Experiences

Dinner with a Local Family

Meet a prominent local family for dinner at their home; sample Tibetan specialties like momos, or dumplings stuffed with yak meat; thukpas, or thick, long Tibetan noodles; and salty, savory butter tea, used to fortify one’s body against the elements.

Manmade Caves of Mustang

Carved into the sheer walls of the Himalayan foothills, much of the area around Mustang is home to a number of manmade caves. Many of these structures contain various Buddhist artifacts, including sacred, illustrated texts, elaborate wall paintings and murals, and even manuscripts detailing the Bon faith, the area’s pre-Buddhist, shamanistic religion.

Muktinath Temple

Located at a lofty 12,172 feet (3,710 meters), Muktinath Temple is sacred to Hindus and Buddhists alike. Set in the shadow of the majestic Himalayas, Muktinath was believed to be the site where Guru Rimpoche, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism, stopped and meditated while making his way to Tibet.

While small, the temple itself consists of an inner temple and an outer courtyard; the former contains a large, golden murti, or representation, of the Hindu god Vishnu. The outer courtyard is home to 108 bull-shaped spouts which pour forth water diverted from the River Gantaki; because of the temple’s high elevation, the water is often ice-cold – a daunting challenge to devoted pilgrims, who, as a test of faith, plunge into the waters for a cleansing, sacred bath.

Trekking

As Mustang is a remote, far-flung locale, it also offers some of the best trekking and hiking within Nepal. Clamber over dry, barren hills that are shades of yellow-brown and sparsely dotted with trees; pass thatched huts that have stood as local homes for decades, if not centuries; and gaze upon the imposing white peaks of the Himalayas in the distance, wreathed in cloud and fog.

Walled City of Lo Manthang

Once a cosmopolitan, thriving enclave that commanded crucial trading routes, the walled city of Lo Manthang was once the capital of the kingdom of Mustang. The walls of Lo Manthang are rectangular, and are capped at each corner by a square dzong, or fort – a feature common to the high mountain areas of Tibet, Bhutan, and Nepal. Built in the 1380s, Lo Manthang stands today in a remarkable state of preservation – to the point where festivals and feasts extinct elsewhere in Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan are still held in the city; because of this, Lo Manthang is tentatively listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.