Traveling in TibetTraveling in Tibet
Note: This site is a collection of photos and impressions of a group traveling in Yunnan, PRC, and in Tibet in May and June 2000. It will be under construction for some time to come.
The photos are the property of the author of this web site. They were acquired with a Nikon Coolpix 950 camera at medium-high resolution and then manipulated with Adobe Photoshop. Click on a small photo for a larger version, albeit only in a 72 dpi version.
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 Map of Tibet (from Hybrid
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 Have a WAHAHA Break! |
On Wednesday, June 7 we headed west and south for a 300 km (185 mile) trip to Gyantse. We traveled west along the road from Tsedang to the Gonggar Airport and beyond, following the valley of the Yarlung Tsampo River. We turned off at the junction of the road that runs north to Lhasa at the Kyi-chu Bridge. We turned south toward Gyantse and began to ascend to the first high pass, Gamba-La, at 4800 m (15,800 feet). The road crawled up the side of the mountains, barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass. A drop of hundreds on feet on one side of the road. At the top nomads greeted us with an offer to have a photo taken on astride a friendly yak.
Down the other side, we saw, a few hundred meters below, Yamdrok-Tso or Yamdrok Lake. This enormous lake is revered by all Tibetans. Unfortunately, the waters have been drawn off for a hydroelectric powerplant and the lake level is dropping. This is potentially a serious problem because the lake has no ready source of water.
We picniced on the lake shore and met curious local villagers after lunch.
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Continuing on our journey, we rounded Yamdrok-Tso and ascended the second pass, Karo-La, at 5200 meters or about 17,000 feet the highest point we would reach in Tibet. We then drove past a series of glacial fields tumbling off mountains, the highest of which is Noijinkangsang at 7191 m or 23,370 feet. Even at this very high altitude we found signs of life. The photo below shows a yak skin tent beside a mountain stream.
As we left the very high alitude, we drove along the Karo Tsampo (the Karo River), whose brilliant turquoise color was striking. Here we see the river from the top of the last pass -- at only 14000 feet -- and far below we can see the road we traveled with a small village beside the road.
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