Ngari is located in western Tibet and the most mysterious place in the region known as the "roof of the world."
Covering an area of 310,000 square kilometers, one-fourth of Tibet, it is situated at an average altitude of 4,500 meters above sea level. Ngari has mountain ranges like the Himalayas, the Gangdise, the Kunlun, and the Karakorum. Its natural sights are unique and it has rich historical and religious cultural relics. All these make Ngari an attraction to tourists around the world. Chinese and foreign explorers, travelers, and adventurers have come to Ngari in streams. In early summer last year, I was fortunate enough to visit Ngari as a member of the first group of Chinese visitors in the area.

The Tour of Chinese Tamarisk is not only a tourist route to Ngari, but also a route traversing Tibet from east to west. It includes many Tibetan attractions. The tour has Route A and Route B. Route A, which we followed, starts from Lhasa, passes Gyangze, Xigaze, Lhaze, Zhongba, Burang, Zanda, Shiquanhe, Ruto, and Yecheng, and ends at Kashi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The 19-day tour covered 3,600 kilometers.

Visit to a Tibetan family

Chinese tamarisk is a tree unique to Ngari that endures cold and arid conditions. Like the yak, it is symbolic. The tour has been named after this tree species. Wang Songping, deputy commissioner of Ngari Administrative Office and the chief organizer of this tour once said, "Walking on the 'roof of the world', no doubt, is a tour of adventure, of life, and of spirit." The fierce competition of modern industrial society, the intense rhythm, and invisible pressure make people restless. But here, the Tibetan inhabitants live a quiet and tranquil life. We don't mean everyone should live the Tibetan lifestyle, but their lifestyle does soothe people.

Walking on the "roof of the world", even the most bouncy and vivacious people tend to become quiet. Climbing up one story is equivalent to climbing up six stories in Beijing. Even so, people think it is worth coming here. There are too many things that people have never seen yet are worth seeing: the sacred mountain Kangrinboqe, the sacred lake Mapam umco, the Burang Frontier Port, the earth forest in Zanda, the remains of the ancient Guge Kingdom, Tolin Temple, and Bangong Lake.

Kangrinboqe is the best known sacred mountain in tibet, situated at an altitude of 6,656 meters above sea level, the main peak of the Gangdise Mountains, and located in Burang County. The peak is in the shape of a circular cone, capped with white snow all year round. Buddhists worship it as a sacred mountain, and each year numerous pilgrims come here from afar. They walk around the peak, the circumference being 55 kilometers. Pilgrims also come from neighboring countries such as India and Nepal.

Mapam Yumco (co means lake in Tibetan), Namco, and Yamzhog Yumco are the three sacred lakes in Tibet. Countless brooks flow down the Kangrinboqe Mountain, like hair, stretching to Baga Grassland and converging in the depth of the grassland to form the Mapam Yumco Lake. The lake covers an area of 412 square kilometers, and the deepest spot is 77 meters. The lake is surrounded by quiet and beautiful snow-capped mountains.
According to a legend, Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, was born in the Year of the Horse. In each Year of the Horse, gods gather around the sacred mountain and lake. It is said that walking around the mountain in the Year of the Horse can increase accumulated merits by 12 fold. So, in the Year of the Horse, more Tibetans worship sacred mountain; and if one goes to the sacred mountain, one must go to the sacred lake", has become of folk custom. All pilgrims wash their bodies, heads, faces and eyes using the lake water to remove disaster and diseases. Some even carry jars to bring water back as gifts to their relatives and friends.

Living near a temple

Proceeding along the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway (National Highway 219), turning southward, and crossign Ayila Mountain, one feels the climate suddenly turning warm. Tourists see a different land form: a vast stretch of earthen forest. When we arrived at the county town of Zanda, it was dusk. The setting sun shone over huge "strongholds." According to geologists, a million years ago the area between Burang and Zanda was a great lake with a circumference of 500 kilometers. The Himalayan organic movement made the bottom of the lake rise and the water level gradually lower. After years of weathering, an earthen forest came into being.

The remains of the 700-year-old Guge Kingdom are situated along the slope of a mountain. The structures were built along the slope with a difference in altitude of 175 meters. The structures have a floor space of 720,000 square meters. There are 445 houses (remains), 879 caves, 58 strongholds, 4 tunnels, 28 Buddhist pagodas, and a number of grain depots and weapon warehouses. Its scale is next only to that of the Potala Palace in Lhasa.

Seeing the remains, one can imagine the exquisite architecture and wonderful military defense systems that once existed. In a group of well preserved building complexes, including the Red Hall, the White Hall, the Tara Hall, and the Law-Protecting Hall, there are murals depicting scens of Buddha worshipping, farming, herding, milking, singing and dancing. The scenes vividly reflect the life of the times. According to experts, the murals from the Guge remains and the murals from nearby Dongga which belong to the same system match those found in the Mogao Grottoes of Gansu's Dunhuang in terms of both scale and level of artistic achievement.

The Ngari Prefecture in China's Tibet Autonomous Region is expecting this year to host 100,000 tourists, 10 times more than in the past year.

Doje Cering, secretary of the Ngari Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), told Beijing-based China's Tibet journal that his prefecture has decided the year 2002 will be the year of tourism.

Many Buddhist believers will make the pilgrimage to Mt. Kailash as this year is the year of the water horse according to Tibetan calendar and Mountain God Kangrinboqe's birthday also falls on this year.

Ngari, which has an average altitude of over 4,500 meters, has a total area of 345,000 square kilometers. Despite having some tourism resources, the prefecture is one of China's poorest areas.

A great number of activities will be organized to entertain tourists mainly from May through August, said the secretary, who also emphasized that the prefecture would also make a good use of this festival to showcase the great achievements Ngari has made in the past decades.

Doje Cering has pledged to seize chances created by the country's campaign to explore the vast west, and the challenges brought by China's entry into the World Trade Organization. He also hopes to develop Ngari's economy while keeping the extreme local conditions in mind.

Happy Life of Ngari People

With Ngari People's hard work and the aid from the whole country, society and economy in Ngari have got dramatic development. Ngari people live now happily. The picture shows the family is calling with a mobile phone their friends to have tea.

Climbing up the top of the Roof of the World

Further west from Shigatse and beyond the Yarlung Tsangbo River near Gyangtse, the land contour is elevated gradually. Turning toward north at No.22 Road Maintenance Station and driving past the Dagyatso Lake, the traveler will be on his road into the Ngari highland.

The Tibetan Plateau has often been described as the Roof of the World which rises majestically toward the west in the region of Ngari, known as the top of the Roof of the World. In a vast region of about 300,000 square kilometers are the towering northern Tibet highland, majestic mountain ranges of Gangdise Kunlun and Himalayas, and a great number of treacherous canyons, picturesque valleys, rivers and lakes. Expansive stretches of highland pasture, precipitous mountains, placid lakes and swift rivers against a backdrop of azure skies and floating clouds are absolutely exhilarating.

Driving along the central tour route via Tsochen from Lhatse to the town of Shiquanhe, the regional center of Ngari, one will have wonderful views of the golden cone shaped peak of the Shanmubati Mountain, the vast Tsari Namtso Lake and its island of bird haven, the Dawatso Lake with lush green banks and the snow-capped peaks of the Balinggangri Mountain. The road to Shiquanhe begins at Lhasa and passes through Nakchu in the vast pasture area. Traveling in the highland region, one will see changing sights of spectacular scenery and rich wild life including beavers, rabbits and foxes not far from roadside, wild ducks, black-necked cranes and a variety of birds by the lake-side and antelopes, wild donkeys on more distant hills. North of Gertse is the uninhabited zone of Lugu which is the domain of wild yaks and bears.

Ngari is easily accessible by road. The road from Yecheng of Xinjiang to Burang passes through Ngari. Lhatse-Burang road forms the southern route. The former has been known as the road with the highest elevation in the world and winds through the Kunlun Mountains at 5,406 meters above sea level. The Bangongtso Lake in northern Ngari has a surface elevation of 4,241 meters and a depth of 41.3 meters. This oblong lake extends 150 kilometers and is 50 meters at its narrowest. The lake water becomes salty in the western end. The lake is ringed by fertile pastures and has a few small islands that are haven for migratory birds including spotted wild geese, which often number in tens of thousands in the summer time. The monastery and cliff drawings found near Rutong and the uninhabited land in northern Tibet hold special appeal to explorers. The town of Shiquanhe (Sengge Grong) with an elevation of 4,300 meters is a newly risen center on the bank of the river Shiquanhe (Sengge Tsangbo). The Ngari Prefecture not only has spectacular scenery and an exotic local tradition but also occupies an important place in Tibetan history and the history of Buddhism. The secluded Guge ruins and the holy mountains and lakes in the region are sources of unending enchantment to tourists.

Ruins of Mystic Guge Kingdom

According to Tibetan historical annals, after the sudden death of Tsampo Lhangdama, the last king of the Tubo Kingdom, in the wake of his persecution of Buddhists, his two rival sons, Yundan and Osong, were locked in a bloody war for the throne which continued for two generations. 

Osong's son was killed by the soldiers of his rival kin and his two orphaned sons fled Lhasa. Jede, the elder of the two, took refuge in Ngari where he married the local chieftain's daughter who borne him three sons. 

The youngest had a son named Keri who became founder of the Guge Kingdom whose territory once included all the farm and pasture land in southern Ngari. A hill of about 300 meters high stands to the south of Xiangquan River (Langqen Kanbab) in Tsada County.

A complex of palaces, temples, fortifications, Buddhist pagodas and military tunnels right up the slope of the hill form the ruins of a lost kingdom. The construction began in the 10th century and was continuously expanded by 16 successive kings until the 16th century. These imposing buildings on the treacherous slope are connected by tunnels and protected by solid fortifications. The Kingdom of Guge played an important role in the rival of Tibetan Buddhism. The Guge kings were ardent advocates of the religion who sent envoys to India to invite Buddhist masters to Tibet and sponsored the translation of scriptures. The religious revival began in Ngari and extended to the entire Tibetan region. The kingdom also kept Tibet from repeated invasions by enemies from the west. A brutal battle in the 16th century brought the kingdom to an abrupt end. No writings can be found today about its fate there after and the ruins are the only evidence of the once majestic palaces and crushed glory.

As the visitor climbs up the hill slope, he can easily see the ruins of block houses, spacious palaces and glorious temples everywhere. The remains of painted sculptures and frescoes stand testimony to an art tradition that claimed splendor and diversity. The wealth of artifacts sealed stories of kings, ministers, clergymen and common people in the lost era of grandeur.

The Holy Mountain and Sacred Lake

According to ancient Sanskrit documents, the Gangdise Range had become a holy mountain as early as 2,000 years before Christ. The Hindu myth has it that the "palace" for the god of gods was built on the peak of Kailash of the Gangdise Range. This important mountain in Asian history with elevation of 6,656 meters is located in the county of Bruagn in Ngari area. The Tibetan Buddhists believe that the mountain is in the shape of an olive with a grand legendary palace on the peak. Four streams flow down the mountain from four sources, each in the shape of a horse, lion, elephant and peacock which have given names to the four famous rivers in Ngari. The mountain top "palace" was home to 500arhats. It is believed that centuries ago a visiting Bangladesh monk had heard chimes of bells and drum beats from the "palace". Pilgrims today still claim that a few lucky ones may hear mysterious sounds from the mountain. Kailash crowns the Himalayan Mountains with its myriad of myths and legends and remains the focus of the religious emotions of those who feel its pull. For centuries, pilgrims have come from afar to pay homage, praying for redemption by walking around this holy mountain of purity and benevolence. 

A full circle around the mountain takes from 24 hours to 36 hours. This tradition of worshipping was deep rooted in ancient pagan rituals and is still alive and strong today. One myth has it that Mila Xiba, a famous Tibetan monk, subdued a heretic in battle of faith and power on Mt. Kailash. The victory has been celebrated in every Year of the Horse when pilgrimage to the holy mountain is at its height. Lake Manasarova, one of the highest fresh water lakes of the world, is over 20 kilometers to the southeast of Mount Kailash with a total surface area of 400 square kilometers. This placid lake is a vast expanse of pristine water, absolutely beautiful under the vast and clear sky. The legend has it that Goddess Woma bathed in the lake. Because of its sheer beauty and charming myths and legends, the lake was mentioned as a celestial lake of the west in an ancient book written by Xuanzang, a Tang Dynasty monk known for his journey to India in search of Buddhist scriptures. The book was entitled "The Western Territories of the Great Tang Empire". The lake was already known to the Tibetans as Macuitso about nine centuries ago. It was believed that in the "palace of the dragon king" on the bottom of the lake were boundless treasures. The chosen ones after walking around the lake a full circle would be promised a life of plenty by a small fish, a pebble or a feather they might have picked up. After the triumphant rise of Buddhism in Tibet in the 11th century, the lake was given a Buddhist name "Manasarova", meaning "perpetually invincible". Thereafter, the lake has been regarded as a gift from Buddha with cleansing and redeeming power that will bring spiritual and physical well-being. The lake has thus gained a primordial force which, together with the Holy Mountain Kailash, has attracted countless pilgrims to the area of Ngari. They would take the strenuous journey around the mountain and lake as a test of their faith and for an experience of the holy power. Many of them have harbored the wish of bathing in the lake for many years. There are four holy bathing spots around the lake respectively named Lotus, Fragrance, Purification and Faith. Bathing at each spot while trekking around the lake would redeem different sins. The mysterious powers of Lake Manasarova are believed to be just as great as those of the towering Mount Kailash.