Shugpa Cultural Routes is offering guided tours around the globe with the aim of creating bridges between the diverse traditions of the People of the Earth.

Working unceasingly throughout the ages, mankind has managed to conceive a multitude of ways, practices, rituals, skills and methods resulting in a fascinating, colorful human heritage transcending awareness, communication, faith, art, philosophy, agriculture, customs and ideas.

It is our heartfelt belief that people all over the planet are beautiful and that we have so much to learn from eachother.

Shugpa Cultural Routes is a part of the non-profit organisation Light & Earth, which focuses in intercultural activities as a means towards finding our inner balance as natural, spiritual and mental beings.

We start our cultural routes with an epic roadtrip in Ethiopia, land of origins. There is still time for you to join us!
You can find the itinerary, detailed program, total cost and more information here:

South Ethiopia Cultural Route Program [pdf]

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us anytime.

All over the world there are unique people, with their own aspirations, facing often the complexity of the everyday life struggle, striving for a better future. They are enthusiastic to share, take effort and pride to illustrate their traditions. As for most of them travelling is no option, they are eager to learn, to hear from us our own tales and dream of faraway places.

Our cultural routes have the intention to create a network, laying connecting bridges, bringing us closer to eachother. Moreover, it is a fair way to support the actual local economy, which many times has little to profit from official tourism run by the bigger companies.

Finally, this network is specially designed to facilitate the development of projects that will benefit native communities. It is helping us share the costs of travel, reach out to more locations and find people willing to contribute.

At times, we will be able to join the group and take special care of guiding the experience. In this cases, we will post here the dates of our travels.

However, since this will not always be possible, we encourage anyone that is interested to follow our designed routes to contact us. The groups that will be formed, will likewise be accompanied by our local guides, who have already experience in leading the particular cultural routes.

In any case feel free to reach out to us, regarding our posted cultural routes or any other travel plans you may have in mind. We have wide experience in touring the five continents and a web of contacts throughout the world. We can discuss your travel plans and we will be more than happy to share all pieces of information, that will pave your way.

We are no tourist agency and there are no payment fees on our behalf, whether we join you or not. We kindly offer you the option of leaving a donation of your choice, supporting the work of our non-profit organization Light & Earth.

Shugpa Tree . ཤུག་པ

A member of the family of Junipers, Shugpa, written also as Shukpa, grows along the himalayan ridges. It can withstand the harshest enviroments, temperatures as low as -60°C, desert climates, powerful winds and altitudes more than four thousand meters.

Among its many uses - medicinal, decorational, ceremonial, timberwood - in tibetan culture is predominantly used as incense, and the air is saturated with its smell: it burns in shrines, outside temples, at the mountain crossings, on the stove of any house or tea stall..

It is the sacred tree for both buddhist and hindu people, as well as for the underlying animist cultures of the Himalayas. An emblem of a region and a culture, it symbolises the bond between nature, humanity & spirituality.