Tara Guesthouse

Gansu


This long-established budget place is run by monks from Sichuan and has extremely frugal dorms, small kàng rooms (shared shower) and doubles with private bathrooms. English is spoken at the front desk and a popular restaurant owned by the guesthouse is right alongside.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Gansu attractions

1. Barkhang

0.17 MILES

The three-storey Barkhang serves as the monastery’s traditional printing temple. With rows upon rows of more than 20,000 wood blocks for printing, it’s…

2. Snowland Art

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Tucked away down the backstreets of Xiahe not far from Labrang Monastery, Snowland Art is a family-style fine art and handicrafts training school set up…

3. Labrang Monastery

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With its succession of squeaking prayer wheels (3km in total), hawks circling overhead and the throb of Tibetan longhorns resonating from the surrounding…

4. Hall of Hayagriva

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A repository of vivid and bright murals, the hall encapsulates a startlingly fierce 12m-high effigy of Hayagriva – a wrathful manifestation of the usually…

5. Gongtang Pagoda

0.61 MILES

With an interior splashed with murals and illuminated by a combination of yak-butter candles and electric lamps, the golden 31m-tall Gongtang Pagoda is a…

6. Hermitage Ruins

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What remains of this hermitage are earthen walls overgrown with nettles, making the real attraction here the view of the town nestled into the mountains…

7. Nunnery

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This nunnery is on the hill above the Tibetan part of Xiahe. The outer kora (pilgrim path) begins just to the left of here.

8. Thangka Display Terrace

0.85 MILES

The best morning views of the monastery come from the Thangka Display Terrace, a popular picnic spot.