The Guge Kingdom Travel Guide

Brief Introduction
The Guge Kingdom was founded in about the 10th century by a descendant of King Glang Darma, who fled from Lhasa after the collapse of the Tupo Kingdom. The kingdom played an important role in the second renascence in Tibet and survived for about 700 years before disappearing mysteriously in the 17th century.

Guge Kingdom has attracted many explorers, tourists, photographers and artists from all over the world.The ruins of Guge Kingdom are located on a mountain in Zhabran Village, which is 18 km west of the county town of Zhada.

The first Westerners to reach Guge were a Jesuit missionary Ant¨®nio de Andrade and his brother, Manuel Marques, in 1626. De Andrade reported seeing irrigation canals and rich crops in what is now a dry and desolate land.

Perhaps as evidence of the kingdom´s openness, de Andrade´s party was allowed to construct a chapel in Tsaparang and instruct the people about Christianity. This decision might have brought Guge to its end. Some accounts relate that the king´s brother, a staunch Buddhist, called Ladakhis to overthrow the ruler, who had converted to Christianity along with his queen. It is believed that the Ladakhi army slaughtered most of the people of Guge, about 200 of whom managed to survive and fled to Qulon.