Gyantse Damak Festival Tour

Today is the first day of the Gyantse Damak festival tour. We will welcome you at the Airport or The Lhasa train station. Then you will be escorted to your hotel. It is always advice the travellers to take a good rest for proper acclimatization. Please do not any activities which would lead you to dehydrate, like taking a bath. And avoid hard work for the first day. Many travellers prefer to take a nap. After some hours of rest, you can explore the Barkhor street and Tibetan quarter surrounding your hotel.

Visit Pabonka and Sera Monastery

Today we will first visit the Tibetan Tea shop for a Tibetan sweat tea and Famous Tibetan noodle soup called Bolthuk. Visiting the local popular tea house gives you a good experience of the daily life of local Lhasa People. In Tibet, locals are very fond of tea, especially sweet tea.  After the time at the tea house, we will first visit the Pabongka Hermitage.

The Pabongka hermitage predates the Jokhang temple and the central Lhasa city itself. It said that the hermitage of Pabongka was established before the construction of the Jokhang Temple and Potala Palace. The plan for the construction of the Jokhang temple, Potala Palace and other major monastery built in the 7th century is said to formalise here in this hermitage.

In the afternoon we will visit the Sera Monastery. The Monastery of Sera is one of the three main Buddhist monastic universities in central Tibet.  Here in the monastery, you will see the monks debating. It is recommended for all the take a free time to scroll around the Monastery compound. Many travellers often describe the experience as similar to the walking around the greek village.

Visit Potala Palace and Jokhang

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, after having your lunch, 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.

Distance: 250 km, Drive: 3hr, Elevation: 3576m

Today is the first day outside the Lhasa city on this Gyantse Damak Festival tour. Tsedang is the prefecture-level City in Shanan Prefecture of Tibet or Commonly known as Lhokha. The drive from Lhasa to the City of Tsedang takes about 3 hours to drive in a Car. Once upon arrival in Tsedang, We will have to make your Aliens permit ( one of the many types of Tibet travel permit you will need to be aware of). It will not take long to make you permit.

After making the permit, we will check into our hotel for the night and head out in the City for Lunch. After lunch, we will visit Yungbulagang and Traduk monastery. Yungbulagang is known as the first house in Tibet; others said it is the first military fort in Entire Tibet. After visiting the fort, we will drive back to the City to see the Traduk Monastery. It is said to be older than Jokhang temple, and some scholar even states it is the first Buddhist temple in Tibet.

After the visit to these two historical places, we will further drive towards the Samye Monastery. Samye is the first monastery of Tibetan Buddhism.  We will stay for a night at the Samye Monastery Guesthouse.

Distance: 360km Drive: 6hr. Elevation 3980m

It is advised to start the journey a little earlier in the morning. So in most of the cases, we leave Samye at 9 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 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 sometimes.

You will then continue to Gyantse town. Along the way, we will stop at the Karola Glacier. It is a stunning lake right above the main road to Gyantse. You will reach the Gyantse town at about the 3:00 pm. We will then check in to our hotel for the night and then we will continue to visit the Gyantse monastery and the Kumbum Stupa. If we reach on time and if the group member still has energy, we can hike to the Gyantse fort.

Today is the main highlight of the Gyantse Damak Festival tour.  We will stay in the Gyantse town to get the vast experiences of the festival. Here we can view and enjoy many Tibetan competitive games like horse racing, yak racing, weight lifting, Tag of war, archery competition. You can also enjoy local trading and various culture performance shows.  We will stay for the nights in local Tibetan Hotel.

Distance: 95kms Drive: 2:30hrs

After your breakfast, we will first visit the Gyantse Palchoe Monastery and explore the wonderful Kumbum Stupa of the monastery. After the monastery, You will start your journey at about 9:00 am. Once when you drive out of the Gyantse town, we will stop at a 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 our favourite places in Tibet to take a picture.

Along the way, we will visit the Tibetan village called Pashual, and here in the village, we will observe the traditional life of the Tibetan farming communities besides tasting locally made snacks. Before arriving at the Shigatse town, we will take a small detour to a remote monastery called Shalu Monastery. The monastery is well known for its well preserve Ancient mural.

We will have to stay for a night in a beautiful Tibetan interior decorated room in a four-star hotel. This Town also presents the last opportunity for last-minute shopping before entering the region of fewer means.

Distance 326kms, Elevation: 4288m

Today we will first visit the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. It is the biggest monastery in Central Tibet and fourth biggest in entire Tibet. The monastery is known for its giant statue of Future Buddha, which is the largest gilded statue in the world. After the visit to the monastery, we will further 326 Kilometer north to the Damxung town in the middle of Wilderness Tibet. On the way, we will driver across Shugu La pass at 5259m.

Distance 122kms, Elevation: 4718m

Today is our day tour to the Namtso Lake. The Lake is known for its revert as a holy lake to Local Tibetan population. The Beautiful sky lake of the Namtso Lake is known for its distance view from Lagenla Pass, Nomadic Pasture, and Hike around the Tashi Do Island. We will have to return to the same hotel in Damxung.

Today we will drive to the Nomad Camp near Yangpachen. We will set up our camp for the night near the nomad tent. Here we will explore the nomad life of Tibetan Nomads. We will experience the Tibetan nomad’s life by joining them herding yaks and sheep and making cheese, yoghurt, and butter.

Today we will Visit Shol Dhenpa Handicraft centre. At this centre, we will learn and see the extraordinary array of authentic Tibetan traditional and contemporary works of crafts and arts, like Tibetan pottery wares, Thangka painting, Sewing work, paper and Buddhist statue making.

After the visit to the Handicraft centre, we will participate in an inspirational talk presented by a renowned Tibetan expert on a range of themes from tradition and culture, architecture and festivals, costume and Tibetan signs and symbols etc.