12/08/2013
The capital of Mustang and its central feature is the massive white-walled Royal Palace in which lives the world's least-known monarch.
Lo Mangthang in fact, is the full name of the 2,000-square –kilometer kingdom of King Jigme Parwal Bista , founded in the 14th century by the Tibetan warlord Ama pal. Fabled Mustang , as it is now known on the maps . is only an honorary Kingdom these days . but each night King Jigme ,the 25th monarch since the 1480s, orders the only gate of the mud-walled capital shut and barred . Twelve ducks, 60 monks, 152 families and eight witches occupy the capital . King Jigme still owns serfs who plough his stony fields for grain crops .
Bitit Lo's treasures are many and priceless: a wealth of Tibetan art ,monasteries and forts set in 23 villages and two other twons. Many of Mustang's monasteried ' names are derived from Tibean phrase meaning ' plain of prayer', or 'mon than ' are carved into cliff faces. You climb ladders to reach them . Other wealth lays in the rocky hills turquoise and rich deposit of alluvial gold in the beds of the river that course through the land . But Lo's citizens consider the task of panning for this metal baneath their dignity.
