Tibet
The Roof Of
The World
Tibet is bordered on the
north and east by the Chinese provinces of
Xinjiang, Qinghai and Sichuan, on the west by
Kashmir, and on the south by Nepal, Bangladesh
and Bhutan. Tibet’s topography is dominated by
the Tibetan Plateau, a region the size of
Western Europe with an average elevation of
14,000 feet, and, indeed, most of the Himalaya
lies within its borders. It is little wonder
Tibet is known as “The Roof of the World”: the
valley bottoms here are higher than the highest
mountains in most other places.
Little is known about the
origins of the Tibetan people; however it is
thought that they came from the nomadic, warlike
tribes known as the Qiang. Tibet’s history is
one of having grown into a great military power,
carving for itself a huge empire in Central
Asia, northern India and Pakistan, and then
renouncing the use of arms to practice instead
the teachings of the Buddha.
Our expeditions begin in the
capital city of Kathmandu, Nepal, from where we
then take the world’s most scenic and exciting
one-hour flight to the 1300-year-old city of
Lhasa, Tibet (12,139’).
Himalaya is a Sanskrit word
meaning “the abode of snow”. While it may be
hard to believe, the Himalaya is considered a
new and fragile land formation. Until 35 million
years ago – relatively recently in geological
terms – the Himalaya formed the seabed of the
vast, shallow Tethys Sea. This body of water was
displaced by the collision of the Indian
subcontinent and the Eurasian landmass in a
process that took five to seven million years; a
theory supported by fossilized mollusks found at
altitudes of over 26,000 feet. The Himalaya has
risen about 6,600 feet in the past 20,000 years,
and continues to rise at the rate of 3-4 inches
per year. The Himalaya in Nepal ranges in
altitude between 16,000 to 29,035 feet, and
includes eight of the world’s fourteen highest
summits.
Click the links below to learn more about our Tibet
expeditions, view itineraries, prices and dates,
and to submit an
Online Application.
Join us for an exciting mountaineering adventure
in Tibet!
