In the Indian newspaper The Tribune on April 21, 2002, Partha S. Banerjee writes: “…to experience Tibet as it used to be, don’t think of Lhasa – visit Mustang. Which means that from the nearest airport to the capital, Lo Manthanga, you have to walk for six days! And that’s in addition to the $700 fee that the Nepalese government charges all foreign visitors for access to this remote outpost of Tibetan civilization. Wild, windy, and harsh, but beautiful, it’s a land of myths and legends, monks and monasteries, ancient culture – but without a single mile of paved road.”
The Mustang mentioned in this travelogue is the untouched Upper Mustang or the former Kingdom of Lo, hidden high in the Nepalese Himalayas, on the border with Tibet. Mustang consists of two climate regions: lower and upper Mustang. The lower region is more humid, greener, still influenced by the monsoon, while the upper region, being located further north of the main Himalayan mountain range, is in its “rain shadow.” “In the shadow of the rain,” extremely dry, almost devoid of vegetation, and strong winds have carved interesting formations in the rocks. These unusual lunar landscapes are interrupted by small oases in sheltered areas where mountain villages are usually nestled near water sources, surrounded by barley fields. The dramatic scenery is enhanced by the spectacular snow-covered Himalayan peaks sinking into the intensely blue sky.
Although the Nepalese government opened Mustang to foreigners in 1992, special permits are still required to enter Upper Mustang. Visiting this last forbidden kingdom behind the snowy Himalayas is like stepping back in time to Tibet before the 1950s… The roaring wind, prayer flags, chortens, ruined fortresses, caravans of mules and ponies loaded with salt, wool, and grain slowly moving through winding mountain trails along the Kali Gandaki river canyon are millennia-old images of Mustang. By the way, the Kali Gandaki canyon is considered the deepest canyon in the world and has been recognized as such for centuries. It represents the main trade route between India and Tibet. The gorge separates the mountain ranges of western Dhaulagiri (highest peak: 8167 m) and eastern Annapurna (highest peak: 8091 m), with the Kali Gandaki River flowing between them.
The people who live here are called Lo or Lobas (Lo-pas); their language, culture, and traditions are the same as those in Tibet, where they are quickly disappearing under Chinese occupation, so Mustang is one of the last enclaves of untouched Tibetan culture, although within Nepalese borders.
The capital, Lo Manthang, is surrounded by a two-meter-high wall built in the 15th century. According to the latest census from 1991, it has only 876 inhabitants. In recent years, it has been restored thanks to foreign donations.
The landscape is spectacular in places, especially near the village of Chhuksang (2980 m) in Upper Mustang, where eroded rocks resemble huge organ pipes.
Kagbeni, a border village towards Upper Mustang.
The Tiji Festival
Geographical isolation, In the middle of the last century, entry of foreigners to this area was completely banned, and then limited, in order to protect it from many modern, both positive and negative influences. This preserved the unique traditional Tibetan culture, but over the centuries, life in these remote and sparse mountainous regions became increasingly difficult, so a large part of the population moved to other parts of Nepal or to India. For example, the main city of Lo Manthang, located at an altitude between 3500 and 3700 meters, is a six-day walk away from the nearest constructed road. The administrative center of Mustang is the village of Dzongsam (2800m), located on both banks of the Kali Gandaki river, where an airport was built which only in the 1990s became the main gateway for a limited number of visitors.
With the opening of the borders, Mustang became attractive to explorers and adventurers who heard legends of inaccessible caves, secret underground libraries, and lost cities. As a result, in recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of visitors who want to experience the untouched beauty of this region firsthand. In recent years, several important discoveries have been made. In 2007, in the caves of the stone desert Luri Gompa, fifty-five frescoes depicting the life of Buddha and a multitude of artifacts from the older Bon religion were found. The wall mandalas, jewels of Buddhist sacred art, Tibetan silver manuscripts, and gold inscriptions are dated to the 13th century, while the pottery found is believed to be from prehistoric times. The mandalas in vibrant blue, red, and white colors depict eight mahasiddhas, great adepts, yoga teachers with their hands in mudra positions, and small portraits of lamas. The caves of Tashi Kabum are similar, with narrow tunnels that one must crawl through to enter the hidden temple. Both caves reveal classical Tibetan, Chinese, Indian, and even Persian-Byzantine influences. The painted surfaces are coated with glaze resembling ceramics, which is not found anywhere else in the Himalayan and Tibetan regions. They are decorated in response to a divine command received in dreams or visions. According to legend, there were seven caves, but it seems that only the Himalayan griffon vultures drawn on their walls know what they truly contained.
In the region of Mustang, sacred texts of the bon religion were found, which were long believed to be lost. They were written in the ancient, now-extinct Zhang-zhung language spoken in today’s western Tibet, which is neither of Sanskrit nor Tibetan origin. The texts contain the term “hidden treasure,” referring to the esoteric teachings of Bon, whose universal elements later intertwine with the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. The mystical universe of Bon is based on the axis of the world, the pyramid-shaped mountain Yung-drung Gu-tzeg (Mount Kailash), and the paradise Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring in the shape of a lotus with eight petals. In the traditional Tibetan Bon religion, everything that exists is built upon the five basic elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space, and their names are symbolic keys to the qualities they contain and the way they function.
La ma Padmasambhava
The Great Teacher of Tibetan Buddhism is also associated with the Ghar Gompu or Lo Gekar Monastery (Pure Virtue of Lo). Legend has it that the monastery was built according to Padmasambhava’s instructions, and the Padma Kathang biographical sacred texts mention that he hid esoteric teachings, termed “terma,” there to be discovered when humanity is ready for his great teachings.
On the way to the former capital, Lo Manthang, there is the village of Tsarang with around four hundred inhabitants, which houses the Sakya monastery and the five-story Tsarang Dzong palace from the 14th century, where the largest library of ancient texts in Mustang is still preserved. The palace has a beautifully decorated old prayer room with a prayer book in golden script, statues, and large Buddha paintings. During festivals in the Tsarang Gompa monastery, fascinating sand mandalas are created, and at the end of the ceremonies, the sand is released into a nearby river.
The most important annual festival is Tiji or the Demon’s Hunt, when the surrounding population gathers I’m in Lo Manthang. That’s where the monks have been performing a centuries-old demon-expelling ceremony associated with water scarcity. It’s a three-day spring festival marking the end of the dry winter season and the beginning of a more humid period.
This brief journey through a kingdom where time seems to have stood still, and where life continues at the same slow pace as it has for centuries, concludes with the words of French explorer Michel Peissel who visited there in 1964. He wrote about the landscapes of Mustang, the pristine snow-capped peaks, the ancient monasteries and their guardians: What I saw was indescribable – as were the emotions that overwhelmed me while standing in the wind… Now I felt that this land was far more impressive than I had imagined, and that it surely holds countless invaluable secrets. Here, in Mustang, I feel that there is a world even older than Tibet itself…