Ancient Tibet

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This is the epitome of Spirituality.... however you may define it. The shining eyes and smiles of the Tibetan people are the most concentrated group of pure, happy ones that I've had the pleasure to meet. So vibrant..... the colours of their cloth, their energy, the sound of their language.... The whole place is an enchanting medley of people, animals and majestic mountains. The only down side seems that it's not easy to be a vegetarian in this part of the world though one can't blame the climate for such things. It's certainly quite dry out here. The good news is the locals are becoming quite savvy with greenhouses to grow more veg and solar is in abundance.

After a magnificent rail journey, our guide welcomed us to the 'Roof of the World' at the train station of Lhasa by garlanding us with white scalves. We're not fond of tours though this is one place where as 'an outsider' it is essential to book through a tour company to get the magic piece of paper to allow you entry and a supervised tour to make sure you are safely on the path. Who knows what might happen if it's too liberal and you can explore off the beaten track. Most likely fall in love with the place and not leave, though this is not what the authorities are seeing as potentially threatening. They're thinking of their potential to keep the media low key about life for the local people of Tibet. If you are a journalist visiting this region, you are sure to do so only on the super downlow.

In Lhasa we slowly adjusted to the altitude. We visited the Robulinka Monastery (Dalai Lama's Summer Palace) where the Dalai Lama is said to have dressed up as a guard to begin his escape, many moons ago. The JokhangTemple in the center of town was an active center of worship, the center of Tibetan Buddhism, also built in the 7th century on the legendary pond of “Wothang.” Rooftop views of the pilgrims prostrating themselves and making their circumnabulations (Kora) was captivating.

We explored the Tibet Museum which houses a good collection. Negotiating a half day rest without organised tour, took a good week of advance planning and was extremely worthwhile to explore the old city, shop for yak wool for Jadan School's new knitting project and find Mala re-threaders who are excellent in their craft.

We wound our way up through the awe-inspiring Potala Palace. Built in 637 AD by Songtsen Gampo, it was the former winter residence for the Dalai Lamas and is a splendor of Eastern architecture. In the afternoon, we witnessed the famous debate sessions by the monks at Sera Monastery. Quite a contrast to the rest of the day when the Monastery is shrouded in reverent silence. The older monks were enjoying and the younger ones were.... well - young, ambitious and persistent to also have their opinions heard!

In the evening we met for the last time on this part of the journey, a lovely girl from Beijing who has long been living life on the road, who invited us to join her at a restaurant where we could write on the wall. Cal graced them with some of his art, A's poem was 'dry feet, cracked lips, I'm livin' the dream! Lhasa 2010'. We helped another group celebrate their birthday and met a man based in Shanghai who is building the first five star hotel in Lhasa. It has been said, if you build it - they will come and surely they will.

The drive to Shigatse, via Gyantse took us on the Southern Friendship Highway. Some keen cyclists were also on this journey. Crossing over the summit of Kamba La (4794 m), the tranquil turquoise waters of Lake Yamdrok below were stunning. This is one of the three holiest lakes in Tibet. A classic, well maintained toilet was on the list of unexpected encounters for the day! Not so far in the distance we could spot the towering massif Mt. Nojin Kangtsang (7191 m) and the spectacular Karo-la Glacier (5045 m).

Both our guide and driver were local Tibetan people, both with one year old sons. Both sets of Grandparents were taking care of the upbringing at this early stage of life to enable the parents of the children to devote more time to increasing their bank accounts. Similar to how child raising is done in mainland China, it seemed these two men had more opportunity than many others to spend time with their children. When our guide was not working the tourist beat in and around Lhasa, he returned to his local village to teach English and Tibetan and to be closer to his son. Our driver had the opportunity to visit his son on his journeys taking tourists to the sites out from Lhasa. A seemingly casual roadside stop to stretch legs and he was able to visit his mother-in-law who is taking care of his son.

Other roadside stops were influenced by the fact there are checkpoints on the drive to make sure one is not driving too fast. We did meet one group of travelers whose driver was fined for checking in at a checkpoint before the calculated safe speed time.

Our visit to Tashilumpu Monastery, the home of the Panchen Lama (Tibet's youthful Spiritual Leader), essentially a walled town with cobbled and twisting lanes revolving around a magnificent monastery (pic of A at the entrance amidst the crowd) was like a timewarp. The young monks were eager to observe or chat with the boys on their way to more lessons.

Along the road journey we witnessed some mass tree planting ventures involving whole villages, children on foot, making the several hour journey home from school for the weekend and many fancy tractors. You could see that the tractor fair had recently been celebrated. God help the wives of the men who had to be there and spend the family savings on a brand new shiny piece of machinery!

We decided to sleep at a lower altitude rather than near the Everest Base Camp and leave before sun up for the last part of the journey on a dodgy road. The night air was freezing and the stars were spectacular.

Our driver was certainly doing an amazing job navigating the best way through the pot holes. We eventually made it to the north face of Mt. Everest, (8848) the tallest mountain on Earth. Everest Base Camp was quite a chilly place to be as we were not so appropriately dressed for the freezing winds. The majesty of the place was awesome and it seems many a pilgrim has made the journey leaving behind some colourful prayer flags. Although you are already up so high, the peaks are still dramatic and you stand in awe below them.

Leaving Base Camp, we rested a while at Rongbuk Monastery the highest monastery in the world, which provides an intoxicating view of Mt. Everest. Cal ventured into the coldness to make a snowman. The local guesthouse maintained a small fire keeping the trekkers and locals warm that was fueled with cow manure. They are certainly into a good rhythm of recycling out here.

This next part of our road trip was a highlight for all of us. It was taking a back road with no signage and sometimes we found ourselves driving up the river bed, mostly frozen over. We stopped to admire snow deer and the beauty in such remoteness. Lunch stop was in Old Tingri, where the fab view of the 4 peaks above 8,000 meters on Earth (Mt. Everest, Luozi, Makalu and Zhuoayou) are all competing to stand up higher than each other.

We passed many yaks and small villages.... mountain areas where guards are busy patroling passes in efforts to prevent Tibetan people escaping into India, as the Dalai Lama did so many years ago. Driving down through such a contrasting climate and vegetation, it was amazing to feel the difference of being surrounded by towering mountains, to be back in the land of waterfalls and trees.

We spent the last night of the Tibet adventure at the border town of Kodari. The level of English spoken in Kodari by Chinese people is commendable. This is certainly on the local entrepreneur list of places of opportunity. Our guide and driver saw us all the way through the border procedure. Fascinating to see the interrogation process alive and well here. Any foreigners leaving Tibet had their gear searched and were told to leave their Tibet guidebooks behind in Tibet.

My experience with many Tibetan people is that they are making the best of their current situation. However limited their political freedom may be, they are indeed the happy ones. They have God in their thoughts and actions and no one can take this from them. As it has been said 'You can not always have happiness, happiness is what you can always give'. This they are certainly living.

Here we are in another spectacular part of the world, traveling as slowly as we can, to see and experience the realities of the world. The Tibetan people give hope to the rest of us that even though they are living under Chinese occupation, there is an increasing level of awareness among the people and there are ways in which their culture is being preserved. Although it is not easy for the Tibetan people to leave Tibet, it is currently a hope and possibility for many that in old age, the Government will issue them with a travel permit, which most will use to travel to India to meet once in this lifetime, their Spiritual Leader, the Dalai Lama.

The Mantra of the Bodhisattva of Compassion 'Om Mani Padme Hum' is written, sung and spun in prayer wheels all over Tibet.

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