Tibet Travel Guide
Honest, practical advice for planning a trip to Tibet — permits, timing, costs, altitude, culture, and everything in between.
Culture · 15
CultureUseful Tibetan Words & Greetings for Travelers
You do not need fluent Tibetan to travel here, but a handful of warm words goes a long way. Here are genuinely useful phrases, with rough pronunciation, to help you connect on the plateau.
8 min read
CultureThangka Painting: Inside Tibet's Sacred Scroll Art
A thangka is far more than a beautiful picture. These sacred Tibetan scroll paintings follow centuries-old rules of proportion and pigment. Here is how they are made, and how to read them.
10 min read
CultureYartsa Gunbu: Tibet's Caterpillar-Fungus Gold Rush
Each spring, Tibetan herders climb to high alpine meadows to hunt a strange treasure: a fungus that grows from a caterpillar. Here is the story behind yartsa gunbu, the plateau's most curious harvest.
9 min read
CultureTibet's Great Pilgrimage Sites: A Spiritual Journey
For Tibetan Buddhists, the plateau is a living sacred landscape of holy mountains, lakes and monasteries. Here is a respectful traveler's guide to Tibet's great pilgrimage sites and the practice of the kora.
10 min read
CultureButter Tea & Tsampa: The Heart of Tibetan Daily Life
Salty, warming butter tea and a simple bowl of roasted barley flour have fueled life on the plateau for centuries. Together, tea and tsampa are the quiet center of every Tibetan day.
7 min read
CultureTibet Travel Etiquette: Dos and Don'ts for Visitors
A respectful traveler is a welcome traveler. Here are the practical dos and don'ts for visiting Tibet — at monasteries, on koras, around pilgrims, and in everyday encounters on the plateau.
8 min read
CultureFascinating Tibetan Customs, Beliefs & Everyday Etiquette
A tongue stuck out in greeting, a white scarf draped around your neck, a path always walked clockwise — Tibetan daily customs are full of meaning once you know the stories behind them.
8 min read
CultureTibetan Food: What to Eat and What to Expect
From butter tea and tsampa to momos and thukpa, here's an honest guide to Tibetan food — what the plateau staples are, how they taste, and how to eat well at altitude as a visitor.
8 min read
CulturePrayer Flags, Prayer Wheels & Mani Stones: What They Mean
The colorful flags on every Tibetan pass, the spinning wheels in pilgrims' hands, the carved stones along the trail — each carries prayer into the world. Here is what they truly mean.
8 min read
CultureTibet's Festivals: Losar, Saga Dawa, Shoton & When to See Them
A practical guide to Tibet's major festivals — Losar, Saga Dawa, and Shoton — including what each one means, what you'll witness, and how the Tibetan lunar calendar affects timing your trip.
9 min read
CultureTibetan Buddhism & the Great Monasteries: A Visitor's Guide
Understand the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and the living monasteries you can visit, from Lhasa's great Gelug seats to the chanting halls of Shigatse — plus how to visit respectfully.
9 min read
CultureLife as a Tibetan Nomad: Yaks, Tents & the Open Plateau
High on the grasslands, Tibet's nomads have herded yaks for thousands of years. Their black tents, their animals, and their rhythms reveal a way of life shaped entirely by the plateau.
8 min read
CultureSky Burial in Tibet: A Respectful Explanation of Jhator
Sky burial is one of Tibet's most profound rituals — an act of generosity rooted in Buddhist teaching on impermanence. It is also deeply private: visitors are not permitted to watch or photograph it.
8 min read
CultureMarriage in Tibet: The Tradition of Fraternal Polyandry
Few customs intrigue visitors more than Tibet's old tradition of brothers sharing one wife. Far from sensational, fraternal polyandry was a careful, practical answer to life on a high, hard land.
8 min read