West Tibet, October 2006 #1

“Travel is only glamorous in retrospect.” – Paul Theroux

Because I really didn’t get enough travel time (i.e. abuse) during my two months of working in SE Asia and Central Asia (visiting 6 countries in 8 weeks and covering over 15,000 km by road, air and boat), I thought it would be a great idea to book this two week 1500 km r/t jeep trip to the far reaches of western Tibet with my wife and 3 other friends as soon as I arrived back in Lhasa. Yes, I know, I know…..at times I can be downright scary brilliant!

The trip had actually been planned for quite some time previous to coincide with Leigh’s friend CC’s visit in early October. It just so happened that my business travels ended just in time to make it back and hop right back in the car after a quick unpack, laundry, shower, eat, re-pack, grocery store rush of a couple of days.

The jeep crew included me, my wife, CC and her two friends, MR and ML, who were tagging on a Tibet visit after a month long intensive Chinese medicine/acupuncture session and an impromptu ‘why the hell not go to visit Tibet, spur of the moment adventure with a friend, respectively. CC is an old friend of Leigh’s from the Nepal days. CC is now a certified, licensed naturopath and acupuncturist who just finished up her last lessons in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu where she and MR went to the hospitals everyday to see patients with overseeing Chinese doctors, etc. Kind of like month long intensive, overseas residency program. MR was in the same program and soon-to-be graduate of the same school in Washington (Seattle area) with CC. MR is concentrating on Chinese medicinal herbs whereas CC focuses on acupuncture. ML works and lives in London, but is American (though, and I didn’t know this, if you live in England for 6 years you can apply for dual citizenship after passing the UK citizenship test, which is what ML is doing. So soon he will have two passports….a USA one and an EU one….lucky bastard!). Anyway, he works in computers as a project manager and can afford to fly off to Tibet at the drop of a hat and take 5 weeks vacation at a time. Like I said, lucky bastard! He and CC are also very old, good friends who go back at least as many years as Leigh and CC. It actually worked out really well dynamically. There were two guys, three girls, two sets of really old friends, one really happy married couple and five distinctive personalities. All of us liked to laugh and joke and play, but then could carry on a very deep, meaningful conversation at the end of the day about the local politics, the global economy or what is faith in religion.

And lucky us! We were traveling with not just one, but two, trained medical doctors!

Leigh and I were both very, very excited about this trip. We have been talking about doing this journey since coming to Kham (eastern Tibet) in 2003. Our planned 14 day itinerary would take us west for several days to the holy Mount Kailash (Kang Rinpoche in Tibetan – ‘precious snow mountain’) which is the source of 4 of Asia’s major rivers - the Sutlej, the Bhramaputra, the Indus and the Karnali (turns into the Ganges) and is sacred to 4 of the world’s major religions – Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, Jain and Bön (indigenous pre-Buddhism religion). From there we would travel even further west towards the borders of Pakistan/India to the 11^th century ruins of the kingdom of Guge with its incredibly preserved and astonishingly unique art and then back to Lhasa along the same road. As I dislike backtracking, I had wanted to make a loop and take the northern route back but there just wasn’t enough time in people’s schedule. Interestingly, I was more excited about the kora around Kailash – a three day hike where the lowest elevation is 15,050 feet and the highest up to 18, 675 feet!!! at the Droma-la pass – and Leigh, who was a understandably a bit intimidated by the 3 day hike was more excited about the ancient art and kingdom ruins. A nice balance I should say….

DAY 1

“The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.” – Colette

After arranging and paying for everything at the travel agency the day before, we met our driver TD – a sometimes cranky, sometimes sweet, chain smoking, middle aged Tibetan man with various and oft-time shifting bodily ailments – early on the morning of departure day at our hotel. Packing ourselves, our bags and our food into the jeep was quite a puzzle, but finally we got it worked out and were on the road, heading out of Lhasa on the smooth, taken-for-granted paved roads west. Our first destination was Lhatse, 400 km from Lhasa.

Because of leaving early in the morning, we were able to arrive in Lhatse with enough time to do a short 3 hour day hike up one of the side valleys and get off the main highway. Following a small river and a briefly viewed snow-capped peak up the valley, we passed fields and fields of harvested barley, the dried yellow stalks being hungrily and quickly eaten by the large herds of yaks, sheep and goats the villagers in this valley owned. Right now in Tibet is barley harvesting season. Everywhere one looks, there are huge piles of the golden stalks taking up entire courtyards or side yards drying in the sun; large groups of Tibetans winnowing the dried barley by throwing it up into the air in large clumps, letting the wind take the husks and unwanted chaff with it; sifting the winnowed barley for the precious grains; and then finally sweeping up the precious barley grains into huge piles and packing them up in large bags for transport by horse drawn cart or yak saddled caravan, for storage or for market. It’s a nation-wide (at least in the rural areas) process which includes everyone, old, young, male and female. And it seems not to have changed in 1,000 years. Watching a group of 6 or 7 men and women take wooden rakes full of dried barely stalks and throw it high into the air for the wind to catch and separate out while loudly singing together to keep the rhythm is something that touches the ancient, ancestral communal farmer in me. Let’s say it’s difficult not to witness such scenes at the golden hour of sunset and not get a little nostalgic or romantic.

Lhatse marks the first of countless nights of all five of us sleeping in the same cramped dorm style rooms across the span of western Tibet. Cheaper and more communal in my opinion, though admittedly it does get a little old after like the 10^th night in row.

Lhatse was also the last tree for 1000 km there and back. Not a tree to be seen for the 12 days driving and walking in western Tibet. Not that central Tibet has many trees of course, but compared to western Tibet it’s a rainforest!

Lhatse also marked the last of the pavement would we experience for the next 12 days. Now you know me, I’m a pretty crunchy environmentalist and think that too much paving is not a good thing, but I have to say that pavement is my ass’s friend and something very much needed in western Tibet – though it’s probably still 5-8 years still coming. Some might argue that the dirt roads and stream crossings, etc make it all more adventurous and mystical. Bullocks I say! There’s nothing wrong with having a little ribbon of asphalt to guide your vehicle smoothly and quickly from point A to point B, especially when those points are 4 days apart!

DAY 2 - 3

Lhatse to Saga, 306 km. Saga to Darchen, 518 km.

Driving, driving, driving, driving, driving and more driving…..I’m not going to spend much time talking about our road time b/c it was pretty much the same for the first and last 4 days. Dust, dirt, rock, wind. A barren, harsh land inhabited sparsely (western Tibet makes Wyoming look crowded) where the wind, sun and snow rule. I’ve never driven through a land less touched by humans. Time seems to be the only inhabitant, with an occasional Himalayan hare or hawk to remind you that this really isn’t the Moon or Mars, just a land reserved for the Mother herself, a private sanctuary of silence and space. A place where the mind could lose itself in openness, where distances are deceptive and deadly, where a trickle of water means desperate, clinging life can be found nearby. Broken only by the occasionally bathroom break/seat shift or the random outpost of a town here and there, the dirt track continued on and on into the distance, where time was measured by shadow and cloud movements, not hours or kilometers.

At the end of the Day 3, we finally reached Lake Manasarovar, a brilliant turquoise blue-green oasis in this seeming desert of rock bone and dust breath…and there, our first views of Mount Kailash in the distance. Manasarovar, or Mapham Yum-tso (Victorious Lake) in Tibetan, is the most venerated of Tibet’s many, many lakes. According to ancient Hindu and Buddhist cosmology the four great rivers of the Indian subcontinent, the Indus, the Ganges, the Sutlej and the Brahmaputra arise from Manasarovar, though in reality only the Sutlej originates at the lake. This lake has been circumambulated by Indian pilgrims since at least 1700 years ago when it was extolled in the sacred Sanskrit literature called the Puranas. A Hindu interpretation has it that this lake is the outward manifestation of the supreme god Brahma. Legend also has it that the mother of the Buddha, Queen Maya, was bathed at Manasarovar by the gods before giving birth to her son (through her side, not her womb, nonetheless).

Whatever the poets and ancients saints have said about this Lake, its deep blue-green waters are a remarkable sight to behold after several days covered in dust and seeing nothing but burnt shades of brown and yellow. A deep sense of reverence and relief spread over us as we could now finally see our destination within sight. We were so close after such a long journey (and this is not to compare our jeep travel to those of the really devout pilgrim’s route which may take upwards of 3 years of prostrating to reach the sacred waters of the Lake or the foot of the holy Mount!).

DAY 4

The day of preparation, planning and packing.

Let me just say that Darchen, the town at the base of Mount Kailash, is a 100% certified shit hole. The place is dirty, has absolutely no character, seems totally Chinese run (though it’s not), has a 5:1 homeless dog to human population ratio, shit and piss run in the streets and is basically nothing more than a quick pit stop for starting the Kailash kora.

The first thing we had to do this morning was check in with the local PSB (Public Security Bureau). They are your local ‘spooks’. They are basically responsible for keeping track of all foreigners’ movement and identity. All the really unnecessary permits that we had to get – one for each prefecture we traveled in, 3 total I think, each with their own ‘fee’ of course – are what keep these guys in a job. Besides checking permits and generally harassing those they feel like, their other job is to get drunk and sleep the mornings away in a hangover stupor, which is where we found our lovely agents on this morning…barely awake, barely intelligible, barely functioning. But this was a good thing for Leigh and me because for some strange yet undetermined reason we thought it would be smarter to leave our passports in our apartment in Lhasa and just bring photo copies of our photo page and visas. This caused a lot of stress and became somewhat problematic when crossing the three different army and police checkpoints along the way. Our poor driver TD had to basically explain how we were idiots and forgot them in our rooms in Lhasa and please, please, please help us this one time get by and we’ll never do it again. Of course Leigh and I had to walk up to the checkpoints (and into the PSB office in Darchen) and be really, really obsequious (apologetic). Luckily, no one really wanted to make too much trouble so we were able to get by, but there were moments where it was uncertain and we thought we would have to turn around or at least let CC, MR and ML go ahead while we sat around pouting and wondering why the hell we made such a silly decision.

The five of us agreed to hire yaks for the kora to carry our backpacks and food bags, so that all we had to carry for the 52 km (32.5 miles) - 3 day hike would be our snacks and water. This might have increased the cost of our trip, but I can’t tell you how worth it was to us! Not only did we get to walk with 3 yaks and their handler, KP – a young, cowboyish nomad who took his tsampa straight powder style into the mouth with nothing but a shot of butter tea to chase it – but we didn’t have to carry our 30 pound bags over the hike or over the 18,000 foot plus pass. It made the difference between having a tough but enjoyable kora and a really difficult, possible painful hike that some of us might not have been able to finish. So the yaks were a must for us and wasn’t that bad in cost – 10$ per yak per day plus the 10$ per day for the handler. We could’ve hired porters to carry our bags, but that would have been more expensive and we all felt much more comfortable hiring four legged animals to carry our things than hiring a human to carry our stuff. There was something too colonial about that concept for us to accept it.

Having arranged our portage and being fully stocked on foodstuffs, we settled in, after a beautiful golden pink orange sunset on Gurlu Mandata peak (7780 m), that evening for a nice (relatively) dinner of stir fried vegetables and yak meat and a rousing game of UNO (it was either that or Scrabble, but MR and I were the only ones into the Scrab).

DAY 5

“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

Rising before the light of sunrise, we dressed quickly and headed off, each of us in that early morning Zen zone of slow thoughts and waking movements, each of us wandering the avenues of our morning mind while matching the world’s awakening. For each day we walked, each of us also decided to concentrate on one intention for that day. Today my intention was Gratitude. Gratitude for the opportunity to do this sacred pilgrimage, gratitude for my incredibly blessed life, gratitude for the wonder that is Mother Earth and the stunning backdrop for which to explore the inner and outer worlds, gratitude for my dear and loved friends and family (the roots of my light soul)…so today was my day to walk with gratitude, graciousness and appreciation. It was a perfect first day intention.

The easily followed trail (I wonder how many have walked this very trail before me? 10,000…50,000? And who? How many famous religious and historical figures trod this same track? How many of the countless anonymous pilgrims like me, searching, seeking, following?) quickly leaves the grubby sights of Darchen behind, heading westward. As the cresting sun washed the towering Gurla Mandata peack and immense, sprawling Barkha plain below us with its soft, golden light, we began to climb up and over the first ridge to reach the first place on the trail where Kailash’s southern (or sapphire) face is visible. It’s one thing to see it from the car as you drive in, but it’s something else entirely when you are basically standing in the shadow of this home of the Gods, this center of the known universe for millions. Awe and humbleness are the two words best to describe the feeling. From here we dropped slightly down into the beautiful and surreal Lha-chu river valley that runs roughly north along the west side of Kailash. A deep, gorge with remarkable geology, the valley is truly impressive and memorable. Resembling something more from a science fiction movie than your walking reality, one becomes easily lost in fantasies and dream worlds. I for one did. Many a thought about “the land time forgot” or “journey to the center of the earth” or “clan of the cave bear” or “total recall”…I didn’t say my brain made any sense did I? The hugeness of the mountains and the utter smallness of me was a powerful lesson in the size of not only this world but the universe. How can I honestly think my problems, my accomplishment, my ego are that important, are that big, when compared to these monoliths of time and natural processes?

Continuing across a small plateau and descending back to river after having climbed through the nearby Chörten Kangnyi, we entered the area of Sershong, where we were to meet our yaks and where our driver was brining our bags in the car to load. Stopping for tea while we waited for all these forces to meet in the same intersection of time and space (isn’t that what meetings are all about? Time = x, Space = y. I’ll meet you at x and y), we were entertained (and entertaining) to the a local woman and her daughter who served us delicious butter tea (it gets better tasting the higher in elevation and colder in temperature you go) in a warm canvas tent set up in the valley. Above the tent and literally clinging to the western wall of the Lha-chu canyon and blending in quite secretively is Chuku monastery. All Kailash monasteries were wrecked during the Cultural Revolution and Chuku, founded in the 13^th century by Götsangpa Gompo Pel (who was Kagyupa, another, older branch of Tibetan Buddhism) was the first to be rebuilt.

After about an hour of tea and fun with the little girl (in their absolutely distinctive and beautifully colored western Tibet style chubas, or traditional dress) making faces and playing mime games, our yak man and driver finally arrived and we packed up and started out again. Following the river upstream along the eastern bank, we passed over rocky landslides and grassy fields on our way to our final destination: Drira Phuk monastery. This whole section of the trail is in the shadow of the western (or ruby) face of Kailash. The closer you get, the more impressed you are with the size and shape of Kailash. It’s actually 50 million years older than any of the surrounding mountains, which in itself is quite unique and unusual. We were joined occasionally on our hike by small pica (mountain rodents) or all black ravens soaring on the strong winds overhead. The farther I walked into the mountainous womb, the quieter and more introspective I became. I usually get pretty quiet when I get into ‘the zone’ of hiking long distances, but this was a bit different. I felt like I wasn’t alone, and I don’t mean my hiking companions. At one point I was nearly overcome with emotional waves of gratitude and awe-inspiring natural beauty around me.

It was a powerful day spiritually.

Finally, towards the end of the day, tired but content, we arrived at Drira Phuk monastery (our first night’s sleeping place), which looks out to the north (or gold) face of Kailash. This to me was by far the most impressive view of the mountain during the entire kora - a sheer wall of gray-black rock and snow and ice towering thousands of feet straight up from the glacier bowl at the bottom. Kailash is a most extraordinary and imposing mountain. The monastery takes its name from the words drira (‘female yak horn’) and phuk (‘cave’). This is where the Bön warrior Drabla tossed boulders around with his horns. The great saint Götsangpa meditated here and Buddhists say he first discovered the kora route around Kailash. He was led to Drira Phuk by a yak that turned out to be the lion-faced goddess Dakini. Ironically, it was our yak man though that instead of leading us to the monastery as agreed, took us across the river to the sod and concrete, recently erected guesthouse situated along the Kailash glacier melt creek. Needing water, I make my way up to the base of the Kailash glacier and in the fading light of the day, as the wind is blowing stoutly up the valley and freezing my breath to my beard, I break through the surface ice to dip my pot in the delicious, albeit very cold, runoff waters and drank deeply. It could very well be the most delicious water I’ve ever had in my life.

Soon thereafter, in the deep dark of early night, with the Milky Way as plain as Interstate 70 across the plains of Kansas, our group, all huddled together in the low roofed sod house, in the shadow of the sacred mountain…there we spent our night, dining on instant noodles, Snickers and butter tea.

DAY 6

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn”. – John Muir

If we were to have taken the left branch upon coming early the next morning to our first valley’s intersection, we would have walked (in a few days time) to the source of the Indus river. Opting for the kora route to the right, we began the day with a pretty stiff climb from the guesthouse up the Drölma-chu Valley that eventually takes us up to the Drölma-la pass, the big obstacle on the kora and the most intimidating aspect of today. This sudden ascent and pretty cold morning really kicked our butts and caught us off guard. Luckily, after we got moving and onto of the ridge it was easier going to the foot of the pass. Once up on the high ridge that continues up to the higher pass, we entered a stark world of warmth-less sun, rock, ice, snow, wind and glaciers. The air was cold and thin, the wind intermittent but stiff, and the sun a constant companion reminding me what life on Mars could be like – light but no heat. A short distance further, we came to the Shiva-tsal (5330 m), a rocky expanse dotted with stone cairns covered with clothing. Pilgrims are supposed to undergo a symbolic death at this point, leaving their old life behind along with an item of clothing or hair (in Leigh and I’s case) behind so that the compassionate spirits that inhabit that area will not forget you. MR took this place as the right inspiration to cut all of her hair off, not just a lock or two like Leigh and I. It’s a really powerful place to be sure. Because of everyone being all bundled up and wearing heavy hats throughout the hike, none of us even noticed MR’s dramatic transformation until we were back in Darchen at our guesthouse washing our hair in basins!

There are several other ‘karma’ testing sights along this stretch of the trail, but I didn’t take part of any of them. I think deep down I was scared to find out what my karma said!

Eventually, after this symbolic cemetery, we began the steady 200 m climb up the daunting pass. After a stunning reminder that what we thought was bad is really nothing at all thanks to a few very devout pilgrims who were prostrating the whole way around the mountain (takes about 3 weeks!), we were able to continue at a slow and steady pace up the rocky pass to the top which is garlanded with an enormous amount of prayer flags, shouting the Tibetan pass crossing mantra “Ki ki so so, lha gyalo!’ (Victory to the Gods!). Commenting to ourselves that that wasn’t as bad as we had built it up to be, we realized that Drölma (or Tara) actually had helped us….maybe because we were worthy pilgrims, maybe because she was having compassion for us poor suffering ‘whities’. Because of an earlier encounter with a Tibetan fortune teller, Leigh brought several special strings of prayer flags, both for herself to hang but also for me to leave as well. This was a very, very nice and meaningful ceremony at the top of the pass, a stunning 18, 700 feet above sea level, definitely the highest either of us has ever been outside of an airplane. And to think we walked here! Jeez. Hanging the flags with the proper amount of reverence and humility, we took a short break to catch our breath, catch the view and catch a photo or two from this rocky outpost between worlds. Crossing the path represents a leaving behind of your old live and being reborn into a new one, washed of all of your sins from this lifetime. I’ll take that!

From the top of the pass, it is a very steep 400 m descent past a beautiful arrowhead shaped lake called Gauri Kund (at 5608 m is one of the highest lakes in the world), which means ‘Lake of Compassion’. Passing over generally barren and rocky ground, the trail becomes quite indistinct though this doesn’t really matter as there is only one way down. Of course as we are tenderly making our way down the rocky slopes, along come a large group of Tibetan ‘one-dayers’, pilgrims who make the 52 km kora in one long 14+ hour day. Basically running down this rocky slope, they cling to the mountain like mountain goats, giggling and yelling the whole way down. Their enthusiasm and joy are totally contagious and we found ourselves laughing and yelling along with them, even if we didn’t join them on their reckless rush down. At the bottom of the pass, the trail continues along the eastern (or crystal) side of Kailash (though it remains hidden from view for the majority of the rest of the route) along the long and gentle Lham-chu Khir river valley. Following the valley (which eventually changes names to the Dzong-chu, or Fortress River) for longer than we thought we needed to walk (about 4 hours…day 2 of the kora is the longest and most physically demanding day), we finally turn back southwest and eventually find the Zutul-phuk Monastery, our day 2 sleeping destination.

Exhausted but exalted, we quickly ate our instant noodles, had a very short but very ‘exhilarating’ oxygen party (sniffing oxygen because as CC said, ‘sniffing anything out of a can has to be fun!’), and then found ourselves asleep soon thereafter.

It was a powerful day physically.

DAY 7

The final day….we completed the circle today.

Knowing we didn’t have much time on the trail today, we slept in and had a nice leisurely (and fun) breakfast (our usual tsampa, Tibetan butter tea and coffee) in the monastery kitchen. There was our group of 5, our yak man, the single monk who was responsible for the monastery and a horse man from another group who lost his horse! How do you lose a horse?! This was where we witnessed our yak man taking spoonfuls of tsampa powder (imagine flour), putting it in his mouth and then chasing it with a cupful of butter tea. Well, I guess that’s one way to do it…the cowboy way. Typically, you put the tsampa flour in a bowl, pour in sugar and butter tea and make porridge with it. But not this guy, no way! He’s too hard core. Definitely too hard core for us to emulate!

After a brief tour of the monastery, we launch into our final day’s walking. Next stop is Darchen and a nice hot meal of veggies and yak! No ups and downs today, it’s all slow and steady, relatively flat walking down the river valley. Like its counterpart on the western side of Kailash, this valley has its own unique and unusual character, looking much like Utah or Arizona, with the multicolored sandstone layers. Sooner than we thought, we were being dumped back onto the Barkha plain with Gurla Mandata peak as the mile marker and directional compass to Darchen.

Locking arms with one another, we made our final steps back into civilization high on our sense of accomplishment, some of us (like me) with tears in their eyes at sadness that it’s over and pride in my feat. Walking back into the Darchen guesthouse, we gave each other a big group hug and had lots of cheers to shout. Covering more than 30 miles in 2 ½ days and climbing up over 18,000 feet, we achieved what few have done before…we completed the Kailash kora!!!! A lifetime of sins have been washed away, a new life begun, a rebirth by walking through the physical and mental landscapes of our own makings. Three days of hiking, a lifetime of love, compassion, patience and memories.

It was a very powerful day emotionally.

More to come….