Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Guge Kingdom
The barren, eroded landscape around modern Zanda is unlike any you will have en-
countered so far, and seems an improbable location for a major civilisation to have deve-
loped. Yet the ancient Guge kingdom (Gǔgé wángguó) thrived here as an important stop
on the trade route between India and Tibet. Today, the remains of Thöling Monastery, once
a major centre of Tibetan Buddhism, and neighbouring Tsaparang, a 9th-century fortress
etched into the very stone of a towering ridge, are two of Ngari's highlights, though few
Western tourists manage to make it this far.
Tsaparang is 18km west of Zanda, while Thöling Monastery is now merely an adjunct to
the town. To visit both you need to budget at least three days (two merely for getting there
and back from Darchen). Both sites are in the valley of the Langchen Tsangpo (Sutlej
River), the 'elephant river', which rises west of Manasarovar and continues over the bor-
der with India into Ladakh and finally Pakistan.
