Place · walled Himalayan capital · Nepal
Lo Manthang
Also known as Lo Manthang, Mustang, Kingdom of Lo, Upper Mustang
The walled capital of the kingdom of Lo in Upper Mustang, north of the main Himalayan range in the Tibetan rain shadow, founded in 1380 by Ame Pal. Four streets, a royal palace, and the Jampa, Thubchen and Chodey monasteries holding fifteenth-century painting that survives nowhere else in this quality.
- Date
- 1380–None
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 29.183, 83.956
Worth knowing
Mustang was a separate kingdom until 1795 and its raja kept a recognised title until Nepal abolished it in 2008, which makes it among the last royal houses in South Asia to lose its status. The valley was closed to outsiders until 1992, and the caves cut high in the cliffs nearby have produced manuscripts and painted chambers.
Connections (2)
- Power passed toGorkha
Lo Manthang's kingdom of Lo was founded in 1380 and stayed separate until 1795, when Gorkha absorbed it; its raja kept a recognised title until Nepal abolished it in 2008, which makes it among the very last royal houses in South Asia to lose its status. The Gorkhali state that took the valley cities also took a walled Tibetan capital on the far side of the Himalaya.
- AnaloguePhuktal
Phuktal in Zanskar and Lo Manthang in Upper Mustang are the two places in this repository where the Tibetan Buddhist world survives on the Indian and Nepali side of the Himalaya in something close to its old form — a cliff-cave monastery reachable only on foot, and a walled capital with fifteenth-century murals. Both were closed to outsiders until the 1990s.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Lo Manthang”. Michel Peissel, Mustang: A Lost Tibetan Kingdom (1967); the American Himalayan Foundation and Luigi Fieni conservation reports on the Thubchen and Jampa murals.
Open Lo Manthang in the repository →