Seeing all the turmoil in Tibet has made me really sad. It's hard to see the pictures of burning shops in Lhasa and the violence and anger at the demonstrations. I hate to think of there being so much upheaval there now, because I remember it as being so quiet and peaceful. Lhasa is such an amazing city and the Potala Palace is truly beautiful.
Long before kiddos, I used to travel. I took a nine-month backpacking trip around Asia when I was 24. I was in Tibet for three weeks during that trip. That was November 1997. I can't believe it's been ten years already.
At that time, Tibet wasn't an easy country to travel. I don't know if it is now or not. Travel was by very infrequent bus, in the front cab of a truck, or tractor. You haven't lived until you've traveled any distance by tractor. It's too bad I was travelling in the stone age, before digital cameras, or I could share pictures.
I loved Tibet. It was so tranquil. When I was there, the sky was always blue, and the air was so fresh. People were so friendly, and of all the countries I visited, Tibetans smiled the most. It's kind of amazing to think about. Life is not easy for Tibetans, but they are smiling all of the time.
Tibetans are intensely religious, and there are nunneries and monasteries everywhere. One of the highlights of my trip was staying at a nunnery in the mountains that had natural hot spring. I remember going to the hot spring under the light of a full moon, and maybe I was just lost in the mysticism of the country, but it felt magical, almost divine. I really did feel close to heaven. It could also have been that the hot spring was very warm, and I stayed in it much too long. When I got out, I was so dizzy that I sat on the cold stone steps in the freezing cold weather. I thought I might pass out. I didn't feel the cold at all -- not until I got back to my unheated room and slept in my baklava.
I also remember being kindly invited in by two nuns to drink butter tea. It's like half melted butter and half tea. Good lord, it was awful! Gagging it down was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I felt like such an ass. Here were these two wonderful young women sharing their tea and their culture with me, and I could barely focus on them. It was everything I could do not to yak on the floor. I was there for maybe an hour or so. We couldn't talk much because they didn't speak English, and I didn't speak Tibetan. Still, it was such a lovely experience (aside from the butter tea, of course). I couldn't help but marvel at how open and inviting they were and how excited they were to meet with a foreigner.
I also spent two weeks in the Tibetan enclave above Dharamsala in India. It's where the Dalai Lama lives and where the Tibetan government in exile is. It felt like what Tibet would be if it was modernized. When I was there, I met a monk who asked me to teach him, and his friend, English.
I was sitting on a roof-top cafe reading a book when I saw him walking around asking others there to teach them. The friend spoke not one word of English, while he just a little. People kept saying no, and I felt bad for him. I'm such a sucker for that kind of thing and knew that if he asked I couldn't say no. And because I am so selfless, I remember thinking, "Please don't ask me. Please don't ask me. I just want to sit here in peace." I put on the earphones of my walkman and buried my nose in my book hoping he would pass me. Ugh, I am such a crap human being. He didn't pass me by and asked me to teach him English, and I said yes.
He spoke very little English, so we could barely communicate. All I really learned about him was that was originally from the province of Amdo (same as the Dalai Lama), and he had walked for 30 nights to get to Nepal before he made his way to India. Despite the fact that life couldn't have been easy for him, he still seemed so happy. I had admired how he could ask person after person to teach him English and when they said no, he just moved on until he found one who would, never disappointed -- at least, not that I could see. He was extremely kind, and I liked him very much, even though we couldn't really speak to each other. I genuinely enjoyed his company. I was his English tutor for the two weeks I was there.
When I was leaving Dharamsala, I introduced him to an English woman that I had studied yoga with. I asked if she could take on his teaching. She declined but promised to find someone who would. Years later, and I'm not clear on the details, my yoga friend and the former monk met again, fell in love, and married. They now have two gorgeous daughters and live in England.
Funny how life works out sometimes.
As for the situation in Tibet, I hope it works out peacefully. The Tibetans have tried for the last 50 years to resolve the situation with non-violence. It's kind of sad, but the problem with non-violence is that it's easy to ignore. Tibetans live very much by Buddhist values, which are peaceful. This is why I doubt the Chinese government's claims of suicide bombers. However, I guess you never know. Anger does all kinds of things to people. In the end, it's hard to fault Tibetans for wanting independence for their country. I, for one, hope they get it.
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4 comments:
You make me want to go to Tibet! What a neat entry - I feel more worldly, now, and a bit peaceful just reading about your experience.
With whom did you travel?
:)
Jody - July, 2003 board
People smiled a lot in the countries I visited in southern Africa as well (Zambia and Botswana). And a Brazilian friend of mine said everyone smiles in Rio, especially bums on the street. It seems like the people who smile the least are the ones who have all the modern conveniences at their fingertips. From experience, I can tell you not a lot of Europeans are smiling these days -- even in Paris, where the architecture alone just blows my mind. Generally, we U.S.A.'ers don't smile as much because there's just no time for smiles. I know I don't smile as much now with my stressful job and all my time-consuming hobbies and the bills and bank accounts that go along with all that. I smiled more when I was broke and job-less in San Diego, living on a friend's couch and spending my days at the beach. Hmmm...
Hi, Jody! I actually was travelling alone. However, when you travel by yourself, you often meet up with others along the way and do short trips with them. For example, I met my yoga friend studying yoga in an ashram. We agreed to meet up in Dharamsala in a week since we wanted to go to different places on the way. She travelled up with her sister and I travelled with a German guy I met at the ashram.
Brian, I think about that a lot. There was a study recently about happiness levels. Apparently, the happiest people on Earth live in Vanuatu. In order to be truly satisfied, I think it must be that you have just enough of the basic necesseties. Of course, if you don't have enough, you are starving, homeless, and/or lonely. If you have too much, then you tend to want more. You can't just have a house, but you have to have a certain type of house. Rather than an immediate reward from work, like fishing and catching dinner, people are often in jobs they hate, so they can make money to buy dinners they don't have time to enjoy. I think we create so much of our own stress in the modern world. What we think are conveniences can very often be stressors. By the way, Thai people smile a lot too. I'll try and find that study and post it.
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