Yoghurt Festival Tour

Today is the first day of the Yogurt 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 advisable the travellers 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 quarters surrounding your hotel.

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 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 castle has served as the winter resident for successive Dalai Lama and the 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.

Today is the Main day of the Yogurt festival tour and the first day of the Yoghurt Festival. The festival will last for the next seven days in Lhasa. There is a display of an enormous Thangka Display in both Sera Monastery and the Drepung Monastery. Many Hundreds of thousand of Locals would do to these two monasteries to see and get the blessing from these Thangkha.

We will leave the hotel in the early morning to get the most out of the day. First, we will visit Drepung Monastery. Here we will have to walk in a line for about 3 Kilometres. After visiting the Drepung Monastery, we will visit the Nechung Monastery.

After lunch, we will visit the Sera monastery following peoples in seeking the blessing of Thangkha display there.

First, in the morning, we will visit the Drak Yerpa. It is a hermit on the outskirt of the Lhasa city. It is said to be a very holy hermit as all the major Masters of Tibetan Buddhism have meditated here, including Guru Rinpoche, Je Tsongkhapa, and Atisha. It is a short 25 Kilometre drive crossing the prayer-flag-draped 3980m Ngachen-la before turning into the side valley of Yerpa village.

In the afternoon, we will visit Norbulingka, the Summer Palace of Dalai Lama. Here in the Palace Garden, we will see the traditional Tibetan Opera show. It is an integral part of the festival. We will also see Tibetan picnicking in the garden. We will also set up a picnic in the park while you are free to explore and get invited to other picnics too.

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

Today is the first day outside the Lhasa city on this Yogurt 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 gorgeous 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.

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 town, 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 excellent 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 the 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 Kilometre north to the Damxung town in the middle of Wilderness Tibet. On the way, we will drive 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 the 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 the 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, 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.