Mustang

Mustang (from the Tibetan mun tan (Wylie: smon-thang), meaning "fertile plain") is the former Kingdom of Lo. It now forms part of north-central Nepal, bordering China on the Tibetan plateau between the provinces of Dolpo and Manang. The culture is Tibetan Buddhist.

The Kingdom of Lo, the traditional Mustang region and "Upper Mustang" are one and the same, comprising the northern two-thirds of the present-day Nepalese Mustang District. They are well-marked by official "Mustang" border signs just north of Kagbeni – where a police post checks permits for non-Nepalese seeking to enter the region – and at Gyu La (pass) east of Kagbeni.

Life in Mustang revolves around tourism, animal husbandry and trade. Apart from nine kilometers between Chhusang and Syangboche (just south of Ghiling (Geling)), it is bisected, as of August 2010, by a new road linking it to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to the north and to the rest of Nepal to the south. Plans call for these final nine kilometers to be linked within the next few years, at which time the road would become the lowest drivable corridor through the Himalayas linking the Tibetan Plateau to the tropical Indian plains. Ther highest point would be 4660 m at Kora La on the Mustang-TAR border. Currently, the easiest and only widely used road corridor, from Kathmandu to Lhasa via the Arniko Rajmarg (Arniko Highway), traverses a 5125 m pass.