Losang's Profile

I have had this blog for the past 5 years. I have had at least 850,000 vistors and thousands of emails from across the globe asking for travel advice on Tibet. Since the Yushu Earthquake in April 2010, I have... Continue reading

Posted Dec 26, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

14

Tibet Photography Workshop 2012

On April 22, 2012, my company Plateau Photo Tours, will be hosting Matt Brandon and Brian Hirschy on a 13 day photography workshop adventure through Tibet and Nepal. This workshop is a follow up to our very successful 2011 trip... Continue reading

Posted Oct 15, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

6

Yading Nature Reserve

The Yading Nature Reserve is found in western Sichuan’s Ganzi Tibet Autonomous Prefecture དཀར་མཛེས་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་ in the traditional Tibetan region of Kham ཁམས་. Ganzi, known in Tibetan as Garnze དཀར་མཛེས་, is divided into 18 counties covering an area of 151,000 square... Continue reading

Posted Sep 25, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

2

Frequently Asked Questions About Travel in Tibet

I get emails everyday from across the globe asking for travel advice on Tibet. I do my best to answer as many of those questions as I can. On my website, I have tried to make it as clear as... Continue reading

Posted Sep 9, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

10

Tibet closed to foreign travelers

UPDATED AUGUST 1, 2011 The Tibet Tourism Bureau announced on July 22, 2011 that they will begin arranging permits for the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The TAR has been closed since early June, but now it is open again except... Continue reading

Posted Jun 11, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

15

Best time to visit Tibet

One of the most common questions I am asked is when is the best time to visit Tibet? Well, that is a bit difficult to answer because there are pro's and con's to each season. What I will do is... Continue reading

Posted May 22, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

9

Images from around Lhasa

On April 13th, I arrived in Lhasa with a group of 10 photographers from across the globe. Lhasa was the starting point for a 15 day photography workshop led by Matt Brandon and assisted by my good friend Brian Hirschy.... Continue reading

Posted May 16, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

0

Chengdu to Shangri La Overland

The 1100 kilometer (685 mile) route from Chengdu to Shangri La (known as Gyelthang in Tibetan) is the most popular overland route through the Kham region of Tibet. Beginning in Chengdu, this route travels westward through Garze/Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture... Continue reading

Posted May 15, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

5

Arranging Travel to Tibet Isn't Difficult

I often get emails from people who want to go to Tibet, but are frustrated with arranging their tour. They are convinced that arranging travel to Tibet is too difficult for them. If you use the wrong travel agency, it... Continue reading

Posted May 12, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

4

Death at Everest Base Camp

I recently returned from Everest Base Camp. I led a group of 10 people from Lhasa to Kathmandu traveling along the Friendship Highway. We spent 4 nights in Lhasa, elevation 3550m, before going to Gyantse (3980m), Shigatse (3900m), Shegar (4150m)... Continue reading

Posted May 8, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

12

Yushu Earthquake: The road ahead

It has been nearly a year since a 7.1 magnitude earthquake destroyed the town of Jyekundo. Though the official death toll is around 2700, everyone who was in the quake, including myself, knows that the death toll is much, much... Continue reading

Posted Apr 2, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

5

Travel Agency Recommendations

All foreigners going to the Tibet Autonomous Region are required to be part of an organized tour that includes travel permits, a tour guide and a private vehicle with a driver (no private vehicle is required if you are just... Continue reading

Posted Mar 17, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

1

Now on Facebook...

You can now follow me on Facebook! I will be sharing travel information on all areas of Tibet as well as answer questions on travel in Tibet. Come join me on Facebook! Continue reading

Posted Jan 8, 2011 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

3

In Search of Gado Jowa

This past fall, I went on a journey searching for the holy mountain of Gado Jowa སྒ་སྟོད་ཇོ་བོ།. Most people are only familiar with one or two of Tibet's many holy mountains. Mt. Kailash གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ in far western Tibet's Ngari prefecture... Continue reading

Posted Dec 29, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

0

Sertar

Though I have lived and traveled across the Tibetan Plateau for nearly 9 years, there are still a few places I have not been to yet. One of those places was Sertar. I was finally able to visit Sertar last... Continue reading

Posted Dec 27, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

2

Zoige

Zoige མཛོད་དགེ་, known as Ruo'ergai in Chinese, is a nomadic county located in northern Ngawa Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture རྔ་བ་ཁུལ་ in far northern Sichuan province. Located in the traditional Tibetan region of Amdo, Zoige is a large county lying between 3300m... Continue reading

Posted Dec 10, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

4

Zhilam Hostel

In October 2010, my wife and I took a management position at Zhilam Hostel. Zhilam Hostel is located in Kangding (Dartsendo in Tibetan) in western Sichuan. This area is in the traditional Tibetan region of Kham. Zhilam ཞི་ལམ་ is a... Continue reading

Posted Dec 9, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

2

Tibet Photography Workshop

On April 12, my company, Plateau Photo Tours, will be hosting Matt Brandon on a 15 day photography workshop through Tibet and Nepal. The tour will begin with flying from Chengdu to the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa. We will... Continue reading

Posted Nov 14, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

2

Kangding

Kangding, known as Dartsendo དར་རྩེ་མདོ། / Dardo དར་མདོ་ in Tibetan, is the capital town of Garnze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture དཀར་མཛེས་ཁུལ་ located in western Sichuan province. Kangding sits at 2600m and has a population of around 100,000. Part of the traditional... Continue reading

Posted Nov 13, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

4

Yushu Earthquake: 6 Months Later

I spent 5 days in Yushu prefecture recently. It was the third time I had been to Yushu since the April earthquake. When I arrived in Jyekundo, the capital of Yushu prefecture, it was snowing. The temperature was slightly below... Continue reading

Posted Oct 25, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

2

Tibet: Which area to go to?

I often receive emails from people asking which area of Tibet they should travel to. This is a difficult question to answer since in my opinion, all regions of the Tibetan Plateau are amazing. In this post, I will list... Continue reading

Posted Oct 23, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

10

Drigung Monastery

Drigung Til Monastery འབྲི་གུང་མཐིལ is located 150kms northeast of Lhasa and is the head monastery of the Drigung Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Located in Meldro Gungkar county མལ་གྲོ་གུང་དཀར་རྫོང་, the monastery sits at an elevation of 4150m and is home... Continue reading

Posted Sep 30, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

2

Pelyul

Pelyul county དཔལ་ཡུལ་རྫོང་, known as Baiyu in Chinese, is located in the northwest corner of Garnze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture དཀར་མཛེས་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་ in far western Sichuan. Pelyul is located in the traditional Tibetan region of Kham and was one of 4 counties... Continue reading

Posted Sep 27, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

2

Low Season: The time to go to Tibet

If you have followed any of my blog posts or posts on Lonely Planet's Thorntree Travel Forum you will know that I often recommend people to travel to Lhasa and other regions along the Friendship Highway during the winter. You... Continue reading

Posted Sep 20, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

12

Shangri La

Far northwest Yunnan province has a small 3 county Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture called Dechen བདེ་ཆེན་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་. This region is the furthest southern extremity of the Kham region of Tibet. The 3 counties of Dechen prefecture have a total population of around... Continue reading

Posted Sep 19, 2010 at Life on the Tibetan Plateau

Comment

1