Mustang is a district in Nepal which stretches like a giant fat finger into the Tibetan plateau. The reason I had to fly through the gorge I described in my last post is that Mustang actually lies geographically on the plateau. It is the only piece of Nepal which lies on the northern side of the Himalayan range which runs like a spine along the northern borders of Nepal India and Pakistan.
Severed from Nepal by some of the highest mountains in the world, and from mainland China by the (until very recently) totally undeveloped TAR, the place is very remote. Until 1992 foreigners were officially barred from entering the region by the Nepalese monarchy and even now, any trip to upper mustang (which means trekking past the village of Kagbeni) means outrageous (as in, I’m never ever going to be able to afford to go back) fees to the government. All that means is that very few people make the trip and I feel very very lucky.
Culturally, religiously, and linguistically, upper Mustang is unmistakably Tibetan. Still today nearly all of the regions 7,000 inhabitants are pastoralists, herding yaks and goats in the winter and summer and growing winter wheat, mustard, buckwheat, and barley during the rest of the year.
Below is a photo I took of a buckwheat field outside the village of Thini which sits across the valley and above Jomsom (which is really just pretty new a cluster of government buildings and guest houses). The little white building on the hill in the distance is the Stupa which was the destination for that day-hike
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