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 Our fascination for the unknown and the ability to explore the undiscovered have given us access to almost every corner of the world.Mustang region, also known as the Forbidden Kingdom, was opened for tourists in 1991 and only limited numbers of people can visit in a year. This high desertic region is north of Jomsom, the headquater of this district. Jomsom is in the lower Mustang & the major part is the upper Mustang. The region is geographically and culturally part of Tibet and has a long rich and complex history, thus offering trekkers to explore the natural, beautiful desert landscape but also monasteries, castles and life styles unaffected by the outside modern world. It is very much different than the other trekking routes in the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal. This trek is quite expensive because we have to apply for the special trekking permit through the government registered trekking company in Immigration Office & have to pay US$ 700.00 per person for ten days from Kagbeni to Kagbeni.. The arid place with snow-capped mountains and barren hills reaches deep inside the vast Tibetan plateau. Cold winds sweep through narrow canyons and over plains. Erosion has left its marks in bizarre rock formations.Yet humans have lived in this hostile environment for centuries. They have built their settlements along rivers and creeks, the villages of whitewashed houses appear like oases in a huge desert.
People work as farmers on their fields, sowing and harvesting barley and potatoes, and driving cattle to relatively fertile meadows.Lo Gekar, the oldest monastery in Mustang High up in vertical cliffs are inaccessible caves where people dwelled two thousand years ago. Much later the region came under the influence of the Tibetan Yarlung dynasty. In the 15th century the independent kingdom of Lo was founded by Amepal, whose invitation of the famous Buddhist scholar Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo led to a cultural zenith never to be reached again in the following centuries.
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