Travel Tools
Tibet Travel Permits
A Chinese visa is not enough on its own. Every foreign traveller also needs a Tibet Travel Permit, it cannot be applied for individually, and independent travel inside the Tibet Autonomous Region is not permitted.
What you actually need
- 1.A Chinese visa — usually the tourist (L) visa, from a Chinese embassy or visa centre in your own country. Unless you are entering from Nepal, in which case this is replaced entirely; see below.
- 2.A Tibet Travel Permit — issued by the Tibet Tourism Bureau. You cannot apply for it yourself: a licensed Tibet agency applies on your behalf once a tour is booked, using your passport and visa details. Allow several weeks.
- 3.A booked, guided tour — the permit is issued against an itinerary. Independent travel within the region is not permitted, and the itinerary you are permitted for is the one you travel.
Coming from Nepal changes the visa
If you travel into Tibet from Nepal — overland, or on the Kathmandu–Lhasa flight — you do not use a standard Chinese visa. You travel on a Chinese Group Tourist Visa issued in Kathmandu and arranged by your tour.
It supersedes any Chinese visa you already hold. This is the single most expensive mistake on this page: a Chinese visa obtained at home is effectively written off if you then enter from Kathmandu, and the group visa is issued to the group, so your dates and your exit are tied to it.
Mount Kailash needs two more permits
Ngari — Mount Kailash, Lake Manasarovar and Darchen — sits in a restricted border region. On top of the Tibet Travel Permit you need an Aliens’ Travel Permit and a border / military area permit. Your agency arranges both, but they add time and they are the reason a Kailash trip cannot be assembled at short notice.
Indian nationals also have the government-organised Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, which runs separately from commercial tours and has its own registration window — check its current status with the Ministry of External Affairs rather than assuming either route is open.
Permits are occasionally suspended
In some years the Tibet Tourism Bureau stops issuing permits to foreign travellers for a period around February and March. It does not happen every year — 2026 saw no suspension — so treat it as a risk to confirm rather than a fixed closed season. If your dates fall in that window, ask your operator before you book flights.
Journalists, diplomats and government officials are not processed as tourists and must apply through their embassy, whatever their nationality.
Once the permits are settled
Every monastery, temple and sacred mountain page carries its own season guide — including which months are genuinely walkable in Ngari, which is a much shorter list than most of Tibet.