The Last Forbidden Kingdom — cliff-carved cave cities, sky-blue Tibetan monastery walls, and a high desert landscape sealed from outsiders until 1992
Upper Mustang (Lo Manthang district) is the restricted-area former kingdom of Mustang, in the rain shadow of the Annapurna and Dhauladhar Himalaya in northern Nepal — a high-altitude Tibetan plateau landscape (the valley bottom at Lo Manthang, the walled capital, is at 3,840m) that receives almost no monsoon rainfall, producing a desert landscape of eroded red sandstone cliffs, ochre and white chortens (Buddhist shrines), and the vivid blue and ochre pigments of ancient Tibetan monastery walls. Mustang was an independent kingdom (Lo Kingdom, founded 14th century) that maintained strong politi…
The Kingdom of Mustang (Lo Kingdom) was founded in the 1380s by Ame Pal, a Tibetan nobleman who unified the valley. The kingdom maintained its independence through the period of Gorkhali unification — when Prithvi Narayan Shah unified Nepal in the 18th century, Mustang was incorporated as a tributary state rather than subjugated outright, retaining its royal family (the Raja of Mustang) and internal governance. The kingdom was closed to outside visitors until 1992 (a decade after Nepal opened most trekking regions) as part of the border sensitivity with China/Tibet — the presence of Tibetan r…