Yaks and butter tea trek

Region: U-Tsang

Attraction Category: Community Experiences

Tsurphu is a secluded monastery near Lhasa which seems much further away, at the end of a lovely, green valley. From Tsurphu there is a short, 3-day trek up and over a small pass and through Tibetan grasslands, passing traditional Tibetan settlements, walking over spiky tussocks of grass and camping in green pastures or with local Tibetans in their modest houses. Its as Tibetan an experience as you’ll have near Lhasa, with mountains in the distance, yaks grazing everywhere, wide open spaces, and traditional Tibetan dwellings that offer salt-butter tea if you drop in. Yangpachen is a great little ani-gompa where the nuns offered to let me sleep inside with them and offered me meat out of a bowl with a communal knife, surrounded by grazing horses in high grasses.