Dolpo Region Treks

Dolpo lies in the rain shadow of Dhaulagiri — Nepal's westernmost trans-Himalayan region, where the Tibetan plateau begins. The high country is so isolated that even into the 21st century, the local economy still runs on yak salt caravans, exactly as it did 800 years ago. The 1999 French-Nepali film Himalaya, nominated for an Academy Award, was filmed here using Dolpo villagers as actors.

Dolpo holds Nepal's last significant population of Bon practitioners — the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet, now nearly extinct elsewhere. Bon shrines (counter-clockwise circumambulation, distinct iconography) sit alongside Tibetan Buddhist gompas in villages like Saldang and Dho Tarap. The region opened to foreigners only in 1989 (Lower Dolpo) and 1992 (Upper Dolpo), and remains a restricted area.

The trekking centrepiece is Shey Phoksundo Lake — Nepal's deepest at 145 m, a colour of turquoise that has no equivalent. Above it stands Shey Gompa, a 12th-century monastery at the base of the holy Crystal Mountain, the destination of writer Peter Matthiessen's classic The Snow Leopard. Trekking here means 18+ days, two 5,000-metre passes, and one of the last untouched corners of the Himalaya.