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TIBETAN TRIBES

The Tibetan ethnic and cultural spread encompasses various climes and geologic zones, and the cultural makeup is a mosaic of subcultures. The common bonds of these Tibetan subgroups are a common religious and linguistic heritage, and a terrain of high mountains; other than that, the different subgroups wear different costumes, build houses from different materials and in differing styles, speak a cacophony of Tibetan dialects, and even have different customs. Some of these people are settled farmers and peasants, some are completely given to the monastic life, some are ranchers, others still are nomadic herders – and within these broad categories there exists many other bewildering variations. Such varied ethnic enclaves – as well as natural richness – is especially pronounced in the mountains that step up from the Sichuan basin to the Tibetan plateau. This is where we travel in this trip, along a route that’s like time-travel, going out to some of the wildest mountainous terrain in the Tibetan plateau.

Descriptions of destinations and ethnic enclaves of the route: 

Qiang villages

The Qiang people, with their unique culture and way of life, are an ethnic group that live in 1000 villages along the Minjiang River valley. They have a history that stretches back thousands of years. Their ancient culture is rich, yet they remain one of the most obscure ethnicities in Asia. One of the greatest evocations is the location of their villages high up in the mountains – many of their hamlets of tightly-knit low-squat buildings and old defensive towers cling to steep slopes at heights of around 3,000 metres – a fact that has earned them the moniker of ‘People of the Clouds’. They do literally live at cloud level, a choice that partly had to do with the necessity of avoiding the fray and pillage left in the wake of war and banditry down near the river’s bank. The high turrets attached to their buildings also offered them safe refuge of last resort. Nowadays, it’s such isolation that has allowed Qiang culture to survive distinctly and traditionally, and the people to retain some customs such as wearing their old costume. 

Qiang Tibetans

Moving northeast from the Minjiang River valley, the Qiang palette morphs into a sub-ethnicity that’s a hybrid of Tibetans and Qiang. These people have a different costume and diet, and they have prominent Buddhist temples (the pure Qiang are animist) in their villages. One of the villages where we will stay is made up of a tight knit of stone farmhouses set in a remote spot along the mouth of valley – from the village we can trek into the valley’s interior, past small hamlets and forests and lakes. 

Monastery village

Monastery villages – which typically consist of several temples and an entire village housing monks – are dotted across the Tibetan plateau, and we will visit one of the most unusual temple village that exists. The village itself consists of small shacks built of tree trunks, set on a slope alongside the Dadu River, and it has an assembly of religious structures: row upon row of gleaming stupas or chortens erected along the river, pennants of prayer flags, temple halls with golden trimmings. More unusual are a couple of pairs of high turrets, more than 50 metres high, built of slate – these evocative towers are only found in few places. The monastery village bustles with monks and pilgrims, with chants and clamourous temple instruments reverberating in the prayer halls.  

Large monasteries

The regional town is home to thousands of monks, hunkered in vast monasteries that have large prayer halls with high and flighty roofs, and massive stupas that glint with gold trimmings and impose themselves on the landscape. Monks in temples in town and surrounding villages hold elaborate and ritualistic ceremonies; you can attend a ceremony in which the monks use bells, cymbals, drums, windpipes, and chant the mantras in rousing voices. You can visit some of the interesting historical temples, many of which display distinctive architectural design. 

Tagong nomadic herders

The nomads in Tagong are among the least tamed in the entire Tibetan plateau: they believe that the herding life is the purest life. Males wear heavy robes and daggers, while females sport the colourful strings pleated into their long manes of hair, using patterns of colours specific to their clan. The herders migrate from pasture to pasture according to the seasons, rising to grasslands that are more than 4,000 metres high in the summer and retreating to the valleys in the winter where the weather is milder. They cut a timeless scene on the grasslands: clusters of stooping black yak-hide tent, cowboys on horses leading yaks along the ridges, yaks browsing languidly among the riot of wild flowers, and the women collecting brushwood and water and singing the mantras. Tagong, the small town that serves as the hub of the grasslands, has a frontier feel and spirit: its large monastery attracts pilgrims doing Buddhist circumambulations, and the town is a mélange of nomads coming and going on horses, selling yak hides and butter and buying supplies. This colourful cowboy town will be our base for explorations in the area, and, among our explorations, we can visit a large Tibetan monastery where sky burial is still practised. 

Tibetan peasants

We will visit several villages of Tibetan peasants – these are settlers, and a world apart from the nomads (the nomads believe they are the true original Tibetans and that the settlers are a form of lesser Tibetans). The peasants have their own worldview and way of life – they subsist from the cultivation of crops. They have flamboyant farmhouses, a series of large rooms designed around a central courtyard. One room is usually reserved as the prayer room: it’s decorated in strong almost-garish colours, with wooden panels holding murals or friezes of flowery motifs and mythical figures or animals, and cluttered with several instruments and small sanctums. Many of the villages also have their own deities, and the village life revolves around the temple, which is where the inhabitants meet and loiter and pray – temples are often designed in quaint distinct styles, and so do the women’s clothes, particularly the head-dress, which often shows bands of colours that identify the particular clan that the bearer belongs to.

Jinchuan pear farmers

Jinchuan is famous for its pear orchards; the pear trees have evolved into a distinct variety after hundreds of years of selective breeding – most strikingly, the pear trees are unusually tall. The pears are succulent and sweet, and the area makes a quaint rural scene: the pear orchards ensconce the farmhouses that are built in a style that’s a hybrid of Tibetan and Chinese styles, and the straggle of settlement make up the lower parts of the slopes. Orchards and fields are terraced up the slope, and higher up, the steep mountains are semiarid – the orchards are watered from water channelled from the Dadu River, which courses through the area – but high up in the mountains there are ancient groves of pine forests on south-facing slopes. The colours are incredible in spring and autumn – a washout of pure white flowers in spring, and a deep red and orange colour in autumn. 

Old defensive turrets

Many of the villages we will visit have the old defensive turrets that are prominent landmarks and features on the landscapes in this region. These were build hundreds of years ago, mostly from rough stones or slates (although some are built of rammed-earth walls), and most of the towers rise to around 40 metres high. The turrets are mostly attached to private farmhouses, and the people used them in the past as places of refuge in the event of a raid by bandits or warring tribes. Now the towers have either fallen into disuse, or are used as store for agricultural products – these towers create dramatic points of interest in the high mountain ridges. 

Day hikes

During this journey, you can opt to stay in any of the various villages that are typically situated in secondary valleys branching out of the main valley. The villages nestle in hidden and pristine valleys, and then it is possible to start from the villages and do day-hikes to nearby mountain peaks: it will take a few hours of walking, or horse-riding (depending on the site of the village), to get to a mountain summit. From the summit, we will then be able to look down on the endless tumble of mountains of the region, looking down on tiny villages and glinting rivers, and shepherds herding sheep on distant ridges – the kind of vista that will imprint itself indelibly in your mind’s eye for the rest of your life.

Start & Finish: Chengdu

Recommended duration: 16 days

Recommended treks: 4 days

Trekking difficulty level: Low. Read explainer...

Prices & Inclusions: Full-board prices range between €1100 (US$1200 ) and €2200 (US$2500) per person. More info…

Crew & Transport: More info…

Standard Accommodation: A mixture of mid-range hotels, home-stays, and guesthouses. More info…

Terms & Conditions: For the general terms and conditions that govern our tours and operation, and Frequently Asked Questions, please go to Nitty Gritty (FAQs).