Travel to Tibet Autonomous Region(TAR) is rigidly controlled. You need a Tibet Tourism Bureau(TTB)Tibet Travel Permit before you can board a plane or train to Lhasa where most trips get started. The Tibet Travel Permit can only be arranged through an agent who must detail your entire ininerary for your stay in Tibet before tickets in and out can be processed.Given this rigid framework,you have to indulge in some large doses of logistics and think over your itinerary carefully.

However,outside the TAR,in the Kham and Amdo regions to the east,none of this permit hokum applies:you can travel independently and play it by ear.

Hopefully,the following pages can guide you through the complex paperwork,permits,logistics and options.If you come through all that at the other end,you arrive in Lhasa - a major achievement in itself.Tibet travel regulations chop and change - so keep an ear to the ground and make allowances for modifying the following infomation.