It was a sunny day and some of our staff agreed to go to Drak Yerpa hermitage for the weekend, it took about 40 minute drive through the Nachen la pass, hike through the hills and visited all those holy caves and temples were a great experiences.

Drak Yerpa is located about 30km northeast of Lhasa, is one of the holiest cave retreats in central Tibet. Among the many ascetics who have sojourned here are Guru Rinpoche and Atisha(Jowo-je), the Bengali Buddhist who spent 12 years proselytizing in Tibet. King Songtsen Gampo also meditated in a cave, after his Tibetan wife established the first of Yerpa’s chapels. The peaceful site offers lovely views and is a great day trip from Lhasa. If you have half day in Lhasa, this is a great option to experience rural Tibet and peaceful monastery

Minimizing the negative impacts of conventional tourism by educating both local communities and visitors are becoming the most extraordinary way to preserve the beautiful destination for future generations. Obviously the tourism industry in Tibet plays a crucial role in the economic development of the region, but the measurable impacts of the tourism put the fragile culture in a thread, in past decades, Tibetan Village Project has carried important responsibility to address these unavoidable problems and facilitates series of Ecotourism workshops and trainings for those who are directly involved in the travel work. It is a great honor for us to attend the Ecotourism training workshops in 2010, 2011 and follow the idea of Responsible Travel.

I am Samdup Gyal, a Tibetan tour guide of Tibet Group Tour, me and Kalsang Namgyal had participated the 7 days Ecotourism training in 2010, in the short period of 7 days, we had a great opportunity to learn new things by discussing with International experts and other participants, we had discussed lots of practical Ecotourism issues that we have ignored during our working times, ie, throwing garbage at the remote campsite during the trekking tours and giving inadequate information of etiquettes and taboos to the clients.

It is our great privilege to participate the Ecotourism training in Lhasa, the training was held from Oct 26^thto 30^th 2011 among 14 Tibetan guides and cook, within the short period, we learn new concept of Ecotourism in a practical way with teaching of Christ Jones from Columbia University and elaborate explanation of uses and function of First Aids Kit by Tibetan Dr.Gyelpo has guided us to lead a group more meaningful and responsible way.