The long forbidden region of upper Mustang and the walled city of Lo Manthang and are now open a limited number of foreign trekkers, just 300 tourists in a year

Introduction
Mustang is one of the few places in the world that is still untrammeled bv tourists, it is most important that the region be preserved its natural state. In common usage, the name Mustang refers to the arid Tibet like region at the North end of the Kali Gandaki, which is known to its inhabitants as Lo. Mustang is probably a Nepalese mispronunciation of the name of the capital of Lo, the city of Manthang. The name is pronounced “Moo- stang” and has nothing to do with either the automobile or horse with a similar name. Officially, Mustang designates the district along the Kali Gandaki from the Tibetan border. The capital of the Mustang district is Jomsom; the region of Tibetan influence north of Kagibeni is generally referred to as “upper Mustang”.

Upper Mustang consists of two distinct regions, five southern villages of people related to the Manangis and the ancient kingdom of Lo where the language, culture and traditions are almost purely Tibetan. The capital of Lo is named Manthang, which translate from the Tibetan as “plain of aspiration”. Many texts refer to the capital as Lo Manthang, but this is not strictly correct. Also there are few more name given about Manthang which is not correct.

History
The early history of Lo is shrouded in legend, myth and mystery, but there are records of events in Lo as early as the 8th century. It is quite likely that the Tibetan poet Milarepa, who lived from 1040 to 1123, visited Lo. Upper Mustang was once part of Ngari, a name for Far Western Tibetan. Ngari was not a true political entity, but rather a loose collection of feudal domains that also included parts of Dolpo. By the fourteen century much of Ngari, as well as most of what today is western Nepal, was part of the Malla Empire governed from Sinja.

It is generally believed that Ame Pal (A- ma- dpal) was the founder king of Lo in 1380. The ancestry of the present Mustang Raja can be traced 25 generation back to Ame Pal. Ame Pal, or perhaps his father, conquered a large part of the territory in the upper Kali Gandaki and was responsible for the development of the city of Lo Manthang and many gompas (monasteries).

Lo maintained its status as a separate principality until 1951, After the Rana rulers were overthrown in November, 1950 and King Tribhuvan reestablished the rule of the Shah monarchs, Lo was more closely consolidated into Nepal. The king was given the honorary rank of colonel in the Nepal army.

At the resent history during the 1960’s, after the Dalai Lama had fled to India and Chinese armies established control over Tibet, Mustang was a center of guerrilla operations against the Chinese. The soldiers were the Khampas, Tibet’s most fearsome warriors. They had the backing of the CIA; some Khampas were secretly trained in USA. At the height of the fighting there were at least 6,000 Khampas in Mustang and neighboring border areas. The CIA’s support ended in the early 1970’s when the US, under Kissinger and Nixon, initiated new and better relation with the Chinese. The government of Nepal was pressed to take action against the guerrilla, and, making use of internal divisions within the Khampa leadership, a bit of treachery, and the Dalai Lama’s taped advice for his countrymen to lay down their arms, it managed to disband the resistance without committing to action the 10,000 Royal Nepal Army troops that it had sent to the area.

Though Mustang was closed, the government allowed a few researchers into the area. Toni Hagen included Mustang in his survey of the entire kingdom of Nepal, and Indian scholar Giuseppi Tucci visited in the autumn of 1952.

Trekking in Lo
The trek to Lo is through an almost treeless barren landscape. Srong winds usually in the afternoon, generally subsiding at night. Being in the rain shadow of the Himalaya, Lo has much less rain than the rest of Nepal, through the skies is cloudy and there is same rain during the monsoon. In the winter there is usually snow, sometime as much as 30-40 centimeters on the ground. In the Lo itself the countryside is similar to the Tibetan plateau with its endless expenses of yellow and gray rolling hills eroded by wind. There is more rain in the lower part of upper Mustang and the hills tend to be great red fluted cliffs of tiny round stones cemented together by mud. Villages are several hours apart and appear in the distance almost as mirages; during the summer season, after the crops are planted, they are green oases in the desert- like landscape.

House and temple construction throughout the region uses some stone but mostly unbaked bricks of mud. Astonishing edifices, such as the city wall and the 4-story palace in Lo Manthang, are built in this manner. It is said that were once large forests in Lo, but now wood for construction is hauled all the way from Jomsom or pruned from poplar trees that are carefully planted in every village.

The people of upper Mustang call themselves Lobas. To be strictly correct, this word would be spelled “Lopa “, meaning “Lo people”, in the same way as Sherpa, which means
“East people”, or Khampa, which means “Kham people”, The peopple of Lo, probably because regional dialect, pronounce the world with a definite “B” sound instead of the “P” sound that the Sherpas and Khampas use. At the Lo tradition and spell the word as it is pronounced: “Loba.”

Religion in Lo
The form of Tibetan Buddhism practiced in Mustang is primarily that of the Sakyapa sect. This sect was established at Sakya Monastry in Tibet and dated from 1073. The Sakyapa sect is more worldly and practical in outlook and is less concerned with metaphysics than the more predominant Nyingmpa and Gelugpa sects. Sakya Monastery is unique for its horizontal gray, white and yellow stripes on its red walls, an identifying feature of Sakyapa structures. Most chortens and gompas in Lo are printed in these colours that reflect the surrounding hills.

When to come?
The trekking season is from late March to early November. This trek does not go to really high elevation, but the cold, dust and very strong winds can make the trek less pleasant than other treks in Nepal.