My husband, Karsangjamtso (Karjam) Saeji and I will spend the summer from late June to September walking from his hometown of Ahwencang to Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).
The Tibetan cultural area, or what I call "Tibetan China", amounts to nearly 1/4 of the Republic of China, today. Traditionally Tibet was divided into five Provinces: Ngari (West), U(Lhasa), Tsang (Shigatse), Kham (SE) and Amdo (NE). Others tend to call it just three areas, U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo (as you can see on the map below). Today the borders of the TAR are much smaller, really only covering the historic U-Tsang region (the yellow line below).
(I borrowed this map from this website)
My husband is from Amdo on the historic border with China, where a days walk leads into areas of other minority ethnic groups or the majority Han people. We will walk from his hometown southwest for about two and a half weeks, into Kham, and then spend the rest of the trip moving west towards Lhasa. As a crow flies, the journey is not horribly long, and we will start on the Tibetan Plateau already, but we must go up mountains and through passes, around bluffs and rivers -- all of which will add to the total distance we cover. According to people in his home community who've covered this route, it's 2,600 kilometers.
Emails
from Cedar about the trek are posted here below, with date sent:
June
28th (2006)
Karjam and I had a preview day on the 24th -we walked
from his dad's place (where we were married) to town. Then we started for real
on the 25th. That means we are at the 4th day now, it's a little after lunch
time.
What hurts? My shoulders, my feet, my knees, my calves (a little), my backbone
where the pack rubs, my lower hip bone where the pack belt rubs in front, and
my hands, the backs of both of which are the color of a tomato despite
long-sleeves and attentiveness.
We are in the corner of Qinghai. Yesterday morning we crossed into Sichuan,
which meant we hit about 4,200 meters at that point. Then we have just dipped
into the corner of Qinghai now to go to a town, Jiujer,
and eat. We could not believe it
when they said there were 3 Internet cafes in town!
Our packs are around 35 kgs (over 70 lbs) and Karjam is complaining constantly. Most of the weight is tsampa (Tsampa is ground roasted
highland barley, mixed with yak butter and dried curds of Tibetan style cottage
cheese. When –not- pre-mixed I
actually enjoy tsampa, especially when I leave out
the cheese and add only a bit of butter, but ours has been pre-mixed with a
huge quantity of butter in it). By this morning, I could hardly eat two bites
of it, my gag reflex was so severe. Yesterday
afternoon we fed a bunch to the ant hills, but we still have lots. We wanted to
give some to a beggar at the amazing temple we visited this morning-- but no
beggars. We've only lit a fire
once. The tent (Sierra Designs ¡°Lightning¡±) is working great, the packs (Lowe
Alpine ¡°Special Expedition¡±) are great, the sleeping bags (Sherpa
Adventure Gear ¡°Kumbu¡±) keep us plenty warm, the
problem is weight. I may send some
film to my lab in Korea from Aba, we should be there (not Ma'erkang
for those of you who know) in about 2.5 days (the rest of today as the half
day).
Water is the biggest issue. Our water bottles hold half what we need for a
day... if we are conservative. So, we've been asking for tea or previously
boiled water as we go. Sometimes that's been good, sometimes not so tasty and
full of, well, at least it was boiled, right?
We pigged out before coming to use the Internet (3 veggie dishes! Eggs and
tomatoes, sour and spicy potatoes, whole green peppers in soy sauce), then
after this, we will go to another restaurant, eat again, then leave. It's 67 kms from an intersection about 5 kms
distant from here to Aba, and we¡¯ll be in Sichuan
tomorrow. But we are likely to go
overland not stay on that road. Overland always means these straight uphill
over the mountain climbs that kill me. We've been on the move for 15 hours
everyday so far, but we are getting really worn out. We are moving much slower
than expected. Might take 4 months to get to Lhasa, I
have not mentioned this to Karjam, I don¡¯t want to depress him. His first cousin the monk (one of the
two who married us) made it in 73 days.
This morning at Duklong Gompa
a helpful monk (who's walked to Lhasa) told us of a 7
day hike through a region where the people try to poison you! Karjam's cousin had said the same thing. Apparently we
can't even trust their tea. Scary!
That area with the poison is one month after Tukjin,
which is the next major place we are going. That is a Tibetan name, it's not on
the maps, so don¡¯t bother looking. Karjam doesn¡¯t know the Chinese name.
My Tibetan is improving already-- for the first time since winter 2003-4 I am
making real progress, yesterday I talked to the people we were asking
directions from. "Yes, I'm a foreigner, I'm American, we're
going to Lhasa. Yes, on foot. First we're going to Tukjin... etc." . Karjam is speaking lots of English, too. And we are chanting at least 3 times a
day, and we did a few prostrations. So far we've met 5 non-Tibetans. And 3 were
the 2 in the restaurant just now and another one is the guy working in this
Internet cafe.
July
1
I am in the middle of nowhere - Aba, Sichuan- and the
keyboard is missing an h. I can make it happen, but it's a drag.
On the tsampa—I just wanted to emphasize that the
problem is they made it in advance with TONS of butter- it's over 1/3 butter,
and well, the butter just freaks my belly, my mouth, the consistency of it--
ugh!!! I have learned that if I eat
the stuff that is most powdery I do best, especially if I try to pop it into my
mouth with something else to kill the flavor and overcome the gag reflex. We bought some little packages of
pickled vegetables in the last town, that¡¯s worked pretty well, but they are about
half MSG.
Right after I wrote from Jiujer last time we gave
away half of our to a beggar woman who approached us in the restaurant we ate
second lunch in. Between giving her
tsampa and eating our food, our packs have lightened
a lot. However, our feet-- fuck! the little bones in
my feet feel ground. Last night by
the time we were walking into Aba, I thought each
step would be my last, it's much worse than the knees or the calves. Also one shoulder is really screwed and
that is esp. painful when I put the pack down. So we got here last night and decided to
take a whole day break-- the first hotel was terrible, but we changed hotels
this morning-- now we're in a place that feels "family". Very nice, and we both showered- first
time for me since Lanzhou (that was the 19th),
I was disgustingly dirty.
Many people wrote to remind us to boil water for drinking- I know, the problem
is fuel. We found enough the first
day, but mostly it's been impossible.
There are no trees- every scrap of yak dung is picked up almost as soon
as the animal has let it drop. So, well, we haven't been making many
fires. On the other hand Karjam has decided to make a song about being thirsty and
sweet people who give us tea and boiled water. Once we even had a car stop, and they
ran over to give us a (COLD!!!) bottle of water and a "future cola"
(they were monks, and we were at the top of the pass between Qinghai and
Sichuan).
Karjam with storm clouds that it turned out I didn¡¯t have
time to photograph and get my camera away and clothes and pack-cover out to
prepare for
It's usually sunny or mildly overcast.
Although it sprinkled once during the day and rained
another. Even Karjam is now peeling from the
sun. I've been keeping my face wrapped in a scarf plus a hat on. We each have one long sleeve shirt and
jackets, so we've been (since it's been usually around 18-20 degrees (I have a
little thermo thing hanging off my pack) wearing the one long sleeve shirt. We're getting those washed now, and we
hand-washed the socks this morning. The one day it rained seriously during the
day (it's rained as we were sleeping several times) was one of our two 30 km.
days on the way to Aba (yes, we did it! 30 kms per day, twice in a row!). It rained so hard we had no
choice about stopping or resting or anything-- nothing to do but press on. It
was crazy! We have pack covers, which are too big, which means they incorporate
the tripod, tent, pad and other things on the outside of the packs. We also
have rain-jackets, with hoods. Karjam has a rain-hat, too. But nothing else,
and the temp went down to 7 degrees by the end of the day. It was, at times, a
rain so hard visibility was less than 50 meters. I swear! Right before (1 kilometer
before) we hit the target for the day, there was an abandoned house with a
wall, I decided to erect our tent by the wall, as a way to keep rain from
flowing under our tent (the wall was on the uphill side). Setting up the tent in the rain worked
pretty well, we just set the rainfly on top and
hooked and clipped as fast as we could, then erected it all as one unit. During the night the rain stopped and
the wind was so strong by morning the tent was dry (but not our wet clothes,
unfortunately).
Other things-- we met monks on summer camp and they went and cooked me green
peppers since I couldn't eat the cold boiled meat they set out for us (Karjam was stoked to eat the meat, but being a veggie, as
usual, I was challenging for the generous hospitality of Tibetans). Also that day in the pouring rain a
woman insisted on giving us not just hot tea, but two fresh mini-loaves of
bread. And absolutely everyone
stops to ask where we are going.
Many people give us a little cash. Karjam
takes their names for recording in temples in Lhasa
with the donation.
July
16
Glad you all got the email from Han Zhijian (my
former student and good friend, who recently graduated from his PhD program)
after we called him. Sorry, this is
really the first time we¡¯ve seen Internet since leaving Aba. So... first, we're not in Ganzi yet, we¡¯re in Luhou (you
can find that on the map). At first I didn't want to go to Luhou,
at all. It seems that by cutting cross country we could have saved 40 kms or so, and missed Luhou. But
they have Internet here, and we're not sure about Ganzi
(though it's likely). Also, the route we're following (a paper written down by
a series of monks and added onto over the past few years, since it's usually
only monks who do this pilgrimage these days) goes through Luhou
without any advice to cut cross country. From here to Ganzi
is 95 kms which is 3 days, then from Ganzi to Dege is 204, so that'll
be a full week. But on the way to Dege we'll probably
go to Manigango and then to the the
Dzogchen Temple nearby there that is a major and
important pilgrimage temple in its own right.
Tukchin, or Tukjichimbo
(the full name) DOES exist, though surprisingly "Mapping the Tibetan
World" (the best book on remote Tibetan areas) missed mentioning it at
all. They also missed even putting it on the map. It's really important,
though. Magnificent temple on a hill. The town it's in
is called Gwanyinqiao or something like that. The
closest town that "Mapping" has on the map is Ergali
(in case you can take a look at "Mapping" to check it out). Don't worry, I am NOT carrying around a book. I have about 30
double page/double sided copies, and we'll trash them when we leave this area.
Cedar
outside the door of Tukjin Monastery¡¯s most important
prayer hall (people used those prayer beads and then left them!)
At Tukchin we went to the temple (high on a mountain,
it almost killed us to get up there, I swear, after all our other
walking). The entire trip to the
temple was one non-stop series of religious activities. First we left our "rongjen" flags which had flown from our packs proclaiming
our pilgrim status on the hill, because they were so tattered (but we hung them
where they had a marvelous view, so I think that¡¯s a good retirement). Then we hung up prayer flags that we¡¯d
bought in town. At a little store
on the temple grounds we bought butter, and donated the butter and white silk
prayer scarves with a financial offering as well and did prostrations in the
two main halls. Although Tibetans
usually are into the numbers 3, 7, 13, 108 etc. the traditional thing at Tukjin was to do 25 circuits of the most important prayer
hall spinning prayer wheels, so we did that, too. They seriously were the heaviest prayer
wheels I¡¯ve ever encountered, there were 44 prayer wheels around the hall and
at least a dozen must have weighed 400 pounds, these things were all more than
6 feet tall and heavy (so heavy that we took turns leading the spinning, one
round was tough, even for Karjam five rounds in front
in a row was impossible). We also
met a lama and told him of our trip, he blessed us and gave us two white silk
prayer scarves that he knotted himself. But the highlight of Tukjin was when we donated 500 RMB to have the face of the
Buddha "washed" which meant they painted it with gold (real?) paint.
Half of this money came from Georgy and Jinhong, but they weren't there to experience it-- it was
amazing. I cried. We just sat there, with about 6 monks chanting to the side of
us, and a monk with a cloth wrapped over his face (fumes?) painted the Buddha's
face and hands (four) as we knelt with clasped hands in front of the Buddha on
this polished by thousands of prostrations wooden plank floor. The Buddha was
incredibly beautiful, the expression amazingly indescribable. They wrote a
paper with the names of the four donors (including Georgy
and Jinhong of course) and stamped it. We plan to do
this again in Lhasa with the other half of the money
they gave us, and more of our money, too. I sent good thoughts for Georgy and Jinhong's wedded bliss
(as well as plenty of thoughts for our own).
Which brings me to Georgy and Jinhong, congratulations on being married again! That makes three times if you count the
legal process (which obviously, I do, after all I sent everyone an email after Karjam and I had the marriage licenses in our hands). I hope your family all had a lot of fun
in Korea, and that you guys do take a vacation some where fun at the end of the
summer. You could try Lopez!
On the physicalities of life: today I saw myself in a
mirror for the first time -really- since maybe Lanzhou.
I mean, without clothes. I have a rubbed spot across my lower back which is
most intense at two bones sticking out about 1.5 inches on each side of my
spine. It's dark and discolored, and the skin is rough and ugly. I also have
two places below the very lower end of my hip bone area in front at the top of
my legs, scabby, red and painful, this is from rubbing
on the pack waist strap. This got better, now it's worse again. My right
shoulder has been consistently a problem, but I think I was having my strap different
on that side, today I was careful and I didn't get the same terrible pain that
usually comes at the end of the day. Then again, we did only 27 kms today, so it wasn't so long (you see, we¡¯re toughening,
now 27 is an ¡°only¡±!). My sunburn is not too severe now, and I've been very
careful lately. After about 10 blisters on my toes (including a blister that
took over almost my entire left big toe), I have none right now on my toes, but
I do have four in the same area of the ball of my right foot, but they are
under so much callous, they don't even make my skin stick out, so I just Dr. Scholls (thank you mom for all the moleskin!) them and go. Karjam's got the same painful spots, but fewer blisters,
which doesn¡¯t make much sense as the man can¡¯t even walk barefoot around camp
without wincing and hobbling, the skin on his feet is baby soft.
Before leaving Tukjin we weeded out every single
little tiny unneeded item and sent them to Karjam¡¯s
friend Hu Haitou in Lanzhou (one of the TV cameramen). I mean we weeded everything. I even picked out medicines in tiny
little packages that weighed less than an ounce that had come with the first
aid kit to send home. We left ourselves
one cup, got rid of the only fork (chopsticks are enough), decided three pairs
of socks was enough¡¦ As we left Tukchin we saw a feedbag scale and weighed our packs, they
were then both at 25 kgs give or take a couple, so
that's okay, but we just finished our tsampa, and
tomorrow will buy more roasted barley flour (we have butter from Karjam's mom in one of the packs).
I've been craving veggies and all fresh foods. We get few between large towns.
Food-- you don't want to know. I mean, tsampa, small
packages of pickled Chinese veggies, (very small, very processed), peanuts. Gorp of sorts is mostly gone now. Instant noodles (they
taste good, it's just they aren't very nutritious and they are a bit of a
stretch on the vegetarian thing), Karjam has jerked
meat from home. When we hit a town, we buy a bit of bread, or ultra processed
tofu snacks or whatever, but it's something we'll get once a day... and it gets
old. We found a truck selling fruit and veggies two days ago at the same time
we walked through a bump in the road village and we got a small watermelon
(gone fast!) and a bag of plums. Our diet is definitely below 2,000 calories
per day, but Karjam doesn't want to carry more weight
and the options are few. When we're on the road (we have been since Tukchin, though before that we spent more than a week in
the off-road areas) then we can see little stores as often as twice a day. But
they all have the same things-- alcohol, Pepsi, Sprite (not Coke, Pepsi, and
not some Pepsi equivalent of Sprite, which I find ironic at any rate),
sometimes orange soda or "ice tea", really dry tasteless cookies,
hard candy, lighters, cigarettes, and a dozen other things I don't need. And
instant noodles—there are always instant noodles in China.
The weather is incredibly variable. In front of us it will be blue skies and
twinkling streams between rocky peaks and dangerously steep valley walls, and
we'll turn around and it will be obviously raining half a km away from us and
bearing down fast. We¡¯ve been
soaked more than once by rain that came on so fast we couldn¡¯t get the pack
covers and rain-jackets out fast enough.
Today it hailed right after we arrived- hail stones the size of overripe
peas for well over 20 minutes, accompanied by lashing wind. Yet, as we were
descending into Luhou today I checked the thermometer
on my pack and it was 32 degrees!!!!!!!!! We get some rain almost every day,
too much sun, and everything else, in other words.
Me finishing packing up.
There is our lovely ¡°Lightning¡± tent from Sierra Designs and our two
Lowe Alpine bags.
Yesterday we wrote a song together! Karjam's melody,
my English words, it sounds great! First verse:
On a pilgrimage to Lhasa/ Walking until my feet were
sore/ Day after day after day on the road/ Chanting Om
mani padme hum shi/ Om mani padme
/Om mani padme/ Om mani
padme hum shi /Please keep me safe on this long road
July
20
We're now in Ganzi, we got here a little after noon
today. We spent a rather sleepless night camped in the courtyard of an amazing
old man (and his wife and infant grandson). We shared this courtyard with three
dogs that had something to say (often with neighboring dogs) most of the night.
But when we met this Kham gentleman walking on the
road with his crooked smile and his hair braided with red string then wrapped
in a crown around his head covered not so completely by a cheap ladies sunhat
and fingering a prayer bead rosary, I was feeling near collapse. He asked where
we were going and where we were sleeping and when the answer was we didn't know
where we were sleeping, he offered the safety of his house. He brought us back there,
then went to bring his horses down off the mountain.
I slept early, but Karjam drank tea and saw his
hidden collection of photos of lamas in a secret spot in the wall of his house
above his bed. There was a point,
especially during the Cultural Revolution when you couldn¡¯t display any lamas
photo with safety, these days there is ¡°religious freedom¡± by law in
China. Many lamas
photos are safe to display, but at least in our host, Tserang
Danba¡¯s opinion, the photos he¡¯d hidden were
not. He had never been farther than
Luhou and a few kilometers past Ganzi,
but he was a super sweet soul.
I have gotten Karjam hooked on the idea of oral
histories and recording and writing his own book, and he's (after a couple
false starts) realized what interesting stuff people we meet have to say, if
you ask them right. The previous night we stayed in a house and heard the
romantic tale of how the couple came to marry, but the reason we were invited
was because the man of the house had walked to Lhasa
TWICE himself.
Yesterday (after leaving the house of the romantic man) we crossed a pass that
was just 4,000 meters, as Luhou was around 3,200 and Ganzi is about 3,300. I had managed to get too much sun on
my legs (I unzipped the legs of my pants, it was SOOO hot climbing up this
mountain) and complicating my health, which I didn't know at the time, was that
I was just about to start my moon. Why is that something I didn't know, you
ask? I didn¡¯t know because it's two
weeks early!!!! I thought excessive exercise made you skip?!
Physically we are starting to feel pretty adjusted to every thing,
the one thing I can't adjust to is the food situation. I just walk along
CRAVING things. The other day I was craving (as I walked up that mountain) a
glass of water, with ice cubes and a slice of lemon with not a single speck of
dirt or dust or ash or tea leaf in the water. PURE water.
Also I realized the pickled veggies are so full of MSG (one package had the
ENGLISH nutrition info) that I cannot stomach them again, a single package has
one and half days worth of sodium (and sometimes Karjam
and I ate two packages with a meal!). Leaving Luhou I
convinced Karjam to take some small tart apples. I hope this can continue to happen, they
were like ambrosia. But after we enter the TAR, I'm illegal and have to hide...
Yet-- from 500 meters (okay, maybe 300) away people yell ¡°HELLO¡±! Karjam says
it's the style of clothes and packs, but honestly, I have a hat on and a scarf
over the hat hanging down both sides of my face (to prevent sunburn). Funnier
(sadder?) when we are 5 feet from people they don't think he's Tibetan often,
despite prayer flags (the new ones we bought in Tukjin
are "Dunma") on bamboo poles sticking up
from our packs, the area, and the often prayer beads in his hands (not so often
in mine). If he's with me, he must be foreign, or at least (Han) Chinese... So,
can we ever pass by without people noticing? People are starting to really tell us
that it's unsafe... we've been advised to get all our jewelry hidden from now on,
etc. We've also heard so many stories of killing people to rob them... scary.
Poison, guns...
Karjam made more tsampa,
less butter in it, but it's so dry.... and I am out of the organic dark
chocolate bar from Australia that Kimberly sent that I was inciting myself to
eat each bite of tsampa with... (eat
a heaping spoonful of tsampa, get a nibble of
chocolate and the combination is actually pretty good).
Fortunately here in Ganzi we found bulk raisins and
peanuts and sesame brittle... so that's a good start on food until Dege, and we're staying all day tomorrow, too. We have lots
more gompas (temples/monasteries) to visit, we only
saw one today... it was spectacular, though. The things we're seeing... you'd
be so amazed by the landscape.
Karjam models the particularly beautiful landscape we woke
up to one morning.
I mean,
the houses keep changing for one thing. Around Maqu
houses are flat one story affairs with mud walls and twig roofs and all rooms
opening on the outside. Aba was huge fortresses with
towering packed earth 2.5 story walls decorated by splashes of white and red
paint and windows only on the south... then we got near Ma'erkang,
where the houses were 2 to 3 story flat stone buildings that resembled castles,
then we got into log cabins! Two story, but the bottom
is storage and animal loafing for the night. In fact, the castles and fortresses are
probably similar. We went into one
of the castles the day we arrived in Tukjin and had
some tea, this giant house and so far as I could tell, everything was storage
and animal area except for one room for sleeping and one big living room slash
bedroom for other people. Now we're
back to one story houses, but half the house is for the animals, and the roof
has a huge wall halfway around it, so people hang out on the roof. The nomad
tents stay the same, though—black yak hair tents, pegged out like crazy and
using fairly sizeable saplings for supports when needed.
Fences... they make me sad but Karjam likes them,
says they'll stop fighting (I know a post-doc who is doing very interesting
research on how Tibetans resolve conflict, listening to her, most conflicts are
over animals or land) and it will also stop overloading the land with too many
animals... there are not many right here around Ganzi,
but you should see the semi-trucks passing us with rolls of fence in them and
nothing else-- passing in convoys!
We're back in the grasslands now, though there are a few cottonwoods in view,
but we were in serious woods for awhile. We had two days of, believe it or not
this scrub oak forest, with oaks that were about 20 feet high tops, with very
olive colored leaves that had way too many prickles. At first I thought they were holly
trees! In the forested areas we had
so many familiar plants it was crazy.
It was like the Pacific Northwest, really, really, really. When you can
only see a few plants you can't identify in a 1 hour walk... it's true, I am
good with plants, but we had EVERYTHING.
Well except there was no sopalala, salal, ocean spray, blackberry, Indian paintbrush or snow
berry, but those were ONLY major things missing (well, there aren¡¯t any Cedar¡¯s
either). We even had the same moss and lichen (except none of the Red Hat
Soldier lichen).
I think they are closing (this Internet Place). Dege
is 204 kms away, if we don't
stop at that major Gompa, it'll be 7 days before we
get there.
July
21
I've got food poisoning, I hate this. I know what did it to me... unpleasant
gases coming upwards from my intestines carry the hint of egg...
Otherwise we had a good day, we visited the most impressive Tibetan temple I've
ever been to... it was so old, and had so much energy. It was the energy that
made it so fantastic.
But I have to run (really run) to the bathroom. So the important news... we have a
wheelbarrow, and tarp, and disguising clothes for me. We'll try the disguise to Dege and see if we'll be able to sneak around in the TAR at
all.
Yak
horns. Om
Mani Padme Hum has been
carved on the skull plate, they sat on top of a mound of Mani
stones next to a stupa on a glacier carved
outcropping in the middle of a plain.
July
29
We are in Dege (Derge), and
the highlight of being here is the printery. They have the originals of over 80% of
the Tibetan Buddhist literary works - all carved on wooden blocks. They also make prints of Buddhist scenes
on cloth as well as the books.
Pretty amazing, so we went - I had to pay 25, Karjam
had to pay 1- and first we came in and there were all these old guys washing
and scrubbing the blocks before putting them to dry and then be reshelved. We
had been told -not- to photograph the shelved books but I couldn't resist. Also
dad (my biggest photography supporter) had nicely sent me some fast film and I
had 1600 ASA in the camera, so I wanted to justify loading it! After seeing stacks and stacks of the
book plates (each is about almost 2 feet long and 5 inches or so wide, the
writing goes the long way) we entered a room where they were printing. They print in pairs- one guy (no women
allowed, I asked) applies ink and moves the papers, the other brushes off
imperfections on the block between each leaf of paper and presses down the
paper onto the block. They
generally print 5 copies at a time, each is double sided. So what happens is they print 1,2,3,4,5 copies of the same printing block, setting them to
the right of the ink man, who is the paper manipulator. Then turn them over and print the next
block on the back, setting them to the left of the paper man where they have
five stacks, one for each copy of each paper. I don't know if they start at the front
or the back of the book. The speed
at which they threw leaves on, ran a press across the leaf of paper and then threw
it into the correct spot was amazing.
After we saw them (photos permitted) we wandered into a drying area,
with men stacking and tying books worth of loose leaf. It wasn't until the end that we saw a
place where they were trimming the papers and perhaps binding as well (most
Tibetan books are unbound, just pressed between two boards and wrapped in
silk). We found a yellow world
where two men were printing scenes of different sizes on yellow cotton in a
room that was almost attic like- you couldn¡¯t stand erect
everywhere, and it was at the top of the building. We were able to select and buy several
of different sizes- we both agreed on the same one for ourselves- then we
visited the temple inside the building and did prostrations and drank a bit of
tea (offered by the monk who was chanting in there) out of the cup of our hand
before rubbing into across the crown of our heads. He also offered us a flashlight (he
never stopped chanting though) so we could circle the small chapel and see all
the statues. I went back around
6:30 pm to shoot the outside of the building as many devotees circumnambulated around it.
You may be wondering about the wheelbarrow and tarp comment-- the point is that
it's illegal for me to be in Tibet (the Province of, known as the TAR,
generally) (of course I can go to most areas if I buy the requisite permits and
am accompanied by a government licensed guide in a private vehicle). People can
spot me (us!) as foreigners because of the packs and the clothes and stuff. So,
we hid the packs, and I put on totally Ganzi area
Tibetan women's clothes (traditional dress in brown polyester, a
"work" apron in black, a cheap Indonesian print shirt (paisley,
background in tan), and an ugly hat and a mask (looks like a medical mask
except it's in dark green). That means if I can keep my head down so no one can
see my eyes, and keep my hair hidden, then I can pass. It would help if Karjam
would put on some cheap clothes, but he's sticking with looking good and
wearing very breathable nice clothes like his favorite "Sherpa Adventure Gear" shirt.
Karjam with ¡°Baksbuk¡± the wheelbarrow
(wearing his favorite Sherpa Adventure Gear shirt)
The problem is that from here to Chamdo (340 kms) the road is well traveled, and there are even some
smaller towns in between. We can't go off the road; there are THREE passes over
4,000 meters to go over during that stretch, off road will be higher and
harder, there is a reason why the roads are where they are! Once we are maybe 3 days out of Chamdo we are basically in the clear and a week out of Chamdo I may go back to wearing comfortable clothes that
aren't so damn hard to walk in (gruesome detail, my dress wraps at my legs and
has pulled out most of the leg hair on my shins!).
Advantage to the wheelbarrow-- weight is no longer such an issue, so we've had
more fruit and decent food with us-- today I bought some carrots (a little wilty, but they are carrots!!!!). We don't have any
blisters. The used muscles are different- now what's sore is the shoulders,
arms, butt and thigh muscles. But it's okay.
Especially for me, because usually I am on pull (we have a rope from the front)
or brakes (means I pull the rope to slow the wheelbarrow with the rope over the
load and me back near Karjam), but Karjam is on push (at the two handlebars). It's hardest, in
my opinion, when we are going downhill, to keep it slow.
Disadvantage is that we cannot go off road easily.
Well, we passed over Chola Mountain (or through Chola Pass, anyway... believe it or not 5,050 meters above
sea level!!!!) Chola itself is a bit over 6,000
meters. There are details...
First of all, the food poisoning. It wouldn't go away. After 3 days of horrible
gas pains, constant need to get rid of very runny almost nothing (I wasn't
exactly eating much) and these terrible burps that made me want to throw up, I
felt better. Then we arrived in Manigango and I ate
again, believe it or not, because of lack of options and Karjam's
insistence, I ate eggs and tomatoes again... by the next morning I was back in
hell. It was so bad. Worse. AND I WAS
TAKING MEDICINE!!!! So don't lecture me! The medicine the second time we bought
it (in Manigango) did work, though. But we headed for
Chola Mtn with a pretty
weak me... and a mostly very understanding Karjam.
But then we looked up (and up and up) at endless (and LONG) switchbacks, we
couldn¡¯t see a single place to pitch a tent and what appeared to be over 20
kilometers of road in front of us before the pass, all uphill. So we slept and then went off road,
straight up the mountain. I am not kidding, we are talking many areas of 90%
incline... in places I was using my hands and my toes to climb up, because I
sure couldn't use my whole foot- there wasn't that much foothold! My head said
"You can do it, yes you can!" but my body was saying "Are you
crazy????!!!!" My legs felt like jelly, my heart was pounding, I was
gasping, and I was resting often. While I did this, you wonder, what about the
wheelbarrow? Well, Karjam was up and down that
mountain (after the first bit when we did it together) three times. He went up
with his bag, went down, got the wheelbarrow (he also put it on his back like a
pack) and then came back up again. He did all this, then tried to take my bag,
and suggested things like he tow me up the mountain by my scarf! He said it was
fortunate he felt very good that day, but really, it was amazing. And as all
people do when scaling a very high mountain with a wheelbarrow, almost at the
top we stopped for a --you guessed it-- nude photo session. Karjam's idea. Yes, I am being sarcastic that you guessed it, I know
you didn't.
Karjam reaches the pass on Cholla
Mountain
Yes,
this is from that photo shoot¡¦
We're still doing 30+ a little kms per day on
average. Karjam is healthy and he's upbeat and pretty
happy lately, the wheelbarrow makes him much less grumpy. His nephew, Dorsey
(his oldest brother's oldest legitimate son) is getting married (arranged by Rinchin's mom and second sister Hlabae).
The bride is a relative of Rinchin's (Rinchin is the middle brother¡¯s wife, who I adore).
Apparently Dorsey is happy (he's 18 this year). Jabu
(first cousin, Tibetan teacher) is in Lanzhou for a
teaching training session, Tsemphel
(best friend, English teacher) just finished a different training session in Lanzhou. Han Zhijian is living
for 2 years half the country away from his wife Gao Fang and son, the reality of being a recent
graduate and needing work. (I mention all these people because some of you know
them).
So, that's been our news, except a visit to Dzogchen Gompa, a very important pilgrimage spot, but I was so lost
in this world of "can I make it out of sight before I have a very
embarrassing accident¡¦" with my bad gut that I didn't get the full impact
of the spot.
Our problem now is that in 26 kms there is a police
road block at a bridge over a river, and they check everyone, and they are on
duty 24 hours a day (this information is from a truck driver who drives back
and forth there all the time). We don't know what to do... Anyway, we'll figure
it out, but I don't know when I will be able to tell you about it, because I
probably cannot email until Nakchu, which is 340 +
795 kms away. However we'll call Han Zhijian and he can tell you we're okay... I would say Harfei (PhD candidate, my former student and good friend)
would email but her mom is sick and dad is recovering, so she's in her hometown
unable to email often.
August 10
We are in Chamdo, and healthy. We are switching to southern route
to Lhasa (on this route the biggest town is Bayi). This is
a horrid keyboard. I am fully
disguised and risking that no one cares enough (or is familiar enough with the
law or feels any bonus in it for them) to call the cops and say they saw a
stray foreigner. Besides, I will be
out of here in moments. The problem
with using the Southern route instead of the Nakchu
route (Nakchu is an area foreigners are permitted to
be in) is that on the Southern route there is no closer Public Security Bureau
office that deals with foreigners than Lhasa, which
means that I must reach Lhasa by Sept 15th because of
extending my visa. I will be in
touch. We have recently met many
pilgrims doing prostrations all the way to Lhasa. They make us feel a lot less hard-core.
By the way, we love our gear.
Thanks to Lowe Alpine, Sierra Designs, Sherpa
Adventure Gear, Montrail and our individual sponsors
for giving us such great stuff.
Everything is holding up well.
Outside Bayi. Look at that river! Cedar and Karjam
wearing Sherpa Adventure Gear jackets, standing in
front of their Sierra Designs tent, with the two Lowe Alpine Bags and just
imagine Montrail boots on their feet. Here¡¯s a photo of the boots.
August 23
As we get deeper into Tibet we feel people are less on the lookout for stray
foreigners. Also, we've realized
only the people who have jobs who depend on it care about the foreigners
anyway-- the cops, the hotels (they can be fined or closed down). No one else
really cares. So we¡¯re
relaxing. Or I am relaxing, Karjam has never been as worried as I am.
We're doing well, actually. I
finally got Karjam into the idea of cooking, we now
cook lunch everyday, real food-- usually noodle soup (Karjam
makes the noodles from scratch, out of flour and water) with veggies that I
stir-fry before we add them at the last minute to the soup. Transportable and available veggies are
limited-- mostly potatoes, green peppers, onions and sometimes Chinese
cabbage. Without the wheelbarrow
taking the weight this would be impossible (we have to have oil, soy sauce,
garlic and other spices, flour... also we bought more tsampa
flour and butter, so we can make fresh tsampa, now).
Anyway, we take a long break for lunch, and travel until we finish at least 35 kms for the day (that usually takes until about 10:30 pm,
we are up and on the road, including lunch time, at least 15 hours per day, and
our camping spots are whatever is convenient, not the most beautiful, but we
are on schedule to arrive before my visa expires.
We are in Pome (Pomi, Bome) today, and staying here
tonight, we'll be in Bayi in perhaps 9 days, but
there is another huge mtn in the way. Also from a little before Bayi for about 120 kms there is a
zone where the traditional ideas include trying to poison people (religious
ideas gone awry). So, we'll have to
travel fast and be very careful.
We have discovered the most beautiful places imaginable,
we're in awe of the natural surroundings here. Everyday we are thankful to have had the
time to do this trip. I am taking good photos, though no post office will send
int'l mail, we couldn't send film to Korea, so I am a little worried about the
long time before developing for the earlier rolls.
I have a trillion more things to say, but I think mostly you just need to know
we're healthy, and we are. No worries. I will try to email again
from Bayi.
August 30
We are in Bayi, and I got
caught by the cops at last. However, we lucked out... the cop who found me (and
appeared to have lots of power, he didn't wear a uniform or drive a marked
vehicle, either) was Tibetan and somehow I appealed to his better nature, then
he became my advocate. So, instead of being fined minimum 1,000 RMB and placed
on a bus to Lhasa, they let me go with warnings to
always check in with the police and let them know where I'd be staying
("But we usually stay in a tent." "Well, find the closest police
office and tell them where your tent is." -- I refrained from explaining
that the closest office might be two days at our speed in the wrong
direction--) only because I'm married to Karjam and
had my marriage license to prove it (they took that in lieu of a travel permit
allowing me to be in this area). This leaves me feeling that another police
office down the road might choose to fine me, but today I changed into pants
and I am not sitting here typing with my head wrapped in a scarf and a surgical
mask and a hat pulled down over my eyes. It's the first time I have NOT been
wearing Tibetan clothes since Ganzi except one
morning when I washed the clothes (yes, that's one washing in a month and a
half! No, I don't smell that bad, I have been washing my shirt (I have two that
I can wear with the dress and apron) and tank top, but my dress has a very
distinct odor of campfire). So, here, in Bayi, right
now, I feel remarkably relaxed... after over a month of hiding from the police,
this is pretty nice!
Anyway, we have now gone over the last major mountain (7,000+ meters, nearly
5,000 at the pass) and are in the final stretch. We can be in Lhasa in 13 days! It's amazing to think after such a long
time of feeling that Lhasa was so far away. 400
kilometers left to go! The area of poison will extend for awhile more, but we
don't need anyone's food, so we don't need to worry about it being poisoned. It
will be harder to get by on only our own water/tea (we bought a tea pot in Chamdo), but we can do that, too.
It's hard to think of what to say as people scream about their stupid computer
games all around me... hmmm... this area is really under the army/police. There
are fewer manifestations of Tibetan-ness than we've seen all trip. There are fewer stupas
(chortens) and fewer monasteries. It makes me feel
sad, that the people here either haven't felt safe to erect such again, or that
they no longer feel Buddhism so strongly. There is still Tibetan architecture,
and the mountains flutter with prayer flags, but... we haven't seen a temple
since Chamdo, though we heard giant horns calling
monks on the way out of Pome. In some ways the Amdo-Gansu area (Gannan Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture) that Karjam is from could be
called "Sinified" in that the -thinking- of
people has adopted a lot of Han ideas, and they often only wear the traditional
overcoat (and the jewelry of course), not other very Tibetan things, and places
in Kham really had amazingly coherently Tibetan
appearances, I mean, all the clothing, hair, houses, even the horses have
specially braided tails... but here it seems like the Tibetan-ness has been
beaten out of people by the difficult history.
In
other news of the region, the Bayi area is gearing up
for tourism in a major way-- and they deserve it. You could not imagine how
gorgeous this area is. The entire trip has been chock-a-block full of one
fantastic landscape after another, but both of us agree the most beautiful area
started about 50 kms before Pome
and continues to here, Bayi. There are pockets of
less gorgeousness here and there, but overall, this area is physically blessed
in everyway you've ever thought of... except having no ocean of course. It's
mind-blowingly gorgeous. Just imagine snow-dusted peaks around
town, yellowing poplars, a river the color of turquoise and so clear you can
see the bottom and you start to get the picture.
And prices seem to be going back down... thanks be! My oh my things
got overpriced for awhile there!
Karjam in Sierra Designs rain jacket with a misty mountain, and that great hiking staff from Jung Hoijung!
Some
people asked, what happens next-- we arrive in Lhasa, we tour all the important sites, we give our
wheelbarrow to a temple, and buy some presents then we hopefully take the train
back to Lanzhou. If not, we'll bus to Golmud and train to Lanzhou from
there. In Lanzhou I have to prepare my PhD
applications, prepare my thesis extract to submit to a journal (and if
rejected... another...), prepare newspaper and magazine articles based on this
trip, and if I have time, start on the book of this trip. In addition we need
to go to Guangzhou (southeast China) for Karjam's US
visa interview (we hope we have to go!). However, mid December I've been
invited to a conference in New Delhi, so we'll leave for India (overland
through Nepal) if Karjam can get the two visas needed
(if Karjam can't go, maybe I won't, either). We MAY
be traveling with Karjam's family members (as many as
seven, all of them in their 60s and 70s want to go... but can they afford it
(time and money)) who want to see His Holiness before they pass on. We'll come
back to China and have about a month and a couple weeks or so before if all
goes well we leave for the US, planned arrival in later February.
September
3
Greetings from Kongpo Gamda
and the best keyboard I've had all trip. Too bad I don't have much to say since
I wrote four days ago. We're doing fine... we're healthy and although it can be
hard spending all day with the same person day after day, we met a couple
who've been on the road SIX YEARS!!!! So, we can't shake a stick to that! They
have a motorized tuk-tuk type car they walk beside, they cover 22 kilometers a day, and will have gone
to everywhere in China when they arrive in Beijing perfectly timed for the
start of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Of course the real question is "How do
they afford this?" but I chickened out and didn't ask.
Bad news-- one more huge mountain. Over 5,000 meters
at the pass, and then another smaller mountain, too. I guess I trusted the
wrong person about only one more big mountain.
We still get blisters, can you believe that? Months later,
and still there are places that can blister! Karjam
has partially resoled his shoes TWICE already. But then, remember, he isn't
wearing the shoes from our sponsor because those were too small. If he was, I
think he'd be okay. His shoes are from some French company-- total crap and I
intend to write them about it later.
Lunch! Yay for
food! Look at that nice cookset from Gwon Yuhee!
Daily routine (for people like mom who like such details): we get up later than
we intend to almost everyday. It takes about 40 minutes to get ready to go,
most of that Karjam is still snoozing and I am
braiding my hair. Then we eat some bread and dried fruit (usually hawthorn) or
sometimes "congee" which is barley and beans in sweet syrup, or a can
of fish, the fish are whole including fins, eyes,
backbones, and are packed in enough oil for a Korean family to use for three
days, as well as black beans. We manage around 8 kms
before we rest the first time, the middle of the day drags until lunch time (a
clean stream between 14 and 20 kms into the day, with
our favorite being just after 17 kms (half done)).
Starting around 12 kms I pick up any decent wood I
see, usually it's scraps that have fallen off trucks or pieces that were used
by the road construction crews and then discarded (so they might have a bit of
concrete stuck to them). Lunch takes 1.5 hours or more because it is also when Karjam relaxes, and often either the wood is wet, the wood
is green, the yak chips are not properly dried, or the wind is blowing all the
heat away... and I have to make the fire do three things-- boil our tea, saute our veggies and then boil water for noodle soup. Karjam usually washes the dishes. Then we get going again,
and now we go slow because we're full. Also it's the
hot later afternoon. By the time we finish lunch it's
3:00 at the earliest. Usually about the last 8 kms of
the day are done in the darkness (but the moon is getting bigger again, now!).
Right before full dark we stop to eat our dinner, which is usually flat bread
(non-yeast bread that is), and apples or cucumber. When we run out of bread
(usually about 3 days out of the last town) then we switch to eating tsampa for dinner that Karjam
mixed up at lunch time (and popped into a plastic bag for the evening). We
pitch our tent by flashlight (this tent is such a beauty though, no problems AT
ALL, blessings to Sierra Designs). During the day we wash our faces in gorgeous
clear streams, snack on a constant stream of snack foods from my shoulder bag,
drink tea, talk to other pilgrims, bike-riders and various people of the road,
and hope for very mild downhills (the easiest for us,
because extreme downhills are tough with the
wheelbarrow!).
Our big treat is when we can find a restaurant, but then half the time their
food is-- well, not so exciting. One time I got noodle soup that had nothing in
it but chili oil and about 12 little sections of green onion. Even though she
had potatoes and green peppers there was no getting this woman to make something
special just for the silly vegetarian!
Anyway, I have a very important "date" with the public bathhouse
(shower stalls you rent for 5 RMB) and am very excited about it... so I think
I'll stop here and tell you guys more when we get to Lhasa.
Oh, if you come to China, remember, you want to visit Pome
and the area 50 kms on both sides of it. Also Luhou (in Sichuan) was our other mutual favorite place.
September
14
(The
following email was sent to a larger group than previous emails):
We have arrived in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan
Autonomous Region or TAR. For those of you who were not aware, my husband, Karjam, and I spent the summer walking from his hometown to
Lhasa, a traditional Tibetan Buddhist custom
reflecting a level of belief that ignores modern conveniences like the newly
inaugurated railroad. Those with
the time, and in my opinion the patience and good knees, do prostrations all
the way. Perfect observance is
three steps and one prostration, but we have seen many less than perfect
pilgrims- the most common is about six steps and then, especially for the kids,
a bit of a slide pushing off from the toes and propelling themselves down the
road an extra foot or more sliding on their protective gear (aprons usually of
leather reinforced with inner-tubes) and wooden clogs worn on the hands. We also met the same group from Golok three times-- we saw them in Chamdo
(but only talked to their wheelbarrow puller, as we and most other groups
operate with a wheelbarrow or cart full of gear), then they passed us without
us seeing, we met them again and talked to all of them (they said they averaged
10-12 kms per day, which is still very fast, but they
had bought a donkey to do the pulling between the first time we saw them and
the second, still it is completely impossible they could have passed us when we
do more than 35 kms per day), then on our last
mountain of the trip, as we grunted our way up, they passed us in a truck
(donkey and wheelbarrow in the back). On the other hand, we did see several
groups of exemplary pilgrims- absolutely amazing. One such was two monks from Labrang Monastery, and their home county was also Maqu (where Karjam is from). They
pulled their wheelbarrow a couple kilometers, then both backtracked and did
prostrations to the wheelbarrow.
They were also carrying two male parakeets, the
birds represent the father and brother - both deceased- of one of the
monks. It was his second trip doing
prostrations, and he'd also walked twice. The birds joined him in Bayi on his previous trip. They estimated that they'd take
13-14 months to arrive in Lhasa and were averaging 5
kilometers per day. They weren't even the most memorable of the pilgrims we
met, but I have to leave some stories untold until I write a book about this,
otherwise none of you will want to see the book- right?!
This
was the most memorable group—you have to wait to hear their story.
We covered
almost 2,600 kilometers. The first
45 days we averaged around 30 km per day, the rest we did 35. Our highest day was 45 km, our lowest
-other than rest days- was about 15. The wheelbarrow joined us after the
first month. We stayed in hotels a
handful of times, but we mostly camped out. despite
the low expense of camping, our food costs ran much higher than I had expected
-- we spent nearly 850 dollars counting everything -including donations at
temples. We still have to hit all
the major pilgrimage sites around here.
In Lhasa they are the Potala
Palace, Jokhang and Ramoche
Temples, Drepung and Sera Monasteries. We have now
visited the temples and monasteries and will go to the Potala
tomorrow. We also visited Ganden Monastery on the road (45 kms
from Lhasa) so far, no entrance fees levied on me as
I am being acknowledged a pilgrim- the wedding license helps. But it can't help
us with the expense of hitting the other major sites that are around Lhasa, we are hoping to leave on a group Tibetan pilgrim
bus tomorrow afternoon, we'd be gone for four days from Lhasa...
all of that with restaurant meals and hotels, but I bet they stop at the cheap
places. Okay, yes, I am stressing
about being almost flat broke.
That's what happens when you don't work for 3 months.
Karjam lost about 7 kgs. As
you know, I am quite active, so I didn't have so much to lose. I look about the same, but I am at the
low end of my normal weight fluctuation (I average 60 kgs,
I am now 57 kgs, but 58 is my summer average
anyway). By the end of the
pilgrimage my entire body ached. Everything. All of it. My joints, my muscles... most of all my feet
felt pulverized. Both heels are
cracked pretty severely with one heel bleeding and mildly infected. But the worst injury I got all trip was
a rock that fell off a very steep slope (falling rock signs were frequent) and
bounced off the road once before hitting my shin -a scrape and a bruise. The worst for Karjam
was a ladder/staircase that he ended up sliding down (bump bump
bump on the tailbone, he still complains, I think he
chipped the bone). So, we're both
pretty darn happy that's the worst we can report.
There is snow on the mountains around Lhasa now, it
doesn't hit the plain, but just a bit more elevation... we started seeing
yellow leaves by Bayi and had red and yellow bushes
and trees the last two weeks of the trip.
Fall and winter are fast approaching. We also had ice on our tent, but that happened off and on all trip depending on the elevation.
Ganden Monastery—the place was amazing. The pilgrim's walk has rocks on it that
people have polished with their hands for hundreds of years. They feel so much that Ganden is a holy place that touching the rocks of the
mountain it¡¯s on is a holy act for the pilgrims. The tops of rocks on the pilgrim¡¯s
circuits that were hand height were black and polished. I felt this incredible feeling of connection
with the pilgrims who came before me.
The monastery is mostly rebuilt, with a few crumbling old walls that
look suspiciously like they were blasted at (the monastery was blasted at,
whether the walls I saw were damaged in that way or not, I do not know).
Arrival-- it felt amazing. We could
see the Potala from 15 kms
away rising off the plain like a vision.
Unreal! We pulled our
wheelbarrow directly to Jokhang Temple, in the midst
of a maze of shops and prostrating devotees in the more picturesque than I
expected center of the city of Lhasa. I feel like I really accomplished
something. Who could have
thought? All Karjam's
friends, every phone call... "Is Cedar okay?" "Is Cedar able to
keep going?" -- and there were moments when I
really wanted to just get on a bus and a train and head for the coast and a
ferry to the home of my heart, Korea.
But I did it. Two passes over 5,000 meters. Close to 10 over 4,700
meters. Months of no
bathroom, campfires, worries about whether we'd get to a town before we ran out
of food and a heck of a lot of blisters.
Plus memorizing new chants and hiding from the police once we got into
restricted areas.
Karjam in front of the Potala
Palace playing air mandolin
What did I accomplish? Maybe not much, maybe a lot. I took over 70 rolls of film so far. I
know my husband really well- really really well- I
think I understand the gamut of Tibetan life, and the Chinese countryside, and
maybe I know what deep motivation and devotion drives Tibetan Buddhist belief. Some things I knew before, but this
really has expanded everything I know, and believe me, there is more than a
book's worth of information.
Jokhang Temple—it was our first task on our first
morning in Lhasa to go to Jokhang. We "washed" the face of the Jowo Shakyamuni image in the main
shrine (with half of the money for the gold from Georgy
and Jinhong again). The inside of the temple was hot
with thousands of pilgrims and butter lamps, the little chapels were
sweltering. Locals brought bouquets
of flowers from their gardens for the important statues. At other temples some fearsome statues
are offered local barley brew and the equivalent of soju
(white alcohol as the Chinese call it).
Here in Lhasa I must admit eating is a major priority
for me. Food, when I want it, with
many choices and not too expensive.
That's pretty exciting, but what I really want is to get home to Lanzhou, make Korean food, relax... for two days, then
we're off to Ahwencang for the symbolic close of the
trip. Apparently train tickets, quite sold out a couple weeks ago are available
now (summer vacation is over). Our
last major hurdle is getting my visa extended. Lonely Planet and word on the
street is that they are really sticklers around here. But my visa expires in two days, so they
can be responsible for me being illegal, or they can extend it. Their choice.
Anyway, I wanted to write you all and let you know, we're safe, there are no
more dangers. The pilgrimage is mostly over, and thank you all for your
support and your prayers. If you
have any questions, write, let me know?
I'd be glad to explain more about the trip...and you could always
volunteer to kibbitz a chapter or two once I start
writing the book...
September 22nd
I've arrived in Lanzhou, and the only thing left to do for the pilgrimage
is a symbolic trip back to where it started, Karjam's
hometown of Ahwencang.
Lhasa is a beautiful city, not at all what I
was expecting. So many of the politicized histories of Tibet that I've read
make a big deal out of how many Han Chinese now live in Lhasa
and talk about tourism as being very disruptive to the natural state of affairs
and etc. However, what I saw was a vibrant, thriving, clean, very picturesque
city full of a mix of people both ignoring its religious importance (locals,
perhaps especially the non-Tibetan locals) and overwhelmed by the religious
importance (pilgrims). While tourism, and tourism directed at foreigners as
well as the Han Chinese who are also touring the area like mad, was predominant
and unavoidable, it also seemed to be in the interest of the locals, with many
businesses catering to the trade, new specialty products allover (like tsampa pre-packaged to take home for gifts) and the Han
Chinese pay entrance tickets only slightly less than foreigners for the
temples, monasteries and various other sites (for example at the Potala, foreigners pay 100, Han Chinese pay 70, Tibetans
pay 2). I don't think that tourism is avoidable, and what I saw was that
tourism seems to be benefiting a whole lot of Tibetan people, not just the Han
Chinese who've come in with good ideas and plenty of capital for investments.
Of course someone has probably already done research to determine the sorts of
tourist profit for Han v. Tibetans, and probably the Han are making more,
because the Tibetan shops often cater to the pilgrims, or special foreign
tourists, many of them are selling goods worth just a few dollars, whereas the
multi-star hotels of Lhasa raking in hundreds of
bucks per room are probably all owned by Han Chinese (but even a high school
classmate of Karjam¡¯s owns two mid-price hotels, a
guy from Maqu owns 2, the sister of his ex-girlfriend
owns one and the hotel we stayed in was also Tibetan owned and run).
And old man I met at Ramoche Temple.
He was very interested in me taking photos of the temple, so I took one
of him, too.
Karjam and I wanted to go to four very
important pilgrimage monasteries somewhat nearby Lhasa.
We found a Tibetan pilgrim bus that was starting at the right time, but when we
showed up to pay for the ticket, they saw I was a foreigner and said no way
(even when Karjam offered to pay more). The problem
is both that they've been sued before when a foreigner died on a bus going to
one of the destinations served by the same company, and that three of those
monasteries are located in areas that are closed to foreigners. These days
"closed" means that if you want you can pay extra for a tourist
permit, and a local guide, and go in the vehicle arranged by the travel agency
that provides your guide and permit (usually a Toyota Land Cruiser, they are
EVERYWHERE in Tibet) it's practically the only vehicle on the road! – then you can go. But I felt that I would not have a pilgrim
mindset in a Land Cruiser with four or so other foreigners,
and we definitely did not have the money to do it that way. Karjam
offered that I go, and he stay behind, but we still
wouldn't have been able to afford it. So, we stayed in Lhasa
until the first day that train sleepers (not the soft sleepers, the hard
sleepers) were available, which was 5 days (the maximum) after Karjam went to the train station to buy tickets. So, for
four days (the departure was early in the morning on the 5th) we had time to
slowly look around Lhasa, but mostly we did
prostrations in front of Jokhang Temple. We bought a
prostration cushion (almost body length, you stand on the end, and your head
and shoulders extend past the other end, so you can press you forehead to the
rock after you've fully extended yourself with your arms beyond your head as
though you are attempting a Superman pose. The process of each prostration is
like this-- first you clasp your hands together in prayer above your head, then
about heart height, but usually it ends up looking like your hands are in front
of your neck and mouth, then belly height, but this also is usually a little
high, then you kneel and put your hands on two slidey
things (we used cardboard as first, then were given some plastic type thing
that slid very well on the cobblestones) you've placed on both sides of your
cushion, then you slide your hands forward in one continuous motion until you
are lying completely stretched out, then reverse and stand and do it again). It
was a good gut and thigh exercise, and best of all to me, I felt really as though
I belonged. The other prostrationers (some of whom we
got to know) were very friendly towards me, they helped me to position my
cushion to miss finger stubbing height changes in the stones we were atop, and
smiled at me a lot, in the morning they greeted me kindly and made room for me,
and were very gracious about me taking some photos of them. Karjam
and I traded off on our cushion but because someone always needs a tea break,
once we got to know a few people we'd often be able to use someone else's cushion
for thirty minutes or so at a time. That way they got to save their place and
have a guard for their things and could comfortably eat or drink tea or go to
the toilet. All of the prostrationers are right in
front of Jokhang Temple, which is the hub of the
entire city, and there are tourists everywhere. So, when we were doing our
prostrations, there were usually some tourists snapping photos. I noticed too
many people making a special effort to take my photo. In four days, only one
person asked if I minded. But when you are doing prostrations you have to keep
from getting pissed off, and I did so remarkably well, despite my general views
on taking photos of people without asking them.
People prostrating in front
of Potala Palace
One set of photos was taken by a
newspaper photographer. This was funny. Karjam and I
were shopping for books and a guy asked Karjam which
book had the chants that Tibetan Buddhists like the most. I just thought
nothing of it, I just thought he didn't know how to word what he was saying,
but Karjam immediately asked him, "Are you
Korean?" it turns out he was Yi Sangsu, bureau
chief in Beijing for the Hankyeore (spelling) paper,
which is Korea's largest liberal paper, and perhaps the 2 or 3 largest in
circulation overall. So we had dinner and tea and were interviewed, I think
first he wanted to know more about what real Tibetans thought of the Dalai
Lama, and it being a political subject, it can be hard to get a real answer. He
had interviewed some politicians and they'd said some Beijing-type things about
the Dalai Lama, so he needed the opposite viewpoint.
But then when he knew our story, he decided to write about us as well. Then he
called in his photographer to take our photos, so that he'd have the real photo
for the story he wanted.
We also met two Korean nuns, or
I met two and Karjam met one. I met them at the visa
office when I was picking up my extension and they were applying. Through sweet
talk and my plane ticket I was able to get an extension until I am going to
Korea anyway (October 2nd), so that was good. The only problem is I have so
many things to do in Korea, but almost the whole time I will be there it's the
Chuseok holiday, so I don't know how much I can get done. For example, photo
developing, visits to get papers from Yonsei and get a new visa from the
Chinese embassy and etc. The good thing is that I can go to the Mask Dance
Festival, I won't miss my two groups¡¯ performances, and I can go to Megan and
Chris (not his real name, which is the foreign tongue twisting Yunyong)'s wedding. None of that is effected
by the holiday, although bus tickets here and there on the peninsula may be a
pain in the ass to buy. Unfortunately I thought my ticket was for the 3rd, and
that meant I could see Han Zhijian and Gao Fang in Lanzhou,
but instead, I will leave the day they arrive and miss them entirely.
We will both leave for Ahwencang in a couple days. Anyone who is interested in
knowing more about the pilgrimage, please email directly. This will be the last
email on the website and I may edit the previous ones...
Take care, Love,
Cedar Bough (and Karjam)