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.

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 →]

Tucked behind the Great Himalayan Range, Tibet offers a taste of ancient mountain culture mixed with the modern world.  We lived and worked in Tibet for a year to get a true sense of this fascinating land and its cultural, environmental and political challenges.  [Read more →]