About Tibet

Tibet (Xizang), the Roof of The World, remains unknown to the world until the very beginning of last century. The massive snow land has exerted an awesome draw to travelers and adventurers ever since. Its majestic and grand scenery, mysterious and exotic religious culture, and wonderful people award every tourist with a life long memory!

Tibet (Tibet Autonomous Region, TAR for short) borders India, Burma, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal. Covering a massive 1.22 million square kilometers, the plateau is surrounded by the highest mountain ranges, the Himalaya to the south, the Karakoram to the west and the Kunlun to the north. Serial smaller mountains block it off in the east with internal provinces of China.



With an average height of 4,000 meters above sea level, Tibet owns a group of giant mountains, Mt. Everest, and 4 mountains higher than 8,000 meters and 38 higher than 7,000 meters, becomes the dreamland mountaineers and adventures. The vast land is also the cradle of great rivers like the Yangtze, Yellow River, Nu River (Salween), Lancang River (Mekong), Yarlong Tsangpo (Brahmaputra), Indus and Ganges. Tibet also offers awe-inspiring scenery of holy lakes and valleys.


Lhasa and Shigatse are the well trodden areas which offer the most accessible religious monuments and tourist facilities. As the most important cities of Tibet, Lhasa and Shigatse features most of the religious monuments, The Potala, the Jokhang, Tashilunpo, and Kumbum, as well as natural wonders like Mt. Everest and Yamdrok Yumtso. West Tibet, Ngari, is a vast barren plateau and Roof of The Roof of The World.

As the place where the sacred lake (Lake Manasarova) joins the sacred mountain (Mt. Kailash), Ngari is a holy pilgrimage destination of Tibetans, Hindus as well as trekkers. The ancient Shang Shung Kingdom and Guge Kingdom also exert a pull. Southwest Tibet has been a popular destination for mountaineers.

More than 40 snow clad peaks are open to mountain climbing enthusiasts. South Tibet offers snow capped mountains, intact forest, running waters and mild climate. The largest canyon in the world, Yarlong Tsangpo Canyon raises rare species and remains unknown to the public.


FESTIVALS OF TIBET

	Year 2001	Year 2002	Year 2003	Year 2004	Year 2005
Tibetan New Year	Feb 24th	Feb 13th	Mar 3rd	Feb 21st	Feb 9th
The Great Prayer Festival (Monlam)	Mar 3rd - Mar 10th	Feb 20th - Feb 28th	Mar 11th - Mar 19th	Feb 28th - Mar 7th	Feb 16th - Feb 25th
Butter Lamp Festival	Mar 9th	Feb 27th	Mar 18th	Mar 6th	Feb 23rd
Saka Dawa Festival	Jun 6th	Jun 10th	Jun 14th	Jun 3rd	May 23rd
Buddha Unfolding Festival	Jun	Jun	Jun	Jun	Jun
Gyangtse Horse Race Festival	Jun	Jun	Jun	Jun	Jun
Paying Homage to the Holy Mountain Festival	Aug 24th	Jul 14th	Aug 2nd	Jul 21st	Jul 10th
Shoton Festival	Aug 19th - Aug 25th	Aug 8th - Aug 15th	Aug 27th - Sep 3rd	Aug 15th - Aug 22nd	Sep 3rd - Sep 10th
Nakchu Horse Race Festival	Aug 10th - Aug 16th	Aug 10th - Aug 16th	Aug 10th - Aug 16th	Aug 10th - Aug 16th	Aug 10th - Aug 16th
Bathing Festival	Sep 17th	Sep 7th	Sep 26th	Sep 14th	Sep 3rd
Universal Prayers Festival	Sep 21st	Aug 11th	Aug 1st	Aug 19th	Sep 6th
Tsong Khapa Butter Lamp Festival	Dec 19th	Dec 29th	Dec 18th	Dec 7th	Dec 26th