10 Days Photographic Tour to Amdo Tibet Monlam Festival (Regong & Langmusi)

Note: Bellowing dates are made according to 2021’s lunar calendar. It differs in each year according to Chinese lunar calendar.

Take the flight to Xining, the capital city of Qinghai province. Your guide will pick you up from the airport, drive 2.5 hours to Tongren. After arriving at Tongren, checking into the hotel, enjoy the welcome dinner inside the hotel. Tongren, the elevation 2700 meters is the home town of Regong art (Thangka painting, clay sculpturing, rock carving, wood carving, etc).

In the morning, we will take the short drive to Gomar Monastery to watch their annual Cham Festival. Before the festival starts, we would take part in the annual Breakfast Festival, where local Tibetans come to eat while being served by the local monks. That’s because the local rich men would dedicate some home-made local cuisine to the monastery, and the monastery would share them together with monks and the local residences. Sometimes they would spray the candies, red dates, nuts from the rooftop of the monastery, it stands for the charity from the gods. This will be an excellent place to get some amazing photographs of a Buddhist festival as well as pictures of Tibetans wearing their traditional clothing. Your guide will explain the meaning of each ceremony along with other aspects of the religious culture in Tibet. In the afternoon, we would arrange you to attend the big Thangka display in one of the villages nearby. As each village would have the Thangka display with different dates and different scales.

Morning we would spend around 1 hour to visit Rekong Art Museum for learn more about the Thangka drawing and other local folk arts and crafts. Then we will go again to Gomar Monastery to watch the huge Thangka displayed at the wall near the monastery.  Local Tibetans will be there to witness this massive tapestry being suspended. Gomar Monastery is one of the 3 largest monasteries in Repkong Area. There will be thousands of local Tibetans attend, many of them will wear their colorful traditional Tibetan coats to join the festival.
 

You will spend the whole day to watch the Folk Dancing by wearing the mask at lower Wutun temple.

After breakfast, we will depart Repkong and begin 3 hours driving (110km) to Labrang. We will stop at the Gangya Grassslands, which are home to many yaks and sheep. Along the way, we will stop at Changlung Monastery, which is home to Tibetan yogis (also known as "Ngagpa"). These yogis are non-monastic priests who perform many important roles within Buddhism. These yogis are usually married, but keep their hair long and uncut. The elevation of Labrang is 2935 meters (9630 feet).

In the morning we will explore Labrang, which is the largest monastery in the traditional Tibetan region of Amdo. And is also one of the “Great Six” Gelukpa sect monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism. We will wander through the inside of the monastery and walk the 3 kilometer (almost 2 mile) pilgrimage circuit around the monastery. Tibetans walk around this circuit, which is lined with prayer wheels, while chanting and praying. In the afternoon, we will drive 220 km to Langmusi (we would spend around 5 hours driving on the way). Upon arrival of Langmusi, check into the hotel and have dinner in the town (yak pancake, apple pie, potato pie, etc.)

Today is the most holly day in this area during the Tibetan New Year festivities. This day, the monks from Langmusi and Kerti Monastery will carry a huge Buddhist tapestry (known as a Thangka) through the monastery and over to the large display wall on the far side of town. Normally, the time of displaying of this huge Thangka may be at 09:00-11:00, the group must get up early and climb to the top hill to find the best location for cameras. During the whole period, many local Tibetans will be there to witness this massive tapestry being suspended. This will be one of big highlights during this journey. You will be able to photograph local Tibetans, monks and other aspects of the festival. After the festival, we drive back to Xiahe follow the way we came. We will have lunch at Luqu. Arrive at Xiahe and check into the hotel, dinner in the hotel.

Today will be your last day in Labrang for this trip and we would arrange attending the Cham Festival (Buddhist monk masked dancing) in the main monastery complex. With many thousands of local Tibetan farmers and nomads in attendance, this will be a great way to say goodbye to Labrang as the highlight of the festival would be left in your mind. Afterwards, you will have time to explore the monastery town of Labrang on your own.

In the late morning, we will make the 245km drive back to the city of Xining. Along the way, you will stop at the high altitude grasslands in Gangya as well as a couple of Tibetan farming villages take more photos at Guashiz Temple when driving down the mountain of Rongchen. Enjoy a local lunch at Chongqe and continue driving to Xining, In Xining, we will stay at a centrally located hotel and have a final dinner together talking about the many highlights that this journey had.

Transfer to the Xining Airport or railway station, take the flight or bullet train to leave Xining.

Note: There is bullet train from Xining to Lanzhou (The capital city of Gansu Province), Jiayuguan, Zhangye and Liuyuan, these important cities on the way of the silk road.