4th & Final Tibet Post - Tuesday, June 28

I Move into a Monastery

A rare opportunity arose a week ago where a Lama requested our host family to have us (me and the Chilean volunteer) come teach English at his monastery, and we were promptly relocated here in an attempt to do so. I couldn't have been more thrilled about the chance to see first-hand what Tibetan Buddhist lifestyle is like right at the heart of it, amongst the monks themselves, and to have the Chinese government's approval (which is needed to do anything, particularly relating to foreigners, in this tightly controlled area) seemed close to a miracle since they'd denied all previous similar requests by my volunteer coordinator. But nonetheless, I now find myself sitting on the edge of yet another remote, far-from-anywhere-at-all valley I never would've known about or thought of coming to stay in, with a week's worth of teaching young monks under my belt and a much deeper understanding of the culture to go along with it.

The students had no previous English instruction, so I started (and continue now) with the ABC's. If it weren't for my experience in Nepal to give me some comfort and ideas about running a classroom, I can't see that I would've made any progress at all. The Lama seems to have wanted to make the most of our limited time here and packed each class schedule with a full 3 periods of English every day. So it would've taken no effort at all to have the young monks bored out of their minds with it, but luckily I've been able to hold their attention thus far with new diversions I try to devise so that they can forget they're only repeating the same 26 shapes and sounds day in and day out.

The monastery itself is still undergoing some reconstruction after the earthquake forced it to move down from the cliffs to a lower part of the hillside. This has made it a fascinating time to be here as I have seen how many features, like the great golden statues towering at the front of the chanting / prayer hall, are actually created. Despite the astonishing array of gold and thousands of precious stones that adorn the outside of each and every one of these statues, Tibetans place much more importance on what's inside them than on the elaborate exteriors. The base is filled with bundles of tea leaves while the body itself is filled with books and scriptures. The belief is that without these items the statue is worthless, or certainly not worthy of worship. It would be like a person without a soul: just an empty body or shell. I've picked up a lot from being able to see so much of the objects and rituals, but the most revealing part of being here has been the conversations (through Tenzin, an English-speaker and passionate Tibetan who lives in the nearest town) with the Lama who was only too willing to tell me about his 3 uninterrupted years of meditation in a small windowless hut and other such personal experiences in his life devoted to spiritual enlightenment. Even just in the first 21 years of it, having been recognized as the reincarnation of the previous lama at an early age, he has a lot of interesting stories to tell.

The young monks went home to their families over the weekend, and this afforded us the opportunity ... [I'm sorry if I've started to sound more formal in my word choices, as I get the sense that I am. With the Classics being the only English books to be found in the Xining bookstore, I've been reading Charles Dickens lately, and I believe, as one of my few sources of English communication in this secluded little part of Asia, it's managed to make me think as if people still speak the way they did at the time it was written. It's also made me think I can continue any sentence for as long as I should like provided I insert enough commas to keep it going. But I've become conscious of these new tendencies and will try my best to keep them in check] ... As I was saying, we had the chance to stay with a group of Nomads in their traditional brown yak hair tents and get a feel for that sort of lifestyle, which 80% of Tibetans still lead. Each of these tents, or at least the 5 I was shuffled between for neverending cups of tea during our stay, are set up exactly the same. Immediately left of the entrance is the heaping mound of yak dung, which is used to fuel the stove built out of stone and clay in the centre. The next corner on the far left then holds cooking instruments while the space directly opposite the entrance is a stand for butter candles, photos of famous lamas and other personal prayer devices like prayer wheels and scripture books. The right side of the tent usually has enough space for 2 beds, though these also serve as couches, tables and countertops during the day. It seems about as simple a life as can be found the way time passes with yaks grazing calmly and children playing noisily on the sloping green grassland surrounded by snowy peaks. The families were extremely friendly and welcoming as they served up as much dried yak meat and yogurt (the freshest, most delicious I've ever tasted) as I could possibly handle.

As my time in Tibet comes near to its end, I feel totally satisfied with all I've been able to see and do here. Looking back I'm surprised to recall the amount that has happened in just 5 weeks since departing Kathmandu. In leaving soon, it's not at all with the sad heart and great sense of attachment that I felt in Nepal, but rather a joy at having had a fully positive experience in a very unique part of the world and readiness to soon be back home amongst my cherished friends and family there.

And so it's now time to say one last Namaste. As much or as little as you may have kept up with this blog, thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing in the journey with me. It's been a thrill and at times a much needed comfort to know that there have always been friends and family out there to read through all these jumbled thoughts and observations along the way. Thank you for that.

Peace, Love & Happiness to All!

Tibet Post #3 - Life on the Plateau

Monday, June 20

I may have spoken too soon about the butter in the tea. Perhaps my family was trying to ease me into this particular unpleasant experience by avoiding it in the first week, but now it's with an air of providing me a great treat that I'll often be presented with a steaming bowl full to the brim with large lumps of butter melting away at the surface. It is not very tasty.

Otherwise, though, things have only been getting better around here as I've become accustomed to my new environment. The days are passing peacefully as I continue to help with the rebuilding around the neighbourhood. A few new updates to share:

1. A lot of the Chinese workers left. People were speculating that they had too much trouble working on the high altitude / low oxygen plateau or else maybe had some problems with the locals. On the surface there's a tolerant harmony established between the Han Chinese and the Tibetans, but tensions occasionally rise up from underneath I guess. In any case, nobody seems to know the specifics of the sudden departure, but it seems to me to be quite a blow to the already slow-moving recovery process. I feel for all the people who now have even longer to wait for a house to move into, but the people themselves appear to have no limits to their patience on this matter (and many others). Most here are in no rush for anything at all, even as they mop lakes of rainwater from the middle of their tents, from which they can see clear across one side of the town to the other with no buildings around to block the view.

2. My host sister left for a few days to pick up a new Chilean volunteer from the nearest airport (a 3 day task at minimum), so I was left without an English-speaking translator. This, I very much enjoyed, as my host mother and I had to get very creative with hand gestures, and I picked up a great deal more Tibetan words out of necessity.

3. The school has been on holiday since I arrived. This isn't typical holiday time in the rest of the country, but in this particular area some valuable type of caterpillar can be found and harvested right in these few weeks, so the schools are closed to allow the children to help their families with the hunt. It's hard to get a complete description of what exactly the caterpillars are used for, but I've been told it's like medicine to give strength. People will put them in their drinks to stay healthy. I'm not sure in what form they're added (crushed? powdered? chopped? whole??), but there must be a lot of faith in them as they're very expensive.

So, even though my project here was originally intended to be teaching, I've been perfectly content to be working on earthquake recovery efforts instead and found myself not at all disappointed to hear that the school, instead of opening back up today, won't resume classes until the 24th (perhaps there are yet more caterpillars to be uncovered out there). I've been teaching English for a couple hours most evenings (between tea and dinner) to the neighbour's kids anyway, and the 1:2 ratio is pretty enjoyable.

Thus, all goes well here as I continue to enjoy the views from the elevated outdoor "toilet" (despite the traverse through a yard full of massive dogs and yaks looking to attack to reach it), am happy to be reacquainted with hot water for showers (even if they're done by bucket in the kitchen...still feels like an upgrade), and have progressed from eating with my hand to a pair of chopsticks. Feels like I've jumped at least 100 years forward in terms of the development of comforts in human history just within the past two weeks. Even my bed has an actual mattress on it!

Tibet Post #2: Post-Earthquake Town

Monday, June 13

I'm now comfortably settled in with my new host family in the small broken-down village of Chenduo, a part of the Yushu Prefecture up on the Tibetan Plateau. There has been little (hardly any at all) recovery from the earthquake that happened last April, and most of the locals are still living in tents beside the crumbled piles of stone and dirt that used to be their homes. It's like one big construction zone. Even shops are schools have been reduced to a collection of tents while the rebuilding takes place. In short it all looks very temporary and yet this is how they've been living for 14 months now, and by the looks of things will continue to live for quite some time to come. I guess it took an entire year for the government support to come into effect, so no real efforts started up until just within the last 2 months. So, in the village itself, there's not much to see, but the surrounding mountains on all sides of the narrow valley are wonderful. It's a very peaceful place.

I've been absolutely loving my work helping neighbours to shovel dirt, mix concrete or put up walls. At first, I was with a team of Chinese workers who'd come in from Sichuan Province to earn some extra money now that farming has become all automated at home and there's not enough work left for them there. Construction with them was well underway and the outline of a house was starting to take shape. But when they didn't show up on the 2nd day because of some drizzling rain, I started up with the family just behind our own cluster of tents. Even though the quake was a full 14 months ago, this yard looked like it could've been only one week. It's just a grandmother, grandfather and young grandson that live there, with the son/father being a nomad and away from the village most of the time. Their "home" is just a big mound of earth still, so I've been digging through and separating the large stones away from the dirt to be used to rebuild. The family is quite poor so can't afford any equipment or extra help to speed things along. The work is fun out in the clean, fresh air and the family is extremely appreciative, so even though there's talk of helping rebuild the orphanage or helping at other yards in the neighbourhood, I'd be perfectly happy staying with this project as long as there's still work there that I'm capable of doing.

In terms of culture, this is a fascinating place to be. The lifestyle is at once both simple and advanced, with more years of human history than I, as a Western Canadian, can hardly fathom. Buddhism is deeply ingrained in every part of the lifestyle and those beliefs are used to explain everything that happens from small daily events to massive upheavals like the earthquake. Being totally immersed in the family offers endless interesting insights into the mindset, and I enjoy hearing all the stories of famous reincarnations or the actions of great lamas in this area over a thousand years ago. The culture is also very closely linked to nature, with mountains, rivers, the sky etc all having their own spirits. This is why Tibetans won't partake in mining or chopping down trees in holy places. Every life is considered valuable, so they tend not to eat small animals like fish or chickens (figuring that if they must eat meat to survive in the high altitude, somewhat harsh environment, they might as well make it a big one like a yak to feed the most people).

I didn't know what to expect from the food here, but have found it all very tasty. And after nothing but dal bhat for 10 months straight, the variety of dishes is almost overwhelming. It's usually some kind of noodle soup for dinner, rice with assorted stir-fry dishes for lunch, and the staple food, tsampa, for breakfast. Tsampa is barley flour, yak butter, yak cheese, yak milk tea, and sometimes sugar all mixed together to make a rather tasty clump of breakfast paste. In the afternoon, there's also a break for tea, more appropriately called "small dinner" given the amount of food served, which is how it directly translates. But this is far from the only time for tea during the day. They seem to drink it non-stop from morning to night. I don't think I've read an account of Tibetan culture without finding reference (usually highly shocked and disgusted) to the tea. I don't know why they put the salt into it, but am relieved to say I didn't find it nearly as painfully undrinkable as it would seem. In fact, I was able to acquire a taste for it within the first few sips after the initial surprise at the unfamiliar flavour wore off. Perhaps I'm just lucky that my family doesn't also add butter to make the more traditional, and I'm I'm sure much harder to get used to, drink of choice.

Back in the Big City

After a long absence from internet, cell phones and most other signs indicating the current century we're living in, I have returned to Kathmandu and the place has never looked so advanced. All is relative I suppose. I'm only here for a few days. Just long enough to squeeze in a book release, a ceremony at the small library I supported, visits to my old school & host family, editing of a new class 10 textbook to be published and to record my voice for some audio CDs to be produced. Actually it's not quite enough time for all the things I'd like to do / people I'd like to see being back here again, but it looks as if extending my trip by about another year is not quite possible.

My time in Tibet was fascinating, exhilarating and calming all at once. I wrote blog entries in my notebook to try to capture more of my thoughts in the moment rather than a more hazy summary after the fact. There are 4 of these altogether and I'll be typing them up over the next little while (when I find the time and motivation) as I slowly make my way back home. It's far too many words to take in all at once anyway, so any readers still hanging on out there will probably appreciate some short delays between posts. With that said, here we go:

TIBET BLOG #1 - Saturday, June 4 - Tour to THE Mountain

Right now I'm in Xining, China after a spectacular and eventful week and a half since departing Kathmandu. Being in Nepal for so long must've lulled me into a sleepy comfort about the ease of moving about in foreign lands because, I must admit, I came completely unprepared to this new country. It was only after arriving that it dawned on me how little I knew of Chinese or Tibetan languages (zilch) or really the country in general. I'm sure, now, that a big part of what made the Nepal transition feel so seamless and natural was all that I had learned about the culture & language before getting there. All this effort I had completely forgotten, so as I dove in head first, it was with slight surprise in mid-air to find that it was directly into the very deepest end of the pool that I was headed.

In Western China and within Tibet itself, there's hardly any presence of English whatsoever, so I found myself doing a whole lot of pointing, hand-gesturing and laughing to make myself understood. Well, the laughing didn't exactly help with the understanding, but it did keep people from either getting frustrated with my ignorance or completely giving up on trying to help the out-of-place Canadian that wound up in a part of the world not commonly tread upon by foreigners. Simple things like getting taxis and using a payphone at the airport in particular turned into highly amusing processes. But once I met up with my hosts all went very smoothly and I was extremely well taken care of.

I still had a week before my project was to start, so after 2 days in Xining, I boarded the new train to Lhasa, the old heart of Tibet. Up on the plateau between there and the Nepal border, I heard so many times I was standing in front of the highest something (lake, wetlands, palace, monastery, river, blade of grass...you name it), that I almost forgot to be impressed when I eventually laid eyes upon the world's very highest point. But that first glimpse was at a distance on a cloudy day. There was no denying its awesome presence upon turning up right at its feet and sleeping at its base overnight. Sagarmatha to the Nepalis, Qomolangma to the Tibetans, and Mt.Everest to the Westerners, there's probably not a culture in the world that doesn't hold the tallest peak with some sort of reverence. I, myself, must've taken about a hundred photos of its North face in an attempt to capture it under the absolute best of lighting conditions as the sun was setting, though on reviewing those pictures I have no idea how to judge which the very best of these might be.

All in all, I can't imagine a better introduction to Tibet and am now looking forward to heading off to a small place very far removed from anything at all.