Wangmo
Tsering Wangmo (aka Stephannie Moore) Joined: May 13th 2006
Logged in: July 27th 2010
Logged in: July 27th 2010
Travel Blog Posts
Children who have benefited from Vision Builders' work.
I'm running a 5K tomorrow - Saturday, May 9! Won't you join me in helping to change the lives of children throughout Tibet, China, India and beyond? Many of you know how passionate I am about Vision Builders, the organization I worked through in Tibet and India. WELL --- TOMORROW I'm running in a 5K and it's the last day to sponsor me. Won't you please consider a small or large donation? Just think of it, $10 can buy a child's food for nearly a month at our Varanasi, India project. Really, no amount is too small. Please visit my fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/wangmo TODAY! It's the last chance. For ongoing information about the compassionate efforts of Vision Builders, please visit http://www.visionbuilders.org. Thank you for your cons... read more
Sacred Respite
A Colorful Beginning We left Varanasi during Holi, the “Festival of Colors,” an fertility celebration glorifying the Hindu god Krishna. The festivities began the evening prior with huge bonfires on the street burning effigies of the demoness Holika. On the second day of Holi - the day that we left - the streets were lined with people of all ages throwing pink and blue paint on every passerby. No car, bicycle or pedestrian was safe from the colorful ammunition, so our driver strategically maneuvered us through a less crowded route to the train station from which our journey began. Arduous Journey Our 24-hour train to Guhwati was followed by a 10-hour overnight bus to Itanagard, the capital of the state of Arunachel. Arunachel is one of the last restricted areas in India so we had to ... read more
Buddha in his Homeland
Apologies for the delay in getting to this blog entry. And why is the road to China so slow? Because I'm still not there yet. About a week before my scheduled return to Tibet, my plans changed and I wound up here in Varanasi, India. Actually, it's Sarnath to be exact - which is the site of the Buddha's very first teachings on the dharma. The teachings were given at a place called Deer Park, and there are still deer there - very cute and with Bambi spots even though they are full grown. Their one oddity is their enormous, fuzzy antlers - so big it's a wonder those poor creatures can move at all. It's a big change - from the freezing cold altitudes of Tibet to the beating down heat of India. I had ... read more
On Our Way
Many months have passed since my last entry. I’m in the US now and I guess I only think about updating my travel blog while I’m overseas and technically, traveling. And here at home, there’s not much to report except for life in the good ol’ US of A as most of you already know it. These days that means a little cold, a little grey and a little too much holiday food. My Lama, Traktung Rinpoche, invited me home in October along with Lama Yonten, his wife Osel Drolma and our friend Gangri. (All of them have been written about in previous entries.) We scrambled for the month of September obtaining passports, applying for visas, assembling all sorts of supporting documents and finally, interviewing at the American Embassy in Chengdu. The process was hectic and ... read more
Breaking Down Barriers
Please visit the extensive photo gallery that goes with this entry. See it here. Shortly after four of the pilgrims left for their homelands (see last entry), Chuck, Carin and I returned to Ngawa and to the home of Lama Yonten and Osel Drolma. There, we spent ten days so that Chuck and Carin could assist with work at Lama Yonten's monastery, Kashi Gompa. Their primary role was to teach Engilsh to the young monks that Lama Yonten has taken in. The gompa does not have funds or facilties to care for the boys, so Lama Yonten himself provides his own money for their necessities. All of the boys come from difficult backgrounds. Several suffer from some form of disfigurement; one has learning challenges; all are from extremely poor families; two are orphans; several are semi-orphans. ... read more
Tibet Tibet
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 ... read more
The World's Cutest Animal
It has been awhile since I've written; I've been busy traveling to Chengdu (cute Pandas!), Beijing, Hong Kong (Western food!), and then back to Chengdu again dealing with visa complications. After a month of busywork and a huge amount of money spent, all is now just fine with my visa. I forgot to mention this awhile back: for those who are interested, an article in the Ann Arbor News was written about my adventures here in Tibet. To read it, please go url="http://www.mlive.com/features/annarbornews/index.ssf?/base/features-0/1180622578156280.xml&coll=2" target="_blank" here. In less than two weeks, five American friends and one Swiss one will join me for a three-week pilgrimage throughout Qinghai and Sichuan provinces. This will surely inspire a blog entry and some good pictures! Hope you are all well in your parts of the world. ... read more
Breathtaking Gyarong
I’d been meaning to make the trip to Dartsedo all year. Some of the texts I’m hoping to translate were said to be there, so I knew I’d go eventually. Rather than make the trip over three long bus days, I decided to break it up by taking a small pilgrimage along the way, stopping in various ancient kingdoms throughout the Gyarong Gorges (Chinese: Jiarong). A note about Gyarong - it is the most breathtaking place I’ve ever visited. It is totally unlike the Amdo grasslands I’ve grown accustomed too. The mountains are gigantic, solid rock, with lush vegetation growing upon them. There are rapids running throughout them and the sound of the rushing water is everywhere. Sometimes clouds are right in front of you, so the whole effect is a bit like walking through ... read more
For Sale
Tibet's dogs are somewhat legendary, this I knew before coming here. The most famed is the Tibetan mastiff - huge and black, with a head and mane somewhat resembling a lion. Most of them wear a red, furry neck ornament, which aims to drive the lion point home. Buying one is not cheap - it takes thousands, sometimes tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to install one as the household guard dog. (Yes, that amount is in US dollars.) Most of them are filthy, with long, unkempt dreadlocks. Many have mange or other pussy sores on their bodies. Tibet is one of the only travel destinations where pre-travel rabies vaccination is suggested, as these dogs will not hesitate to attack and even kill any person or animal that crosses their path. The only person ... read more
The One-and-Only Sherten
Needing to make a quick trip up to my apartment in Xining, I met my friend Anne on the road and together we hired a car. Surprise! The one we found was being driven by one of Amdo's most famous singers, the one-and-only "Sherten" (short for Sherab Tendzin, I later found out). Sherten was headed to Xining on his way to his first international appearances - performing in cities throughout the US. (Maybe you saw him?) His father, a very sweet leprechaun-esque kind of fellow, also joined us on the trip. He didn't quite know what to make of me and Anne, maybe the first foreigners he'd ever spent time with. The road was long - two days of travel. Several times we stopped in the middle of nowhere so that Sherten could meet mysterious ... read more
