Answered prayers. Last night the skies were dark and there was intermittant rain.We were staying at a Tibetan Guest House in Dafou. Receiving room with couches along the wall, bedrooms with boxes topped by hard matresses, painting and carving on every surface..meals in the kitchen by the wood stove with the family...reflecting on the day's drive which took us on roads with small landslides and scattered rocks. The rain can be a big factor because even the highway we are following which is the major connection between Chengdu and Lhassa, is subject to being closed by an instant's shift in soil [View Full Entry]

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Now all is clear. The reason for the trip.We traveled from Danba to Bamei in this fashion: Danba is deep in a canyon, a transit point for deeper Kham. We followed the river upstream,the river smashing its way, wild and fierce. The road hugged the bottom of great granite cliffs, the roadway littered with boulders and smaller rocks and often swamped by mud. The people here are in constant awarness of the slippage of soil and rock..we climbed steadily until we reached the pass at 12,500 ft. At the top is a chorten, prayer flags..we did not neglect to shout Lah [View Full Entry]

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Hello from Damba in Aba county 11 hours over mountain roads from Chengdu. We crossed a 15,000 ft pass. The locals are used to the kind of transition that is, and sell bottled oxygen, 30 minutes for $2 which I took advantage of. Damba is on the banks of a large swift river and at the bottom of a canyon which you are always aware of ,as are they, since parts of the town are destroyed by landslides. Today we went to the local market and photographed the local Tibetans, glorious in amber,jade and embroidery. Then..but to tell the next part [View Full Entry]

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To bed finally on Thursday at 6 pm after getting out of bed on Tuesday at 7 am. We are in Chengdu, smoggy town of 11 million with a wonderful Buddhist temple complex and an anachronistic statue of the "Great Navigator" holding his arm up. The big adventure of the day was going to the Sichuan Normal University and talking with Professor Nima about a teaching session with his graduate students. He is a cultural anthropogist and teacher of the philosophy of education and passionately commited to helping the next generation of Tibetans preserve their culture and language. He has gradu [View Full Entry]

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On the threshold.... Tomorrow... stepping from the mundane into the world of getting on the plane for Chengdu: becoming a 'Passenger" It brings to mind "Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates" by Erving Goffman. This brilliant Canadian sociologist described how total institutions prepare citizens for immersion into their social structure. A hospital transforms your everyday identity into that of its 'patient' by taking away your street clothes,your shoes, your valuables and giving you a gown, a name wristband and paper slippers. The minute you [View Full Entry]

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One day closer. Here we are, the protagonists of this journey, from our last trip..with Louisa our dynamic guide for the Miao New Years celebrations. She took us through the ethnic minority villages for nine days by bus..not at all intimidated by our huge bulk and Western ways. I hear a buzz... it comes from an email from Professor Badeng Nima at the University...\"We will go to the foreign office to ask the officials to arrange the way for inviting you to stay at this university for long time. And we will invite you to give a lecture to all the [View Full Entry]

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Hello. I am about to leave on September 1, for Chengdu, China with Marty Newman for a month in that part of Eastern Tibet which is known as Kham. We traveled to the ethnic minority villages of Yunnan Province two years ago and visited with the Yi, Miao, Dong and Tibetan people. For this trip we have engaged a guide, driver and jeep. I have always been inspired by Alexandra David-Neel's adventures in Tibet and the travel journals of Sven Hedin. Kham is the home of the khampas..fierce warriors who held off the Chinese army..and the site of many Buddhist Monasteries. [View Full Entry]

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