4 Nights/ 5 Days Lhasa City Tour

Day 01:

Fly from Kathmandu to Lhasa. Airplane will land at Lhasa Gonggar Airport (96 kilometers from the main city). Early morning you are transferred to the airport to board the plane for the flight over the Himalaya to Lhasa. If the weather is clear there are wonderful views of Everest, Nuptse, Lhotse, Makalu, Kanchenjunga and other peaks en route. On arrival at Gonggar airport (which is 90 km. from Lhasa), you meet your vehicle and drive east along the broad Yarlung Tsangpo valley to Tsedang (3400m.). After checking in to your hotel, you drive south to see the reputed oldest building in Tibet, the Yumbu Lakhang, a beautiful castle-like dwelling and monastery, dramatically perched on a spur looking out over the fertile valley below. If time permits you may be able to visit a small monastery close to Tsedang, or an interesting carpet factory where you can see the whole process of carpet making.

Day 02-04:

Lhasa Sightseeing tour. Sightseeing tour of the Potala & Norbulinka Palace, Drepung & Sera Monastery, Jokhang Temple & the Barkhor Bazaar One of the highlights is the visit to the symbol of Tibet; the Potala Palace set high on Red Hill, the winter home of the Dalai Lama until 1959. The most sacred temple in Lhasa is the Lokhang, where people come from all over Tibet to visit and pray in this spiritual heart of the country. It was used as a military kitchen during the Cultural Revolution but has now been beautifully restored, with many priceless thangkas and statues adorning the chapels, and magnificent gilded roofs. Another great treasure is the Norbulingka – the old summer palace of the Dalai Lama, which his is alleged to have preferred to the Potala as the rat population was less! Now you visit Jorkhang temple, the center of the Tibetan Buddhism and the sacred land of Buddhist followers where innumerable pilgrims come for worship everyday. The temple, built in 647, is the earliest wood-and-masonry structure still existing in Tibet. Surrounding the Jorkhang Temple is the bustling Barkhor Street which is the religious and social focus of Lhasa. Around the Barkhor there are numerous stalls selling all sorts of handicrafts: brightly coloured boots and fur-lined hats, silver and turquoise jewellery, rosaries, prayer flags and charms, as well as beautiful Tibetan carpets and all manner of ordinary household ware. Next you visit Sera monastery, which was created in 1419, has always been an important Buddhist seminary. As rose are planted everywhere in the monastery, it is also called “the court of wild rose”. Today still 200 lamas live in there. On the other hand, Drepung Monastery, is the world’s largest monastery with about 10,000 monks

Day 05: