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Tengboche monastery at twilight

Apparently you should never ever get this close to a yak

This tiny hamlet consists of little more than a handful of lodges, but it boasts one of Nepal’s most important Buddhist monasteries. It’s situated in an idyllic spot on top of a hill at 3800m, and with panoramic views of the Himalayas.

The monastery has been recently rebuilt, as fire swept through it in 1996. The new monastery is an impressive white and maroon building, its entrance flanked by two creatures who look like a cross between a lion and a dragon, and the approach to the building is up a set of stone stairs. The monastery houses a rock with the embedded “footprints” of a Lama Sang Dorje, whom the Sherpas believe flew from Tibet in the 17th century to establish Tibetan Buddhism in the Khumbu valley. Inside, tourists can observe the daily ceremonies, performed at 3pm, during which monks in maroon robes chant mantras and take lots of breaks in between chanting to drink yak butter tea. Unfortunately, the breed of tourists who cannot resist snapping photos incessantly (despite polite pleas by the monastery not to take photos) turns this into a bizarre circus.