Ngari (Shiquanhe)

Ngari is the westernmost prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region, and its administrative seat and only real town is Shiquanhe, laid out beside the headwaters of the Indus at roughly 4,300 m. It is one of the most thinly peopled inhabited regions on Earth, with about 0.4 people per square kilometre, and its economy is built on yak, sheep and cashmere-goat herding, border trade through the Burang port with Nepal and India, government and logistics employment, solar and geothermal power, and a short but valuable pilgrimage-tourism season. There is no university anywhere in Ngari; the prefecture runs primary and secondary schools plus a vocational and technical school, and students who continue study go to Lhasa for Tibet University or to partner institutions in inland provinces. Ngari is known worldwide as the spiritual heart of western Tibet: Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar are sacred to Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and followers of Bon, and the ruined citadel and cave city of the Guge Kingdom near Zanda, with its eroded earth-forest canyons, is one of the great archaeological sites of the Himalaya. Ngari Gunsa Airport, opened in 2010 as Tibet's fourth civil airport and one of the highest in the world, is the only fast way in — there is no railway, and the overland drive from Lhasa takes several days.