We are delighted to share with you a remarkable video of a 4000 kilometer exploration of the Amdo and Kham regions of Tibet by Annick Blanc. On her journey with our friend and great travel photographer Martin Newman, Annick offers a striking introduction to the region, with images of Himalayan mountain passes, daily life on the streets of towns and villages, and monks debating at monasteries. Annick’s film gives us quite a rare window into the rapidly disappearing cultural magnificence of a region of Tibet that is becoming increasingly shut off from the West.
If you are planning a trip to Kham or Amdo, we can put you in touch with a reliable Tibetan-owned agent who will plan a non-touristy trip that gives you a real feel for Tibet. Contact us here for Tibet travel help.
Video: Annick Blanc’s Beautiful Exploration of Amdo and Kham
In November of 2010 Annick Blanc and I traveled for 3 weeks from Siling (Xining) through Amdo, including the Golok region, and Kham. During this time we covered a distance of more than 4,000 kilometers and were able to include visits to the great monasteries of Kumbum and Labrang as well as Kirti in Ngaba, Dzamtang in Dzamtang and Karzang near Trindu as well as many others. Our journey took us to the holy mountains of Amnye Machen and Nyembo Yertse and to the earthquake devastated city of Yushu. This brief video record of our trip by Annick Blanc hopefully provides a glimpse into life in this precious, remarkable region.
See Martin Newman’s extraordinary photographs of this journey through Amdo and Kham >>
See more of Martin Newman’s photography >>
See more about travel in Kham:
- Carol Brighton’s Notes from a Mountain Journal
- A Photographic Journey of Kham and Amdo by Petri Kaipiainen
Learn More about Amdo
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Daniel Plummer says
Hello there,
Fascinating post with some stunning, inspiring images. Thank you for sharing.
My girlfriend and I are hoping to go on a similar trip this July/August, we are extremely keen to spend two-three weeks in Kham/Amdo travelling around, but there isn’t a great amount of information available to us. Neither of us can speak Chinese which limits us even more, although we do currently live in Nanjing.
The route you took here seems pretty similar to the one we would like to take. We’re just starting the planning process and it’s proving difficult! I was wondering if you may able to e-mail us through a rough itinerary for your trip, if that wouldn’t be too much of a problem?
We would be extremely appreciative if you were able to… thank you!
yowangdu says
Hi Daniel,
The trip sounds great. We will ask Martin Newman, who made the trip, if he might be able to help you. We will email Martin now. The other thing that is useful to do is to contact the Tibetan travel agents for Kham and Amdo on this page. https://www.yowangdu.com/tibet-travel/tibetan-travel-agents.html They can certainly help as well. We recommend contacting all the relevant agencies (ie, the ones from Kham and Amdo) and seeing the different options each has to offer. Please do let us know how it all goes, and please consider writing a guest post on your return 🙂