Kham adventure

Well, my dears, here is the situation. It is nine oclock in Litang, a wild west tibetan town and I have forty five minutes to get something written in this totally dark internet cafe where I cant see the keyboard which is temperamental. Life is going so much faster and more intensely than writing. I have the laughing monks to deal with and the big surprize of today, more destined encounters. Kham has more scenery, human habitation, human magic than anyplace I have been. If we stop by the road with no one in sight, in ten minutes ten people will appear to greet us and say tashi delik..

So I will try the laughing monks first.Three kilometers from Yin Long is the Yi Xi Shi Monastery, a pure Bon monastery. I cant go into much about the distinctions of the Bon religion except that it preceded Buddhism, at a superficial level, their swastika symbol and their direction of rounding sacred places is counter clockwise rather than clockwise. Also, when I gave them pictures of the thirteenth dalai lama, they were polite but not enthused as were the other Buddhists, since that lineage is not direct to them.
This little monastery, with perhaps a hundred monks was the opposite in scale to the monastery of the living Buddha. Where that was backed by a mountain range and hills that were dragons protecting it, and huge in scale and numbers of buildings, this was a single main hall with a few houses, on a hill side looking at another hillside. Intimate rather than imposing. A kind of cozy bed and breakfast monastery. When we arrived the monks were at leisure, studying and chatting. They were polite, and open and one in particular with a yellow t shirt appeared to be playful, which meant that immediately we began to play. To take pictures, to make exagerated bows and tashi delik greetings. Soon they were playing miming games..at the same time a senior monk took us on a tour. I don't have the facts here with me but this is a very old monastery, perhaps a thousand year history. Their were very ancient wall paintings.Upstairs was another living Buddha a middle aged aescetic man chanting. We were allowed to go into his room after taking off our shoes and I presented him with a picture of the dalai lama. Marty took pictures and as we left the room a senior monk gave Marty some tsompa, barley meal, to throw at an altar and tied a silk tassel blessed by the Buddha on his mela.
Prayers would be in an hour, so there was time for the rope trick. I have a new way to amuse. Either the Tibetans are very observant and crafty or my dexterity is getting so poor that they discover the trick immediately. It is both. Since I approach the trick with huge seriousness, my transparent trickery sends them into gales of laughter as they point to the hand that conceals the separate piece of rope necessary for the trick. They took great interest in my blue oxygen pillow with its nostril tubes and I pantomimed shortness of breath and they indicated they had a solution. Exaggerated abdominal breathing, which the clown in the yellow t shirt demonstrated by extending his belly to an alarming degree, no doubt a yogic skill. I patted his distended belly and made baby sounds, wa wa wa . This broke them up, two monks fell down laughing and for the rest of the time there was teasing about his pregnancy. And then, and then...they disappeared to reappear in the meditation hall and in all seriousness, chant, with one young boy's voice piercing in its pure tones against the deeper sounds of the adults. Then three times the senior monks, with huge plumed yellow hats circled the building..... I had the hardest time leaving this place of humor and peace and prayer....Marty tho got the best word about it...Alan we are having as much fun as a barrel of monks....

Now what can I tell you in fifteen minutes?
We were driving from Xin Long to Litang along a scenic road, thinking, this is nice.We got to a village of Changba, a nowhere place of a few houses by the side of the road and decided to stretch our legs. Marty is immediately photographing, I am going slow with the altitude, and I notice the crowd that follows him seems to be steering him towards a metal fence with a door in it. When I get there I find him in conversation with an english speaking woman who tells us this is a boarding school and would we like to visit...yes..a remarkable project, two years old by a wonderful couple, the woman of Indian origin and her husband from this village. They are Canadian citizens and have done good works in many place. I am going to name them here..because some good may come of this meeting.The family name is Rabgey, Pencho and Tsering and they have two very accomplished daughters with advanced degrees from Oxford, Harvard in anthropology and I don't yet know what else. Together they started an orphanage where no school existed and now have many children...I cant see my notes, it may be two hundred and fifty or more than that. They raised the money with the help of the Bridge Foundation to build a kitchen,classrooms and dormitories. The husband was a factory worker. In this village there is only intermittant electricity , no health care or midwives, the people herd and farm and are grateful for the education of their children. These are the sketchy facts, the miracle was,as usual, feeling of love and community.As we have come to expect, the fated part came from our decision to stop there, and the fact that they were leaving for Canada tomorrow, so we easily might have missed them. Their daughter will email us and I will put our more info as I get it.
What I see is that there is an incredible life here, and many people intent on helping the Tibetans maintain their cultural ways. In this school they are gaining literacy in tibetan, learning to raise vegitables...The directors were very interested in Professor Nimans work with expanding tibetan vocabulary and I just had the sense of networks of people intertwining in this land of mountains, grasslands, and tashi delik

With more time I will tell you how we pick our hotels, what are obessions and compulsions are and most important, our superstitions..
thats all for now from the heart of Kham

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