Tibet, the Roof of the World, remained unknown to the world until the beginning of the 20th century. The massive, snowy land has fascinated mankind ever since. Its majestic scenery, mysterious and exotic religious culture, and wonderful people, reward every tourist with an indelible life long memory!
Culturally, the wide territory of Yunan, West Sichuan and Qinghai which were traditionally known as Kham and Amdo are still very much Tibetan, although modern Tibet confines to the territory of Tibet Autonomous region in political map.With an average altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level, Tibet is encompassed by some of the world's highest mountains. The Himalayas to the south, the Karakoram to the west, and the Kunlun to the north are the dream lands of all adventurers and mountaineers.
The vast land is also the cradle of several great rivers such as the Yangtze River, the Yellow River,the Nu River (Salween), the Lancang River (Mekong), the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra),the Indus, and the Ganges. Tibet also offers awe-inspiring scenery of beautiful lakes and valleys. Over 1,500 lakes including Heavenly Lake Namtso and the holy Lake Manasarova make Tibet the plateau with largest amount of lakes. Without irrigation and nurturance of these rivers and lakes, the surrounding lands may not flourish.
Despite Tibet exerts a great attraction to the tourists, facilities are still underway, road conditions are poor and professionalism is yet to develop. So traveling Tibet should not be taken lightly. You will need mental preparedness, good health and good amount of patience.
Travel Information
Ethics and Etiquettes
Make sure that you do not step on threshold when you enter a house or a tent.
When you call or address somebody by name, please add "la" after the name for politeness. It’s an equivalent of "Mr." or "Sir" and “madam”.
When you are asked to sit down, please cross your legs. Do not stretch your legs towards others.
When somebody presents you something, you should accept it by both hands. While presenting gift to others, hold the gift by both hands higher than your head. When the host presents you a cup of wine, before you start sipping, you should dip your ring finger in the wine and flick the wine into the sky, in the air and to the ground to express your respect to the heaven, the earth and the ancestors respectively. After you take the first sip, the host would like to fill up the cup again and you will take another sip. If the host fills your cup with wine again, then you should bottom it up.
Tibetan people don't eat horse, donkey and dog meat and in some areas fish, too. So, please respect their dietary habit.
It’s not polite to clap your palms and spit behind the Tibetan people. Tibetan people stretch out their tongue to greet you. It's also a courtesy to put their hands palm to palm in front of the chest.
Smoking inside the monasteries is not allowed. It’s also banned to touch the statues of Buddha and religious articles and take pictures of. In the religious shrines, you should walk clock-wise but not in the Bon temples. Tibetan people, when they come across a shrine, mani piles etc, they go around in clockwise direction. They don't just cross it.
Eagles are the sacred birds of Tibetan people. You should not drive them away or injure them. On the outskirts, you should not drive or disturb the sheep or cows with green, red and yellow cloth strips on.
Since more and more tourists are going to Tibet, more and more Tibetan people get used of seeing the "Big Noses" (western people) with jeans, sun glasses and some of them with shorts (It is prohibited to wear shorts among the Tibetans.), the above rules are not obeyed so strictly as before. But we still suggest you take the above advices and travel to behave well.
