Showing posts with label Lo Manthang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lo Manthang. Show all posts

Friday, September 24, 2021

Near the Top of Asia, the Kingdom of Lo (Part 7, Heading South)

Heading south out of Lo Manthang

Dear readers, we have walked to the remote capital of Lo Manthang in Nepal's Kingdom of Lo and ridden horses to the monastery of Nyiphu near the Tibetan border. But autumn was approaching, and it was time to head south and, eventually, home. 

Leaving Lo Manthang, we walked south through a rather desolate and bleak landscape. Imagine the winter here at 3,800 m elevation. For our trek south, we followed the eastern route which approximately follows the Kali Gandhi River. We crossed a couple of passes exceeding 3,900 m elevation, but it was not hard walking, and we had been at that altitude for over a week.

Modern steel girder bridge at Charang
Charang (Tsarang)
Long day in the saddle, Charang

Charang (or Tsarang), at 3550 m is the first town south of Lo Manthang. We stayed in the Kailash Hotel, a rustic but clean place. Note from the photographs above that we still had magnificent weather, with nights just a bit below freezing. It was October 14, so winter would be here soon.

A ruined palace, once the home of the Raja of Mustang, strategically overlooks the town.


Dhargyeling Monastery, Charang

The Dhargyeling Monastery in Charang, possibly over 500 years old, is a treasury of statuary, painting, and sacred scrolls. How do these pigments survive the brutal cycling from cold to hot?

Ghami

In another day, we reached the village of Ghami, where we had stayed a week before. From here on heading south, we retraced our steps along the Kali Gandhi River. 

Main Street, Syanboche
Packing up at the Dhaulagiri, Syanboche

Our next night was in Syanboche (also Syangbochen? approx. 3,800 m), really little more than a dirt street between some houses. 

Sure-footed walking near Chungsi
Samar
At the Annapurna, Samar

Samar was a rather well developed town, just a short distance above Chele and the crossing of the Kali Gandaki. North of town, the road passed through some treacherous terrain of landslides and rotten rock. We saw road crews trying to cut the road across some cliff-faces. We learned later that in the following winter, parts of the road were swept away in landslides. Our horses were more sure-footed than we were.

The next day, we walked across the river and stayed again in the big town of Kagbeni, which I described in Pat 2 of this series (click the link).

Jomson

Oh, oh, traffic, electricity, stores, lights - after another day's walk south from Kagbeni, we reached Jomson, the main commercial town of southern Mustang. Jomson has many hotels as well stores, a health center, and an airport. This was a major stop on the Annapurna circuit, so it has received tourist traffic for decades.

Jomson was the last stop for most of our group. They returned to Kathmandu by air. Within about a week, brutal cold descended into Central Asia, and many Mustang villagers had to head south abruptly. 

I opted to continue south on foot and walk down the fantastic valley of the Kali Gandaki. The river cuts the deepest canyon in the world between the 8,000-m peaks of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. This amazing 4-day walk carries your through several biologic zones as the elevation drops and the temperature goes up. You are in high altitude desert at Jomson and semi-tropical rainforest at Tatopani. I wrote about this canyon walk in 2017. Highly recommended!

This ends one of my best hiking trips ever. I hope you enjoyed riding (walking) along. 

Sunday, September 5, 2021

Near the Top of Asia, the Kingdom of Lo (Part 5; Lo Manthang)

 Lo Manthang is the largest town in remote north central Nepal, near the border with Tibet. According to Wikipedia,

Lo Manthang was the walled capital of the Kingdom of Lo from its founding in 1380 by Ame Pal who oversaw construction of the city wall and many of the still-standing structures. After the Shahs of Gorkha forged Nepal out of numerous petty kingdoms in the 18th century, Lo became a dependency but kept its hereditary rulers. This arrangement continued as long as Nepal remained a kingdom, until the country was declared a republic in 2008 and Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista (c.1933–2016) was stripped of his title. His protector King Gyanendra suffered the same fate, however the raja or gyelpo of Mustang was 25th in a direct line of rulers dating back to 1380 AD. 
Crossette (1996) provides some of the cultural and mid-20th century background to Lo: 
Until the unification of Nepal by Gorkha kings in the eighteenth century, most Tibetan borderlands were not really a part of the country. Psychologically, many pockets still are not. The kingdom of Mustang, nearly 150 rugged miles from Kathmandu in a protuberance thrusting into Tibet, was one of them until Nepal opened the territory to develop­ment and  trekking.  In upper Mustang, the Buddhist kingdom of Lo, with its walled capital, Lo Manthang, broke free of Tibet in the fourteenth century, reached its height about a hundred years later on the strength and income of trade with Tibet, and enjoyed an independent existence for nearly four hundred years. During that time temples and a few palaces were built in what was called Mustang Bhot - Tibetan Mus­tang. "Bhot," ''Bhotia," "Bhutia,'' and other variations of the word often mean Tibetan to South Asians in the same way "Hellenistic" meant not quite Greek but within the influence of the Greek world. The word, probably a variation of ''Bot," originally meant Tibet in the Tibetan language. 
Although the kings of Mustang had lost all their residual powers and the formal use of titles in the 1950s, Mustang was a wild card as late as the 1960s, when Nepal was unable to do much to stop a Tibetan exile guerilla force based there with what is widely assumed to be substantial help from the United States Central Intelligence Agency. The guerrillas, known in Nepal as Khampas because most were from the Kham region of eastern Tibet, obviously never stood much of a chance against the Chinese army in Lhasa, but they could serve as an annoyance to Beijing. Tibetan exiles in the Indian hill town of Darjeeling told me, with linger­ing bitterness, that American enthusiasm for their cause ended as sud­denly as it had begun when President Richard M. Nixon recognized the Chinese Communist regime. Some Tibetans went on fighting until the mid-1970s, when Nepal sent soldiers to wipe out the bases of the rebel­lion. About the same time, the royal government of King Mahendra introduced some development to Mustang, which had lost its Tibetan trade.
Lo-Manthang city map (only a bit not in scale)
Rooftops of Lo-Manthang
After walking for days northward through Mustang, Lo-Manthang seemed like the big city. We saw jeeps and motor bikes, some street lighting, stores, cows, horses, and guest houses. We even saw some satellite dishes, and the guest houses had wi-fi. Note the traditional wood sticks placed along the roof parapets. 
Winter preparation, Lo-Manthang, Nepal
Passageway supported by ancient timbers

The motorbikes have an interesting trade connection. As of 2011, the road south through the valley of the Kali Gandaki towards Jomson was not complete. We saw workers constructing sections of the road and learned that during the following winter, rock slides and avalanches destroyed some of their work. However, the Chinese had built a road north from Lo-Manthang to the border with Tibet. Therefore, most of the goods we saw in the small shops, such as packaged foods, cosmetics, candies, and propane bottles, came from China. We learned that several times during the year, Chinese traders held a fair at the border to which Nepalese buyers could visit without visas. That is where the Nepalese bought inexpensive motorbikes, petrol, spare parts, and who knows what else.

But change was ongoing already. As early as the early-1990s, Crosette (1996) describes the trip taken by a Nepali writer, Manjushree Thapa (1992), to Mustang:
She described the king's palace in Lo Manthang, with linoleum on the floors and men who drank themselves into nightly stupors while rolling dice. But she also wrote of the piety and devotion of people who had maintained their Buddhist temples and monasteries undisturbed by poli­tics over centuries. She sat down for tea with monks eating Chinese candy brought back from Tibet, where temples are once again open to them. One of their lamas made regular trips to Tibetan gompas, they said, where he was much in demand to say prayers, In return he brought back butter for the butter lamps of impoverished Lo Manthang. It was an interesting trade-off: the wisdom and piety of an unbroken Tibetan Buddhist tradition for the biscuits, sweets, and butter of soldier-rich, monk-poor Tibet. Tibetan gompas aren't alone in looking toward Lo for a rare cultural purity, Thapa wrote. With the barriers to outsiders coming down, Mustang, like Bhutan, will draw a special breed of tour­ist. "Because it promises a Tibetan culture more pristine than in Chi­nese-occupied Tibet, Lo is the darling of discoverers, adventurers and Tibetophiles," she said. But the outside world is alien, no matter what its motive for coming to Mustang. And outside influences were already making a mark before tourism began, as more people from this hidden kingdom traveled beyond its mountain walls.


Being a former royal capital, Lo_Manthang was full of ancient chortens. 

The raja's Royal Palace is a complicated, five-story structure built around 1400. Imagine the passageways and semi-forgotten chambers. There was probably a cistern to save rainwater. Does it have indoor plumbing now? Several large Tibetan mastiffs sat on an open porch and growled at everyone and everything.

The king signing a book. Note the magnificent furniture.
Dorky tourists with the King of Lo

Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista (Nepali:जिग्मे दोर्जे पलवर विष्ट) (1930-2016) was the unofficial King of Mustang (Mustang Rājā) between 1964 and 2008, when Nepal abolished the Monarchy. The King continued to live in the Palace, and local residents throughout Mustang continued to respect him and his opinions on cultural and administrative matters. We learned that he lived in the palace for the summer but spent winters in Kathmandu and Los Angeles. The raja died in Kathmandu at age of 86. His only son died at age 8, and the current heir to the throne lives in California, married to a Bhutanese princess. 

The school (read the sign for the full name) is supported by the American Himalayan Foundation. It is is a modern building and has electricity. 

Example of street lighting. 

I cannot remember how many nights we stayed in Lo_Manthang, either 3 or 4, making this a fascinating  cultural experience. GO before this remote part of the world changes forever!


References

Crossette, Barbara, 1996. So Close to Heaven: The Vanishing Buddhist Kingdoms of the Himalayas, Vantage Books, 320 p.

Thapa, Manjushree, 1992. Mustang Bhot in Fragments, Himal Books (Kathmandu), 139 p.

Photography

These are all digital files from a Panasonic G-1 digital camera. I may have posted too many pictures, but this is a fascinating site off the normal tourist route. 

Cover of So Close to Heaven

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Near the Top of Asia: the Kingdom of Lo (Part 4, Approach to Lo Manthang)

Walking to the horizon, view from Mui La (4170m or 13,700 ft)

The northern part of Mustang is bleak and dry - a high altitude desert. The winter cold must be brutal. 

We left the guesthouse in Ghami and headed north on the high trail (bypassing the town of Tsarang, where we would stop on our way south). We passed the longest Mani wall in Mustang. 

Dhakmar (3820 m elev.)
Dhakmar Khola
A river roars through Dhakmar. From there, it was up to the Mui La at 4170m, then on to Ghar Gompa.

Ghar Gompa (monastery)

Ghar Gompa is a famous monastery, part of which dates back to the 8th century. How did the monks survive here? How could they grow enough crops? The Little Ice Age from the 16th to the 19th centuries must have been very difficult.


Finally, Lo Manthang in the distance. This had been a long and tiring day, some 8 hours on the trail at 3800 - 4000+ m elevation. From our approach from the southwest, Lo Manthang appeared to be situated in a desolate dry terrain with no vegetation. But in reality, it is on a flat plain between two rivers, and the alluvial valley has been sufficient for agriculture for centuries.

Next: the "big city" of Lo Manthang.

These are digital files from a Panasonic µ4/3 digital camera. 

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Almost the End of the World: Mustang, Nepal (Waypoints)

Dear Readers, this post will be different than others in this blog. The table below lists waypoints for the 12-day hike through the Mustang area of Nepal. Mustang is a province in north central Nepal, near the Tibetian border. A few months ago, I was unable to find any published waypoints, so the list below is intended to serve as a convenience to other hikers. Feel free to copy and then import into ArcMap software, Google Earth Pro, or other mapping tools.
Morning departure from Pokkhara
Most travelers to this remote area fly into Kathmandu, regroup after the exhausting flight from USA or Europe, and then fly to the lakeside town of Pokkhara. Then, early morning, they fly via turboprop to Jomsom, which is the southern gateway to Mustang. From Jomsom they hike north to the town of Lo Manthang, the capital of the Kingdom of Lo.
First of all, you can't just walk to Mustang; you need permits, and they cost a lot! The purpose is to control the number of tourists who enter the fragile ecosystem. This is a high-altitude desert, and water, fuel, and food are scarce. Possibly more important, the Government of Nepal is trying to preserve the unique and ancient Buddhist culture from the ravages of mass tourism. It is best to let an experienced travel outfitter in Kathmandu take care of permits and other logistics.
You also need a permit for the Annapurna Conservation Area. Here, too, the government is trying to monitor tourists who are traveling through the mountains and is funding conservation and preservation efforts.

In the table below, coordinates are in decimal degrees in geodetic datum WGS-84, data collected with a Garmin Geko 201 hand-held GPS receiver. Horizontal accuracy was typically 7-15 m. Elevations are in meters; accuracy unknown. The first waypoint is the Kathmandu Guesthouse (hotel), and the next two are from the town of Pokkhara. The remainder cover the trekking route. They start just north of Tatopani, in the Kali Gandaki River valley, and proceed north. The ancient walled city of Lo Manthang (location of the Mystique Guest House) is the capital of Mustang and the usual northernmost destination for most tourists. A road now goes from Lo Manthang to the Chinese border, which will likely cause profound cultural changes in the years to come. Already, many trade goods and supplies come from China via this road.

NAME
LAT_WGS84
LONG_WGS84
ELEV_M
KATH_GUESTOUSE
27.71623
85.3087 
xxxx
POK_AIRPORT
28.19948
83.97775
804
POK_LAKE
28.21242
83.9552
758
AN-S-R
28.51027
83.65739
1493
DANA
28.54471
83.64541
1461
WATERFALL
28.55553
83.63644
1589
LEKALI_TEA_HOUSE
28.55568
83.63841
1587
ROAD
28.55763
83.63548
1611
BRIDGE05
28.56071
83.63741
1635
KOPCHE_PANI
28.56831
83.63966
1735
CANYON
28.56931
83.64186
1809
BRIDGE04
28.59011
83.64758
1996
EAGLE_NEST
28.59468
83.64328
1952
GHASA
28.60762
83.64402
2097
KAIKU
28.61494
83.63955
2168
GHUMAU
28.61999
83.63192
2237
IETEKH
28.62879
83.61691
2394
KALOPANI
28.64125
83.59901
2531
BRIDGE03
28.64663
83.59444
2506
DHAMPU
28.66067
83.59409
2538
BRIDGE02
28.67192
83.59757
2545
RIVER_CROSS
28.678
83.60389
2537
KHOBANG
28.68963
83.61669
2551
KHANTI
28.69392
83.62081
2560
TUKUCHE
28.71159
83.64914
2603
APPLE_FARM
28.74066
83.68058
2666
MARPHA
28.75391
83.6871
2689
DUMBAR
28.76214
83.69566
2681
JOMSON_SOUTH
28.7813
83.72185
2749
OMS_HOTEL
28.78296
83.72502
2744
EKLE_BHATTI
28.81849
83.77387
2807
KAGBENI
28.83631
83.78319
2861
RIVER_VIEW02
28.85507
83.79071
2896
KALI_GANDAKI02
28.8602
83.79223
2855
KALI_GANDAKI03
28.86385
83.79271
2858
RIVER01
28.86923
83.80091
2077
ORGANIC_FARM
28.88273
83.80907
3105
VIKKAG
28.8889
83.8047
3447
TANGBE
28.88918
83.80639
3045
RIVER_VIEW
28.89874
83.8087
3059
CHHUSANG
28.91457
83.81966
2956
BRIDGE
28.92759
83.82907
2958
CHELE
28.93102
83.82679
3060
CANYON01
28.94239
83.80762
3466
PASS
28.95305
83.80225
3601
SAMAR02
28.96171
83.80115
3643
SAMAR
28.9618
83.80108
3624
SAMAR04
28.96211
83.80223
3612
CHORTEN03
28.96535
83.80413
3595
SAMAR03
28.9683
83.80305
3653
BHENA_LA
28.97347
83.80934
3849
BHENA
28.97348
83.8093
3835
SYAN-LA
28.98425
83.82592
3995
YAMDA_LA
28.98447
83.82561
3982
PASS18
28.98757
83.83095
3889
SYANGBOCHE_LA
28.99048
83.84126
3839
SYANGBOCHE
28.99112
83.83821
3774
PASS03
29.00476
83.84767
3675
TAMAGAON
29.00781
83.84731
3712
CHHUNGGAR
29.01865
83.84861
3794
ZHAITE
29.0275
83.84851
3817
NYI_LA
29.03294
83.85304
3984
NYI_LA02
29.03309
83.85314
4006
NYI_LA03
29.03313
83.85314
4025
CLIFF
29.04717
83.86834
3790
GHAMI_LA
29.05202
83.87067
3768
GHAMI02
29.06112
83.87101
3586
MANI_WALL
29.06227
83.87894
3575
ROYAL_MUSTANG
29.06343
83.8731
3574
STREAM
29.06599
83.87244
3596
PASS15
29.06669
83.89672
3878
PASS05
29.0681
83.87924
3716
PASS14
29.07907
83.92224
3656
DHAKMAR
29.08325
83.8809
3724
CHORTEN02
29.08786
83.92759
3575
TSARANG_S
29.09208
83.93296
3559
TSARANG
29.09544
83.93064
3589
PASS06
29.09864
83.88245
4054
PASS13
29.10398
83.93903
3651
PASS7
29.10798
83.88426
4150
LO-GHY
29.12464
83.88847
3937
SUNGDA_CHORTEN
29.12988
83.94695
3742
STREAM02
29.13408
83.89233
3991
CAVES02
29.14637
83.94495
3818
PASS08
29.14761
83.89861
4259
PASS09
29.14873
83.89885
4265
STREAM03
29.15221
83.89888
4268
CHOGO_LA
29.15661
83.90231
4316
PASS10
29.16189
83.91043
4190
PASS11
29.16436
83.92784
4078
PASS12
29.16799
83.95274
3963
PAS-11
29.17082
83.95087
3904
MYSTIQUE
29.18159
83.95689
3887
SCHOOL
29.1839
83.95725
3820
FORT
29.1868
83.96332
3811
CHOSER
29.21776
83.97433
3852
NYIPHU
29.23467
83.97817
3928
CAVE
29.23624
83.98257
3952

I will post more descriptions and photographs of this fascinating area in the future. I plotted the points in ESRI ArcMap software.