CULTURAL HIGHLIGHTS OF CENTRAL TIBET

Duration : 8 Days 7 Nights
Months : March-May/ September-February

The drive from the Gonggar airport to Tsedang enlightens you on Tibet's early history. However, Tsedang is a very prime city. The first fortified house in Tibet, Yambu Lakhang is a palace transformed into a monastery. Inside is an assembly of most of the important figures from Tibet's early history. The Samye Monastery lies in the middle of an arid land, standing magnificent in its gleaming facade. It was at Samye that the debate, which decided that the Tibetan Buddhism should follow Indian teaching, took place. The deep blue-green lake, Yamdrok Tso, is one of Tibet's largest. Gyantse is what everyone dreams a Tibetan town to be. Its main monastery, the Pelkor Chode, serves the Gelung, Sakya and Buluk orders. An architectural masterpiece, built in the style of a 108 sided mandala is the Kumbum Stupa. It is the most reversed stupa in Tibet and houses 112 chapels of which only 23 are open to the public. Some 90 km away is the town of Shigatse,Tibet's second largest city, reached via narrow gorges and broad river valleys. Tashilumpo Monastery the seat of the Pencham lamas, is one of Tibet's biggest Gelugpa monasteries. It was originally built by the first Dalai Lama and image of Maitreya and the embalmed bodies of the past Panchen Lama.