Tsarang Yartong day 1( Tsarang to Ghar Gumba).

Описание: About Charang

Charang is actually the second largest village in the entire Mustang region. But, with just 130 or so homes and around 700 inhabitants…..that’s hardly large.

The village was once an important halt for the ancient caravan trade that once perilously plied their way between Tibet and India carrying large amounts of salt.

Nowadays Charang is a peaceful, serene sort of place……the kind of place where you can “feel the spirituality”.With precious little rainfall and at such high altitude it’s a wonder that anything grows up here. Yet, the village is akin to a desert oasis, with carefully tended terraced fields adding greenery to an otherwise barren mountainscape with shades of brown, ochre, yellow and black. Indeed other than a little bit of passing tourist trade, agriculture is the main source of income here and the locals have ingeniously and with back breaking hard work managed to eek out what little water there is up here through irrigation channels.

Brightly coloured prayer flags waft on the cool breeze. Tibetan Buddhist Chortens and Mani (Prayer) Walls surround the village of typically “Mustang style” homes, which form a maze of narrow stone flagged alleyways and whitewashed mud and stone houses with flat timber topped roofs that blend so perfectly with the surrounding landscape.Most tourists coming to Mustang are heading to Lo Manthang, the fabled “walled city” and capital of the former Kingdom of Lo. With Charang being only 2 hours by 4WD vehicle from Lo Manthang, less and less people are now bothering to stop and explore Charang. Whereas when trekking was the only way to travel in Mustang, Charang was an ideal overnight halt before hiking to Lo Manthang the next day.

This has meant that Charang has become “less touristy”, which for any traveller seeking the more experiential and genuine aspect of travel is big plus.