Bon Culture

The Lower Dolpo Trek is a remote, restricted-region journey centered on the Tarap Valley, Dho Tarap village, and the turquoise waters of Phoksundo Lake, offering...

The Phoksundo Lake Trek follows the Thuli Bheri and Phoksundo rivers from Juphal through Dunai, Chhepka, and Shyanta to Ringmo village, a traditional Bon settlement built on an ancient landslide dam that holds the lake in place. Unlike the longer Lower Dolpo Circuit, this trek is a direct out-and-back journey to the lake, making it a shorter, more accessible way to experience the remote Dolpo region.

What sets this trek apart, even from other restricted areas in Nepal, is how completely isolated it remains. Because Upper Dolpo requires a special government permit on top of the Shey Phoksundo National Park fee, and because the region only opened to trekkers in 1989, the villages along the route have kept traditions that have faded almost everywhere else in the Himalaya. The landscape itself shifts dramatically across the trek, from green forested valleys near Phoksundo Lake to the stark, high desert plateau around Shey Gompa and Saldang, giving the sense of crossing several distinct worlds in a single journey.