Dawu and Darlag

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First Stop: Dawu

After a day-long car ride, I reached Dawu, the capital city of Golok, within the Tibetan province of Amdo. My travel companions, of course, spoke no English and so our communications were tempered with puzzled expressions and much laughter. Fortunately, smiles are universal. One thing that seems to go well when there is little else one can say is to tell people “Ari ked” (English) equivalents for various things. This always gets a big laugh - especially a three-syllable word like "afternoon" or "Stephannie." In Dawu I met up with Holly, an American woman who has been living here for six months studying Amdo dialect and doing research for her PhD. We hit it off instantly, and have spent the last three days together, traveling and exploring. It’s great to have a friend showing me the ropes here.. Holly speaks just enough Amdo language and Chinese to get us around.

In Dawu, we visited the Khor Khang, an amazing expanse of mountainside that is covered with prayer flags, mani walls (walls made of stones carved with mantras) and images of the 100 Peaceful and Wrathful Deities and other Buddhas of this eon. The site was once a slaughterhouse, but this so disgusted the local people that a lama named Akhu Choying transformed the land into what is now a sacred site of the deity Tara. Akhu Choying himself is a kind-spirited, playful lama who can always be spotted practicing on the grounds or singing cheerful mani mantras while constructing stupas, moving stones - you name it. I offered him a katak, the traditional offering scarf, and he said blessings and mantras for my adventure while giving me a few playful taps on the head.

Darlag

Later that day, Holly and I traveled to Darlag, Lama Chonam’s home, and met his warm and hospitable family. Life here is much quieter than in the cities - yaks graze in the yard, the sky is enormous and the mountain view is breathtaking. Lama Chonam’s parents have four children living at home. One thing that strikes me about the culture is the sense of responsibility children express in caring for their family and the land. From morning until night, the children cheerfully enact the daily activities of cooking, cleaning, milking the yaks and sewing. They seem to take great pride in their work; there is not the whiny entitlement or complaining that children in the US express when the slightest demand is made upon them. Western freedoms and luxuries certainly have their benefits, but like all things, there are drawbacks. Too much freedom, too many choices, too much emphasis on acquiring material possessions inspires a mind always looking for comfort and entertainment. There is no entertainment here, in a western sense; there is only work to be done and friends and family to care for. Orginally I had planned to stay in Dawu primarily, but now that I’ve been here, I see that this is much more my pace, a perfect setting to study and practice. I plan to study at the local monastery, Wayen Gompa, and Holly and I are headed there today to pay a visit.

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Photos

Making Friends at the Khor Khang
At the Khor Khang, a sacred space for practice and prayer, there are always Tibetans circumambulating, hanging new prayer flags and making burnt offerings to the Buddhas and local deities. Holly and I befriended several older women and we all circumabulated together.

Prayer Flags
At the Khor Khang, prayer flags are strewn across the land. By blowing in the wind, the mantras and prayers written upon them send blessings far and wide.

Mani Stone
Tibet's most widely known mantra is that of the deity of compassion, Chenrezig. The letters OM MANI PADME HUNG HRI can be seen everywhere and often are carved into stones that comprise mani walls such as this.