Gallery: The Tea Road to Lhasa by Photographer Michael Yamashita

October 22nd, 2012

Sumzanling Monastery, in today's Shangri-La (formerly Zhongdian). (Michael Yamashita)

An early snowstorm veils a herd of yaks grazing along the Yalong River. (Michael Yamashita)

Locals, who have been invited to Garthar Monastery during a festival, engage in the various stages of the highly ritualized practice of prostration called Chak Tsal, which means "to sweep clean." (Michael Yamashita)

The hillside above the Segyagu Meditation Center is obscured by thousands of flags, which send prayers to the winds to disperse blessings throughout the land. (Michael Yamashita)

Segyagu: the faithful doing Kora and turning prayer wheels at this meditation center with its huge mani stone monument nearby Lhagong monastery. (Michael Yamashita)

A steaming cauldron of yak butter tea will serve 800 monks at Shechen Monastery. (Michael Yamashita)

A craftsman polishes the nose of a gigantic copper Buddha at a monastery workshop in Shangri-La. (Michael Yamashita)

Lhasa's Potala Palace, the monastery that was home to the Dalai Lama, is among the most iconic images of Tibet. The Palace seems to float among the mountains, hovering above the marsh in the foreground. (Michael Yamashita)

Silhouetted against the morning sunrise, a nomad encampment is situated along Route 109, near Namtso Lake. (Michael Yamashita)

Pilgrims proceed at a snail's pace performing the Chak Tsal, the Tibetan name for ritual prostration (see slide #3). Their journey from Qinghai will take six months, along the northern branch of the Tea Horse Road to the sacred city of Lhasa. (Michael Yamashita)

Nakchu, at the crossroads of Route 317 and the Qinghai-Lhasa highway, holds the largest Horse Festivals in Tibet. The double rainbows arcing over a group of Chinese policemen were an auspicious sign for 2011's celebration; in 2010, it was cancelled due to political unrest. (Michael Yamashita)

What was once a grassroots grassland festival is now an organized spectacle featuring military parades and mass performances by thousands of dancers. (Michael Yamashita)

Tibetan cowboy carries a banner which would surely please the government officials in attendance. (Michael Yamashita)

Young women in typically colorful Tibetan costumes primp before their upcoming traditional dance performance at the festival. (Michael Yamashita)

Not to be outdone by the ladies, these men wear heirloom costumes made with leopard and tiger skins and red fox fur hats. (Michael Yamashita)

Nomad cowboys from far and wide gallop to the edge of the fairgrounds. (Michael Yamashita)

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This Thursday, October 25, National Geographic photographer Michael Yamashita joins Asia Society Hong Kong to discuss his newest book, Shangri-La [along the tea road to Lhasa]. The stunning photographs in this 272-page, full-color publication present a narrative of the historic Tea-Horse Road that stretches from Yunnan Province in southwestern China into the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Click through the gallery above to see frames from Yamashita's new book, and click here for more information about his upcoming appearance in Hong Kong. Photo captions are adapted from the photographer's blog.