Tabo via Nako, Himachal Pradesh

On a sunny morning, we started early since the destination is a long way of around 8 -10 hours journey, Tabo via Nako village. Tabo is popular for its thousand years old monastery and fortunately we got our accommodation during our stay at Tabo in this old monastery guest house. We booked it early from Kolkata after we had a bad experience of booking hotels at Tabo through Yatra.com who falsely promises us that they had booked our accommodation at Tabo which in reality proved false about which we came to know only after we cross checked with the concerned hotel authority about our booking. When we contacted with the Yatra.com authority they apologised and refunded our amount completely surrendering themselves. Now, the thing that made us worry had already happened. We have already booked all our hotels as per our plan and we need to stay at Tabo one night as per that. Somehow, fortunately during browsing Internet, we came to know about the accommodation of Tabo monastery and Mr. Ranjit is the responsible person for this booking. Actually, Mr. Ranjit is the owner of a homestay at Tabo and he also is the manager for Tabo guest house. He takes the responsibility of the hospitality of tourist in Tabo by providing every necessary goods such as foods (that tourist has to take from his homestay), toilet kits and other necessary ones. He is typical nice, reliable, soft-spoken hilly person who struggles hard to run his family in such remotest part of India.

On the way to Nako

The distance from Kalpa to Tabo is almost 150 km and it takes around 8-10 hours to reach there via Nako village which is famous tourist spot for a lake, popularly known as Nako lake. Before leaving Kalpa we had least idea of what is awaiting us on the path of Tabo. Generally, people make their plans upto Kalpa via Sarahan or Kullu for this tribal belt of Himachal Pradesh. So, eventually, many tourist vehicles take a turn from Kalpa towards Shimla and only a few take the journey to such extend since the roads are not in a good condition because of its remote location. We started at around 6 AM from Kalpa and took our breakfast, Aloo paratha with Curd at a roadside dhaba at Ribba, a small industrial place at around 8.30AM. The scenic beauty of the road is not so mesmerizing however we had a few falls en route and it was river Baspa that continuously keeps one reminding of her existence with her roaring. After a few miles, the time and spot came from where we need to bid adieu to Baspa and embrace river Spiti who is going to be our all time companion for the next couple of days.

Ribba, Himachal Pradesh

The Kinnaur Police verifies the permission papers once again after we crossed Ribba. We get another area called Poo after Ribba and the more we drove the more we felt that the roads and the areas are becoming less populated.

Route map of Spiti valley, Himachal Pradesh

After a narrow, winding drive of almost 3 hours amidst rocky hills we reached Nako village at around 12 PM situated at an altitude 11800ft and almost 103 kms away from Reckong Peo and it was amazing. The lake is surrounded by the local tribal houses typical built in tribal architecture with mud and woods. Nako comprises the local tribal people and a monastery of around thousand years old. The lake is the only source of water here where local people and cattles are a regular visitor.

Nako lake in October first week

The tribal houses of Nako are really worth visiting since they represent the typical tribal architecture of this region. During our sojourn over there, I was spellbound to think how these people live in such a jovial manner in such location which is regarded as the remotest part of India and the closest one of Tibet that images of which we could find in each and every monastery we visited in this part of Himachal Pradesh, especially Kinnaur district.

Tribal houses at Nako village

Nako is a hamlet at the Trans-Himalayan region with its own typical distinguished features and facilities for its inhabitants. We spotted a UCO Bank, grocery shops, stationery shops and several other of such kinds at Nako. By 12.30 -. 45 PM we became very hungry and were in search of a place to have our lunch since we had a long way to go ahead to reach to Tabo. Fortunately, we spotted one restaurant of a Kinnaur family just a few meters away  and there we had our delicious lunch of Rice with rajma dal and some of us took chowmin and some others preferred chapatis. They served such tasty foods in a very reasonable rate.

Now, it's time to roll again to reach to Tabo before evening.

Sumdo, the military area en route Tabo

To reach to Tabo one has to cover Sumdo, the place where strictly Photography and Videography are prohibited without prior permission since it is situated in military belt of Indo-Tibetan border. The more we drove the more we discovered different faces of Himalayan region. From Sumdo, we had to cross a small bridge where from we had seen some small trees of yellow flowers on a raised land on opposite side. But when we started approaching nearer, we discovered to our surprise that these are not yellow flowers instead they are Green and golden apples. Actually, we were crossing Green Apple orchards. Every where we could see, there were apple trees loaded with ripen apples. However, it was evening approaching slowly and we were a bit hungry too. We could not resist ourselves to beg a few apples from these apple orchards and there was a kind hearted person who really gave us some huge green apples to eat. We, indeed, ate these apples to our heart's content in this remotest part of Himalayan region.

Approaching Lori village

After having our evening snacks of Green apple, we again started off and this time also we had to cross a small village on the banks of Spiti river, namely Lori village. The whole village is the habitat of only a handful of families and with some picturesque trees as shown in the picture above. By this time , we have travelled of almost 140kms and had been driving almost 7 hours. At last, the destination came. We reached Tabo at about 5 PM in the evening and as soon as we reached there we started looking for Mr. Ranjit for our rooms since we were extremely exhausted, hungry, sick of driving. But what to tell about Tabo! The whole village on the lap of Hills is just like dream and canvas of an artist with its long pine trees and some very crucial buildings including The Tabo monastery.

Tabo Chos-hkhor (Tabo Monastery) is a more than thousand years old monastery which hosted the great Kalachakra by the Dalai Lama in the year 1996 and the Dalai Lama, as is believed by the Lamas, is going to spend His rest of the life after retirement here. I was fortunate enough to attend the evening prayer of the newly built Monastery that starts at 6pm. On the very next day, we visited the old monastery that was built in the year 993CE. The Lamas still worship there everyday at 11 AM. The whole monastery is without any electricity and the candle lights and the sun light are the only source of light there. The whole sacred chamber is full of darkness yet visible clearly. Tabo is a hamlet with vast greenery amidst rugged hills with apple orchards. 

History of Tabo Monastery

Experience say:

1. Distance from Kalpa to Tabo via Nako is 150 kms approx;
2. Pour enough oil in vehicle as there are only a few petrol pumps en route;
3. Fill tank for safety from Reckong Peo;
4. Check the tyre of the vehicle since it's a long run ahead from Kalpa via Ribba;
5. There is a restaurant at Nako and it offers delicious foods for lunch with very cheap rate;
6. Park vehicle at Nako Monastery ground;
7. Start early from Nako to reach early to Tabo since there are lots of shooting zones en route and at some places one may face coal dust stroms from hills that create hindrance in driving;
8. Do not pluck apples from orchards;
9. Accommodations at Tabo are plenty in number but one may choose to stay at Tabo Monastery Guest House which is adjacent to old Monastery;
10. Tabo Monastery Guest House houses a rich collection books and other documents in its Library;
11. Phone number of Mr. Ranjit for booking Tabo Monastery Guest House is +919418719471;
12. Online BSNL networks work here;
13. One night at Tabo is enough;