Home/Countries/Nepal/Nature & outdoors/Upper Mustang

Upper Mustang

A high desert kingdom behind the Himalaya, arid and eroded into red cliffs riddled with caves, with a walled capital and deeply Tibetan culture.

Saved in this browser only - no account, nothing sent anywhere. See your map

Typeviewpoint

WhereGandaki

Nearest cityJomsom

Best seasonMay to October, including the monsoon months

Time to allowTen to fourteen days

Getting thereBy flight to Jomsom or road from Pokhara, then trekking or jeep north into the restricted area

EntryRestricted-area permit required, expensive and issued only through a registered agency with a guide

Upper Mustang lies in the rain shadow north of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri massifs, so while the rest of Nepal drowns in the monsoon this is a high, dry, wind-scoured desert of ochre and grey, its cliffs eroded into fins and pinnacles and pocked with thousands of man-made caves cut into the rock faces, some of them burial chambers thousands of years old. Closed to outsiders until 1992 and still a restricted area, it preserves a Tibetan Buddhist culture and language largely unchanged, with whitewashed monasteries holding old murals, chortens at every pass and villages of flat-roofed mud houses stacked around them. The walled town of Lo Manthang, the former royal capital, sits at the far end with its palace and monasteries inside a rectangle of wall. The route can be walked over about ten days or, now, driven on a rough new road, which has changed the trek considerably.

What you actually see

Lo Manthang - the walled former capital with its palace and monasteries.
The sky caves - thousands of chambers cut high into the eroded cliffs.
The desert landscape - ochre and grey badlands under Himalayan peaks.
The monasteries - old Tibetan Buddhist gompas with their murals and chortens.

When to go

Because it sits in the rain shadow, Upper Mustang is one of the few Nepali treks that works through the monsoon, so May to October is the season, unlike most of the country. The Tiji festival at Lo Manthang, usually in May, is a highlight worth planning around. It is cold and fiercely windy year-round, with the wind rising every afternoon.

Honest expectations

The permit is expensive, charged per person for a fixed number of days with more to extend, and it is only issued through a registered agency with a licensed guide and at least two trekkers, so this is not a budget or spontaneous trek. The new road has brought jeeps and dust to much of the old walking route, which has taken something from it. Wind, cold, altitude and a lack of comfort are constants.