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Dege Travel Guide

Dege (Derge) Travel Guide and Tour Packages

Importance News - Dege is currently open to foreign visitors including expats in China. You are wecome to contact us for detailed travel requirements on foreign visitors.

Derge is a county in Garze and the historical place of the ancient kingdom of Derge. Derge is also the center of Nyingmapa Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Derge is one of the towns in Garze Tibetan Prefecture in Sichuan. It is located about 900km away from the capital city Chengdu by the northwest of Sichuan Province. Its elevation is 3200 meters and Chola Mountain Massif has many mountains that are over 5000 meters’ high. In Derge, there are many beautiful places worth visiting including Chola Massif Mountains, Yihun Lhatso (Xinluhai Lake), Derge Parkhang, Dzogchen Monastery, Kathok Monastery, Palpung Monastery, Dzongsar Monastery, Bhage Mani Sutra Wall, Songe Mani Sutra City, Sershul Grassland, etc. Derge is a true center of religious Tibet where you find some oldest monasteries of Tibet. Derge is also a very far place. Derge is the cultural center of Kham Tibet. It boasts for “the Origin of Kham” and “Hometown of King Gesar”. Derge Parkhang is the shrine of Tibetan Culture. The Derge Parkhang is also called Dege Scripture Printing Lamasery. It is the biggest printing school in the whole Tibet. Derge is also the origin of South School of Tibetan Medicine. In Derge, five different schools of Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries can be found here. Other natural beauties include Axu Grassland, Dopu Valley, Mt Chla and Xinluhai.

Derge Travel and Tours

Derge Parkhang, the printing house of Buddhist Sutra

Chola Mountains

Chola Mountains or Que'ershan, is pronounced as Tsola in Tibetan, meaning wings of a giant bird. It is a big mountain range that located in the middle of Derge County, cutting Derge into two parts: to the east being nomadic area and west half nomads and half farming Tibetans. This mountain range provides lots of water to Jinsha River and Yalong River. And in this range, there are over 30+ 5000+ peaks with the highest one called Marong Ezha as high as to 6168 meters. Snow stays on the mountain all year round and it is the fourth highest mountain in Sichuan Province.

Derge Parkhang

Derge Parkhang, or Derge Scripture Printing Lamasary, Derge Typography School, is named the encyclopedia of Tibetan Culture, the Essence of Tibetan Culture and A Treasure by the foot of Snow Mountains. It is located in the town of Dege at Gonchen. It was first built in 1729 and covers an area of over 9000 sqm. Derge Parkhang is a famous and must-see place while traveling in Derge.

Xinluhai Lake (Yihun Lhatso)

Yihun Lhatso is a beautiful and secluded lake by the foot of Mount Chola by the National Highwa 317. It is a lake surrounded by mountain peaks and it is 100 km east to the town of Derge on the east side of Chola Road Pass. Its elevation is about 4100 meters therefore in winter; snow even covers a large part of the lake.

Derge is a land of historical monasteries. There are so many famous monasteries in Derge that are old and big. Derge is the homeland of Nyingmapa Buddhism of Tibet therefore you can find many Nyingmapa monasteries here. The significant monasteries include Dzogchen Monastery, Gongchen Monastery, Kathok Monastery, Palpung Monastery, Dzongsar Monastery and the neighboring Palyul Monastery.

Dege Palpung Monastery

Palpung Monastery is a classic traditional Kham architecture. It is hometown of Tibetan paintings. It is located 100 km south to Derge town. It is a very secluded monastery that is far from big road and town. Palpung Monastery is the origin monastery of Gaju Sect, the white school of Tibetan Monastery. Palpung Monastery was built in 1179. It is one of the oldest monasteries in this area. The monastery is composed of Temples, prayer wheels alleys, libraries and stupas. It is also considered a small version of Potala by local people. A lot of Tibetan researches are conducted here including Buddhism, poetry, Mathmatics, calendar, astronomy and history.

Gongchen Monastery is the major monastery located in the town of Derge. It belongs to the Sakya Sect and a noble monastery founded by Derge King.

Manigange

Manigange is a small Tibetan cowboy town west to Dege. It is considered by travelers as mysterious and dreary. It was an outpost in the old times and today it still plays the role of an outpost. It is a single-street small town full of dusty shops and big trucks. Here you can see the local Tibetan Kham people dress in their traditional clothes, riding horses or maybe motorbikes.

Sershul is the vast land north to Chola Mountains and Derge and home to Gesar and many more monasteries and landscape.

Recommended length of visiting: 2-10 days;

Dege Travel Guide and Tours
  • Sichuan Travel

    Chola Mountains

    Chola Mountain is a massif of mountains located in the northern Shaluli Mountain Range. It is home to dozens of high peaks over 5000m and many glaciers, lakes, old monasteries and wild valleys and animals. It is by far one of the least explored regions in Sichuan with stunning nature. Highest peak of Chola soars 6168 meters into the sky.

  • Sichuan Travel

    Derge Parkhang

    The Derge Parkhang, Derge Sutra Printing Temple, is the institution printing and preserve Tibetan Literature and Buddhist's works. It is an important cultural and historical centre in Tibet. It is renowed as "the encyclopedia of Tibetan culture" or "Cultural pearl at the foot of Snow Mountain".

  • Sichuan Travel

    Yihun Lhatso

    Xinluhai, more widely known as Yihun Lhatso, is the turquoise lake north to the Chola Mountain. Elevation 4040 meters with three sides surrounded by snow mountains and the north by the side of national highway of 317. Yihun Lhatso is located 100km west to Ganzi and 100km east to Derge.

  • Sichuan Travel

    Dzogchen Monastery

    Dzogchen Monastery is situated in Gengda of Dzogchen in northern Derge with an elevation of almost 10000 ft. It is the monastery of Holy Reincarnation. This Nyingmapa monastery is one of the six great Nyingmapa schools in Tibetan Buddhism of Tibet. It was built in 1685 and during the past 300 years, nutured many Buddhist masters.

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How to Get to Derge

Travel to Derge By Car

By bus it needs two days to get to Derge from Chengdu with an overnight stay in between. There is no direct bus from Chengdu to Derge. You will need to use a bus from Chendgu to Kangding and then get on another bus from Kangding. From Kangding you have two options, one is to take the only one in a day direct bus from Kangding to Derge which departs by 7:00 in the morning and rides for 10 hours. The second way is to take a bus from Kangding to Ganzixian, which they have 4 scheduled buses each day in the morning and takes about 3 hours. If you go to Chola Mountains, you can get to Ganzi or Manigango too and not necessrily to the town of Derge if you don't do to the south of the mountains.

Travel to Derge By Air

Flight is also available in Derge. There is one airport in between Derge and Ganzi, Gesar (Ganzi) Airport. Direct flights available from Chengdu is on everyday. Some people do use flight in and flight out to save the long drive on the road. Ganzi elevation is at 3400m, Derge elevation is at 3200m , both are fine and good for acclimating even if flying in.

Useful Derge Travel Tips

Gathered below is the most useful travel guide to Dege, Sershul. Important travel information of Derge and Sershul includes travel season and climate, high altitude tips, travel tips for planning in Dege and Sershul, accommodation and food issues about traveling to Dege and Sershul.

Travel Season

The best time to visit Derge is from May to October. Air is dry and day is short. Rain comes in from June to September. Temperature ranges from 5C during night time to 25C in day time in summer and in winter, temperature drops below -10 degrees at night.

High Altitude

Traveling to Derge and Chola will need to take the high altitude into consideration to avoid geting mountain sickness. Airport of Gesar is at over 4000m. Town of Ganzi is at 3400m, town of Derge is at 3200m, Manigango is at 3900m. Yihun Lhatso is at 4100m. Bases of Mt. Chola is between 3800m to 4200m. Zhuqen is at 3900m, Sershul is at 4200m.

Accommodation and Food

Derge is by large still a less-developed place with lots of modern facilities not available at present. The accommodations are often with limited options in the town od Derge. In Garze it has more options on accommodations.

Planning Ideas

Chola is one of the best places to do hiking tours in Sichuan. Chola Mountains is one of the unexplored places in China. Zhuqen mountains and lakes are largely unexplored. The south part of Chola has some of the oldest monasteries in Tibetan Kham to explore.

Derge Tour Packages

As of now we provide one tour that covers Derge and Mt. Chola. It is a long tour that covers also many other places of interest in western Sichuan. We customize tours for travelers who wish to travel to Derge and Chola. Please contact us to get detailed information if you are interested to travel to Derge and Chola including hiking trips in Chola Mountains, climbing and monastery tours.

  • Derge Travel and Tours 2024

    Wild Sichuan Ultimate Adventure Tour - 12 Dasy

    This is a 12-day adventure tour into the far most regions of western Sichuan including the snow-capped Mount Siguniang peaks, farming Tibetans of Danba Villages, nomads people on the vast grassland, Holy shrine of Tagong and Ganzi, the remote paradise-like Xinluhai Lake and Mt. Chola, Tsoka Lake and Tsopu Valley, the lost fairy land of Shangrila - Yading and the Khampa Litang and Kangding. This is a guided private trip starts and ends in Chengdu. Considering the remoteness and authenticity, this is truly a lifetime experience you will have.

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