“It’s sort of strange to be ordering beer from monks”
Hi there! Miss me? It’s been a little while since I wrote one of these things….let’s see if I can remember how it goes….
Oh, yeah! I remember now: experience, reflections, experience, reflections, and so on. Or as my brother in law likes to say, “Yak, yak, yak, yak, yak”. Get it? Tibet. Yaks. Yeah, I know. Pretty god awful, but I still crack up every time I see one of those tourist shirts that have the row of yaks on it and underneath is written “Yak Yak Yak Yak Yak – Tibet”. Gets me every time. Thanks Joe!
It has started to warm up considerably here. The dust is still ever present and irritating, but the trees have blown out their green just in the last couple days. And today was too warm even to wear a heavy down jacket! I know, can you believe it!?
Tibet is a fascinating place. It is a land, a people, an entire culture caught between two worlds – one of ancient traditions, religion and history and one of fast moving, atheistic modernization. A world of prayer wheels and punk rock, prostitutes and Potalas, cham dances and dance clubs. Personally, it is a country of unprecedented visual juxtaposition and irony. A place of unspoken sadness and unrepentant opportunity. A land that changes everyday before your eyes. A people struggling to succeed in the global and local markets and others struggling to transcend universal suffering and ignorance. It is both what I expected and not. A complex cultural contradiction that only the beauty and pain of awareness and experience can illuminate. And nothing more sums up this tension better than the capital city of Lhasa.
I will give you an example. A couple weeks ago, Leigh and I went with some friends to a local organization meeting called Hope Corner (aka English Corner). This is a group of Tibetan, Chinese and foreigners that meets every week to listen to a speaker or watch a movie and then have an opportunity to discuss with each other but all in English. So it is a great forum for locals to have a chance to practice their English and also gives the chigays (Tibetan for foreigners) a chance to meet locals. It can be a lot of fun but it can also be a little tiring. Anyway, this night we watched the Disney movie Mulan, which is about a Chinese heroine who successfully repels the invading Mongol armies. I had never seen it before but it only served to remind me of Disney’s awful interpretation of history, it’s over the top stereotyping of ethnicities and its unapologetic cheese factor. Here was a movie that reinforced the greatness of ‘Han-ness’ and it’s innate and god favored ability to overcome any powerful ethnic foe. In any case, after this (probably unintentional) stirring nationalistic cartoon, we went with a few folks to a dance club on the western part of town called Babi La.
I naively thought we were going to the typical Tibetan ngang ma, which has some set pieces of karaoke with the performers in traditional dress usually singing Tibetan songs and typically Tibetan dance. Then after a couple hours of this, the performances are done and the dance floor opens up to everybody and blaring Tibetan, Chinese and Hindi pop songs take you into the early morning hours. The minute we pulled up outside the club I realized this was not the case at all. This place was thumping! Located in very hip part of town, with salons, boutiques and chic restaurants all around, Babi La Club is housed in a 4 story glass windowed building with red velvet curtains, neon signs, young urban hipsters and loud thumping bass beats greeting you at the entrance. The visual and auditory avalanche I experienced when we walked in was a stark reminder that this was not my mother’s Tibet anymore! I personally think that this club could rival anything that Atlanta has to offer and possible even give the clubs in LA and NY a run for their money. It was packed with people, mostly young, both Chinese and Tibetan interestingly. At the front was a long stage where the three different DJ’s, one female the other two male, took turns spinning records and waving their hands in the air with the crowd. Behind the DJ’s was a smaller higher stage where the ‘go-go’ dancers were strutting their scantily clad, spiked hair stuff. The moves and the amount of skin that these dancers were busting out honestly made me blush considering we were in Tibet, a land known for its clothing layers and very shapeless fashion. But the young mixed audience seemed to just soak it in and relish the performances. There were smoke machines and mirror balls, a light show and a huge video screen backdrop where during the music they would show really bizarre scenes from music groups or random TV snippets. Right in the middle of the large room was a substantial sized bar that was rather crowded. Several white shirted young men were manning the bar and continuously distributing cans and bottles of Budweiser, Chill, PBR and Lhasa beers to the bar maids patrolling the many tables and tucked away booths lining the outside and back of the room. There was even one bartender who must have seen Tom Cruise in Cocktail one too many times because he was constantly juggling 3 or 4 bottles of alcohol, never once pouring a drink in the whole time I watched! Between the bar and the stage was a smallish dance floor where the crowd could dance or sway or jiggle or whatever it was they called dancing. Don’t get me wrong….there was some real professionals there. They know all the moves and even busted out some break-dancing once in a while. And while I was busy observing and photographing the scene, my PhD, Fulbright Grant winning, seemingly mild mannered wife was out there cutting a foot loose! It was awesome.
Unfortunately, like every other public or private establishment in China, restaurant, tea house, hotel, grocery store, you name it, everyone was smoking and the cigarette haze was thick and devastating to my throat and lungs. I cannot wait to enjoy a nice, thick, tasty, deep amber brown Belgium beer at my favorite local watering hole back in Atlanta in the wonderful smoke free environment that the US has installed recently. For comparison, in the US only about 20-25% of the population smokes and it is quite obvious that those that do smoke are meant to feel isolated, ostracized and guilty for the damage their doing to their health and those around them. Here in China I believe it is over 55% who smoke! And they start early. Just the other day I saw a kid who couldn’t have been more than 10 or 11 puffing on a butt. Amazing and sad.
I digress…..This was only the first floor of the 3 story building. On the second floor was what looked like the more traditional ngang ma bar. And on the top floor there were the Japanese style VIP private karaoke rooms straight out of Lost in Translation. Outside each door there was a personal room attendant. Inside the rooms there were couches lining the walls, a huge TV and stereo and a remote control to dial in whatever song you needed at that moment. I told Leigh that we will have to rent one of these rooms before too long!
Now before you think that Leigh and I are just all play and no work, I want you to know that we go to work at Tibet University for the THDL project (Tibetan Himalayan Digital Library – www.thdl.org), who are the people who got us our (now useless) 5 month visa, at least 2 times a week for about 45 minutes a day. Boy, the schedule is rough I tell ya! Monday and Friday, we go into the office to help continue ‘training’ our Tourism intern. What once started out in March as 6 Tourism interns has now dwindled down to one. So on those days we have ‘class’, there are 3 teachers to just 1 student! How’s that for student teacher ratio? Basically, we are supposed to help train the interns in how to take photographs and how to conduct research so that the photos and caption notes the intern takes during the week can be inputted and utilized on the THDL website. Currently, we are working on the Tea Houses, the Hotels and the Restaurants of Lhasa. So every Friday we sit down and critique and advise the intern on what photos and info is good and what can be improved. Then Monday we send him out with a new assignment/subject. In addition to this, we are also working with the Gendun Choephel Gallery artist group and the Tibet University art professors to create a contemporary art section on the THDL website. This includes interviewing the artists with a video camera, gathering their bios & cv’s from them, making high resolution high quality photograph copy of their art work and making a portrait of the artist to go along with the rest of their info, etc. I am also to give workshops periodically to the University department and Gallery group on how to make copy photos of their work. Finally, Leigh is watching and cataloguing stacks and stacks of old video interviews as well as making new ones and beginning to set up appointments with these artists (like herding cats) and educate them on what THDL is and reasons why it is important to work with them (still waiting to hear one). When we are not doing any of this (which is more often than not), we are doing out own things – I am trying to photograph everyday and make my own assignments (since I’m not getting any from anyone else!) and Leigh is doing her thing with the artists. Let me just say this – American agendas do not translate well in other countries…..
Speaking of the artists, Leigh and I have had a couple dinners with a few of them lately and they are all very interesting, funny, intelligent, creative individuals. At one there was a great conversation that lasted for several hours about religion, history, God, Native Americans, Pangaea, politics….it was a lot of fun and very interesting. At another, I was able to talk with two of the artists about their art, their use of symbolism, their choices of formats, materials, etc, and was even able to talk to them about my own vision and process. It was very nice. Artist to artist….They all seem to be very, very nice guys (and one woman) and I look forward to hanging out and getting to know them more.
And speaking of American agendas, Leigh and I have finally sort of figured out what our plan for the next little while will be. Now for those of you who haven’t heard the great news, Leigh was awarded a Fulbright Educational Grant. This is a VERY BIG DEAL! It basically pays for 10 months of her research (which is basically all of it) and furthermore, they only hand out about 30 for China in one year after getting over 120 applicants! It’s like getting a National Geographic assignment for a photographer. She will always have Fulbright Scholar next to her name. It is very, very exciting and very, very validating. I could go on and on and brag about my wife here for another several paragraphs and talk about all the years of hard work she’s put in and all the myriad drafts she wrote and re-wrote and all the sleepless nights and all the dinners at her computer and all the dedication and passion she had to have to get this far. I could but I’ll spare you all the mushy pride for now and just say it has added yet another level of complications to our ever complicated visa situation. This is what we are planning to do….At the end of May we are coming back to the States for my sister’s wedding (May 27th in Atlanta). Then we will sort of hang out in the US for a month waiting for the 3 day long Fulbright orientation on June 21st in Washington, D.C. During that month, we will visit family and friends separately, meeting up in D.C. for the orientation and some sightseeing. Can you believe that I’ve been to over 17 countries and 5 continents and have yet to enjoy my own nation’s capital??? After the orientation, we will return to China for another couple months to hopefully meet up with my friends Todd and Laura and maybe Joe and Jackie. Then in late August, Leigh will attend the IATS (International Association of Tibetan Studies) conference in Bonn, Germany. After the conference, Leigh and I will meet up somewhere and then re-enter China on her Fulbright visa and hopefully then be in China/Tibet for the next 10 months (until June/July ’07). Now exactly where I’ll be, if it be with her the whole time or traveling or based somewhere else in China or Asia is still TBD. This is all a rough sketch and I’m sure a lot will change between now and then…..
Changing subjects briefly, our friend Tina is leaving tomorrow (boo!) and the other day we were invited to join a ‘going away’ lunch for her by our Tibet University associate TD. We ate at a ‘Beijing Hot Pot’ restaurant. What is a Beijing Hot Pot you ask? Well, each diner is given a pot with either vegetable or seafood broth placed on a sterno stove, very similar to a fondue set up. Then there are several different things that you can order to cook in the boiling broth – meats, mushrooms, tofu, greens, sprouts, vegetables, etc. This is different to a Sichuan hot pot because there is no boiling oil nor is it super spicy. During this very, very tasty and unique lunch, TD was telling us a couple of very interesting things. For one, the university system of finding all graduating students their jobs will be gradually phased out by 2007 so that by then all graduating students will have to find their own jobs. For years, the student would fill out a form after high school with the first 3 choices of schools or majors. And if they qualified they would typically get one of their choices. If, for whatever reasons, they did not qualify then they would be assigned a school or major whether they liked it or not. Crazy, huh? That would be like if you were in high school and wanted to be a teacher or artist and didn’t qualify and getting assigned scientist or doctor. It has happened like that here for many years and is now being gradually changed to match the market economy China is embracing. So many things are being changed…it’s really mind blowing. Another interesting thing TD was talking about is part of this “new culture” as she calls it. She talked about how people will now work very hard for a few years, probably in a job they do not like, and make a lot of money. Before or during this period they will marry with someone of somewhat same mentality and work ethic. Then when it is time to have children, both parents will ‘retire’ for several years and live off the income they earned and raise their child/children until they begin school, at which point the two parents may re-enter the workforce. So instead of DINKS, I guess they’d be NINKS? Does that even happen in the US?
Finally, we went on our first ‘out of town’ adventure this past weekend. A frozen sacred lake and an ancient monastery nestled in a rare juniper forest…..
Five of us, Leigh and I and our friends Tina and Stacey (and her friend Elliot) rented a Land Cruiser and driver for 3 days (for only 30$ a piece I might add!...only 10$ a day for a Toyota Land Cruiser and driver, all gas and drivers fees included – incredible!). Our first stop was the sacred lake of Nam Tso (which means Sky Lake) located about 250 kms north of Lhasa. It is the second largest salt water lake in China; the largest is Koko Nor in Qinghai province. It is over 70 km long, reaches width of 30 km and is 35 km deep at the deepest. In other words, it is a huge body of water, a remnant from an ancient sea that once covered much of central Asia. Typically during the summer the water is a beautiful turquoise from all the snow melts running down off the surrounding mountain, but at this time the entire lake was frozen solid! It was by far the largest frozen body of water I’ve ever seen. The Nyenchen Tanglha range, with peaks of more than 7000 meters (23,000 feet), towers over the lake to the south – it was these same mountains that Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufshnaiter crossed on their incredible journey to Lhasa (Seven Years in Tibet). The lake itself is at 4718 meters (15,569 feet) but the pass we had to go over to get there was 16,500 feet. That is over 1,500 feet higher than the highest mountain in the continental US! Even more incredible than the real lack of oxygen up there, we passed 3 cyclists who were struggling and climbing the steep pass road with their saddle bags and everything. Anyone who can cycle in Tibet has my respect and admiration…..even if I do think they’re crazy! The road up to Nam Tso has been recently completely paved in the last year and none of the ‘Tibet experts’ in the car (the three ladies) could remember it being so nice and pleasant and quick a drive (around 4.5 hours). And there was another new addition to the road as well: the railroad. “To be sure, the railway is one of the most daring engineering projects ever undertaken. About 485 miles of track run more than 14,764 feet above sea level, and 342 miles of track traverse permanently frozen earth. The highest pass reaches 16,640 feet. There will also be 286 bridges, including a 3,281-foot-long span across the Lhasa River. Due to the high altitude, rail cars will be pressurized much like airplane cabins.” To read up more on the railroad project - http://www.tibet.ca/en/wtnarchive/2005/2/25_2.html, http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/08/news/journal.php. It is an extremely sensitive subject around here so I don’t want to talk too much about it. Let’s say most people here are very scared of its impact.
After crossing the high pass and looking down to the frozen lake far below, we passed into the land of drokpas (nomads) and yaks. There were countless hundreds of yaks, sheep and nomads scattered across the wide open spaces surrounding the lake and rimmed in by the high mountains. Surprisingly but reminiscent of what I was talking about this being the land of juxtapositions, around each typical yak skin nomad tent would be two very modern inventions – the solar panel and the motorcycle. So very strange but making perfect sense, no?
Watching the sun slowly float behind the gathering clouds in the West, we followed the new road until it literally ended at a very weird tourist area. Being April and not the high tourist season, most of the ‘accommodations’ where not quite ready for us. Consisting of a small area located at the base of a large peninsula head, the tourist area was almost barren of life. Which I of course loved. There were skeletal frames of what once was (and soon will be again) sleeping tents mixed in with a couple small groups of tents that had their fabric on and doors mounted so they were ‘ready’ for us. The shoddy guest house and restaurant we stayed at was run by the three Scarf Sisters – two were pink the other was yellow. I call them the Scarf Sisters because that’s about all we saw of their faces the whole day and half we were around them. Pink and yellow scarves with just small slits around the eyes. It was cold. It was windy. It was absolutely gorgeous! During sunset and before dinner I took a walk down to the frozen water’s shore where there were crazy patterns and formations in the ice. There was no one to be seen or heard. It was just me, the ice, the wind and the mountains….some of my favorite companions. Such wide open silent spaces - where one can see for 40 km and hear nothing but his own breath or the howling wind and the air is cold, crisp and clean - are so delicious to the soul. Especially after a month in the comparatively bright lights and big city of Lhasa…..
After an overpriced dinner of reheated thukpa (noodles) and Chinese tea (how’s that for a perfect blend?), we all headed to the relative warmth of our sleeping bags. Now because of my imperfect kidneys, very small bladder and the cold weather, I was out of the tent a couple times in the night where I was treated for my suffering to the crisp, clear sky of alpine April. So many countless stars!!! If my breath wasn’t already taken away by the cold air, then the stars surely would have run off with it….
Dawn came early and cold, but, determined, we all got ourselves out of our cocoons to enjoy a rare treat in life – a Tibetan sunrise over Nam Tso. With the early light washing away the dark night sky and the stars, we were still blessed with seeing two planets still shining brightly upon exiting our tent into the harsh, beautiful landscape. Eagles and orange geese were our only companions at this early hour. We were all wrapped in whatever warm clothing we had – gloves, hats, thermals, sweaters, down. But our afflictions were not for vain as the sun made its way over the eastern horizon, the early light striking the high cirrus clouds overhead, the tall snowy peaks and the frozen lake, the calls of the eagle and the goose and the dying night wind in our ears….it was a very special, soulful moment for me as I think it was for all of us. After enjoying the hour or so right after the sun rises with my wife on a hill overlooking the lake and large plain opening up back towards where we came from yesterday, we headed back to have a small breakfast of banana bread (brought from Lhasa) and sweet tea. It seems to me that at very high altitudes, the appetite dissipates. Following our meager meal, Leigh, Tina and I set off on our mini kora around the peninsula (there is a short pilgrimage circuit around the promontory). Walking in the clockwise direction of Buddhist tradition we followed the shore of the lake and tried to visit pilgrims who were on retreat in the many caves that dot the high rocky cliff base we were circling. Leigh, being the kind heart she is, brought a large bag of fruit to give out. Along the beautiful route, we found a few nuns in one walled in cave-temple and some more practitioners in the larger cave-monastery, Tashidor. Along the way there is a rock formation that looks very much like two hands held together in prayer, the ‘Goodwill and Evil’ caves where one squeezes in for sin detection (we didn’t try this because we were too interested in the crazy block like ice formations that were on the shore of the lake at this point), and a place where pilgrims test their merit by attempting to place a finger in a small hole with their eyes closed (none of us did great or badly). And shortly before completing the circuit, there are some badly abused petroglyphs located in small alcoves at the base of the large rock towers. These were especially interesting to me. There were some that depicted men riding on horses, shooting bow and arrows, hunting large yaks or buffalos. We even saw a woman, a scene of war, a sun design and a couple chorten motifs. We don’t know how old any of these are nor if they are all from the same time period (doubtful), but they were very cool and unfortunately very molested.
After a beautiful drive from the lake, we arrived at our next stop during the 3 day tour, Reting Monastery. Located at 4100 meters and settled snugly in a wonderful and very rare juniper forest, Reting dates back to 1073. It was initially associated with Atisha (great Bengali teacher who brought Buddhism to the plateau during the second diffusion during the 11th century) but in its later years had a very important connection to the Gelukpa sect and the Dalai Lamas. Leigh thinks it was founded in 1056 two years after Atisha’s death by his main disciple, Dromtonpa. Two regents – the de facto rulers of Tibet for the time between the death of one DL and the enthronement of the next – came from Reting. The 5th Reting Rinpoche was regent from 1933 to 1947 and played a key part in the search for the current DL and served as his senior tutor. Pre-1950’s photographs show Reting sprawled across the flank of a thickly forested hill in the Rong-chu Valley. Sadly, like Ganden and thousands of other temples across the plateau, it was devastated by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. Its present remains hammer home the tragic waste caused by the ideological zeal that swept the country during the 60’s and 70’s. Still, the site is one of the most beautiful and magical in the region. Surrounded by a ring of stunning snow capped peaks and situated just downstream from the confluence of two fairly major rivers, Reting is one of the most beautiful monastery sites I’ve ever seen (Pelpung in Kham being probably the most beautiful and the Potala probably being the most impressive). There are a couple small village towns located on the valley floor on the banks of the river below. Slightly above the main complex are a couple reconstructed retreat centers. Not only is it very easy on the eyes but because of the surrounding juniper forest (said to have sprouted from the hairs of the monastery founder), the smell is incredible! It was like walking around a living incense forest. Really, really, really lovely.
We were entertained and fed (eventually) by a small group of boisterous, joking, snuff pinching monks in the kitchen who had never seen a beard of my proportions. Many a good laugh was had by stroking my facial hairs like a small pet. They were definitely a rowdy bunch and good fun (they let Stacey and Elliot churn the butter tea, which ended up mostly all over the floor - J) but not very good kitchen hosts as our waits for dinner and breakfast were interminable. And for breakfast all we wanted was sweet tea! When one is hungry, patience and an easy smile can be hard to find. A little frustrating to say the least. However, they did eventually feed us and it was actually some of the best thukpa any of us had ever had….mixed with some of the worst butter tea any of us had ever had….and as we ordered some Lhasa beers to wash down the horrid tea, Leigh put is best – “It’s sorta strange to be ordering beer from monks”…weird! After our delayed breakfast we all set out to walk the kora around the monastery, which was a really exquisite hike through the junipers. There were so many bird companions along the walk - huge vultures with wing spans of 8 feet or more (there is a sky burial place here), elegant hawks, funny little roadrunner like birds, Himalayan magpies, and countless little sparrows and finches darting here and there in the overhead braches. With a laborious but rewarding climb to the retreat centers above and coming across a reconstruction in progress of two chortens, we completed the kora feeling uplifted, cleansed and rejuvenated.
After visiting these two natural settings out in the country, where I really didn’t see anything but pure Tibetan, coming back to Lhasa was quite astonishing….big modern medium-large sized Chinese city….there are so many Chinese here….it is changing rapidly….everyday….sucked into the great Han nation….sad, but seemingly inevitable…..it is just so amazing the juxtaposition, the contrast and the strange blend of modern and ancient, atheist and religious, Han and Tibetan.
But don’t worry, even though NASA is going to spend billions of dollars on throwing rocks at the moon to see if there’s water in the dust created (genius) and even though the Bush (liar liar pant on fire!) administration is now threatening to bomb Iran and even though Nepal is heading closer and closer to all out civil war and even though I don’t have any clean socks.…..we’re still having fun!
I naively thought we were going to the typical Tibetan ngang ma, which has some set pieces of karaoke with the performers in traditional dress usually singing Tibetan songs and typically Tibetan dance. Then after a couple hours of this, the performances are done and the dance floor opens up to everybody and blaring Tibetan, Chinese and Hindi pop songs take you into the early morning hours. The minute we pulled up outside the club I realized this was not the case at all. This place was thumping! Located in very hip part of town, with salons, boutiques and chic restaurants all around, Babi La Club is housed in a 4 story glass windowed building with red velvet curtains, neon signs, young urban hipsters and loud thumping bass beats greeting you at the entrance. The visual and auditory avalanche I experienced when we walked in was a stark reminder that this was not my mother’s 
Unfortunately, like every other public or private establishment in 
And speaking of American agendas, Leigh and I have finally sort of figured out what our plan for the next little while will be. Now for those of you who haven’t heard the great news, Leigh was awarded a Fulbright Educational Grant. This is a VERY BIG DEAL! It basically pays for 10 months of her research (which is basically all of it) and furthermore, they only hand out about 30 for 
Five of us, Leigh and I and our friends Tina and Stacey (and her friend Elliot) rented a Land Cruiser and driver for 3 days (for only 30$ a piece I might add!...only 10$ a day for a Toyota Land Cruiser and driver, all gas and drivers fees included – incredible!). Our first stop was the sacred 
Dawn came early and cold, but, determined, we all got ourselves out of our cocoons to enjoy a rare treat in life – a Tibetan sunrise over Nam Tso. With the early light washing away the dark night sky and the stars, we were still blessed with seeing two planets still shining brightly upon exiting our tent into the harsh, beautiful landscape. Eagles and orange geese were our only companions at this early hour. We were all wrapped in whatever warm clothing we had – gloves, hats, thermals, sweaters, down. But our afflictions were not for vain as the sun made its way over the eastern horizon, the early light striking the high cirrus clouds overhead, the tall snowy peaks and the frozen lake, the calls of the eagle and the goose and the dying night wind in our ears….it was a very special, soulful moment for me as I think it was for all of us. After enjoying the hour or so right after the sun rises with my wife on a hill overlooking the lake and large plain opening up back towards where we came from yesterday, we headed back to have a small breakfast of banana bread (brought from Lhasa) and sweet tea. It seems to me that at very high altitudes, the appetite dissipates. Following our meager meal, Leigh, Tina and I set off on our mini kora around the peninsula (there is a short pilgrimage circuit around the promontory). Walking in the clockwise direction of Buddhist tradition we followed the shore of the lake and tried to visit pilgrims who were on retreat in the many caves that dot the high rocky cliff base we were circling. Leigh, being the kind heart she is, brought a large bag of fruit to give out. Along the beautiful route, we found a few nuns in one walled in cave-temple and some more practitioners in the larger cave-monastery, Tashidor. Along the way there is a rock formation that looks very much like two hands held together in prayer, the ‘Goodwill and Evil’ caves where one squeezes in for sin detection (we didn’t try this because we were too interested in the crazy block like ice formations that were on the shore of the lake at this point), and a place where pilgrims test their merit by attempting to place a finger in a small hole with their eyes closed (none of us did great or badly). And shortly before completing the circuit, there are some badly abused petroglyphs located in small alcoves at the base of the large rock towers. These were especially interesting to me. There were some that depicted men riding on horses, shooting bow and arrows, hunting large yaks or buffalos. We even saw a woman, a scene of war, a sun design and a couple chorten motifs. We don’t know how old any of these are nor if they are all from the same time period (doubtful), but they were very cool and unfortunately very molested. 
After a beautiful drive from the lake, we arrived at our next stop during the 3 day tour, Reting Monastery. Located at 4100 meters and settled snugly in a wonderful and very rare juniper forest, Reting dates back to 1073. It was initially associated with Atisha (great Bengali teacher who brought Buddhism to the plateau during the second diffusion during the 11th century) but in its later years had a very important connection to the Gelukpa sect and the Dalai Lamas. Leigh thinks it was founded in 1056 two years after Atisha’s death by his main disciple, Dromtonpa. Two regents – the de facto rulers of 
We were entertained and fed (eventually) by a small group of boisterous, joking, snuff pinching monks in the kitchen who had never seen a beard of my proportions. Many a good laugh was had by stroking my facial hairs like a small pet. They were definitely a rowdy bunch and good fun (they let Stacey and Elliot churn the butter tea, which ended up mostly all over the floor - J) but not very good kitchen hosts as our waits for dinner and breakfast were interminable. And for breakfast all we wanted was sweet tea! When one is hungry, patience and an easy smile can be hard to find. A little frustrating to say the least. However, they did eventually feed us and it was actually some of the best thukpa any of us had ever had….mixed with some of the worst butter tea any of us had ever had….and as we ordered some Lhasa beers to wash down the horrid tea, Leigh put is best – “It’s sorta strange to be ordering beer from monks”…weird! After our delayed breakfast we all set out to walk the kora around the monastery, which was a really exquisite hike through the junipers. There were so many bird companions along the walk - huge vultures with wing spans of 8 feet or more (there is a sky burial place here), elegant hawks, funny little roadrunner like birds, Himalayan magpies, and countless little sparrows and finches darting here and there in the overhead braches. With a laborious but rewarding climb to the retreat centers above and coming across a reconstruction in progress of two chortens, we completed the kora feeling uplifted, cleansed and rejuvenated. 
But don’t worry, even though NASA is going to spend billions of dollars on throwing rocks at the moon to see if there’s water in the dust created (genius) and even though the Bush (liar liar pant on fire!) administration is now threatening to bomb Iran and even though Nepal is heading closer and closer to all out civil war and even though I don’t have any clean socks.…..we’re still having fun!