Himalayas

Bhutanese boy carrying leaves for compost near Bomdeling, Eastern Bhutan

A shadowy figure glided across the thin highway just as twilight fell, our headlights throwing two keen unblinking eyes into sharp light.  I craned forward, eager to see the animal behind the eyes.  In Bhutan, a land of unparalleled Himalayan biodiversity, it could be anything – tiger, snow leopard, wild boar or even the most mysterious of all, the illusive Yeti.

A full-grown spotted leopard stared back at us, long tail twitching and ears alert.  She lithely leapt from the road, then turned back to look with only her head rising above the thick brush.  We watched her watch us, both curious and fascinated.  After a few seconds, she silently disappeared into the night like a ghost, leaving us feeling happy with our luck.

An hour later we reached Mongar, the town that unofficially marks the start of far Eastern Bhutan, an area rarely visited by tourists.  We were on a trip to explore the east in winter, the low season for visitors, in order to have the villages, parks and temples to ourselves.  It worked perfectly and in two weeks of traveling, we didn’t see a single other foreign visitor.  It was like having an exclusive ticket to the secret lands of the last Himalayan Kingdom. [Read more →]

A secret canyon on the edges of Lhasa. Tibet.

Race through the dusty littered streets, past the junk shops and military with their menacing machine guns and oversize uniforms.  Race past the rickshaws and racing cabs and diesel belching trucks.  Take the backroad that goes along the canal, past the squatter shacks behind the cement plant.  Then turn through the landfill on the thin track that leads past the ancient sky burial site.  Race past the clothes that litter the ground, taken from the bodies of the dead and thrown down as a sign that we are all just temporary on this planet.  Cut through the sandlot and the new walled housing development.  Just beyond is a rough dirt road that leads up into the mountains beyond Lhasa.  Take it and escape the confused rampant confines of the city.

Ride the trails that wind between the barley fields, then turn up the dirt road that goes through the village that looks like it was pulled from a history book.  Watch for Tibetan mastiffs guarding the monasteries.  Keep out of sight of the military base and pretend their shouting drills aren’t happening.  You can’t race now – the air is too thin and the road too steep.  Shift low and ride slow up and up and up.

Soon you’ll find more villages where tradition still lives.  Then you’ll find abandoned hermit caves cut like grand doorways into the cliffs.  The hermits are all gone now, lost in the trials of history.  Ride, ride, ride until your head clears and the day drops away.  Go farther before you turn and race back into the mayhem and discord of the city.  Be free for at least a little while.

Big-eyed children filed into the bustling courtyard of a makeshift dental clinic in the thin air of Leh, the capital city of Ladakh, a state high in the Himalayas of India.  The needy children had gathered to take advantage of free dental care through an innovative tourism and humanitarian program organized by Global Humanitarian Expeditions (GHE) in Denver, Colorado.

Kim Troggio, Founder of Global Humanitarian Expeditions, raced around the clinic like a tornado of organizing power, registering a child one minute, consoling another the next.  Kim has been traveling to the Indian Himalaya for years now and happily reports “We are seeing real progress over the years with the children that have been coming to us.”

Mountain top monastery and prayer flags over Leh, Ladakh.

Over the next week, hundreds of Ladakhi youth filed through the clinic for check-ups, fillings, extractions and lessons on hygiene and dental care.  The volunteers worked diligently while in the clinics and enjoyed exploring the magical land of Ladakh during their days off.  It seems like a program where everyone wins.

[Read more →]

After recent nonproductive negotiations with the Chinese Government, the Dalai Lama turned to the exiled people of Tibet to choose the next plan of action. Should they continue to pursue autonomy within China through the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way or should they switch tactics and ask for complete independence? It’s a difficult choice for the exiled Tibetans who will soon face even bigger challenges and a possible crisis in leadership as the Dalai Lama grows older.

Hundreds of delegates from around the world traveled to Dharamsala in northern India to discuss what to do next. Opinions were mixed, but the Tibetans in exile once again chose to follow the leadership of the Dalai Lama. Read about the most recent chapter in the struggle on the BBC site

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7744769.stm

(Continued from Part One)

The village of Buli was a combination of stone-age looking houses made of rock and mud, and new wooden shops decorated with Britney Spears and Janet Jackson posters. We headed straight into the old village to visit Buli Gonpa, a temple established in 1478 by the great treasure hunter, Pema Lingpa.

Just then, the mayor of Buli approached with a smile and slyly asked “Would you like to see a great treasure?” We eagerly followed him to his house where he opened a polished wooden box and pulled out an old frying pan. He explained that this plain pan belonged to Lingpa and we could still see his thumbprint pressed into the metal.

The mayor asked a man to show us Menmo Lake, a spiritual site nearby. We walked out of Buli past rows of flowing prayer flags and through a green valley of terraced rice fields. At the edge of each field sat a small tower. “What are the towers for?” I asked. The man replied “During the winter we use them to dry grass, but during the harvest someone sits in them to watch for tigers coming out of the forest.” [Read more →]