Tibet is certainly one of the places you just have to visit once in a lifetime. After centuries of virtual isolation, Tibet is cautiously opening up to the western world. Tibet is an awesome experience, but it is not for the faint-hearted. Kathmandu provides the gateway to Tibet. There is a direct flight to Lhasa but you can also drive from Kathmandu. There are trekking routes from Humla in Nepal to Simikote to Mount Kailash in Tibet as well. The best time to visit Tibet is from the end of April to October.

History of Tibet 

The history of Tibet is linked closely to Buddhism as this religion played a major role in the development of Tibetan, Mongol, and Manchu cultures and that the historians were Buddhist monk. Accordingly, there is also a close link between Mongol and Chinese empires. Earlier Tibetan historical text indicates Zhang Zhung as the people who settled in what is now Guge in western Tibet. The mythology of Tibet names Nyathi Tsenpo as the first king of Tibet although dates differ from 125BC to 400BC depending on a different text. Zhang Zhung was annexed by Nimri Songtsen in the 7th century who united parts of the Yarlung River Valley and founded the Tibetan Empire. From the 7th to 11th century Tibet was ruled by a number of emperors of the Yarlung Dynasty. During the 9th century, the Tibetan empire extended all the way south to part of Bengal and far north to Mongolia but the empire started to fragment with rebellions and the rise of regional warlords. By the 11th century, the entire Tibetan empire collapsed and the central rule was largely nonexistent. From 1236 Shakya lamas ruled Tibet under the patronage of the powerful Mongol empire of Ghangis and Kublai Khans. In the mid 14th century, after another turmoil saw the rise of the Phagmodru family who ruled Tibet as an independent country which lasted nearly 400 years. Rule by the Dalai Lama lineage started with Lobsang Gyatso the Great Fifth Dailai Lama from 1617 to 1682. He is credited for uniting most of the Tibetan heartland under the control of the Gelung school of Tibetan Buddhism (Yellow Hat Sect). He also built the Potala Palace in Lhasa to move the center of government there from Drepung. From the period of the 6th Dalai Lama, Tibet came under the control of Machurian Qing Dynasty and this continued on and off until beginning of the 19th century. Authority of Qing Dynasty gradually weakened to the point being just symbolic. After the fall of Qing Dynasty in 1912, Tibet again enjoyed de facto independence until the 1950s when China again started asserting their control. In 1965 Tibet was renamed as Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China. The current 14th Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 and established the Tibetan Government in Exile in the mountainous region of Dharamsala.