Central Tibet Tour

Distance: 97 Kilometer. Sleeping Elevation: 3565m.

We will welcome you at the Airport or The Lhasa train station.  We will have to traditional Tibetan welcome ceremony by presenting the traditional white scarf called Khata. Then you will take a short journey to Tsedang Prefecture-level city. Tsedang is locate beside the Yarlung river, and the region is known as the source of Tibetan Civilization. We will stay at the four-star Hotel for the night.

Today, you will visit the Yumbulhakhang fort. The first fort in Tibetan History. We will also visit the Traduk Temple, the first Buddhist Temple in Tibet. After this, we will drive to the other side of the river to Samye Monastery. After the visit to the Samye Monastery, we will go to Lhasa via new express highways. We will stay for a night in the hotel of your choice.

In the morning, after having your breakfast, your guide will meet you at the hotel. Then you will first go to the Jokhang Temple, the holiest temple in Tibetan Buddhism. Since your hotel is in the Tibetan quarter of Lhasa city, you will walk to the Jokhang Temple. After visiting the temple, you can some time to explore the Old Lhasa city on your own for a couple of hours.

The guide will fix you a time and place to visit. In the afternoon, you will see the Sera monastery. This is the most well-preserved monastery in Tibet. The monastery you can sit in the courtyard where monks will be debating on Buddhist philosophy. You can stay there sometimes for a perfect opportunity for many travellers to take a picture of the monks’ debate. You can tell your guide to give you some free times to explore the monastery on your own if you would like to live in peace for sometimes.

First, in the morning, the group will visit Potala Palace. It is the most iconic building in Tibet. It has more than 1000 rooms and towering above the Lhasa city. It is the most iconic Building of Tibetan Architecture. The palace is first to build in the seventh century by the King Songtsen Gampo. Later in the 17th century, the fifth Dalai Lama has rebuilt his resident over the ruins of the old palace. Ever since the palace has served as the winter resident for successive Dalai Lama and Administrative centre for the local Tibetan Government.

In the afternoon we will visit the Drepung Monastery. It is one of the three most significant monasteries in Lhasa and central Tibet. In the early 20th century, it is the world biggest monastic complex. The Kora around the monastery takes about an hour of spectacular views.

We will drive east of Lhasa. First, we will visit the Dark Yerpa Hermit. The Dark Hermit is considered the most auspicious of all the hermits in Tibet. All the Tibetan Buddhist masters are said to have meditated here. The three most well know master meditated in the Hermit are Songtsen Gampo, Guru Rinpoche, Atisha, and Tsongkhapa. We still have their meditation caves. You can visit.

If you are practising meditation, We would like to recommend you in meditating in the hermit. This hermit has extraordinary spiritual energy.

In the afternoon, we will drive to Ganden Monastery. One of the three most significant monasteries in Tibet. The Je Tsongkhapa founded this monastery. It is the principal monastery of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The main relic of the monastery is the Tomb Stupa of Je Tsongkhapa.

It is advised to start the journey a little earlier in the morning. So in most of the cases, we leave Lhasa at 7 in the morning after having breakfast at your hotel. By 11:00 Am you will reach the Kampa-la pass (4700 m). The car will stop here for some time of the beautiful view to Yamdrok Lake below the pass and the mighty mount Mount Nojin Kangtsang (7191 meters). After some time at the pass for the picture, we will then drive down to the lake. It is about a 15 minutes drive, and we will descend about 700 meters to the shore. We will stop at the shore, and you will have some time to enjoy the beautiful lake from its shore.

After the lake, we will continue to drive to the Nangartse town for lunch. From Yamdrok lake to Nangartse is 50 km and we will drive along the shore until we divert to the town. If you are travelling during the winter, you can see lots of wild birds on this road. It is advised to bring a binocular if you are the bird lover. Once when we reach the town we will stop here for lunch, and after lunch, you can explore this little Tibetan town for sometimes.

You will then continue to Gyantse town. You will reach the Gyantse town at about 3:00 pm. We will then check in to our hotel for the night and then we will continue to visit the Gyantse monastery. Visiting the monastery would take about one and a half hours. If you still have some energy, we can see the Gyantse fort.

You will start your journey at about 9:00 am. Once when you drive out of the Gyantse town, we will stop at photography spot outside the town. From there you can see the entire town of Gyantse including its monastery, stupa and the fort. It is one of my favourite places in Tibet to take the picture.

From Gyantse, we will first go to Shalu monastery. Many travel and tour operator in Tibet skips in their itinerary. But to me, it is a must place to visit. The painting inside the monastery is very different. Those are the original Newari style paintings.

After Shalu Monastery we will continue to Shigatse. On arrival at Shigatse, we will first visit the Tashi Lhunpo monastery. The monastery was found by the first Dalai Lama and official residence of the Panchen Lama. Then we will drive to the hotel and rest of the day is free for you and the group members. But we will have to go to apply for the permit for Everest basecamp.

We will travel back to Lhasa, the distance for the return journey is 280 kilometres, and It will take only 6 Hours travelling. We will have enough time to do the last-minute souvenir shopping or walking the pilgrimage circuit around Jokhang Temple one more time.