Plateau Photo Tours, which I co-own, will be hosting a Kham Tibet Overland Journey from June 8th to June 22nd, 2013. This adventure will take you through some of the most stunning scenerey and best preserved culture found on the Tibetan Plateau. Starting in Xining, the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau, we will fly to Jyekundo, the capital town of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the traditional Tibetan [...]
Labrang Monastery བླ་བྲང་བཀྲ་དགོན་པ་ is the largest monastery in the traditional Tibetan region of Amdo. Established in 1709, Labrang housed over 4000 monks at its peak, but now only has around 1500 monks with another couple of hundred lay students. Located in the Gansu Part of Amdo, Labrang is considered the cultural heart of Amdo Tibetan culture along with nearby town [...]
Amnye Machen ཨ་མྱིས་རྨ་ཆེན་ is the highest mountain in the Amdo region of Tibet and is considered to be one of the holiest mountains in Tibetan Buddhism. It is located in the remote and rugged Golok prefecture in Machen county མགོ་ལོག་ཁུལ་རྨ་ཆེན་རྫོང་ located in southeast Qinghai province. Amnye Machen is part of the Kunlun Mountain [...]
As you are probably aware of by now, Lhasa and the rest of the Tibet Autonomous Region is closed indefinitely to foreign travelers (UPDATE: The region reopened in July 2012). There is no telling at this point when the area will reopen. Does that mean you need to cancel your upcoming trip to Tibet altogether? Not necessarily! It is important to remember that Tibet consists far more than just the Tibet Autonomous [...]
Though Tibetan nomads are becoming fewer and fewer each year, they can still be found across the Tibetan Plateau. Nomad life is simple, but difficult. Hardships include yaks dying from disease, yaks starving to death from heavy snow, difficulties selling meat, low yak wool prices and the constant pressure to resettle to towns. Many nomads are now only semi-nomadic. They live on the grasslands in their yak wool [...]