The last Forbidden Buddhist of mustang surrounded by Tibet on three sides and governed by a Tibetan royal family, Mustang a kingdom with in kingdoms. Survives one of the remnants of ancient Tibet although nominally integrated in to the kingdom of Nepal in the early 1950’s it remains largely autonomous and much of its medieval Culture fabric has survived.

In fact Mustang is said to be more like Tibet before the Chinese occupation than Tibet itself, filled with ancient walled for tress villages and monasteries hewn from the rock displaying a muted natural palette of grays and variegated rusty reds. Like much of the Tibetan plateau the landscape is rugged and austere, a dramatic high desert terrain flanked by towering peaks, including the snowcapped Annapurna’s to the south. Through Nepal opened to tourism in the 1950s, Mustang’s sensitive position along the Tibet border kept it off- Limits until 1992, when the Nepali government began admitting a trickle of foreign tourists. Ironically Mustang was well traveled in the past its ancient trade routes dating back more than 1000 years. Its treeless vistas must have appeared distant and extraordinary to European trade returning from China with their precious cargo. They would have been as hard pressed as today trekkers to explain the worth worldliness of it all.