བོད།
Bö
Tibet
Usage
The Tibetan plateau region, written 西藏 in Chinese. Entry needs a Chinese visa plus a Tibet Travel Permit
བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས།
Bö Rangkyong Jong
Tibet Autonomous Region
Usage
Administrative region with Lhasa as its seat, written 西藏自治区. Entry requires a Tibet Travel Permit arranged through a travel agency
དབུས་གཙང་།
Ü-Tsang
Ü-Tsang
Usage
Traditional name for central Tibet including Lhasa and Shigatse, written 卫藏. Corresponds to the core of today's Tibet Autonomous Region
ཁམས།
Kham
Kham
Usage
Traditional name for eastern Tibet, written 康区. Today split across western Sichuan, northwest Yunnan, southern Qinghai and Chamdo
ཨ་མདོ།
Amdo
Amdo
Usage
Traditional name for northeastern Tibet, written 安多. Covers most of Qinghai and southern Gansu; no Tibet Travel Permit is needed there
མངའ་རིས།
Ngari
Ngari
Usage
Westernmost prefecture of the TAR, written 阿里. Contains Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar; needs an Aliens' Travel Permit and border permit on top of the Tibet permit
ལྷོ་ཁ།
Lhoka
Lhoka
Usage
Prefecture-level city southeast of Lhasa, written 山南, seat at Tsetang. Home to the Yarlung Valley and Samye Monastery, about 3 hours by road from Lhasa
ཉིང་ཁྲི།
Nyingtri
Nyingtri
Usage
Prefecture-level city in southeastern TAR, written 林芝. Lower at around 3000m and forested; about 4 hours from Lhasa by expressway, with an airport and rail station
ཆབ་མདོ།
Chamdo
Chamdo
Usage
Prefecture-level city at the eastern edge of the TAR, written 昌都. The gateway from Sichuan and Yunnan on the G318 highway; served by Bamda Airport
ནག་ཆུ།
Nagchu
Nagchu
Usage
High-plateau city in northern Tibet, written 那曲, at about 4500m. On the Qinghai–Tibet railway and G109 highway, midway between Lhasa and Golmud
མཚོ་སྔོན།
Tsongön
Qinghai
Usage
Province on the northeastern Tibetan plateau, written 青海. Capital Xining is the starting point of the Qinghai–Tibet railway; no Tibet permit needed here
ཡུལ་ཤུལ།
Yushul
Yushul
Usage
Tibetan autonomous prefecture in southern Qinghai, written 玉树, seat at Kyegudo. About 15 hours by bus from Xining, also served by an airport
ལྷ་ས།
Lhasa
Lhasa
Usage
Capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region at 3650m, written 拉萨. Site of the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple; reached from its airport and rail station by bus or taxi
གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ།
Shigatse
Shigatse
Usage
Tibet's second city at 3840m, written 日喀则. Home to Tashilhunpo Monastery; about 3 hours from Lhasa by train or 5 hours by road
རྒྱལ་རྩེ།
Gyantse
Gyantse
Usage
Town between Lhasa and Shigatse at 3980m, written 江孜. Site of Palkhor Chöde Monastery and a hilltop fort, on the route via Yamdrok Lake
རྩེ་ཐང་།
Tsetang
Tsetang
Usage
Seat of Lhoka prefecture, written 泽当. Gateway to the Yarlung Valley and base for Yumbulagang and Samye, about 3 hours by road from Lhasa
ལྷ་རྩེ།
Lhatse
Lhatse
Usage
Town about 150 km west of Shigatse, written 拉孜. The junction where the Nepal-bound Friendship Highway and the Kailash-bound G219 split; a standard lunch stop
དིང་རི།
Dingri
Dingri
Usage
County that serves as the gateway to the north side of Everest, written 定日. On the Friendship Highway, where the road to Everest Base Camp branches off
ཤེལ་དཀར།
Shelkar
Shelkar
Usage
County town of Dingri, also called New Tingri, written 协格尔. The checkpoint where Everest-area permits are processed
གཉའ་ལམ།
Nyalam
Nyalam
Usage
Town on the Friendship Highway before the Nepal border, written 聂拉木, at 3750m. A common overnight stop before the descent to the frontier
སྐྱིད་གྲོང་།
Kyirong
Kyirong
Usage
Main land border crossing with Nepal, written 吉隆. Overland trips between Lhasa and Kathmandu pass through here; a border permit is required
ས་དགའ།
Saga
Saga
Usage
County in western Shigatse prefecture, written 萨嘎. A supply and overnight stop on the G219 route toward Mount Kailash
སྤུ་ཧྲེང་།
Purang
Purang
Usage
Border town in southern Ngari, written 普兰. On the trade routes to Nepal and India, south of Lake Manasarovar; a border permit is required
སྒར།
Gar
Gar
Usage
Administrative seat county of Ngari prefecture, written 噶尔. Its town Shiquanhe holds the prefecture's airport and bus station
དར་ཆེན།
Darchen
Darchen
Usage
Settlement at the trailhead of the Mount Kailash kora, written 塔尔钦, at 4600m. Guesthouses and gear shops; the circuit starts and ends here
འདམ་གཞུང་།
Damshung
Damshung
Usage
County about 160 km north of Lhasa, written 当雄. The gateway to Namtso Lake, with a station on the Qinghai–Tibet railway and the G109 highway
གོང་དཀར།
Gongkar
Gongkar
Usage
County in Lhoka prefecture where Lhasa's airport is located, written 贡嘎. On the Yarlung Tsangpo, about 1 hour from central Lhasa by expressway
ཆུ་ཤུར།
Chushur
Chushur
Usage
County southwest of Lhasa, written 曲水, where the Kyichu joins the Yarlung Tsangpo. Roads to the airport, Shigatse and Yamdrok Lake diverge here
སྟག་རྩེ།
Taktse
Taktse
Usage
District about 20 km east of central Lhasa, written 达孜. The turn-off for the road up to Ganden Monastery
མལ་གྲོ་གུང་དཀར།
Meldro Gungkar
Meldro Gungkar
Usage
County in eastern Lhasa prefecture, written 墨竹工卡. The turn-off for Drigung Til Monastery, on the G318 highway
སྙེ་མོ།
Nyemo
Nyemo
Usage
County on the main Lhasa–Shigatse road, written 尼木. Known for Tibetan incense and handmade paper
ཟི་ལིང་།
Ziling
Xining
Usage
Capital of Qinghai at 2275m, written 西宁. Starting point for Qinghai–Tibet railway trains to Lhasa and a useful acclimatization stop
གོར་མོ།
Gormo
Golmud
Usage
City in western Qinghai at 2800m, written 格尔木. The hub of the Qinghai–Tibet railway and highway, about 1150 km from Lhasa
སྐྱེ་རྒུ་མདོ།
Kyegudo
Kyegudo
Usage
Main town of Yushu prefecture in Qinghai at 3700m, written 结古 or 玉树. Reached from Xining by bus or via Yushu Batang Airport
རྒྱལ་ཐང་།
Gyalthang
Gyalthang
Usage
Seat of the Tibetan autonomous prefecture in northwest Yunnan at 3200m, written 香格里拉 (formerly 中甸). Has an airport, about 4 hours from Lijiang; no Tibet permit needed
དཀར་མཛེས།
Kardze
Kardze
Usage
Tibetan autonomous prefecture in western Sichuan, written 甘孜. Entered from Chengdu along the G318 highway; no Tibet permit needed
སྡེ་དགེ
Derge
Derge
Usage
County in western Kardze prefecture, Sichuan, written 德格. Known for its woodblock printing house, on the G317 near the TAR boundary
ལི་ཐང་།
Lithang
Lithang
Usage
High plateau town in Kardze prefecture, Sichuan, written 理塘, above 4000m. On the southern G318 route, known for its summer horse festival
རེབ་གོང་།
Rebkong
Rebkong
Usage
Town in Huangnan prefecture, Qinghai, written 同仁. A major centre of thangka painting with many workshops; about 4 hours by bus from Xining
བླ་བྲང་།
Labrang
Labrang
Usage
Town in Xiahe county, Gansu, written 拉卜楞 (the county is 夏河). Grew around Labrang Monastery; about 4 hours by bus from Lanzhou
གནམ་གྲུ་ཐང་།
namdru thang
airport
Usage
The general word for airport. Signs show it alongside the Chinese 机场
ལྷ་ས་གོང་དཀར་གནམ་གྲུ་ཐང་།
Lhasa Gongkar namdru thang
Lhasa Gonggar Airport
Usage
Main airport for the Tibet Autonomous Region, written 拉萨贡嘎国际机场. About 60 km southwest of Lhasa at 3570m; roughly 1 hour to the city by airport bus or taxi
ཉིང་ཁྲི་གནམ་གྲུ་ཐང་།
Nyingtri namdru thang
Nyingchi Mainling Airport
Usage
Airport serving Nyingtri in southeastern Tibet, written 林芝米林机场. At 2949m it is Tibet's lowest, with flights from Chengdu, Chongqing and Guangzhou
གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གནམ་གྲུ་ཐང་།
Shigatse namdru thang
Shigatse Airport
Usage
Airport for Shigatse, written 日喀则和平机场, about 45 km southeast of the city. Flights are limited; most travellers arrive from Lhasa by train or road
ཆབ་མདོ་གནམ་གྲུ་ཐང་།
Chamdo namdru thang
Chamdo Bamda Airport
Usage
Airport for Chamdo in eastern Tibet, written 昌都邦达机场. At 4334m and about 130 km from town — over 2 hours by road
མངའ་རིས་གནམ་གྲུ་ཐང་།
Ngari namdru thang
Ngari Gunsa Airport
Usage
Airport for the far-western Ngari prefecture, written 阿里昆莎机场, at 4274m. The only way to reach the Kailash region without the long overland drive
མེ་འཁོར་འབབ་ཚུགས།
me-khor bab-tsug
railway station
Usage
The general word for railway station. Signs show it alongside the Chinese 火车站
ལྷ་ས་མེ་འཁོར་འབབ་ཚུགས།
Lhasa me-khor bab-tsug
Lhasa Railway Station
Usage
Terminus of the Qinghai–Tibet railway, written 拉萨站. Southwest of the city across the Kyichu river, about 20 minutes by taxi to the centre
གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་མེ་འཁོར་འབབ་ཚུགས།
Shigatse me-khor bab-tsug
Shigatse Railway Station
Usage
Terminus of the Lhasa–Shigatse line, written 日喀则站, about 3 hours from Lhasa. Roughly 15 minutes by taxi into town
ནག་ཆུ་མེ་འཁོར་འབབ་ཚུགས།
Nagchu me-khor bab-tsug
Nagchu Railway Station
Usage
Station on the Qinghai–Tibet railway, written 那曲站, at about 4500m, some 320 km north of Lhasa. The stop for the northern grasslands
འདམ་གཞུང་མེ་འཁོར་འབབ་ཚུགས།
Damshung me-khor bab-tsug
Damxung Railway Station
Usage
Station on the Qinghai–Tibet railway, written 当雄站. The closest stop to Namtso Lake, about 2 hours further by road
གོར་མོ་མེ་འཁོར་འབབ་ཚུགས།
Gormo me-khor bab-tsug
Golmud Railway Station
Usage
Midway station on the Qinghai–Tibet railway, written 格尔木站. South of here the line enters the high plateau section and cabin oxygen is switched on
ཟི་ལིང་མེ་འཁོར་འབབ་ཚུགས།
Ziling me-khor bab-tsug
Xining Railway Station
Usage
Starting station of the Qinghai–Tibet railway, written 西宁站. Trains to Lhasa take about 21 hours; the Tibet Travel Permit is checked at boarding
མཚོ་བོད་ལྕགས་ལམ།
Tso-Bö chaglam
Qinghai–Tibet Railway
Usage
High-altitude railway from Xining to Lhasa, written 青藏铁路. Its highest point is 5072m; carriages are pressurised with supplementary oxygen
མཚོ་བོད་གཞུང་ལམ།
Tso-Bö zhunglam
Qinghai–Tibet Highway
Usage
Trunk road (G109) from Xining and Golmud to Lhasa, written 青藏公路. Fully paved and the main route for long-distance buses and freight
ཟི་ཁྲོན་བོད་གཞུང་ལམ།
Zitron-Bö zhunglam
Sichuan–Tibet Highway
Usage
Road (G318) from Chengdu via Chamdo to Lhasa, written 川藏公路. Many high passes; closures from summer landslides and winter snow are common
བོད་བལ་གཞུང་ལམ།
Bö-Bal zhunglam
Friendship Highway
Usage
Road from Lhasa via Shigatse, Lhatse and Dingri to the Nepal border, written 中尼公路. The turn-off for the north side of Everest is on this route
སྤྱི་སྤྱོད་རླངས་འཁོར་འབབ་ཚུགས།
chichö langkhor bab-tsug
bus station
Usage
The term for a long-distance bus station. Signs show it alongside the Chinese 汽车站
ཁམ་པ་ལ།
Kamba La
Kamba La Pass
Usage
Pass on the road from Lhasa to Yamdrok Lake, written 岗巴拉山口, at 4794m. The viewpoint overlooking the lake where every tour stops
ཀ་རོ་ལ།
Karo La
Karo La Pass
Usage
Pass between Yamdrok Lake and Gyantse, written 卡若拉山口, at 5010m. A glacier comes down almost to the roadside
རྒྱ་མཚོ་ལ།
Gyatso La
Gyatso La Pass
Usage
Pass on the Friendship Highway between Lhatse and Dingri, written 加措拉山口, at 5248m — the highest point on that road
པོ་ཏ་ལ་ཕོ་བྲང་།
Potala Phodrang
Potala Palace
Usage
Palace on the hill in central Lhasa, written 布达拉宫. Entry is by timed reservation with a daily cap; photography inside is prohibited
ཇོ་ཁང་།
Jokhang
Jokhang Temple
Usage
Temple at the heart of Lhasa's old town, written 大昭寺, ringed by the Barkhor circuit. Mornings are for pilgrims, afternoons for visitors
ར་མོ་ཆེ།
Ramoche
Ramoche Temple
Usage
Temple about 500 m north of the Jokhang, written 小昭寺. Smaller and much quieter than the Jokhang, easily reached on foot
བར་སྐོར།
Barkhor
Barkhor
Usage
Circular pilgrimage route around the Jokhang and the old-town streets along it, written 八廓街. Walk it clockwise; there is a bag check at the entrances
ནོར་བུ་གླིང་ཀ
Norbulingka
Norbulingka
Usage
Garden and summer palace complex in western Lhasa, written 罗布林卡, about 3 km west of the Potala. Venue of the summer Shoton festival
འབྲས་སྤུངས་དགོན་པ།
Drepung Gompa
Drepung Monastery
Usage
Large monastery on the hillside about 8 km west of Lhasa, written 哲蚌寺. Around 30 minutes by bus or taxi; the grounds take half a day to see
སེ་ར་དགོན་པ།
Sera Gompa
Sera Monastery
Usage
Monastery about 5 km north of Lhasa, written 色拉寺. The afternoon monk debates in the courtyard are the main draw; 15 minutes by taxi
དགའ་ལྡན་དགོན་པ།
Ganden Gompa
Ganden Monastery
Usage
Monastery on a ridge at 4300m, about 45 km east of Lhasa, written 甘丹寺. Roughly 1.5 hours by road; a kora path circles the site
བསམ་ཡས་དགོན་པ།
Samye Gompa
Samye Monastery
Usage
Monastery on the north bank of the Yarlung Tsangpo in Lhoka, written 桑耶寺, laid out as a mandala. About 4 hours from Lhasa, with guest rooms on site
བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྷུན་པོ་དགོན་པ།
Tashilhunpo Gompa
Tashilhunpo Monastery
Usage
Large monastery in western Shigatse, written 扎什伦布寺, within walking distance of the town centre. Houses a giant Maitreya statue and reliquary stupas
དཔལ་འཁོར་ཆོས་སྡེ།
Palkhor Chöde
Palkhor Chöde
Usage
Monastery at the north end of Gyantse, written 白居寺. Known for its multi-storey Kumbum stupa, which can be climbed; 15 minutes on foot from town
ཞྭ་ལུ་དགོན་པ།
Shalu Gompa
Shalu Monastery
Usage
Monastery about 20 km south of Shigatse, written 夏鲁寺. Known for its Chinese-style glazed-tile roofs and old murals; about 30 minutes by car
སྣར་ཐང་དགོན་པ།
Narthang Gompa
Narthang Monastery
Usage
Monastery site about 15 km west of Shigatse on the main road, written 纳塘寺. Once famous for printing woodblock scriptures; small today
བྲག་ཡེར་པ།
Drak Yerpa
Drak Yerpa
Usage
Cave hermitages in a cliff about 30 km northeast of Lhasa, written 扎叶巴, at 4300m. An hour by car, with a lot of stair climbing
མཚུར་ཕུ་དགོན་པ།
Tsurphu Gompa
Tsurphu Monastery
Usage
Monastery in a valley at 4300m about 70 km west of Lhasa, written 楚布寺. Seat of the Karma Kagyu school; about 2 hours by road
རྭ་སྒྲེང་དགོན་པ།
Reting Gompa
Reting Monastery
Usage
Monastery about 150 km north of Lhasa in Lhundrup county, written 热振寺, set in a juniper forest; roughly 4 hours by road
འབྲི་གུང་མཐིལ།
Drigung Til
Drigung Til Monastery
Usage
Monastery on a ridge in Meldro Gungkar county, about 150 km northeast of Lhasa, written 直贡梯寺. Hot springs nearby; about 4 hours by road
ཡུམ་བུ་བླ་སྒང་།
Yumbulagang
Yumbulagang
Usage
Fortress-like building on a hill in the Yarlung Valley, about 12 km south of Tsetang, written 雍布拉康. A 20-minute walk up, or by horse
ཁྲ་འབྲུག
Trandruk
Trandruk Temple
Usage
Temple about 7 km south of Tsetang, written 昌珠寺, holding a thangka sewn from pearls. Usually combined with a visit to Yumbulagang
རོང་ཕུ་དགོན་པ།
Rongphu Gompa
Rongbuk Monastery
Usage
Monastery in the valley on the north side of Everest, written 绒布寺, at about 4980m. Just below Base Camp with basic lodging; an Aliens' Travel Permit is required
སྐུ་འབུམ་བྱམས་པ་གླིང་།
Kumbum Jampa Ling
Kumbum Monastery
Usage
Monastery in Huangzhong, about 25 km southwest of Xining, written 塔尔寺. Known for its yak-butter sculptures; an hour by bus from Xining, no permit needed
བླ་བྲང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འཁྱིལ།
Labrang Tashikyil
Labrang Monastery
Usage
Large monastery in Xiahe, Gansu, written 拉卜楞寺, with one of the world's longest prayer-wheel corridors. About 4 hours by bus from Lanzhou, no permit needed
ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ།
Chomolungma
Chomolungma (Mount Everest)
Usage
The world's highest mountain at 8848m, written 珠穆朗玛峰. The north side lies in Tibet, approached by road from Dingri county
ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མའི་གཞི་སྒར།
Chomolungma zhigar
Everest Base Camp
Usage
Climbing base on the north side of Everest, written 珠峰大本营, at about 5150m. Reached from Rongbuk by shuttle; an Aliens' Travel Permit is required
གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།
Gang Rinpoche
Mount Kailash
Usage
Mountain of 6638m in Ngari prefecture, written 冈仁波齐峰. The 52 km kora from Darchen usually takes three days; climbing it is not permitted
ཏི་སེ།
Tisé
Tisé (another name for Kailash)
Usage
The older name for Mount Kailash. Maps and information boards may show it alongside 冈仁波齐
མ་ཕམ་གཡུ་མཚོ།
Mapham Yutso
Lake Manasarovar
Usage
Lake south of Mount Kailash, written 玛旁雍错, at 4590m. About an hour by car from Darchen, with lakeside guesthouses
ལག་ངར་མཚོ།
Lhanag Tso
Rakshastal
Usage
Salt lake immediately west of Manasarovar, written 拉昂错. Both lakes are visible side by side from the road toward Kailash
ཡར་འབྲོག་གཡུ་མཚོ།
Yamdrok Yumtso
Yamdrok Lake
Usage
Lake about 100 km southwest of Lhasa, written 羊卓雍错, at 4441m. Just beyond Kamba La pass and doable as a day trip
གནམ་མཚོ།
Namtso
Namtso Lake
Usage
Lake about 240 km north of Lhasa, written 纳木错, at 4718m. Around 5 hours by road via Damshung; the access road can close in winter
ལྷ་མོ་བླ་མཚོ།
Lhamo Latso
Lhamo Latso
Usage
Small lake in the mountains of Gyatsa county, Lhoka, written 拉姆拉错, above 5000m. Reached on foot over a ridge from the road head
མཚོ་སྔོན་པོ།
Tso Ngönpo
Qinghai Lake
Usage
China's largest salt lake, written 青海湖, about 150 km west of Xining and visible from both the railway and the road. No permit needed
ཡར་ཀླུངས་གཙང་པོ།
Yarlung Tsangpo
Yarlung Tsangpo
Usage
Major river flowing west to east across Tibet, written 雅鲁藏布江; called the Brahmaputra in India. The airport road to Lhasa follows it
སྐྱིད་ཆུ།
Kyichu
Kyichu River
Usage
River running along the south side of Lhasa, written 拉萨河. The railway station is on its south bank, across the bridge from the city
གཉན་ཆེན་ཐང་ལྷ།
Nyenchen Thanglha
Nyenchen Thanglha
Usage
Range and its 7162m main peak south of Namtso, written 念青唐古拉山. The Qinghai–Tibet railway and highway run along its foot
ཤི་ཤ་སྦང་མ།
Shishapangma
Shishapangma
Usage
Mountain of 8027m, written 希夏邦马峰 — the only 8000er entirely within Tibet. Visible from the Friendship Highway near Nyalam
ཨ་མྱེས་རྨ་ཆེན།
Amnye Machen
Amnye Machen
Usage
Mountain of 6282m in Golog prefecture, Qinghai, written 阿尼玛卿山, with a pilgrimage circuit around it. Reached by road from Xining; no permit needed
ཡར་ཀླུངས།
Yarlung
Yarlung Valley
Usage
Valley south of Tsetang, written 雅砻河谷. Yumbulagang, Trandruk and the old royal tombs are spread along it — a full day by car
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