©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd Western Tibet ( Ngari) མངའ་ ས་ Why Go? Ali . 173 Vast, thinly populated and with an average altitude of Mt Kailash . 175 over 4500m, Ngari is Tibet’s wild west, a rough and ready frontier occupying one of the remotest corners of Asia. For Lake Manasarovar . 178 most travellers the main attractions of what is likely to be Tirthapuri Hot Springs a three-week overland trip are the almost legendary des- & Kora . 179 tinations of Mt Kailash and Lake Manasarovar. Indeed, Guge Kingdom . .180 many of the pilgrims on this road have been planning a Dungkar & Piyang . .185 visit all their lives. For those less fussed by the spiritual Rutok . .186 signifi cance of Mt Kailash, getting to one of the most iso- lated and beautiful corners of high Asia is likely to be an attraction in itself. Until recently only the hardiest of travellers made it to Best Views western Tibet, but freshly paved roads and a new airport means that the region is on the verge of embracing mass » Humla Karnali Valley Chinese tourism. from Shepeling (Simbaling) Monastery (p 188 ) » Tagyel-tso, or anywhere along the northern route (p 170 ) » Mt Kailash floating over the waters of Rakshas Tal When to Go (p 178 ) May to June and mid-September to early October are the best times to head to Ngari, though June and July see Best Places off huge convoys of Indian pilgrims booking out entire hotels the Beaten Track on their way to Mt Kailash. April to October is best for the Drölma-la pass on the Kailash kora, as it’s normally » Gossul Monastery (p 179 ) blocked with snow during other months. » Ruins of Shangshung The festival of Saga Dawa in May/June is a particularly in the Khyunglung Valley popular time to visit Mt Kailash, and hundreds of pilgrims (p 181 ) and tourists descend on the mountain. Some fi nd the pil- grim atmosphere a highlight; others fi nd the large num- » Old Rutok (p 186 ) bers of trekking groups off -putting. Pangong-tso Dormar 164 I N D I A RutokὈὈὈὈὈ Rutok Xian Lurulangkar Tsaphuk Rumudong ALI LADAKH PREFECTURE Nganglong Jaggang Kangri ὈὈὈὈὈ(6596m) Chaktsakha Ali Tashigang Sengge Tsangpo Peri-tso (Indus River)Gegye Tsaka Wenbu Dangsang Gar Kunsha Zouzou Drungba Sherma Airport Sher-tso Lalung-la ὄ (5330m) SPITI Namru Daman Piyang Gar River Zhungba Tsaparang Dungkar Zhigon Zanda Sutlej 4938m Ba'er WESTERN TIBET (NGARI) (NGARI) TIBET WESTERN Checkpoint Yagra Manam R i Moincer Gunmidengli ve Mt Kailash Dawa r Gurugyam (6714m) Monastery Dongpo KINNAUR Kamet Darchen (7756m) Khyunglung G Barkha G Tirthapuri Rakshas Tal Checkpoint Hot Springs R Chiu Monastery Hor Qu a Mayum-la n Gurla-la (4715m) Lake (5220m) E Manasarovar g I N D I A Nanda Devi Toyo Gurla A (7817m) Purang Gung Checkpoint Mandata Gyu-tso Khojarnath (7728m) T Sher 219 Saipal UTTARANCHAL H (7050m) Simikot Pithoragarh I M A G a L n N E P A L g Kanjiroba e s A (6883m) R Y i v e Mahendranagar r A Rampur R A N The external boundaries of India on this map have not been authenticated and may not be correct Western Tibet Highlights 1 Join fellow pilgrims looking 2 Hike the sandy shores 3 Camp on the shores of to erase the sins of a lifetime of holy Lake Manasarovar the spectacular otherworldly on the three-day trek around (p 178 ), or just marvel at the lakes of Tagyel-tso (p 170 ), sacred Mt Kailash (p 175 ) intensely turquoise waters Dawa-tso (p 171 ) and Peiku- and snowcapped-mountain tso (p 168 ), as long as you are backdrop acclimatised C h a n g t a n g 165 N a t u r e P r e s e r v e ὈὈὈὈὈὈὈ0 100 km 0 60 miles Changtang ὈὈὈὈὈὈὈ(Northern Plateau) Oma-chu Gertse Checkpoint Dung-tso N A G C H U ὈὈὈὈὈὈὈP R E F E C T U R E Northern Route Dzango 301 Tsangon Tagtse-tso Lhadrong Ngangla- tso WESTERN TIBET (NGARI) ὈὈὈὈὈὈὈChendiloma Nor Gwa-la Dawa-tso (5250m) Ombu Darok-tso Tsochen Dangra-tso Lunggar Nor Chung-la (5090m) Ngangtse- Checkpoint Zhari tso Nam-tso N o Tuoya r t h e r d n i Route s e Sangmo-la 6185m 206 (5570m) Paryang SHIGATSE Southern R a n g e New PREFECTURE Tagyel-tso RouteZhongba King Tiger Zhongba Lazang Hot Springs Raka Dargyeling Saga Ngamring Sangsang Yarlung Ngamring-tso Mustang Kaga Tsangpo Checkpoint Dhaulagiri Lulung i (8167m) k Peiku-tso Lhatse a Hwy d Short Cut to an G G Zhangmu Shegar E Dzongka Gutso Annapurna Manaslu Siling (8162m) Tingri Friendship (8090m) La Lung-la To To Everest (4845m) Zhangmu (60km) Base Camp (60km) 4 Scramble through tunnels, 5 Spot herds of wild asses, caves and secret passageways antelope and gazelle in the as you explore the ancient untrammelled wilderness ruins and Kashmiri-infl uenced of the Changtang, Tibet’s art of Tsaparang (p 183 ), one Serengeti, along the northern of Asia’s unknown wonders route (p 170 ) to Ali History Ironically, the evangelical zeal of the Je- 166 Most histories of Tibet begin with the kings suits led not only to their own demise but of the Yarlung Valley region and their uni- also to the demise of the kingdom they fi cation of central Tibet in the 7th century. sought to convert. Lamas, outraged by their But it is thought that the Shangshung (or king’s increasing enthusiasm for an alien Zhangzhung) kingdom of western Tibet creed, enlisted the support of Ladakhis in probably ruled the Tibetan plateau for sev- laying siege to Tsaparang. Within a month eral centuries before this. According to some the city fell, the king was overthrown and scholars, the Bön religion made its way into the Jesuits imprisoned. The Guge kingdom the rest of Tibet from here. The Shangshung never recovered. kingdom may also have served as a con- At this point, Ngari became so margin- duit for Tibet’s earliest contacts with Bud- alised as to almost disappear from the his- dhism. There is little material evidence of tory books – with one notable exception. In the Shangshung kingdom in modern Tibet, the late Victorian era, a handful of Western though the Khyunglung Valley, on the Sut- explorers began to take an interest in the lej River near Tirthapuri hot springs, marks legend of a holy mountain and a lake from the site of the old kingdom. which four of Asia’s mightiest rivers fl owed. The next regional power to emerge in The legend, which had percolated as far Ngari was the Guge kingdom in the 9th afi eld as Japan and Indonesia, was largely century. After the assassination of the anti- ridiculed by Western cartographers. How- WESTERN TIBET (NGARI) (NGARI) TIBET WESTERN Buddhist Lhasa king Langdharma, one of ever, in 1908 the Swedish explorer Sven the king’s sons, Namde Wosung, fl ed to the Hedin returned from a journey that proved west and established this kingdom at Tsa- there was indeed such a mountain and parang, west of Lake Manasarovar and Mt such a lake, and that the remote part of Ti- Kailash. The Guge kingdom, through its bet they occupied was in fact the source of contacts with nearby Ladakh and Kashmir, the Karnali (the northernmost tributary of spearheaded a Buddhist revival on the Ti- the Ganges), Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsang- betan plateau that at its peak fostered over po), Indus (Sengge Tsangpo) and Sutlej 100 monasteries, most of them now in ruins. (Langchen Tsangpo) Rivers. The mountain In the late 16th century, Jesuit mission- was Kailash and the lake, Manasarovar. aries based in the enclave of Goa took an interest in the remote kingdom of Guge, Permits mistaking it for the long-lost Christian Foreigners require a fi stful of permits: an civilisation of Prester John (a legendary Alien Travel Permit, military permit, Tibet Christian priest and king who was believed Tourism Bureau (TTB) permit, foreign af- to have ruled over a kingdom in the Far fairs permit… Your travel agency will or- East). The Jesuits fi nally reached Tsapa- ganise all of these for you but it will take rang over the Himalaya from India in 1624 a week minimum. You may need to stop after two failed attempts, but if their leader, in Shigatse to process your Alien Travel Father Antonio de Andrede, had expected Permit and may further need to get this to fi nd Christians waiting for him, he was endorsed in Darchen or Ali, depending on disappointed. Nevertheless, he did meet the direction of travel. This is particularly with surprising tolerance and respect for true if you wish to visit off -the-beaten-track the Christian faith. The Guge king agreed places like Gurugyam Monastery. As you to allow de Andrede to return and set up a travel through the region your guide will Jesuit mission the following year. The foun- need to register you with the Public Secu- dation stone of the fi rst Christian church in rity Bureau (PSB) in some towns (such as Tibet was laid by the king himself. Tsochen). Western Tibet is a politically sensitive area and is periodically closed to foreign- PUBLIC TRANSPORT ers, due either to political unrest on the Mt Kailash kora or military tension along At the time of research, foreigners the contested borders of China, India and were not allowed to travel on public Pakistan. transport in Tibet. Basic information is included here in case the situation Itineraries changes. See p 26 for an overview of itineraries from Lhasa to western Tibet.