China
Other suggested itineraries
Tibetan Adventures
Surrounded by some of the world’s highest mountain ranges, including the Himalayas to the south, Tibet has retained a sense of mystery over the centuries due to its relative isolation and inaccessibility. The “roof of the world,” it is the highest region on earth, situated at an average altitude of 13,000 feet, with seemingly endless, dramatic vistas of mountains and valleys.
Destinations include: Lhasa, Gyantse, Shigatse, Tingri and Beyond, Mount Everest & Base Camp and Mount Kailash & Lake Manasarovar.
Lhasa
Check in to the luxurious St. Regis Lhasa, which opened in November 2010. Take a day to relax and acclimate to the air at 12,000 feet above sea level.
With your private expert guide, visit the phenomenal Potala Palace. Once the winter residence of the Dalai Lama, this architectural wonder is now a museum and treasure trove of Tibetan history, housing magnificent pearls, jewels and antiques.
Explore the vibrant street market of Barkhor Square, where you can haggle with local vendors for goods such as prayer flags, block prints of the holy scriptures, jewelry, and Tibetan boots and incense, as devout pilgrims circle the streets around you.
Learn the art of painting thangkas – Tibetan Bhuddist devotional artworks painted on cloth or silk using rich pigments and intricate, perfectly balanced compositions – from a master artist.
Make a pilgrimage to the Jokhang Temple, Tibet’s holiest temple and host to thousands of devout Tibetan pilgrims from all over Tibet and China. Walk a clockwise kora (religious perambulation) around the periphery of the temple, and see the Jowo Rimpoche, a giant, solid-gold statue of Sakyamuni Buddha. Have a private blessing with one of the senior monks and, if you wish, chat with him about his life and beliefs.
Eat at the Makye Ame, a small café catering to trekkers, with second-floor views over the crowds below. Take in the warm, boisterous atmosphere while dining on simple but delicious Nepali/Tibetan specialties such as momos (hearty dumplings filled with mixed vegetables, potatoes or meat) yak meat with radishes, or thupka, a fiery noodle soup made with traditional barley-flour noodles.
Meet with students from Braille Without Borders, a local school started by German expatriate Sabriye Tenberken, who became blind in her teens. She is featured in the documentary “Blindsight,” an inspirational film about a mountaineering expedition to Mount Everest led by the first blind man to summit it, Erik Weihenmayer.
Visit Sera, a 15th-century monastery and former home to 5,000 Gelugpa monks. The temple is famous for its extremely lively debate sessions over the finer points of Buddhist philosophy that go on in the courtyard every afternoon, a most interesting glimpse into Tibetan Buddhism.
See Drepung, another monastery dating to the 15th century and once the largest monastic institution of any religion in the world. Here you can participate in debate sessions and prayer incantations, and sample yak-butter tea and tsampa (roast barley). If you wish, Remote Lands can arrange for a private meeting with a top lama in a private area of the monastery. Also be sure to visit the Maitreya, a two-story statue of the “future” Buddha.
Explore Norbulingka, a park founded in 1755 by the seventh Dalai Lama and home to the summer residence of the Lama lineage. Have a privately guided tour of the Summer Palace, whose meditation chamber and bedroom remain exactly as they were in 1959 when the present Dalai Lama fled to India.
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Gyantse
From Lhasa, drive approximately eight hours to reach Gyantse, one of the most original and least Chinese-influenced towns in Tibet. En route, you will cross the 15,000-foot passes of Kampa La and Karo La, each with astonishing views and adorned in prayer flags, as well as other shorter passes.
Stop over at Lake Yamdrok Tso, also known as the Scorpion Lake, due to its snaking shape, and the Turquoise Lake. One of the four holy lakes of Tibet, it covers a staggering 230 square miles and lies at nearly 15,000 feet above sea level. Rife with aquatic life, dotted with islets, and surrounded by fields of wildflowers,Yamdrok Tso is not only naturally stunning but an important place of pilgrimage: its waters are believed to hold powers of rejuvenation and longevity, and to bless children with intelligence. Its small islands are home to roosting birds and, during the herding season, to flocks of sheep, ferried there by herders who leave them in peace and safety until the onset of winter.
Yamdrok Tso is also spiritually important to Tibetans, and its shores contain kora paths whose full circumambulation takes about a week.
Arrive in Gyantse, which sits in the fertile Nyang-chu Valley and is home to an impressive fort, the Gyantse Dzong, which sits on a hilltop towering over the valley and town, offering amazing views. It was famously captured by British forces in 1904 in the highest-altitude battle in history, allowing the British to proceed to Lhasa and establish trade with Tibet.
Visit a remote village and have tea and lunch with a local family, who will be delighted to meet you and learn about each others’ lives.
Check into the simple Gyantse Hotel and then spend the afternoon exploring the Pelkhor Chode Monastery, formerly home to huge populations of Gelugpa and Sakya monks. The monastery suffered greatly during the Cultural Revolution, but is now having a revival. The monastery is most famed for its massive Kumbum Chorten (the “100,000 Images Stupa”), which was built around 1440 and is covered in murals and frescoes, and has sets of “Buddha eyes” looking out protectively over the surrounding countryside. Pelkhor also offers another opportunity to see pilgrims making their koras, spinning prayer wheels and reciting mantras as they circumnavigate the giant stupa. This experience offers a rare opportunity for unique insight into the rural life of Tibet.
Have tea or dinner with a few of the pilgrims and hear from them about their very powerful and spiritual journey.
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Shigatse, Tingri and Beyond
From Gyantse drive two hours to Shigatse, capital of the central Tsang region and Tibet’s second largest city. Check in to the basic Shigatse Hotel.
Visit the very important Tashilunpo Monastery, home to the Panchen Lama, who is the second most important reincarnated spiritual figure in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama. The monastery was founded in 1447, and is extremely large and complex, full of chapels, courtyards and byways. There is a 75-foot gold gilded statue of Maitreya inside Tashilunpo, and the monastery has a fairly active resident monk population. Like the Potala in Lhasa, Tashilunpo houses several impressive funeral chapels for the Panchen Lamas, including that of the 10th, who passed away in 1989 and whose chortem cost an estimated $8 million to build.
Have a private tour of the Gang Gyen carpet factory, where you will witness, and your expert guide will explain, the intricate weaving processes involved in making Tibetan carpets.
Hike around the hills of the Ngor Monastery outside of Shigatse, following a popular pilgrim and trekkers’ trail between the Ngor and Nartang monastic complexes. Founded in 1429, Ngor is a lovely small monastery with beautiful surroundings.
Explore Shigatse with your expert guide, visiting the bazaars and the remains of the old dzong (fortress).
Have dinner in the home of a local family, learning about their way of life in this remote region.
Drive approximately eight hours from Shigatse to Tingri, along the way crossing the nearly 15,000-foot Tsuo La pass and the 17,000-foot Lhakpa La pass.
Stop en route to explore Sakya, a small town centered around its main attraction, the imposing Sakya Monastery. Meaning “gray soil” in Tibetan, Sakya was the capital of Tibet in the 13th century, after the head monk of the Sakyapa order traveled all the way to Mongolia to offer Tibet as a fief of the Mongol empire. While the remnants of Mongol influence can still be seen in the architecture of Sakya’s remaining southern monastery – including a giant wooden pillar said to have been given by Kublai Khan – the temple’s many relics and murals are a vivid testament to the long history of Tibetan Buddhism in Sakya.
From Tingri, another highly scenic eight-hour drive takes you past Nyalam, an ancient trading outpost, to Zhangmu near the Nepal border. The route offers stunning views of both Mount Everest and Mount Shishapangma, the 14th-highest peak in the world at 26,289 feet and the last of the “eight thousanders” (8,000-meter peaks) to be scaled.
Just outside of Nyalam, explore Milarepa’s Cave, also known as Namkading Cave. Overlooking the hidden valley of Lapchi Gang, the cave was the home of the great Tibetan Buddhist philosopher Milarepa during the 11th century, and now stands as a shine to him, holding icons of the sage as well as a holy handprint. The adjacent monastery is home to seven monks, two of whom vigilantly guard the cave; the isolation and austerity of the site is a brilliant juxtaposition to the breathtaking vistas just beyond its vestibule.
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Mount Everest & Base Camp
The drive between Shigatse and the Nepal border along the China-Nepal Friendship Highway takes you through vastly different terrain, from the valleys of the Himalayas to the flat expanses of the Tibetan plateau. One of the constant factors along this long highway are the imposing mountains on the far horizon, including the beautiful and iconic Mount Everest.
In the shadows of majestic Mount Everest lies Rongbuk Monastery, which, at an altitude 16,700 feet, is the highest religious building in the world and one of the highest inhabited structures ever built by man. Founded in 1902 as a meditation retreat for Buddhist nuns, the temples are now home to a necessary (and worthwhile) stop on your way to base camp. The views from Rongbuk provide a stunning panorama of the world’s most iconic mountain range, and an excellent opportunity to pause and reflect on your journey towards Everest.
A 15-minute drive past Rongbuk Monastery will bring you to Everest Base Camp, situated at 18,192 feet above sea level. From here, you will be able to embark on either a short hike around the surrounding area, or on an extended three-day trek through the Ronhphu Valley. (Be sure to send a postcard from the world’s highest mailbox before you leave on your trek!)
The first day of the three-day, 40-mile trek begins at Everest base camp and ends at Nam La, traversing nearly 17 miles over the course of 10 hours. Day two proceeds from Nam La to Lungchang (13 miles, six hours) and day three from Lungchang to Tingri (nine miles, 4 hours). After arriving and overnighting at Tingri, drive the aforementioned eight-hour route from Tingri through Nyalam to Zhangmu at the Nepal border.
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Mount Kailash & Lake Manasarovar
A three-day drive from Lhatse, overnighting in Saga and Paryang before arriving in Darchen, brings you to the doorstep of the great Mount Kailash, a sacred mountain to Buddhists, Jains and Hindus alike, the latter believing it to be the home of Shiva. There have been no known attempts to scale the 21,778-foot peak, which the climbing community considers off-limits out of respect to these religions’ belief in the sacredness of the mountain.
Embark on a three-day kora, or spiritual circumambulation, of Mount Kailash. Your path will cover nearly 33 miles and you will ascend nearly 3,300 feet in altitude over the course of the trek, with your gear transported by yaks.
The first day of the trek is rather moderate without steep ascents, and you will arrive and spend the night at Drirapuk monastery, which has a fantastic view of the north face of Kailash.
Day two of the trek brings you up to Drolma-La Pass by lunchtime, visiting holy sites along the way. At Drolma-La, you can string up prayer flags and make a supplication to the goddess Drolma, whom legend says helps pilgrims over the pass which bears her name. This afternoon’s ascent will be the steepest, bringing you to Zulpultruk monastery for the night.
Day three of the Kailash trek takes you on a circular route from Zupultruk and affords spectacular views of Lake Manasarovar.
At 14,948 feet above sea level Manasarovar is the highest freshwater lake in the world and a sacred place of pilgrimage to believers who hold it to be the source of the Brahmaputra, Indus and Karnali rivers, though it is in fact only the source of the Sutlej, a large tributary of the Indus. Bathing and drinking Manasarovar’s water is believed to cleanse a believer of his sins
After lunch near the lake, drive approximately seven hours to Tsamda, present-day site of the ancient kingdom of Guge, which was founded in the 10th century. Westerners only discovered Guge in the 17th century, soon after which the kingdom rather mysteriously disappeared; some believe it might have been conquered and destroyed by Ladakhis from across the border in India.
The ruins of Guge are highly worthwhile and, owing to their remoteness, seldom visited by tourists. Visit both the Toling and Tsaparang monasteries, both capitals of Guge at one point, and explore the remarkable cave systems, where frescoes in a hybrid Tibetan-Nepalese-Indian style have drawn notice from UNESCO for world heritage consideration.
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