During the 1960s, after the Dalai lama had fled to India and Chiness armies established control over Tibet, Mustang was a centre for guerrilla operations against the Chinese. The soldiers were the Khampas, Tibet’s most fearsome warriors, who were backed by the CIA (some Khampas were secretly trained in the USA). At the height of the fighting there were at least 6000khampas in Mustang and neighboring border areas. The CIA’s support ended in the early 1970s when the USA, under Kissinger and Nixon, Initiated new and Better relations with the Chinese. The government of Nepal was pressed to take action against the guerrillas and, making use of internal divisions within the Khampa leadership, a bit of treachery and the Dalai Lama’s taped advice for his citizens to lay down their arms, it managed to disband the resistance without committing to action the 10,000 Nepali troops that had been sent to the areaThough Mustang was closed, the government allowed a few researchers into the area. Toni hagen included Mustang in his survey of the entire kindom of Nepal, and the Italian scholar Giuseppe Tucci visited in the autumn of 1952. Professor David Snellgrove travelled to the gegion in 1956 but did not visit Lo Manthang. Longtime Nepal resident Barbara Adams travelled to Mustang during the autumn of 1963.The most complete description of the area is Mustang, the Forbidden Kingdom, written by Michel Peissel, who spent several months in the area in the spring of 1964, Dr Harka Bahadur Gurung also visited and wrote about upper Mustang in October 1973. A number of groups legally travelled to upper Mustang during the 1980s by obtaining permission to climb Bhrikuti (6364), south-east of Lo Manthang.Other than a few special royal guests, the first legal trekkers were allowed into Mustang in March 1992 upon payment of a high fee for a special trekking permit.
Only camping trek allowed:
Completely closed to foreign trekkers until 1991, Mustang is an ancient Himalayan Kingdom. Inside the walled city of Lo Manthang are some of the largest Tibetan Buddhist gompas in Nepal. A difficult trek because of high altitude, exposed terrain and continual Strong winds.
