Tibet 2000

This is information I have taken from  Yo Wangdu's page  and is very similar to part of the pilgrimage I made in 2000 to Tibet.  It was the most wonderful and fulfilling experience. One I have never regretted and one I hope to do again.   It is truely where my heart resides.

Reting and the nunnery and sky burial were the most incredible experiences and we were also fortunate enough to go to Samye. Check out  www.yowandu.com   for more info on this trip.

This Land Cruiser trip is a great loop that takes you a bit off the main tourist routes, with beautiful scenery on every leg of the journey and each place fascinating in its own right. Ask your travel agent about setting it up.

 

(View from near Reting Monastery -- Drigung Til Monastery -- Derdom Nunnery. Photos: YoWangdu.)

 

 

Day One:  Lhasa to Pembo

Day Two: Pembo to Namtso Lake

Day Three: Namtso to Reting

Day Four: Reting

Day Five: Reting to Drekung til or Derdom

Day Six: Derdom

Day Seven: Derdom to Lhasa

 

Day One:  Lhasa to Pembo Valley

You can camp the first night out of Lhasa in the lovely, pastoral Pembo (Lundrub) Valley, full of barley fields and not on most tourist routes. While in Pembo, visit the small, local, non-touristy Nalanda and Langtang Monasteries.

 

Day Two: Pembo Valley to Namtso Lake

This not very traveled road, off the main route to Namtso, has endless, beautiful river valleys. You can also get to Namtso in one day from Lhasa if you prefer, on a more direct, and more traveled road. Namtso is beautiful, and high -- 15,400 ft / 4718 m. -- so be prepared for altitude symptoms.

 

Day Three: Namtso Lake to Reting Monastery

After first dreading the five and six and seven hour days of jolting over rough roads in the Land Cruiser, we found that the scenery unrolling through the window was mesmerizing in its beauty. Virtually every road we traveled in Tibet follows a big beautiful river, many of them milky blue-green, indicating origins in the snow mountains.

 

Day Four: Reting Monastery

In a country full of spectacular natural beauty, Reting is a pastoral heaven. At 13,350 ft, the monastery overlooks a perfectly smooth green and placid valley, a milky snow-fed river running through the bottom. Climb up the hill to Tsongkhapa's hermitage and a nunnery perched even higher up the mountain.

 

Day Five: Reting to Dregung Til Monastery

Dregung Til Monastery is known for having the holiest sky burial site in the Lhasa area. You can camp near Dregung sho, at the base of the steep mountain side that Dregung Monastery perches on.

 

Day Six: Tidrum Nunnery (Derdom)

From Dregung Til, it's a short drive to Tidrum nunnery, nestled in a narrow little picturesque valley criss-crossed with prayer flags and home to medicinal hot springs you can bathe in.

 

Day Seven: Tidrum to Lhasa 

On the return journey, we stopped at Meldro-Gonkar for the Shodun festival happening there (it was September), with excellent horse and yak races.