The Long Delayed Pilgrimage Entry

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Note: Please see the two links embedded below to visit two rather extensive photo galleries of our trip.

Northern Journey

At the end of June I made the several day trek up to Xining to meet friends I’d be taking on pilgrimage. My visit there was somewhat bittersweet because I knew it might be my last stay in my “old college town” and probably the last time I saw my friends who were soon headed back to their home countries. It was funny to be back in a real city again with city comforts and chaos - toilets, ceaseless car horns and all the rest.

As soon as I got to town I started working with Gangri, my friend and tourguide, and we finished last minute details before the travelers’ arrival. Finally, the evening of July 2 came and we arrived at the airport only to discover that heavy rains had rerouted the pilgrims to another city. Three hours later, they did in fact land in Xining, all looking a bit peaked but bright eyed and eager to begin the adventure. Chuck, Nellie, Marianne and Laura are students of my American Lama, Traktung Rinpoche, so it was a happy dharma family reunion. Adrienne is a former music student of mine who came with an eagerness to connect with Tibet and Dharma for the first time. The sixth traveler, Carin, I’d never met before - she is Chuck’s niece. Gangri and I greeted each of them wearing local clothing and offering traditional white silk scarves. We were still in a Chinese city, but we wanted the reception to feel Tibetan.

Our Friend and Guide, Affectionately Known as "Yak Boy"

A word about Gangri. Gangri is a native of Golok, and grew up in a large nomadic family. Both of his parents died when he was a toddler so he was raised by his 10 siblings and was the only one who was sent to school. He is a graduate of the English teacher training program at one of the universities in Xining and is fluent in Tibetan, Chinese and English. Gangri’s name means “Snow Mountain” and is a reference to Magyel Pomra (Amnye Machen), the most significant mountain deity of the region. His name comes from an early childhood experience, and is a story worth telling.

When Gangri was about a year old, his family was traveling from their winter home to their summer encampment. Many cattle, tents, supplies, and people together headed into the mountain grazing lands. Baby Gangri, who then was without a name, was tied upon the back of a yak that somehow managed to wander off from the herd. For a day and a half, little Gangri and the yak were lost, wandering the mountains in blazing hot sunlight with no food or water. When the family finally found their baby, they felt it was a miracle that he was still alive and that the great mountain lord Amnye Machen had provided his protection. For that reason, he was named “Gangri Kyab,” meaning “protected by the snow mountain.” Gangri still thinks of the mountain as his father.

Beginning the Adventures

The pilgrims and I spent a day in Xining, milling about the city and visiting Kumbum, one of the oldest monasteries in Qinghai province. For some, it was a first taste of Tibetan style dharma. The monks were in session while we were there, wearing colorful hats and chanting the liturgy of Sangye Menla, the Buddha of health and medicine. Still tired from the trip, we headed back to the hotel for an early evening so that people could prepare for the next day’s travel into Golok and very high altitude.

Our travels were generally free from obstacles, but the one we were totally unprepared for was road construction and poor road conditions. Everywhere we went took much longer than expected. Our easy seven-hour drive into Golok took a miserable twelve hours. Everyone was still jetlagged, and now there was the added factor of altitude, so it was a rather uncomfortable day. We arrived late in Dawu, the capital of Golok, and Nellie quickly went downhill with dizziness and nausea. Fortunately, she was the only one who had trouble with the altitude, which meant that she spent the first two days in Golok in bed.

Small Detour

Characteristic of China’s unpredictability, we were kicked out of one of our hotel reservations and had to rethink our itinerary. We had an extra day to spare, so Gangri brought us all to his niece’s wedding celebration. We donned traditional clothing and crashed the party, a stunning traditional festival that lasted for several days. There was singing, dancing, offerings made back and forth between the bride’s and groom’s families, contests, food and drink. For the first part of the day, the groom kept his face hidden within the sleeve of his robe, a sign of submissiveness and respect, until the bride’s family officially welcomed him. Traditionally, a Tibetan bride and the groom do spend time together during the celebration. They hardly interact until evening when the two depart for the wedding tent, both families still continuing on with the festivities. Gangri’s family welcomed us warmly and made us to feel right at home. With majestic Amnye Machen as the landscape backdrop, we enjoyed a whole day of warmth and merriment, a day that will be hard to forget.

Deep in the Heart of Golok

We took another day trip the following morning out to a sacred place on the khora (circumambulation) circuit of Amnye Machen. On the way, we stopped at the first point where the mountain peak is visible and made a sang offering to the local deities - a fire offering of juniper, barley, alcohol and lungta - small pieces of paper with dharma images upon them. The weather was a bit grim, chilly and rainy, but Tibetans believe this to be a good omen during a sang offering. Approaching weather is the sign that the gods are coming closer to receive the offering.

The next morning, we traveled the wild road to Kusum Lingpa’s gompa. Again, we were greeted by obstacles of transportation and our easy two and a half hour drive ended up being more like five- sometimes fording streams with our Land Cruisers and being dangerously close to a rushing river just inches to the edge our cliffside road. One of our cars was having engine trouble and was emitting a stinky exhaust that caused passengers in the car behind a fair amount of respiratory distress! Once we made the adjustment of putting the troubled car in the rear, all were restored to health.

We finally arrived and inquired about Kusum Lingpa himself, but we were told that he had just left the gompa. I went back inside with a mission, and found a young Chinese attendant of his whom I’d met at an airport last year. Luckily, she remembered me, and suddenly it was revealed that the great ngakpa was in fact on site! We went into his small receiving room and spent time with this crazy wisdom yogi, receiving his blessings and many gifts. Kusum Lingpa had a particular fondness for three of our travelers, requesting that his “girlfriends” remain with him after the rest of us departed. He told us that he would be giving empowerments in the US in the fall, and hoped we’d have the chance to meet again.

The Royal Kingdom of Ling

Next, we headed to Darlag, the heart of Gesar’s kingdom of Ling. Again, we arrived to discover that our hotel reservations had been cancelled due to some kind of government convention. Gangri and I argued with the hotel for a while, then went out to look for alternative lodging. Upon our return from visiting some extraordinarily disgusting guesthouses, we were told there were suddenly enough rooms for us after all! Ah, the ways of the Third World! Exhausted travelers turned in for the night to prepare for our early morning travels.

The following morning we headed out to the Gesar Palace and Traling Gompa. Dockpo (see past entries) and his brother, a Khenpo from Traling, escorted us and provided a fantastic amount of history about these two sacred places. For a complete photo gallery up through this part of the trip, please check out PHOTO GALLERY ONE.

At lunchtime, we visited the girls’ school (see past entries) and were greeted by a chorus of 30 sparkling faces, songs, and offering scarves. We stayed for lunch and listened to the girls reciting their daily prayers, mostly by memory. All of us were touched by the visit,and it was a bit hard to leave, but we had a full day’s drive ahead of us so we went on our way.

On to Nyenpo Yutse - Amnye Machen's archrival

Arriving in Jigdrel, the final of our Golok destinations, we were greeted by my friend Sherten (the famous singer from past blog entries) and were taken to his uncle’s tent hotel, a darling little campground with metal cabins painted to look like traditional tents. We spent the night there, had a feast of momos and fresh yogurt, and rested up for the next day’s day trip.

The next day, we went to the sacred lake Shumtso in the extraordinary mountain range of Nyenpo Yutse. The wildflowers were in the height of the blooming season and the landscape was a paradise of color. Sherten had arranged for us to circumambulate the lake on horseback, but we arrived to discover that a few of the horses had run away. We waited a few hours, assuming the groomsman would recover them, but this only proved time for the remaining horses to escape as well! It threw a small curve in our plans, but we instead hiked partway around on foot, stopping occasionally to take in the beauty of our surroundings. We picnicked on momos, blood sausage and ramen noodles, and Sherten entertained us with a few songs, accompanying himself on Tibetan mandolin.

On our way to Ngawa the next morning, we stopped at Taklung Gompa, which is the site of the largest Guru Rinpoche statue I’ve ever seen, seated upon a mountain overlooking the gompa. We hiked the many stairs up the mountain and were greeted warmly by local nomads who were circumambulating the statue. Many of them took our hands in greeting, tears in their eyes as they marveled at the opportunity for people east and west to encircle the Guru together. We only spent a short time at that gompa, but it was surely one of the more poignant dharma moments of our trip.

Graslands so Fantastic, Even Bill Gates Exports Yak Milk

Arriving in Ngawa, Amdo’s most famous grasslands, Lama Yonten and his wife Osel Drolma (see past blog entries) met us with a host of local people offering silk scarves (kataks) and auspicious words of welcome. We were led to the Lama’s gompa where an elaborate tent had been set up with all sorts of luncheon goodies - steamed momos, fresh yogurt and wild yams, candy, sweet beverages, fruit and endless tea. Meeting our sanghamates was an especially happy occasion for Osel Drolma, who is a long distance student of Traktung Rinpoche. She hugged each one tearfully and said it was like meeting relatives she had not seen in a long time.

Lama Yonten wanted to offer something meaningful to Traktung Rinpoche’s students, so the next morning he gave a short public empowerment and presented each of our travelers with a small thangka he’d had made of Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje. Sertri Lama, Lama Yonten’s father and a renowned Mahasiddha, presented each of us with a thangka related to that morning’s empowerment. Within a short time of completing the empowerment, a double rainbow appeared from the very peak of the monastery. Lama Yonten felt this was an auspicious sign.

Early the next day we traveled with the two Lamas and their families to Hongyuan, my home of the last eight months. There, an even more elaborate reception had been arranged - nearly 100 local people welcomed us as we entered the tiny nomadic village. What seemed thousands of kataks later, we checked into our hotel and had lunch before heading to a sacred site nearby. Lama Yonten had prepared horses for all of us and we rode in a pack to a glorious hilltop setting that was completely encircled by mountains. There, nomads, westerners and Lamas offered a massive sang - chanting in Tibetan and English simultaneously. Huge clouds of smoke billowed in the wind and the sound of our many voices was carried into the sky. It was spectacular.

"Surrounding are Lush Lawns and Sandlewood Groves and Turquoise Colored Marshes Blooming with Lotuses of Varying Colors..."

We invited Lama Yonten, Osel Drolma and their two children to accompany us to Shar Dungri - a sacred site that has been transformed into a national recreation area. Shar Dungri has been recognized by many Tibetan lamas as the actual Zangdok Pelri on earth - the paradisical abode of Guru Rinpoche. After a long day’s drive, we arrived in a magical looking land of mountains, lush trees, rocks, rushing water and thousands of Chinese tourists. Arriving at the park the next day, I had a small conniption about the price of admission being so high - $25 per person - making the park totally inaccessible to most Tibetans or people of limited income. What was meant to be a sacred pilgrimage site to benefit all living beings had been transformed into a massive money making venture. I cooled my jets and we entered the park, beginning the several-mile ascent to the peak of the mountain via a lovely wooden walking path. Once I saw the actual setting, I forgot my earlier grumpy mood and griping. Pushing our way through, and sometimes being carried by, crowds of Chinese people, we saw extraordinary sites of beauty. Any of you who have read descriptions in Zangdok Pelri prayers would have to agree that this place was a ringer. Lush lawns, forest groves, delicious floral fragrances coming from rare flowers, singing birds, cascading waterfalls flowing into swirling pools of water - it was all there. The most astounding of sites were naturally arisen calcified bowls emerging from the earth - a beautiful color like white sand - containing pools of water of five different colors. One pool would be bright yellow and that water would flow into an adjacent pool of turquoise, then a white pond, and so on. True to its reputation, Shar Dungri was a place unlike any other I’d ever seen.

Big City Goodbye

We said goodbye to Lama Yonten and family and made our way to our final destination - Chengdu. There, travelers made last minute purchases and began the transition back into western life drinking coffee at Starbucks, eating Mexican food and pizza, luxuriating at a massage parlor, and staying in a hotel with a real toilet and shower! Filling our last days together with a few more cultural highlights, we visited the largest panda bear breeding center in the world, watched a Chinese theatre performance (with our beloved Chuck as a guest performer), and went to a Tibetan nightclub. Chuck made an impression there as well - you’ll have to ask him for the details. To view the photo gallery for the second part of our trip, please visit PHOTO GALLERY TWO.

Four of the travelers then departed for their homes in the US and Switzerland. We are hoping for a reunion this fall in Michigan, with Gangri, Lama Yonten, Osel Drolma and I all making the trip to the US. Keep your fingers crossed about passports and visas.

(Chuck and Carin stayed behind to spend an extra few weeks in the grasslands doing service work at Lama Yonten’s monastery. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog entry about their work here, and updates on my personal travel adventures. (I’ve moved again…))

Enjoy the last days of summer!

Wangmo

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