Arrival in Chengdu, transfer to hotel

Chengdu 1 night

Morning visit the Panda Research Center to see the Giant Pandas and learn about them, Visit Qingyang Palace, a very popular Taoist temple in town to see some old temple buildings dates back hundreds years ago. Visit Wide and Narrow Lanes to get some ideas of what old Chengdu looked like. An hour and half drive to Dujiangyan. Read more

Dujiangyan 1 night

Morning visit to Dujiangyan, a two thousands years old irrigation project still use in today and a temple in the area. Six hours drive to Markam with stops along the road to visit some Tibetan villages, via river gorges and mountains.

Markam 1 night

Drive to Rangtang with stops along the way to visit: Songgang Watching Towers built in 1644 for the purpose of the war in the history. Drive through the valley along Zhoushijia River with stops to see local Tibetan villages and temple along the way. Visit Zengke Temple before arriving Rangtang to see very old stupas of different sizes and shapes, and visit the old temples. Read more

Rangtang 2 nights

An hour drive to Middle Rangtang village to visit Rangtang Monastery that is the centre of the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism. Originating in the 12th century, the followers of Jonang believe that only the mind is real and everything we perceive is purely a product of the mind. Rangtang Monastery consists of three temples built in different times the oldest one Querji Temple was built in 1378; Zebuji and Zangwa Temples were built in later times, this is an important monastery of Jonang School of Tibetan Buddhism. We spend the whole morning to visit the Monastery, to see the different temples and we see some old things and Buddhist Images from different Dynasties. We meet the lamas and learn from them about the Jonang sect of Buddhism. We also spend some time to visit the village near the monastery to learn about the Tibetans here. On the way back to Rangtang, we visit Bangtuo Monastery, means a Monastery on the grassland, built on hillside and facing Zequhe River in a very beautiful seating, a Red Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism Monastery, famous for it’s 300 year old stone carved Tibetan Scriptures took over 60 lamas 9 years to finish. There are also 500 years old pagodas here we can visit. Read more

Rangtang 2 nights

We drive to Ganzi, which translates as ‘a pure white and beautiful place’, a drive of around seven hours through landscapes of long mountain ridges and deep river valleys. On the way we’ll pay a visit to Shounig Monastery in Luhou. There are over 200 lamas in residence and young people from the surrounding areas visit to learn from them. We also spend some time at Qiuran Tibetan village, visiting one of the traditional wooden houses that make up the village and learning about the Tibetan culture and way of life. Read more

Ganzi 2 nights

An hour walk through the old part of Ganzi city up to Ganzi Monastery (half on streets, half uphill through village and around 200 steps to the monastery) Visit the Monastery for two hours hours to see the different temples, the kitchen and the Buddhist college attached to the monastery. It’s also possible to walk upstairs to see more of the monastery. And some more walks in the Monastery. Ganzi Monastery, a Gelupa Tibetan Buddhism monastery, has the history of 339 years, once destroyed during the culture revolution and rebuilt again after 1980’s, it has the combination of Tibetan and Chinese styles. over 400 lamas in the monastery. Visit the White Pagoda Park to see the big Stupas in the town. Read more

Ganzi 2 nights

Drive through a valley with mountains on two sides of the road, and some grassland, after the mountain pass at 4600m, we will see more grassland, a couple of lakes . After 110km, we will turn right off into the mountain to visit Yarchen Vddiyana Meditation Monastery for a couple of hours. Yarchen Viddiyana Meditation Monastery set up in 1985 by Lama A Qiu Renpoche, a Nimapa (Red Hat sect)Tibetan Buddhism sect Monastery, there are over 20,000.00 lamas and nuns here, most of them are nuns. There are 4 big temple buildings for lamas and nuns to study and over 20,000.00 small houeses built by lamas and nuns for themselves to live in. The Monastery in built around Changqi River on Zhangtai Grassland at 4000m with beautiful surroundings. The monastery give teaching for eight months, they have a meditation for over hundred days themselves in weather. After the monastery, we will move on to Baiyu, there are large area of grasslands near the monastery which carpet with flowers of different colours, we will see different grassland as we drive on. We will see a lake and then follow a river in a valley to carry onto Baiyu. Read more

Baiyu 1 night

AM visit Baiyu Monastery Baiyu Monastery started to built in 1675, a Nimapa Tibetan Buddhism Monastery, now it’s one on the three big Nimapa Monasteries in Eastern Tibet with a few thousands lamas. The monastery is built on the mountain side of Buiyu town, with stupas, temple building, Mandala and houses of lamas, on the back of the monastery is the Buddhist Collage. Start from hotel, half an hour walk along the streets in the town and hike up to Baiyu Monastery for hundred steps, visit the different halls of monastery, you will meet a lot of Tibetans come to the monastery to pray and worship. After the mail halls, we will hike up to top of the hill to visit the Mandala temple, here you can also have a good view of the monastery and Baiyu city. Visit the Buddhist collage attached to Baiyu Monastery to meet the studying lamas, walk through the monastery and lama’s houses and walk back to hotel. The whole visit is about four hours. PM three hours drive to Dege 100km, along the Yangtze River on the Tibetan border with stops to see the Yangtze and villages along the way. Read more

Dege 3 nights

Visit the Dege Printing House. Dege Printing House, 270 years old, built by the headman Queji Tudengzeren and his family. it’s an encyclopedia of Tibetan culture, the collection covers culture, geography, medecine, arts and all sects of Tibetan Buddhism, it has over 217,500.00 wooden printing plates, it’s the biggest printing house in whole Tibet. now it’s under the protection of the Chinese government as a culture heritage site. 20 mins walk through the town of Dege to the Printing House, two and half hours visit the house, visit two temple halls on the ground floor to see the Buddhist images and the founder of the Printing House, go up stairs to see the wooden printing plates storages and see the craftsmen printing the copies from the plates, two man work in each team to finish the work, if you are interested, you can buy some prints from the House as a gift. On the roof of the printing House, you can have a good view of the town Dege. There are people walking around the Printing Houses the whole day, and it’s interesting to see that as well. Attend the Masked Dance Festival in Gengqing Monastery. Read more

Dege 3 nights

Gengqing Monastery, a Sakaya Tibetan Buddhist sect Monastery, built in 1448 by the headman of the area, it’s the main Sakaya Monastery in the area, it has 7 small monasteries attached to it in the area. Unlike other monasteries, this monastery is managed by the family of headman for the power of religion and politics in the history, usually the first son of the headman to be in charge of the Monastery and the 2nd son to be the headman, if only one son in the family, he did both. Now, it’s changing. Masked Dance Festival offers you an opportunity to see performances of cham, a ritual dance performed for two days by lamas. The lamas, who wear masks, represent manifestations of various protective deities. Although every movement and gesture of cham has significance, it is no doubt the spectacle of the colorful masked dancers that awes the average pilgrim. Cham is about the suppression of malevolent spirits and is a throwback to the pre-Buddhist Bon faith. The act of exorcism is focused on a human effigy made of dough or perhaps wax or paper in which the evil spirits are thought to reside. Read more

Dege 3 nights

Seven hours drive to Ganzi via Quer Shan Tunnel finishes, with a visit to Xinluhai Lake at 4040m surrounded by mountains and forests, with stops along the ways to visit grassland and local Tibetan villages. Visit Dajin Monastery, visit the main temple building to see the different Buddhist images, going up to the top of the monastery, here you can have a good view of the area. Dajin Monastery, a Gelupa monastery, more than 600 years old, built in front of a snow mountain and with few villages around, a very popular monastery for locals, monastery has a three floors main building and many small houses for lamas. Read more

Ganzi 1 night

Eight hours drive to Tagong with the views of mountain, grassland and lake along the way, visit Lingque Monastery in Daofu city, a Gelupa Tibetan Buddhism Monastery built in 1662, it’s one of the 13 main Monastery in Kham area. This temple is famous for its butter flowers arts, you can see lots of butter flowers and crafts in the monastery which they make them once a year on the 15th of the first Lunar Month for the festival and keep them for a year. Visit nomads on the grassland along the way. Read more

Tagong 2 nights

Visit Tagong Buddhist Collage, established in 1986 with hundreds of lamas study here, we can see the teachings of the collage in the temple. Visit the Tagong Monastery. Built during the Qing Dynasty to honour the journey of Princess Wencheng who stayed here on her way to Lhasa to marry the Tibetan King. The monastery houses sacred relics and statues and has a very impressive setting with snow-capped mountains providing a wonderful backdrop to its golden roofs. Drive to visit Zhaxi Nunnery, a big nunnery with a very big tent temple to nuns to study and a village near the temple to live in on the grassland. Here we can visit the temple, the houses where nuns live, the mountain nearby full of pray flags. We can also see lots of people carved the scriptures on stone. And walk around for some time, a nice place to walk around for a few hours of hours. Read more

Tagong 2 nights

Today we return to Chengdu via the historical city of Luding, and and cities of Kangding and Ya’an on the Tea and Horse Trail, Ya’an is famous as a centre of the tea industry and was an important stop on the ancient tea and horse trail. And Kangding is a city between Chinese and Tibetan culture. Read more

Chengdu 1 night

Transfer to Chengdu Airport and fly home