May 23rd:

Leave USA or home country.

May 24th: Arrive Beijing
Overnight in Courtyard New World Hotel. (- / - / D).
Arrive in Beijing. We will be met at the airport and taken to our hotel. After a rest from the flight, we will meet for dinner and an evening orientation session.

May 25th: Beijing
Overnight in Courtyard New World Hotel. ( B / L / D).
We will visit the Forbidden City during the morning and return to the hotel for lunch. After a brief siesta we will make an early evening outing to Tiananmen Square.

May 26th: Beijing
Overnight in Courtyard New World Hotel. (B / L / D).
Today we will have an all day outing to the Great Wall.

May 27th: Beijing – Tsetang
Overnight in Snow Pigeon Hotel. ( B / - / D)
In the morning we will fly to Tibet’s Gonggar airport and drive to Tsetang that served as the Capital of Tibet from 400 BC to approximately 650 AD. It is approximately two hours very scenic drive from the airport to Tsetang. After check-in and rest, we will have an optional outing to and meditation in the Dradruk Temple, one of Tibet’s first Buddhist temples. It is ranked next to the Jokhang Temple in terms of sacredness and was one of the 12 "inner circle temples" created by Songtsen Gampo in the mid 7th century.

May 28th : Tsetang
Overnight in Snow Pigeon Hotel. (B / L / D).
We will drive to Samye. Samye was Tibet’s first fully qualified monastery and has a history that spans over 1200 years. This monastery is designed to represent the Buddhist Universe. Many of the buildings in the courtyard are cosmological symbols. The complex originally had 108 buildings (an auspicious number to the Tibetans) and there were 1008 chortens on the circular wall that rings the monastery. Here we will walk through the various chapels and then find a quiet meditation spot.

May 29th : Tsetang
Overnight in Snow Pigeon Hotel. ( B / L / D).
The exquisite Olkha Cholung Valley is approximately three hours drive from our hotel. Olkha Cholung is the place where Je Tsongkhapa spent five years in retreat based on advice from the dakinis. Here he gained some of his deepest realizations into the nature of reality. The Maitriya Temple is a short drive away. We will picnic at the small temple there and then meditate in one of the caves. We will return to Tsetang in the evening.

May 30th : Tsetang – Shigatse
Overnight in Manasarovar Hotel. ( B / L / D).
Morning meditation in the Yambhu Lhagang, Tibet’s first palace (approx. 400 B.C. It was transformed into a Buddhist temple in approx. 650 A.D). We will then drive to Shigatse via the northern route. We will arrive at Shigatse in the early evening and check into our hotel.

May 31st : Shigatse – Full Moon
Overnight in Manasarovar Hotel. ( B / L / D).
Full moon day in Tashi Lhunpo, the monastery built by the First Dalai Lama in 1447 and associated with Mme. Blavatsky’s personal teachers.
Here we will join a crowd of several thousand pilgrims from all over Central Tibet and push our way enthusiastically through the dozens of chapels, including the one with the relics from the First Dalai Lama’s cremation pyre.

June 1st : Shigatse – Gyantse
Overnight in Hotel. ( B / L / D).
Today we will drive to Gyantse, stopping for a brief meditation in Zhalu Monastery, a great favorite of Tsongkhapa. In Gyantse we check into our hotel and after lunch we will visit the famous Kumbum Stupa. It is popularly known as “The Jewel of Tibet”. It is a seven story building with seventy-seven small chapels, each painted from floor to ceiling with buddhas, bodhisattvas and mandalas.

June 2nd : Gyantse – Lhasa
Overnight in Doodh Gu Hotel. ( B / L / D).
We drive to Lhasa taking the road by the beautiful Turquoise Lake, one of the four sacred lakes of Central Tibet. The mountain passes here take us to 16,700 feet. We will stop briefly at Dolma Lhakang before we arrive in Lhasa. We check into our hotel which is only a few minutes walk from the Jokhang temple.

June 3rd : Lhasa
Overnight in Doodh Gu Hotel. ( B / L / D).
Morning in Jokhang, oldest and the most revered religious structure in Tibet, it dates back to 639 to 647 A.D. The construction was initiated by King Songtsen Gampo to house the Buddhist images brought to Tibet by his Nepalese wife, Queen Brikuti. In recent centuries the main statue in this temple is that of the Sakyamuni, which was brought to Tibet by Songtsen Gampo’s Chinese wife Won Cheng in 641 A.D. Pilgrims from all over Tibet come here to worship and prostrate themselves in full length in front of the main doors of the temple.

Afternoon in Barkhor. The word Barkhor refers to the middle of the three concentric holy circuits around the Jokhang. The Barkhor Circuit runs through the heart of the old city where life has changed little over the centuries. It gives you a curious sensation of having slipped through time. It is an area unrivalled in Tibet for its fascinating combination of deep spirituality and market economics. This is both the spiritual heart of the holy city and the main commercial district, being the center of Tibetan capital's trade for centuries.

June 4th : Lhasa
Overnight in Doodh Gu Hotel. ( B / L / D ).
In the morning we will visit the Potala, traditional home of the Dalai Lamas and their monastery. Potala Palace has been the focus of pilgrims to Lhasa for centuries. It is the cardinal landmark and a structure of massive proportion. This symbol of Tibet is an architectural gem. King Songtsen Gampo built the red section of it in the mid 7th century, but it was the great Fifth Dalai Lama who made it the grand structure we see today. It became the home of all Dalai Lamas since him, as well as the seat of his private monastery, Namgyal Dratsang, and also the seat of the Tibetan government. The Chinese Army of Red Guards protected it during the Cultural Revolution and as a result many of its chapels and treasures are intact, virtually unchanged since the 17th century.

Afternoon meditation in Ani Sangkhu Monastery. Ani means nun in Tibetan. Built around a meditation cave used by Tibetan mystics over the centuries, in the mid 15th century it became a practice hermitage for six female disciples of Lama Tsongkhapa. They transformed it into a nunnery and it has remained as such until the present day.

June 5th : Lhasa
Overnight in Doodh Gu Hotel. ( B / L / D ).
Day trip to Ganden Monastery, where Tsongkhapa achieved enlightenment. About an hour’s drive from Lhasa, the circumambulatory walk around the hilltop, culminating in a visit to Tsongkhapa’s meditation cave, provides spectacular views over the adjoining valleys.

June 6th : Lhasa
Overnight in Doodh Gu Hotel. ( B / L / D).
Day trip to either the meditation caves at Drak Yerpa or else the female meditation site at Terdrom, depending on weather.

June 7th : Lhasa-Beijing. (B)
Fly to Beijing and connect to return to USA or home flight. Arrive USA or home country.

For booking and more information, please contact:

Effie Fletcher
Himalayan High Treks
TS@hightreks.com
Toll Free: 800-455-8735

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