A fortress, a monastery and a Japanese monk
Tsarang's dzong and gompa date by tradition to the late 14th century, the time of Ame Pal, founder of the kingdom of Lo. The dzong was a seat of power for the rulers of Lo, a tall, white fortress-palace built on the edge of the canyon where it could command the valley. The gompa beside it belongs to the Sakya school, like the main monasteries of Lo Manthang, and became one of the largest religious communities in the kingdom, with its own library, statues and wall paintings.
In 1899 a Japanese Buddhist monk named Ekai Kawaguchi came up the Kali Gandaki looking for a way into Tibet, which was then closed to foreigners. He reached Tsarang and stayed, studying Buddhism and Tibetan with a Mongolian scholar for many months. Then he went back south to Marpha and, in 1900, crossed secretly into Tibet over a pass in the Dhaulagiri Himal. He became the first recorded Japanese traveller in Nepal and Tibet, and his book Three Years in Tibet describes the Mustang of his day.
Today Tsarang is a village of farmers, herders and lodge-keepers. The dzong is partly in ruins, its upper floors fragile, though parts are still used and cared for. The gompa remains active, with monks and novices from the area. Like other villages in Lo, Tsarang has been changed by the jeep road and by young people leaving for school and work, but the fields are still planted each spring, and the great buildings on the canyon edge still dominate the view.
