and driver
  • Everest base camp conservative bus fee for both members and guide
  • Welcomed scarf, a bottled of mineral water
  • Touris accident and travel agent liability insurance
  • First aid kit, such as bandages and other necessary things
  • Different kinds of snack including biscuit, cheese, dried fruit, toast, coffee, tea, Jam for breakfast during the Kailash trek
  • Oxygen in the Tibet tourist vehicle incase needed

Exclusive

  • Both international and domestic flight ticket ( We can help you to book both international and domestic flight ) Train tickets ( We can help you to book your train tickets )
  • Lunch and dinner for entire Kailash tour
  • Service of maindland China or Nepalside ( If you need tour service in Nepal or mainland China, we can help you to arrange. Please tell our travel consultant about your required service details )
  • Riding horse for Kailash trek
  • Sleeping bag
  • Personal airport pick up and guide
  • Insurance including personal, medical, travel and evacuation insurance
  • Personal expenses such as (alcoholic beverages, laundry, phone call, etc)
  • Pack Yak and Yak men for Kailash trekking
  • Porters for Kailash trek
  • China visa ( We can assist you to get China group visa from Kathmandu )
  • Single Room Supplement: Hotels are typically based on double occupancy with twin-bedded rooms. If you prefer a single room or cannot share a room, a single room supplement will apply. For exact pricing, please contact our travel consultant.
  • Gratuities for the guide and driver: If you are pleased with their service, it is recommended to tip $7 (50 RMB) per person per day, to be divided between the guide and the driver.
  • Any extra cost in the event of landslides or any other personal nature expenses that are not mentioned above or Additional costs incurred due to unforeseen circumstances (such as natural disasters, traffic restrictions, loss of valuables, visa processing delays, flight disruptions, cancellations, etc.)

Add your review

Book Holiday Refer to friend