A classical journey to reach the holiest place - Lhasa, center of the Tibet's hearts and minds, where Tibetans and many people of the world call it a spiritual home.


Itinerary
 

Day 01
Arrive in Lhasa (Tib:ལྷ་ས།  Chin: La Sa)
Welcome to Lhasa! Your guide and driver will meet you at the train station or airport and transfer you to your hotel.

Day 02
Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple and the Barkhor Circuit (Tib: ཕོ་བྲང་པོ་ཏཱ་ལ། ཇོ་ཁང་ངམ་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་། བར་སྐོར།)
Lhasa, elevation 3650m, is the holiest city in Tibet and each day pilgrims from across the Tibetan Plateau arrive in the city to worship at one of the many temples found there. You will spend 3 full days exploring the city (for acclimatization). The first day you will visit Jokhang Temple, the most famous temple in Tibet. From the rooftop you will see religious pilgrims prostrating in front to the Jowo Buddha statue inside the monastery. Around lunch, you will visit the Potala Palace, the most recognizable structure in Tibet. Built in the year 637, the Potala Palace rises 13 stories and has more than 1000 rooms. In the evening time, you will explore the endless maze of markets and restaurants that line the ancient Barkhor circuit. While exploring the Barkhor circuit, you will rub elbows with Tibetan pilgrims who are prostrating their way around the Tibetan Quarter.

Day 03
Drepung Monastery, Sera Monastery, Ramoche Temple and the old town (Tib: འབྲས་སྤུངས་དགོན། སེ་ར་དགོན། ར་མོ་ཆེ། )
This day you will explore Drepung Monastery. Drepung was formerly the largest monastery in the world and is still one of the three most important monasteries in Tibet. Below Drepung is Nechung Monastery, the former home of Tibet’s state oracle. In the afternoon, you will visit the great monastery of Sera, where monk debates take place each day except Saturday. If you are interested in hiking, there is a pilgrimage circuit around the monastery that takes about an hour to complete. In the early evening, we will visit Ramoche Temple in the old town.

Day 04
Norbulingka Palace, Tibet Museum་(Tib: ནོར་བུ་གླིང་ཀ)
The Norbulingka Palace served as the summer residence for the Dalai Lama lineage for 180 years. The palace is one huge beautiful garden that can be explored on foot. Afterwards, you can wander around the Tibet Museum and learn more about Tibetan medicine and art. In the afternoon, you will have one more opportunity to explore the ancient Barkhor Circuit to finish any last minute souvenir shopping you might have left.

Day 05
Depart from Lhasa