Most of the country is too arid to support life, so eighty percent of Tibetans live on a narrow strip of fertile steppe land. Even there, the high altitudes and brutal winters make life precarious.

Soaring 11,850 feet above sea level, the city of Lhasa is the religious, cultural, and economic hub of Tibet. The prize attractions of Lhasa are the Potala Palace, a thirteen-story, thousand-room structure that once served as the seat of Tibetan government and the winter palace of the Dalai Lama; and the Jokhang temple, a massive three-story shrine that dates back to the 7th century A.D. Jokhang is filled with Buddhist murals and statues and is the holiest shrine in Tibet. A circular street, Barkhor, rings the temple where, among a bustling marketplace, you can find pilgrims walking clockwise around Jokhang and prostrating themselves.

Excursions into the countryside bring magnificent panoramas of the Himalayas, the tallest mountains on Earth. The road from Lhasa to Gyantse leads through Ganbala Pass, bringing views of the spectacular turquoise lake, Yamdrok-Tso.

Xigatse was once the capital city of Tibet. It was largely untouched by the Chinese Cultural Revolution and many of its cultural treasures remain intact. It houses several picturesque monasteries as well as an open-air market where visitors can buy native handicrafts, Chinese porcelain, and rare foodstuffs such as yak butter.