summary itinerary
D1: by air or trains from mainland into lhasa or from nepal side( katmandu.)
D2: visiting famous potala, bhakor and jokhang
D3:redicovering drepung monastery and sera monastery.
D4:serving a free day to client for more understanding on lhasa
D5:moving towardsGyantse
D6:gyantse to shigatse
D7:shigatse to sang-sang
D8:Sang-sang to baryang
D9:baryang to mount kailash
D10:darchen to zanda thoiling monastery
D11:zanda to Tsaparang
D12:back to darchen
D13: darchen to baryang
D14:baryang to saga
D15saga to lhatse
D16:then from lhatse back to lhasa.
Detail itinerary
D1: our agency tour guide will pick you up from lhasa gongkar airport or from lhasa train station to yours reserved hotel.you can relax in the hotel and can refer to books that you have bring along with you for yours trip. If you have any doubt or question, you can ask to your tour guide to fix your next day’s trip.
D2: morning section to visit the famous potala palace, which is situated on the marpori(red hill) and is abode of boddhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara. The potala palace is divided into two parts, white and red palace is about 119m tall.the red palace had 13 storeys, golden tomb from fifth to thirteenth dalai lama. Songtsen gonpo’s meditation cave is situated in white palace is oldest chamber in the history of whole potala palace. Afternoon section visiting to Johkang temple, built during songtsen gonpo’s reign by princess wencheng of tang dynasty. The most interesting thing in jokhang is the sacred goat head in the Jampa chapel which is believe to ‘self-arisen’ ie not man made.
The inner circuit is also situated inside the temple and is lined with prayer-wheel and murals outlined in gold on red background, which depict the thousand buddhas, interspersed with stupas and relief-images.
Then continued to explore the famous barkhore street which is like core of the lhasa city and you can seen different attracting things there. The famous thangkas and culturally important things like dorjee(thunderbolt), drums, chupa(tibetan dress) are all available in barkhor street there.
D3:drepung monastery is situated at the foothill of a mountain and was founded by Jamyang Choeje in 1416. the monastery is divided into two different colleges that is drepung loselling and drepung gomang college. The Ganden podrang is famous among them as it is the government centre during fifth dalai lama and later moved to the famous potala palace during fifth dalai lama. By the time you can also the Nechung monastery located 1km southeast of Drepung and is the abode of the protector deity pehar and the seat of the state Oracle of Tibet. the two main protector inside the monastery is that of Nechung choegyal and Palden lhamo.
In the afternoon exploring the Sera monastery which was founded in 1419 by Tsongkapa’s disciple Jamchen Choeje. The whole monastery is divided into two colleges and there are Sera ‘jhe’ and Sera ‘may’ respectively. Among them “Tsokhang chenmo” where the monks from all the colleges assemble and pray together there.you can also see monks debaiting there in the courtyard at around 6-7:30 in the afternoon section.Note: if you don’t feel tired, you can try for the khora(circumambling around) Drepung and sera monastery.Your tour guide and driver will drop you back to your hotel.
D4:one day is serving free for you for more inderstanding on lhasa city. There are so many interesting things that you shouldnot miss around lhasa city. Some of them are Lingkhor - is the most interesting section of the city’s main pilgrimage circuit.It’s best walked in the morning, you’ll be joined by hundreds of Tibetan pilgrims. The hardest part of this walk is finding the starting point. The starting point is the completion point of this walk. In one complete lingkhor,you have made round to three most important “JOWOE”,the three precious statues ie Sakyamuni in jokhang, Mugyur dorjee in Ramoche and thukje chemo in Potala palace.
Barkhor:the circular pilgrim route around Jokhang temple is called barkhor and later flourished, forming the embryo of the city. The barkhor market itself is the most active in all tibet,and it is possible to purchase traditional Tibetan artefacts, religious implements, antiques,mordern goods,books,music,and tradition tibetan clothes etc.
Tsekhor: in tibetan language, the potala palace is also reffered to as “tse” means supermacy. That's why the circulation around the potala is termed as tsekhor. Tibetans always circumambultes by holding a Mani prayer wheel in right hand and rossary in their left hand.
Chakpori: it is believe that a medical institution was once stood their on the chakpori or iron hill. The red hill and chakpo hill are seperated by three stupas in between. It is believe that by joining these two hills forms a big dragon which cause a big destruction in the lhasa city.
Lhasa Nadam: the 70 percentage of oxygen around lhasa city is produced from nadam, extending from drepung monastery to sera horse racing centre. You can observe it very carefully from the backside of the potala palace.
Tibetan tea houses: if you have sufficient time in the morning, you can check out the crowded Tibetans drinking sweet tea or butter tea in restaurant like Ghamchung or Zhutral tea house.
Butter tea: made from Dri(female yak) butter mixed with salt, soda,tea leaves and hot water churned up in a wooden tube. When mixed with tsampa(barley) becomes staple meal of most tibetans and you may well be offered it at monasteries, people’s houses and even while waiting for a bus by the side of the road.
D5:it is better to leave early in the morning and in about one and half hourway, there is a county called “chushor”quxu in chinese where have to move towards the lhokha(shannan) prefecture. A few kilometers from chushor is famous pass kangpa-la with4700m.from the top of the pass in clear weather, you can see the fabulous shade of deep torquoise. Yamdrok-yutso is shaped like coiling scorpion with deep blue in colour. Far in the distance is the huge massif of mount Nanchan kangtsang(7191m). just a few kilometrers driving through the shore of lake yamdrok-yutso reches Nangartse county and is the largest town on the lake side and popular stop for the night. Leaving yamdrok-tso is a spectacular as arrriving, since you have to cross the 4960m karo-la with its awesome roadside views of the Nanchan- Kangtsang glacier. It was here that Younghusband’s british troops clashed with tibetan forces en route to lhasa.then reached to our day’s final destination Gyantse. Relax a night in hotel.
D6: actually it is about four hours drive way but now a days it is not possible to reach shigatse in four hours through land cruiser because there are so many traffic checking points on the way to shigatse to control the over speed on high way. So it is better to set off early in the morning and also you can visit tashi lhunpo monastery more freely. It is plan to rest a night there in shigatse.
D7:the day’s journey could be little tough as is about eight hours driving. There is a check-point about 6km after leaving lhatse and from this point the road is divided into two parts as one towards the Ali prefecture and one towards the mount Everest and Dham (border between Tibet and nepal.) But you are moving towards north west side of Lhatse onto a dirty rough road where the kilometer marker at the start of this route is 2141. through this journey, you can discover many scattered tibetan villages on the sides of road and also you can meet up with beautiful lakes, canyons and rivers through the way to sang-sang. The photogenic Langtso(ox lake) is along the way with one hours from lhatse and then the road will climbs up to the Ngamring-la which is 4500m above the sea level. The road passes through small town of Kaga, next to Ngamring-tso where food and accommodation is available. After passing about ten kilometers from Kaga, you will be behind the agricultural fields. Your day’s final destination is sang-sang which is about 122 km from lhatse with a couples of very basic restaurants,truck-stop guest houses. Spend a night there in Sang-sang.
D8: after climbing a couple of passes, you will reach a tiny settlement of RAKA with 4900m and is about 120km from Sang-sang and 6 km before the junction of the northern and southern routes.. then it is another 60km to saga. then you are moving towards the Drongpa county, the region around the sources of Brahmaputra river,which is about 167km from the sagar town.then you will reached a tiny dusty on the main road with a couple of basic guest houses, restaurants and a small monastery called “old Drongpa” Around the monastery you can see a pile of yak heads which is carved with “sutras”and “mantras” like “OM MA NI PAD MEY HUM” which is mantra of god of compassion. And new Drongpa is a small town with a couple of shops, hotels and restaurant is about 25km apart from the old drongpa.then forward towards the Baryang with 4750m above sea level. It is better to pass a night here, as many groups spend a night in Baryang on the way to mount Kailash as none want to spend a night here in on the return.
D9 : the route is a pleasant about four-hour drive, passing through yellow steppe with snowcapped Himalayan peaks off to the south when the weather is clear.there’s a check-point along the way,where you must show your passport and permits. Then MAYUM-LA PASS(5216m) which is the frointer between west tibet(shigatse prefecture) and far west tibet(ali). On the way you can see and experience the life of nomads and see the beatiful grass land of far west tibet. Magical mount Kailash comes into view approximately 90km after the Mayum-la just before the town of HOR QU. You can stay a night in horqu or you can camp at the beautiful lake shore.note: you have to buy entry ticket for the Manasarovar lake about 80Y per ticket and also have to pay about 20y per night in the lake shore.
D10: The entry fee for mount kailash is 80Y per person and here you need to register your passsports,permit and the itinerary at the police station on west side of darchen. Darchen is the starting and completion point for the general circuit of the sacred mountain. It is wise to spend at least a day acclimatising and making final preperations.
D11, D12 and D13 are on the way to yours trekking
D14: it is about an eight hours drive from Darchen to zanda, though the distance is only about 243km from darchen. After several hours of zigzagging down and up fantastically eroded gorges and gullies, enters to wider Sutlej Valley and after crossing a bridge, finally reaches Zanda.Tsamda county is the current name for the region and was known as Guge kingdom. And the county capital is located at Toling. Toling monastery, founded by Richen zangpo in the 10th century, was once Ngari’s most important monastic complex.
It was due to the influence Richen Zangpo that Toling became the main religious centre of Guge kingdom after inviting of the great indian master ATISHA. The kings of GUGE replaced the city as a political centre of power by establishing capital slightly closer to the Indo-tibetan trade routes. But the monastery is still important cultural heritage of Ngari.
D15:Tsaparang is 26km from west of Zanda and it is best to leave before sunrise.Exploring this vast ruins takes all day. In the lower reaches of the city there are four main Temples. The wall paintings and statues display some of the earliest examples of Tantric Buddhist art in existence.
D16: back to Darchen
D17: darchen back to Baryang
S18: Baryang to Saga
D19:Saga to Lhatse
D20:Lhatse to lhasa
