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nights of October, the camp shares its 11 hectares with gazelles, owls, hares and migratory birds. In the winter, the land returns to the nomads as a grazing area for sheep and yaks. Set aside “plenty of time to sit and listen to the river water from your deck,” Yeshi says. “Norden is as much about our access to Tibetan culture as it is about the restorative sounds of silence.” Which means you may be able to hear the flutter of your own heart even as you ride Tibetan horses, trek, bird-watch or practice yoga. Join a local nomad family for a picnic, or take the easy, 30-minute drive among the Himalayan foothills to the town of Xiahe, where you can snack on brownies baked by Kyap’s sisters at their Norden Café. Next, Norden’s English-speaking guides will shuttle you to the region’s star attraction: Labrang Monastery, founded in 1709, and a pillar of Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhism, a sect known as the Yellow Hats. Though
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nearly all of its original structures, along with countless bejeweled artifacts, were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, Labrang remains one of the most important Tibetan Buddhist sites and is still home to a strong community of around 1,800 monks spread across tratsang monastic colleges covering esoteric Buddhism, theology, medicine, astrology and law. Back at camp, nightfall brings another soul-expanding pursuit into focus. Skylights in the cabins glow with views of a night sky ablaze with stars that really do appear to twinkle. “We had one guest complain about straining her neck counting so many shooting stars,” says Yeshi. It’s a risk you’ll have to take when you camp on the roof of the world. Xiahe County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province; 86-138/9397-0003; nordentravel.com; doubles from RMB1,425. +
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Above: A painting in Labrang Monastery of a Gelugpa monk. Opposite: Tibetan wood furnaces warm the log cabins.