Sightseeing · Mustang
Upper Mustang Highlights
Lo Manthang, Chhoser sky caves, Jhong, Jharkot, Tangbe and Ghar Gompa — the highlights of restricted Upper Mustang.
Upper Mustang's highlights cluster around the walled medieval capital of Lo Manthang and spread out across a high, ochre desert behind the Himalaya: cliff-cut sky caves, ancient gompas, and fortified villages where Tibetan Buddhist culture has survived almost untouched. This guide ties together the sights worth planning a trip around, with a pin for each so you can see what to expect, how to reach it and what it costs.
The natural base is Lo Manthang itself. Spend your first day inside the walled city of Lo Manthang, where the former royal palace and the great Jampa, Thubchen and Chode gompas hold murals five hundred years old behind ramparts of rammed earth. For the wider story of the town and the old Kingdom of Lo, our standalone Lo Manthang place guide goes deeper into its history and the spring Tiji festival.
Caves and ancient temples
The single most extraordinary sight north of Lo Manthang is the cliff at Chhoser. The Chhoser sky caves — most famously the multi-storey Jhong cave dwelling — climb dozens of metres into the rock, their wooden ladders and honeycombed chambers a puzzle archaeologists are still working out. South of the city, the Ghar Gompa at Lo Gekar is reckoned among the oldest temples in the Himalaya, traditionally founded before Tibet's great Samye monastery and linked to Guru Rinpoche himself.
Caves run as a thread through the whole region; if the geology fascinates you, pair this cluster with our national guide to the caves of Nepal, and read up on the painted shrines in our monasteries and gompas of Nepal overview.
Fortified villages
Between the headline sites, Upper Mustang's villages are reason enough to slow down. Tangbe village, one of the first settlements north of Kagbeni, is a maze of whitewashed, ochre and black-banded houses among apple orchards and barley fields below jagged red pinnacles. Down in the Muktinath valley, the fortress hamlet of Jhong cave and village and the red-walled monastery at Jharkot show the same Tibetan building tradition in freely accessible Lower Mustang — handy if you want a taste of the culture without the restricted-area permit. Both connect to our standalone Jharkot village guide and sit on the classic Muktinath circuit.
Plan your trip
Nearly everything in this list except Jhong and Jharkot sits inside the restricted zone, so start with our Upper Mustang permits and access guide and the route detail in the Upper Mustang trek write-up. The region is dry through the monsoon in the Annapurna rain shadow, so it works when much of Nepal does not — see where it fits among the best treks in Nepal and use the Mustang hub for the full set of regional guides, from Jomsom and Kagbeni to the road up from Pokhara.
Strung together, these six highlights make Upper Mustang one of the most rewarding corners of the Himalaya: a living medieval landscape of walled cities, sky caves and ancient temples, reached on a journey that is as memorable as the sights at its end.
Our top picks
Frequently asked questions
What are the must-see highlights of Upper Mustang?+
The walled city of Lo Manthang is the centrepiece, with its royal palace and the Jampa, Thubchen and Chode gompas. Beyond it, the Chhoser sky caves, the ancient Ghar Gompa at Lo Gekar, and old villages like Tangbe, Jhong and Jharkot round out the region's headline sights.
Do you need a permit to see Upper Mustang's highlights?+
Yes for the far north. Lo Manthang, Chhoser, Tangbe and Ghar Gompa lie inside restricted Upper Mustang, which needs a special restricted-area permit and a licensed guide on top of the Annapurna permit. Jhong and Jharkot, in the Muktinath valley, are in freely accessible Lower Mustang.
How many days do you need to see Upper Mustang?+
A return trip to Lo Manthang with its surrounding caves and gompas usually takes 10 to 14 days on foot, or less with jeep support on parts of the rough valley road. Allow at least two nights in Lo Manthang to reach Chhoser, Ghar Gompa and the nearby villages.
Are the Chhoser sky caves and Ghar Gompa real ancient sites?+
Yes. The Chhoser cliffs are honeycombed with thousands of human-cut caves used for centuries for shelter, storage and meditation, and Ghar Gompa at Lo Gekar is among the oldest Buddhist temples in the Himalaya, traditionally linked to Guru Rinpoche.
