03/06/2026
Beyond the rain shadow of the Annapurnas lies a kingdom that was closed to the world until 1992.
Upper Mustang was once the Kingdom of Lo, walled at its capital of Lo Manthang at 3,800 metres, its monarchy outlasting Nepal’s own by more than a century. Mud-brick houses and barley terraces stand much as they did six hundred years ago.
It is the cliffs that carry the deeper mystery. Around 10,000 caves are carved into the vertical sandstone, some rising five storeys, some set 155 feet above the valley floor. Archaeologists have pulled from them partially mummified bodies dating back 3,000 years, 14th century Buddhist murals, manuscripts, and burial masks worked in gold and silver.
No one knows for certain who built them. No one knows precisely why.
Its Tibetan culture has survived almost untouched, preserved by isolation rather than design.
