Nepal's king declared a state of emergency and effectively shut down the independent press with blanket news bans, military patrols at media outlets, and threatened reprisals against journalists. King G imposed a six-month ban on what state radio described as critical reporting on government activities. Soldiers were posted at Nepal's major print and broadcast outlets, controlled television broadcasts, and vetted news articles, according to CPJ sources and international news reports. Internet and telephone communication, including domestic land lines and mobile phones, were cut of [View Full Entry]

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I've just returned from a fast round of the Annapurna Circuit. It is an amazing hike around a series of high mountain peaks. In good weather it would be simply mind-blowing. As it was, even with the romantic, cloudy, misty weather, it was lovelier than I can describe. But i'll try. The Annapurnas are a range of mountains which come near to the Tibetan border and which bring you right to the region of Mustang, a region in Nepal but kind of its own municipality. To go there requires a permit of $700, so for the time beingI had to dreamily [View Full Entry]

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Finally, I've escaped the madness of the city, to Bouda, or Bodnath as known in the books. This is one of the early Tibetan refugee settlements following the '59 exodus. There are a large number of Tibetans, some Tibet-born, others Nepal-born. The atmosphere here---it is completely different from Tibet. Geographical differences aside, I have heard more Tibetan monastic music and chanting here than I did in Tibet proper, and I did visit a number of monasteries in Tibet [at the time, in Tibet, I was impressed with the monks' debating, and mealtime chanting. But here it prevails all thro [View Full Entry]

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Given the recent (and on-going) tragedies in Iraq and the US, as well as so many other discouraging events, I feel like these entries now are trite. Certainly, I don't mean to demean anyone's loss or misfortune. And am thus tempted to not write at all. However, for the sake of conveying some positive among the negative, I will enter this after all. My great condolences to everyone who is touched by misfortune. Kathmandu. It is exhilerating and, now, maddening, and even discouraging, as with all big touristed cities. The predators, the would-be scammers...They begin in [View Full Entry]

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From Lhasa to the west, towards the great Mount Everest, or even just to the Nepal border, many travellers wisely opt for a 5 or more day tour in a Land Cruiser type vehicle. Being slightly less wise, slighly less rich, slightly less inclined to ride in a Land Cruiser, I opted for choice two: public transport. As it happened, public transport only really runs to Zhigatse, one of the major towns west of Lhasa. It is known for the monastery Tashilunpo, which is in turn praised for being the seat of the Panchen Lamas, arguably the 2nd most important figure [View Full Entry]

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The great Shoton, yogurt festival, continues in Lhasa [though, from what i saw, it has become highly Chnsified, with C musicians and dances, beer banners, and only small areas of T singing and dancing, a disappointment], the traffic of bicycles, rickshaws, minibuses, cars, tourists, and pilgrims continue, life in the ever-growing city continues...and I will take leave. Lhasa has been interesting. At first, it blew my mind with how developed it is, is becoming, and how many C there really are here. And how many tourists, as well. In fact, after a previous month of relatively few tourists, [View Full Entry]

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This is completely unrelated to the following entry, but worthy of interest and consideration: http://wwf.ca/HowYouCanHelp/DoNotDrill/ad60.asp http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/biodiversity/wilderness/campaign.shtml?x=860 http://wwf.ca/HowYouCanHelp/DoNotDrill/letter.asp?campaign=anwr Back to the hermits. Samye temple is one of the great temples of T. It is certainly well-known and appreciated, and receives hoardes of tourists daily. One of the principle reasons of its importance lays in its orgins: although not the first temple or buddhist building in T, it was [View Full Entry]

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...or more, if lucky. Ganden. One of three famous monasteries in Tibet, one of the three great Gelukpa monasteries . It sits at around 4500 m, perched on and nesteled into a small mountain, wee dirt road snaking below to the east, river snaking below to the west. Before being bombed and fired at, and very much destroyed (in those wonder years around late 50s to 60s), it was a biggee, with around 10,000 monks. Now it is being, has been, reconstructed in parts. Like Drepung and like Sera, it is a blend of ruins a [View Full Entry]

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One of the hot spots now is Nam Tso Lake, about 200km north of Lhasa, an organized tour circuit or public buses and some thumbing. I took the latter. It wasn't as easy as in other countries, and i ended up paying for a ride from point B to the lake. Coming down, however, i was extremely lucky and got picked up by a busload of tourists. The lake: it is about 4700m and is quite beautiful. It holds sacred value, as one of the 3 GREAT lakes in T, and so has become one spot on a list of many. [View Full Entry]

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Along with being one of the most sacred places in Tibet, Lhasa is also one of the most expensive. Food is cheap, dorm beds can be had at about twice the price of beds in China, but the temples and cultural places is where one is really gouged. Arguably, it is still worth the money, since the temples and important grounds are usually fairly stunning (or can be snuck into, which is defendable when one considers where the ticket money is not going). Jokhang temple, one of the oldest, built from 641-647AD. Apparently the site was chosen by one of one [View Full Entry]

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