Living and Working in Tibet

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.

Hidden in the depths of a bigger document, the UK seems to have retracted their recognition of Tibetan autonomy. The changes this may bring to the Himalayan region are huge and some say the British may have been part of the reason the recent talks between the Chinese Government and the Tibetan Government in Exile failed.

Is India next? In this time of economic trouble, China may be flexing its economic muscle to gain political concessions. Read this opinion piece from the International Herald Tribune:

IHT Tibet Article

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

All text and Photos Copyright Nathan Ward – No reprint without permission.

This is a multi-part story about a trip Andrea and I took to the eastern part of Bhutan. It takes six days of driving non-stop to get there and back, but we only went a few hundred miles because the roads are so thin and curvy. This story originally appeared in Lifestyle and Travel Magazine. Read on to learn all about it.

Beyond the World’s Last Corner - Flying Tigers, Wise Monks and Hairy Yetis, Nathan Ward explores the Hinterlands of the Last Himalayan Kingdom

A wrinkled brown hand pushes a wooden bowl toward me, a bowl filled with sweet saffron rice, a Himalayan delicacy. Using my fingers, I scoop the golden rice into my mouth and wash it down with a sip of thick butter tea. The host’s dark eyes crinkle with a smile as she hands me another drink, this one clear like a mountain stream but filled with the power of fire, laughter and warmth. I toss back the tangy rice wine and look at the demons dancing below me.

Two masked demons twist and spin their bright robes into fluid spheres of shimmering color, their wooden faces frozen in grimace and fear. Frantically, drum beats fill the air and fierce-faced warriors stream from the corners of the ancient palace, surrounding the demons. The warriors beat the drums with a roar that ebbs and flows as they chase the evil spirits back to the underworld.

Sacred Mask Dances at the Phobjika Valley Monastery

[Read more →]

Moving to Tibet seemed like a dream come true and also a personal test. For me, I’d always dreamed of seeing the Tibetan Plateau and experiencing the Tibetan Cultures. For years I’ve read books about the Dalai Lama and the struggle, about the amazing untouched mountains in the countryside, about the greatest alpine plateau on Earth. [Read more →]