The trans-Himalayan arc, a high-altitude desert landscape spanning from Leh and Lhasa to Gilgit and Thimphu, has long been romanticized as a pristine, stoic wilderness of ice and silence. Yet, today, a grittier and more urgent reality is unfolding...

Gyalo Thondup, who died on February 8, 2026, at 97 at the Indian hill station Kalimpong, carried with him secrets of a vanished era — and a warning for the present one. As the elder brother of the 14th...

The international tourism industry has undergone a significant recalibration in recent years, with major destinations implementing protective measures to address overtourism and ecological degradation. Japan now limits daily climbers on Mount Fuji’s Yoshida Trail to 4,000, Venice has introduced...

Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader Tulku Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche, also known in official records as Waxi Longre, was reportedly found dead on March 28, 2025, at an apartment located in VinHomes Central Park, one of the most high-profile residential complexes...

In recent years, he has emerged as a new-generation icon of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement. Kim Aris, the younger of two sons of imprisoned former State Counsellor Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi and her late husband, British Tibetologist Michael Aris,...

In August 2025, 161 Tibetan Buddhist nuns from religious institutions across India and Nepal – a record number – gathered at the Dolma Ling Nunnery in northern India to take various levels of the “geshema” examination. These exams are...

China’s already vast infrastructure programme has entered a new phase as building work starts on the Motuo hydropower project. The dam will consist of five cascade hydropower stations arranged from upstream to downstream and, once completed, will be the...

To the discerning eye, other mountains are visible – giants between 23,000 and 26,000 feet high. Not one of their slenderer heads even reaches their chief’s shoulder. Beside Everest they escape notice, such is the pre-eminence of the greatest....

As the 14th Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th birthday with thousands of Tibetan Buddhists, there’s already tension over how the next spiritual leader will be selected. Controversially, the Chinese government has suggested it wants more power over who is...

China is tightening control over Tibet and flexing its strategic roof of the world advantage by cyber-spying on the Dalai Lama’s supporters “worldwide from Lhasa to London,” opening Tibet’s international airport to Singapore and Nepal, and building the world’s...