History of Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang
The Kingdom of Lo was in earlier days known as the Kingdom of Mustang.
This Kingdom of Mustang was once part of Ngari, which in turn was part of Tibet.
During the early centuries, this part of Tibet consisted of loosely affiliated but constantly warring feudal tribes.
It was in the 8th century when the famous King Songtsengampo of Tibet finally united the Tibetan plateau and incorporated Ngari into the Tibetan empire.
Lo (previously known as Mustang) was of a very significant location as it was the conduit of trading between Tibet and the more southern lands of Nepal and India, with people from both sides traversing high passes in the Himalayan ranges.
In the 13th century, the Malla Dynasty began its rule in the valley of Kathmandu.
As the Malla empire grew, through war and domination, Lo was taken into what would be now Nepal.
Interestingly, although Lo was officially part of the Malla Dynasty, it still had a king, King Ame Pal, who founded the present Kingdom in 1380, and from then the kingdom became known as the Kingdom of Lo.
And the royal family has remained essentially status quo since then.
The current King is King Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, who was born in 1933. He still resides in the Royal Palace of the Walled-City of Lo Manthang and is well respected by the Lowa (people of Lo).
Thus it can be seen that the people of Lo has an inextricable link historically to the Tibetan.
In fact, they share very similar languages, culture and religion with the Tibetan, though over years some variations have taken place.
Some have even gone as far as to say that the people of Lo retain Tibetan culture and language in its purest and rawest form, after having seen so much changes taking place in Tibet itself.
Most recently, in the 1960's, Mustang was the centre of secret guerilla training of the Tibetan Khampas by the CIA.
This was during the early years of Tibetan occupation by the Central Chinese Communisty Government, and Tibetan fighters were plotting their rebel and retake of their territories.
Geography
Upper Mustang is geographically located to the north of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges, in the north-western parts of Nepal.
Lo Manthang and the small village of Chhoser (Tsosher) are only about a few tens of kilometres from the border with Tibet (China).
The only problem is, the most parts of this unfenced border is drawn high up in the Himalayan ranges.
Thus crossing from one side to the other on this border is difficulty to say the least, though still possible through certain passes.
To put it simply, Lo Manthang, far out in the most northern part of Nepal, is one very remote city.
The terrain is arid, sandy with little vegetation apart from the typical shrubs of the tundra.
The landscape is composed of canyons and barren rocks with dried up glacier beds.
How to get to Lo Manthang?
Lo Mantang is so remote that every year it only receives about 3000 foreign visitors, compared with 80,000-90,000 visitors to the Everest side of the country.
We had to fly from Kathmandu to Pokhara (which is just south of the Annarpurna range), and take another flight from Pokhara to Jomsom, and from there a jeep ride to the tiny village of Chhuksang.
From there we would trek for two days to the small town of Syangboche.
And another few hours of jeep ride would bring us to Lo Manthang.