Abiding nowhere, ...

Berlin

2011-04-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

Berlin

Forsythia blooming for Cynthia.

Le Louvre

2011-04-14T05:50:00.001-07:00

Le Louvre

Notre Dame

2011-04-14T05:47:00.000-07:00

Notre Dame

Sacré Coeur

2011-04-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

Sacré Coeur

Catacombs

2011-04-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

Catacombs

Sightseeing in Paris

2011-04-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

Paris Environs

Saint-Chapelle

2011-04-14T05:19:00.000-07:00

Saint-Chapelle According to our brochure, Saint-Chapelle was built between 1242 and 1248, in accordance with the wishes of king Louis IX. It housed relics of the Passion of Christ, including the Crown of Thorns, acquired in 1239 for a sum that greatly exceeded the cost of building the chapel itself.

Family Trip to France

2011-04-14T02:11:00.000-07:00

What a great opportunity to go to France! Sarah knows Paris, and a family in which she teaches English has offered their home for a week in Bouvigal, just outside Paris. More photos of Bouvigal

Charming Chiang Mai

2009-11-17T03:16:00.001-08:00

We are happy we connected with our Whidbey Island friend, Todd, in
Ayuthaya. As we are nearing the end of our journey, he was beginning
his. It was lovely to have this intersection for an afternoon, after
which we boarded a night bus for Chiang Mai in North Central Thailand.
Though we were on a luxury bus with reclining seats, a good night's
sleep still eluded us.

We arrived in Chiang Mai grateful to have booked a room in Riverside
House, a small quiet bed and breakfast with a lovely garden. We were
about 15 minutes walk from the center and right on the river which
runs through the city.

After spending a quiet first day, we set out to explore. Chiang Mai is
absolutely loaded with temples and monasteries. I don't think you can
walk more than two blocks in any direction without finding at least
one and often more. I was quite amused to come across one that had a
large Donald Duck among all the other animals staged in its garden. It
has surprised me to see a fair bit of kitschy stuff amongst the
buddhas. Plaster and plastic figures and plastic flowers abound in all
of Asia.

One of our must do's was a Prison Massage. We read in our guidebook
that the women's prison trained inmates about 6 months before release
in a number of skills. One of these skills is Thai massage. Upon
reaching a level of skill, they are able to work in the prison massage
shop and the money collected is saved for their release. We had great
massages and were put in some positions we hadn't experienced before!
Once again, we felt great about where our tourist dollars were going
and that these women would leave prison with a way to earn a
livelihood.

The following day, we both took a Thai cooking class at an organic
farm in the countryside. We first had a brief visit to a market where
we were introduced to about 20 different kinds of rice.

At the farm, we found all the fresh ingredients that we would pound
into our green, red or yellow curry paste. Most of these ingredients
grow year-round in Thailand which gives the food it's wonderful
freshness. Our teacher was a very charming and humorous Thai man, who,
while showing us traditional methods and ingredients, offered
encouragement to modify his recipes and make the food our own way with
the ingredients available to us when we returned home. David and I are
looking forward to giving it a try.

Ayuthaya

2009-11-17T03:13:00.001-08:00

Ayuthaya is a city about 45 minutes north of Bangkok. It was the royal
capital of Siam from 1350 to 1767, before Thailand was established
with its capital at Bangkok.

We spent three days there visiting some of the sights, including ruins
of temples (called Wats) and monuments. Most of these were built in
14th and 15th centuries and show both Hindu and Buddhist influences.
They are reminiscent of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

What struck me is how many of these temples seem to have been built by
kings to accrue merit or for their own glorification. Several
monuments were built in recognition of victories in subduing other
peoples in warfare.

In fact, it seemed a bit incongruous to see so many statues of the
Buddha in places designed to honor persons with big egos and
questionable achievements.

Maybe we have just visited too many Buddhist temples on this trip. But
it also brings up questions I have about the interrelated concepts of
merit, karma, rebirth and reincarnation.

The idea of doing "holy" acts in order to build up one's own store of
merit, with the idea that it will somehow help oneself after death
seems to me misguided. It's the same disillusionment I felt growing up
with the idea that through good works, people can better their chances
of going to heaven rather than going to hell. Except in a metaphorical
sense, I just don't buy it.

And then there are the concepts of karma and rebirth that I really
cannot get my mind around. I just don't believe that any kind of
individual personality or identity persists after death, except among
the people who remember you. Don't we have a responsibility to
recognize when we are engaged in wishful thinking and set this aside?

My own experience resonates much more closely with the Buddha's
teaching of anatta-- that there really is no "self" there. It seems
very simple and true. Why complicate it with endless conceptual webs
of "good" and "bad" karma, karmic connections, rebirth and
reincarnation? To me it just feels better to drop all that.

As an alternative to visiting lots of Buddhist temples in Thailand, I
decided to pick up a copy of the book, "Monk in the Mountain: Simple
lessons you can use from a Western Buddhist monk," by Ajahn Sumano
Bhikkhu.

Sumano Bhikkhu was born in Chicago. In the mid-1960s, he attended
college and went to law school. He married and made a career in real
estate. Then in his mid thirties, he quit work, divorced and took up
his spiritual practice in the thudong lineage of Theravada Buddhism.

Since 1991, he has been living in a cave near Ubonratchathani in
eastern Thailand, following a strict regimen of meditation.

His book reflects some deep wisdom, springing from his meditation
practice. It's a collection of questions from visitors to his cave and
his answers. The idea of karma is a key point in many of his
responses, and many of these are no doubt helpful.

But his response (p66) to a woman who as a child had suffered sexual
abuse by a male relative really stuck in my craw. He talked about the
possibility that in a previous lifetime, perhaps she had committed
some dastardly deed to this person, and that this was a process of
karma working itself out.

What nonsense!
(In my not-so-humble opinion)

The idea of karma as somehow providing just rewards for good or bad
deeds seems to me like pure fantasy.

I am reminded of an interesting exchange between Johannes, a sangha
member at our own Tahoma Monastery on Whidbey Island with our teacher,
Shodo Harada Roshi during a question and answer session a few years
back.

Johannes asked, "What is karma?"

Roshi replied, "It's not part of Buddhism."

!!!

I always remember that with a smile.

My Fears

2009-11-11T22:31:00.000-08:00

Coming into the last week of our 18-week journey gives me an
opportunity to reflect on the various fears I've harbored along the
way, how I've tried to deal with them, and what's actually come about.

Even before we left our home on Whidbey Island, I had plenty of time
to imagine all manner of disasters, calamities and misfortunes. It
seems that planning and fear go hand in hand-- you try to anticipate
things that may go wrong, and attempt to minimize the risk of
consequences.

The first set of concerns had to do with the kora around Mt. Kailash,
which includes crossing a mountain pass at an elevation of 18,600 ft.
Any time a person goes that high, there is a danger of altitude
sickness, or hypothermia, or freezing of fingers or toes.

Altitude sickness is somewhat unpredictable and can occur even among
those who have been or similar or higher elevations before. The
recommended treatment is to descend to a lower altitude immediately,
but when the base of the mountain is at 15,000 feet, you can't go
lower than that. In order to deal with this eventuality, I decided to
rent a Gamow bag to take along in case of emergency, but as it turned
out, neither Julian nor I had any significant difficulty with the
altitude.

With the perspective of hindsight, I would say that the Gamow bag was
unnecessary. [In fact, at the last minute our Tibetan guide, without
consulting us, didn't bring the bag on the kora anyway.]

Both Julian and I were relatively fit and we ascended the mountain
more gradually than many others do. So while it was highly recommended
by our trekking agency, if I were to do it again, I would leave the
Gamow bag behind.

Hypothermia or frostbite are usually the result of winter storms that
can bring windy and cold conditions. We only had one night where the
temperature dropped below freezing, so there was never any danger of
frostbite on this trip.

I had heard stories of people being bitten by dogs in Tibet,
especially by the Tibetan Mastiff that can be particularly fearsome as
it tries to protect its territory. Our Tibetan guide in Lhasa
described one of his clients who got bitten when she went to pee
behind a nomad's tent.

I had thought about trying to take along some pepper spray to have on
hand, but didn't do so. As it turned out, we saw plenty of dogs in
Tibet, but they all seemed to ignore us as long as we ignored them. We
never felt in danger of being bitten by a dog.

I had also worried about having difficulty sleeping in Kathmandu or
Lhasa where there are often dogs that bark a lot at night. A Nepali
friend of ours, on a recent trip to Kathmandu had difficulty sleeping
almost every night due to barking dogs.

I took along some ear plugs and there were nights when there were
barking dogs, but the ear plugs had limited effectiveness. So I wasn't
able to find a satisfactory remedy.

Insomnia is an issue I deal with more frequently as I grow older. It's
not always easy to figure out why it happens when it does, though
noises can definitely keep me awake.

Certainly caffeine and alcohol contribute to the problem. I feel much
better and sleep better when I don't have any caffeine after noon and
limit my intake of alcohol to no more than three drinks a week.

But sometimes, even without caffeine or alcohol I find myself lying
awake, feeling in need of sleep, but not feeling sleepy. The best
remedy for this I've found is to get up and sit zazen. Usually 30-45
minutes of zazen will quiet my mind enough for me to fall asleep.
Sometimes, I fall asleep soon after going to bed, then wake up around
midnight or 2:00 am with insomnia. If I do some meditation then, it
seems to help me to go back to bed and sleep.

Sometimes, my insomnia is associated with muscle cramps. If I have
over-exerted a set of muscles during the day, then for some reason, at
night those muscles will cramp up and give me a "charley horse".

I've found that if I make a point of drinking lots of water, sometimes
fortified with a calcium tablet, the cramps will go away. I feared
that muscle cramps would be a problem on this trip, especially with
the mountain trekking, but as it turned out, I never had any problem
with this at all.

Food and water-bourne illness was also something I was concerned
about. When I was living in Nepal in the early 70s, I was extremely
cautious about food and water. As advised by Peace Corps staff, I
never ate any raw salads, except when the vegetables had been soaked
in a solution of iodized water. And I never drank any water that had
not been either boiled or treated with iodine. These were clearly
effective measures then, as Westerners, who drank untreated water or
uncooked food, often came down with diarrhea, giardia, amoebic
dysentary, hepatitis or typhoid fever. So before we left, I was
prepared to follow the same regimen.

On this trip we carried a UV water purifier (Steri-Pen) and used it to
treat the tap water we used for teeth brushing and some drinking. For
drinking water in restaurants, we usually purchased bottled water.
However, I also drank well water (for the first time) from homes in
Nepal where we were invited to share meals. Neither Cynthia nor I
suffered suffered any ill effects.
We've been happily surprised that in all of our travel through these
several countries, neither one of use has had any stomach problems at
all.

In all previous trips to Nepal, we have taken medication to prevent
malaria. There are lots of mosquitoes, especially in the Terai, where
we would be going to visit our friends in Taulihawa. But this time, we
decided to forego the malaria medication and just bring along insect
repellent.

Also, we knew that dengue fever is common in Cambodia and Thailand. A
friend of ours came down with a nasty case of dengue fever in Thailand
recently. But since there is no vaccine or prophylactic for dengue
fever, here too we were dependent on insect repellent, mosquito coils
and mosquito nets for sleeping.

I'm definitely not Buddhist when it comes to mosquitoes or the
microbes in the blood that are responsible for malaria and dengue
fever. Not only do I think it is necessary to kill those living
organisms that cause illness in our bodies, but that it is perfectly
reasonable to kill mosquitoes that land on our skin or hover around
our bodies attempting to.
I remember at a meditation retreat on Whidbey Island, during one
particular round of zazen, I had mosquitoes land right on my nose and
forehead. As they bit me, I kept telling myself, "There is no malaria
on Whidbey Island. THERE IS NO MALARIA ON WHIDBEY!!" I could barely
resist slapping the insects, but somehow the peer pressure of sitting
motionless kept me from doing so. But here in the tropics where there
IS malaria and dengue fever, I'm okay with slapping mosquitoes.

I just wish I knew how so many people seem to be able to live here in
the tropics with mosquitoes all around. They are certainly not using
insect repellent, and you don't see them killing many by slapping
them. Occasionally, people do sleep under mosquito nets. I do know
that the incidence of malaria and dengue fever are both high in this
part of the world, but I guess my question is, why isn't EVERYONE
sick? I just don't know.

In fact, the not knowing seems to be a big part of all these fears.
The not knowing is a given when you travel. It seems that an essential
part of venturing out is acceptance of the unknown.

It also helps when you travel with a partner who can help balance the
fear and the fearlessness. Often when I am feeling a bit vulnerable or
worrisome, Cynthia is the one who figuratively (or sometimes
literally) gives me a shake to make me snap out it. Other times, when
she starts to indulge in a bit too much speculation, I am the one to
be decisive. It actually works out quite well.

Also, it helps to have so many friends who wished us well in our
travels. We feel the support connection all the time. And I still
carry the tiger eye amulet in my pocket everyday as a reminder of that
connection.

Sea and Jungle of southern Thailand

2009-11-08T03:30:00.001-08:00

I had heard that southern Thailand had some nice beaches and good
snorkeling sites, so we decided to catch a flight to Phuket. From
there we took a taxi north to Khao Lak, a popular takeoff point for
trips to the Similan Islands Marine National Park.

The Similan Islands are 60 km west of Khao Lak, in the Andaman Sea.
The nine islands of the park are surrounded by protected bays and
coral reefs that are rich with sea life. The beaches are a soft, very
fine pure white sand the consistency of sugar. There is some evidence
of damage to coral reefs due to the tsunami of December, 2004. It hit
this part of Thailand pretty hard. But there is new coral growing on
the rubble of the old and there are plenty of fish making their homes
here.

We saw thousands of fish, from 18-inch blue and green parrot fish to
schools of iridescent blue minnows. I saw a sea snake for the first
time, a reptile about 3 ft long that crawls along the bottom like a
land snake and periodically rises to the surface to take a breath of
air.

Cynthia and I had some very personal encounters with a large curious
sea turtle who swam within inches of our faces before diving below us.

One of the most interesting creatures I saw looked like a jellyfish --
roughly cylindrical in shape, maybe three inches across and 2 inches
top to bottom. The thing that caught my attention was the flashing
lights inside the animal -- looked like violet LED lights going on and
off, similar to a firefly, but less regular. I have never heard of
blinking jellyfish before, but I have heard of bioluminescent
jellyfish that can glow. So I need to research this a bit more before
I know whether I've come across a new species hitherto unknown to
science.

It turned out that we were diving at the time of a full moon and this
is when baby jellyfish, literally millions of them, each about a
quarter of an inch across rise to the surface in a big cloud. I had
been wearing a silk undershirt to protect myself from the sun but I
suspect it also served to trap baby jellyfish, who, not too happy
about being trapped, naturally gave the offending piece of flesh a
tiny sting. It felt like a slight tingling across my back. So now,
three days later, my back and shoulders are covered with little
itching red spots, slowly healing.

After returning from the snorkeling trip, we decided it was time for
the jungle. So we headed off for a two-day trip to Khao Sok National
Park.

On the way to the park, we stopped at a rubber tree plantation at the
side of the road where a worker was busy collecting the latex that
drips from the trees. Six days a week, after the monsoon season,
workers start around midnight (or before for especially large
plantations) carefully cutting away by hand a strip of bark on the
rubber tree, which then starts to "bleed". The rivulets of latex flow
into a coconut shell attached to the side of the tree.

By morning, the collecting shells are emptied into shallow trays where
the latex starts to harden. After a few hours, the chunks of latex are
removed from the trays and passed through a wringer (like the wringer
on early washing machines, for those of you fortunate enough to be
able to remember that far back) to remove the excess water.

After running through the ringer, the piece of latex is 18" X 36",
about half an inch thick, ready to be sold by the farmer who earns
about $2 per kilogram.

Khao Sok Lake is a large lake that recently formed after construction
of a dam and a hydroelectric generating station. The lake is
surrounded by huge limestone cliffs and dense tropical rainforest.
It's a fantastic place to just sit quietly and listen to the sounds.
Birds, monkeys and many creatures you can only imagine. It rains
frequently, as you would expect, but the rain is soft and warm and you
realize there really isn't any reason to try to stay dry.

Our latest slideshows:

Snorkeling
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622634027761/show/

Rubber Production
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622758272662/show/

Khao Sok Lake
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622634142565/show/

Limestone Cave
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622634046917/show/

Time for a Vacation

2009-11-08T03:16:00.001-08:00

This week in southern Thailand has really felt like rest and
relaxation. It seems we needed a break from our pilgrimage.

David found a somewhat isolated place, Poseiden Bungalows, which also
runs three day live-aboard snorkeling trips out to the Similan Islands
which are about four hours off the coast of Thailand (60 km). After a
few nights in the bungalow and a couple of days getting used to the
warm water of the Andaman Sea, we along with 13 others climbed aboard
and headed out to sea. On the way out we saw a minke whale and flying
fish. We went to about three different snorkeling spots that
afternoon.

We are right on the cusp between monsoon season and high (tourist)
season which is great because it isn't yet crowded, though the weather
can be somewhat unpredictable. Some places had quite a bit of wave
action and others a strong current. Some were blessed with both and a
few had quiet water so that one could focus completely on the rich and
colorful sea life. We swam with very friendly, very large sea turtles
and an electric jelly fish as well as many angel fish, sergeant major
fish, a water snake, parrot fish, unicorn fish, trigger fish and many
others.

David swam at each of the 10 snorkel stops but I passed on a couple
that seemed particularly challenging.

We were all exploring one of the islands, when the winds really picked
up and the waves combined with the wind made it impossible for our
dingy to safely get to shore to pick us up. As we watched, conditions
continued to deteriorate. Fortunately, we were on an island in the
tropics and knew we would survive the elements if we were stranded
overnight. Even more fortunately, however, we were on the island that
houses the Navy Rescue team for these Islands. They saw our
predicament and came to our rescue with their large heavy duty pontoon
boat.

When we got out to our boat, however, our captain and the captain of
the rescue boat realized that the sea was too rough for us to move
directly from one boat to the other so we had to jump out of the raft
and our crew pulled us in with a rope. We all made the transfer
safely, cheered the Thai Navy rescue team, our own very competent crew
and set down to another Thai feast that the cook and her assistant
prepared in her closet of a kitchen amidst the storm and the rescue
operation.

The crew, the guide and the other 13 snorkelers were great to get to
know. It was a very international group with at least 8 nationalities
represented.

We returned to our bungalow for a night, then headed out to the jungle
which is about two hours away. We stayed in a bamboo hut on a raft in
a huge lake surrounded by jungles and limestone mountains. It was
gorgeous and full of exotic sounds. We were able to kayak along the
shore and, thanks to our guide's sharp eye, observe monitor lizards
and langur monkeys, several long tailed macaque, and an iguana. As
evening came, we saw about 15 gibbon monkeys gathering in one tree for
the night.

There was quite a symphony of bird song in the morning as David and I
went for an early morning paddle in a soft warm rain. As we were
having our first coffee, we saw a pair of great hornbills fly above us
and land in a tree and take off again. They are very awkward flyers
and are reminiscent of pterodactyls.

Later in the day we did a short trek with our guide, a couple from
Germany and a Japanese woman. We went over a pass to another lake,
then into a cave filled by stalactites and stalagmites and formations
like none that we had ever seen before. The cave was only discovered
5 years ago and is in quite pristine condition since it is difficult
to get to.

We are back in the bungalow and having spent the morning lounging on
the beach, will have our last evening in this sweet place before we
head to Bangkok to meet our friend Todd and see what unfolds in our
final 10 days.

Cambodia slideshows

2009-11-02T01:40:00.001-08:00

I've uploaded some photos of Cambodia to our flickr site:

Angkor Temples
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622575042357/show/

Silk Production
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622575139807/show/

Siem Reap
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622699498698/show/

Butterflies
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622699521532/show/

Temples of Angkor

2009-11-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

The stone ruins surrounding the city of Siem Reap, Cambodia testify to
an empire that dominated southeast Asia for over 600 years, from 802
to 1432 CE. At its zenith, the Khmer empire had over a million
inhabitants. Angkor Wat was the world's largest temple and Angkor Thom
a nearby walled city.

The Angkorian period began when king Jayavarman II, who first
consolidated Cambodia's competing kingdoms in 802 CE. He declared
himself a god-king, an incarnation of the Hindu god Shiva.

Many of the temples at Angkor have bas-relief carvings depicting
classical Hindu stories. However, by the late 12th century, ongoing
development shows a clear Buddhist influence, as Jayavarman VII builds
images of Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion.

The scale of stone temples at Angkor is quite amazing. While huge,
many are covered with intricately carved detail. After the decline of
the Khmer empire, the temples were completely hidden by the
encroaching jungle.

The ruins were "rediscovered" by the French in the 1860s, but it took
many decades before significant archeology or restoration took place.
In 1992, Angkor was declared a World Heritage Site by the UN.

Today there are areas which are still largely piles of rubble
completely overgrown by tree roots. We were struck by how effective
the jungle is in reducing human works of stone into rock piles.

Cambodian Silk Production

2009-11-01T17:06:00.001-08:00

I've always wanted to know how silk is made and at the Artisans of
Angkor Silk Factory in Siem Reap, Cambodia, I got my chance to find
out.

The factory is surrounded by fields of mulberry bushes, which are
harvested to feed the silk worms.

The building in which the silk worms are kept stands on foundation
blocks that are surrounded by small pools of water. This design
prevents ants from coming in the building; ants would soon kill the
silk worms if they got in.

The mulberry leaves are chopped up and fed to the worms, which grow
rapidly into caterpillars from only a millimeter to well over 5 cm
long in about 3 weeks.

Then the caterpillar starts to spin its cocoon from a single strand of
silk that emerges from its mouth. The silk strand is eventually 400
meters long. The cocoon must then be placed in the sun to kill the
caterpillar inside before it transforms into a pupa; otherwise the
moth that develops will break the silk strand when it emerges from the
cocoon, rendering it useless for harvesting the silk. About 20% of the
pupae are left to develop into moths which will lay eggs for the next
generation of caterpillars.

The cocoons to be harvested are placed in hot water where they soften.
A wire whisk is used to find the end of the silk strand. For the first
100 meters, strands from many cocoons are bundled together and drawn
up to form the thread of raw silk, a courser form of silk than fine
silk.

The remaining 300 meters is used to make fine silk; here strands from
each cocoon are drawn up separately.

Originally the silk has a yellow color and is very stretchy. To make
the silk fibers suitable for making fabrics, they must be bleached and
colored. The bleaching process also makes the fibers much less
stretchy, which is essential for weaving textiles.

The silk is then wound onto bobbins. Silk being selected as warp
threads for weaving are threaded though special combs and wound onto
large reels where they are cut to length and prepared for the loom.

The factory we visited has about 30 looms on which silk textiles are
made, using several different methods. The women doing the weaving
seem to have incredibly keen eyesight and boundless patience. The
fabric they produce is stunningly beautiful and remarkably soft to the
touch.

The silk from this farm is sent to many women who weave in their homes
in rural villages in northern Cambodia.

Landmines in Cambodia

2009-10-31T20:34:00.001-07:00

One thing we noticed right away in Cambodia is the large number of
amputees and blind people; many lost their feet or legs or eyes after
stepping on landmines -- farmers working in the rice fields, children
playing, ordinary people going about their business. Cambodia has one
of the highest concentrations of landmines in the world, left over
from the military conflicts of the 1970-80s.

In 1953 Cambodia gained independence from the French. For the next 15
years, under King Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia remained relatively
prosperous and peaceful, though it couldn't completely isolate itself
from the war in neighboring Vietnam.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon authorized the secret bombing of
Cambodia, in an attempt to drive out North Vietamese forces. The
bombing began along the border with Vietnam but soon spread deep into
the interior as Vietnamese communists retreated deeper into Cambodia.
Several hundred thousand refugees fled their homes. See a map of
bombing targets on the Yale University website at
http://www.yale.edu/cgp/us.html

During the US bombing campaign, more bombs were dropped on Cambodia
than had been used by all sides during WW II. By 1973, when the
bombing was halted by the US congress, roughly 250,000 Cambodians an
an unknown number of Vietnamese had been killed.

In 1969, while Sihanouk was on a trip to France, General Lon Nol
deposed him as chief of state and Sihanouk took up residence in
Beijing where he set up a government in exile, in alliance with a
Cambodian revolutionary movement, the Khmer Rouge.

In 1970, US and South Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia. Vietnamese
communists then joined with Khmer Rouge forces to destabilize the Lon
Nol government. The Khmer Rouge rapidly established control over the
countryside.

On April 17, 1975, two weeks before the fall of Saigon to the North
Vietnamese, the government of Lon Nol collapsed and Phnom Penh
surrendered to the Khmer Rouge. The victory of the Khmer Rough then
led to one of the most brutal restructurings of society the world has
ever seen. For details, visit Yale University's website at
http://www.yale.edu/cgp/

Immediately thousands of people were executed -- anyone connected with
the Lon Nol government, journalists, teachers, doctors, nurses,
business people, anyone with an education. City dwellers fled to the
countryside. Chaos followed as families were broken up, children
forced to work in rice fields, parents taken to "reeducation" camps,
and the sick or weak or elderly eliminated.

An excellent personal account of the experiences of a 5-year old girl
during this period is the book, "First They Killed My Father: a
daughter of Cambodia remembers" by Loung Ung, 2000. Today, Loung Ung
lives in America and works for

During the 1970-80s, landmines were laid by the Khmer Rouge, the
Vietnamese and the Americans. They were manufactured by many
countries, including the US, China and Russia. One of the most popular
landmines, the M18A1 is manufactured by the US company, Morton
Thiokol. The design of this particular landmine has been copied by
(sometimes licensed to) companies in other countries as well.
Landmines cost only a few dollars to manufacture, but they are
extremely difficult to locate and defuse after they are on the ground.
They generally remain live for several decades, so even long after a
war has ended, landmines remain a dangerous threat to civilians living
in the area.

We visited the Cambodia Landmine Museum in Siem Reap. The museum was
founded by Aki Ra, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who personally laid
thousands of landmines. Later he defected to the Vietnamese and
eventually, after the war was over, made it his personal mission to
defuse as many landmines as he was able. See his story at
http://cambodianselfhelpdemining.org/

For more information about mine clearing efforts in Cambodia, visit:

The Landmine Relief Fund
http://www.landmine-relief-fund.com/

The Vietnam Veterans Mine Clearing Team - Cambodia
http://members.optushome.com.au/glaust/index-1.htm

4 countries in 5 days

2009-10-30T07:09:00.001-07:00

The morning we left Nepal we had quite a number of people seeing us off, including Sumita's family and friends who stopped the bus and climbed aboard for one last photo opportunity. It was a very touching farewell after our time in Nepal.

A couple hours on a very crowded bus brought us to a border town in Nepal where we decided to travel open air on a rickshaw the few kilometers to the actual border checkpoints. With quick crossings out of Nepal and into India, we boarded yet another very crowded bus headed to the major train transportation hub, Gorakhpur.

We had a challenging time with the pushiness and the constant grasping that we experienced as soon as we arrived in India. It felt like we were being hustled at every turn. I see it in the way they drive, doing anything to edge out other vehicles. We had a driver who terrified us and risked the lives of many other people and then asked us for a tip beyond an already exorbitant price. We were told that they thought of us as their "mother and father" and "I am your friend" unlike everyone else in Delhi, all the while asking for more and more. Although we slept fairly well on the overnight train to Delhi, exhaustion led us to a pretty basic hotel in a questionable area of town. We did have warm water one of the days we were there and occasionally even toilet paper. There was one quite sweet young man who made sure we had breakfast each day. Maybe in crowds they live in, aggression is a means of survival.

David and I have just finished reading Freedom in Exile by the Dalai Lama. The Indians provided him and thousands of refugees with land and a home and the possibility of creating community. I think, possibly, my experience coming after such a generous experience in Nepal and nearing the end of a lengthy period of travel overwhelmed me. Nonetheless, the result was that we left India as quickly as possible and arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia after a two hour stop in Bangkok, hence our jet setting blitz of 4 countries in 5 days.

We stayed in a lovely small garden guesthouse, our room surrounded by windows all looking out at huge tropical plants, with what we came to call dog frogs (frogs whose croak sounded just like dogs) serenading us each evening as we fell asleep. In spite of a nightmarish history, we found the Cambodian people to be gentle, and soft spoken and welcoming in every way which actually left us wanting to give more to them. We have learned of a number of non-profits doing everything from offering stability and education to street children to butterfly projects trying to create sustainable income to a landmine removal effort also supporting an orphange for children maimed by landmines (6 million remain buried in the countryside).

We enjoyed our visits to temples in the Angkor area, many of which have been there for up to a thousand years. They are generally built of sandstone with beautiful intricate carvings. Many are being overtaken by the plants and trees of the surrounding tropical environment. Much effort is going into stabilizing and restoring them. We arrived just on the cusp of the real tourist season starting so the crowds weren't too think and we were able to take our time and soak up the unique atmosphere here.

We enjoyed a Cambodian cooking class and may subject some of our friends. The Khmer food is very subtly flavored with wonderful fresh ingedients which we are hoping to search out when we return home. We also visited a silk farm and saw the whole process from worm to beautifully woven fabric. This group is working to train artisans in the traditional arts of Cambodia.

We had the same tuk-tuk driver during our stay and he shared with us his experience of volunteering to help encourage the child beggers to get off the streets which has become an amazing successful project. One Australian woman read an article in a newpaper and on her way home from work, she stopped and booked a ticket to Cambodia. She found the work she was called to do which has led to the empowerment of countless children and their families. One never knows where one drop might reach.

I was very sad to leave Cambodia this morning and I hold onto the possibility of returning. For now I will work at finding a way to enjoy Thailand for the next 3 weeks.

Slideshow of Taulihawa and nearby Buddhist sites

2009-10-24T04:04:00.000-07:00

Slideshows for Taulihawa, where we visited friends and joined in
celebration of Tihar, and Lumbini, Kapilavastu and other Buddhist
sites are at:

Taulihawa
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622519956599/show/

Lumbini
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622519998463/show/

Kapilavastu
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622520033869/show/

Kusinagara
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622520043169/show/

Kapilavastu

2009-10-23T01:09:00.001-07:00

Kapilavastu is a district in southwestern Nepal in which there was a
kingdom ruled by the Sakya dynasty during the 8th century BCE.
Kapilavastu gets its name from the sage Kapila whose hermitage was
here.

The Sakyas were a people who had settled in a forest of saka trees
south of Himalayas and between the Rohini and Rapti rivers. They grew
rice and raised cattle. The Sakya community consisted of stoneworkers,
iron smiths, woodworkers, weavers and potters. They built a city and
called it Kapilavastu.

In the early 7th century BCE, Kapilavastu was ruled by King
Suddhodana. A neighboring kingdom, Devadaha bordered Kapilavastu on
the east. Matrimonial relations developed between the Koliya royal
family in Devadaha and the Sakyas.

In 575 BCE, King Suddhodana married two sisters Mahadevi and Prajapati
from Devadaha.

Twelve years later a child was born who was to become the Buddha. His
name at birth was Siddhartha. Gautama was the name of his clan. He was
born on the full moon day of the month of Vaisakha in 563 BCE.

He lived in his father's palace in Kapilavastu. According to legend,
his father went to great lengths to provide a pleasant home
environment for his son and went to great lengths to insulate him from
the misfortunes of life.

Archeological excavations at Tilaurakot, the site of Suddhodana's
palace have unearthed hundreds of coins, pieces of pottery,
terra-cotta figurines, and stone and metal tools, beads and bangles.
Some of these objects have been dated from the 6th century BCE to the
2nd century CE.

At the age of 16, Siddhartha was married to Yasodhara of Devadaha.
After twelve years of marriage, the bore a son, Rahula.

At the age of 29, Siddhartha Gautama renounced his life as prince,
husband and father, and resolved to discover the key to freedom from
human suffering. He left the palace one night, shaved his head and
became an ascetic.

Six years later, after attaining enlightenment, he began his teaching
career of 45 years.

Soon after his enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, the Buddha, also known as
Sakyamuni returned briefly to Kapilavastu to see his father, his aunt
who had raised him, his wife, and his son.

A place called Kudan is where the Buddha first greeted his father. It
is about 4km south of Tilaurakot. At this time, the Buddha already had
a few hundred monks who accompanied him. To provide a place for them
to practice with their teacher, King Suddhodana built a monastery at
Kudan.

Today there are several mounds of bricks here, but their age is
uncertain. They may be ruins of temples or monasteries built later. In
1962, the site was partially excavated, but items found that could be
accurately dated were no older than the 9th century CE. Further
archaeological work will be required to ascertain the history of this
site.

In 483 BCE, at Kusinagar the Buddha passed away.

Within a couple hundred years of the Sakyamuni Buddha, the idea of
previous Buddha's began to appear. By the time of king Asoka (3rd
century BCE), many believed that there had been other human Buddhas
before Sakyamuni.

According to both Hinayana and Mahayana teachings, Sakyamuni was
preceded by Krakuchhanda, Kanakamuni and Kasyapa. These are referred
to as Manusi (human) Buddhas. Interestingly, both Krakuchhanda and
Kanakamuni were born and attained enlightenment within 5 miles of
Tilaurakot.

The story of Krakuchhanda told by a renowned Buddhist scholar of
Srilanka, Malalasekera (1983) seems to me to be more apocryphal than
historical, telling that Krakuchhanda stood forty cubits tall, and
died at an age of forty thousand years. According to the story, he
practiced austerities for only eight months, and attained
enlightenment while sitting under a sirisa tree.

During his pilgrimage, King Asoka marked the site of Krakuchhanda's
enlightenment by erecting a stone pillar at Gotihawa, just 3km west of
Kudan.

Scholar Malalasekera (1983) describes another Manusi Buddha,
Kanakamuni who ostensibly came after Krakuchhandu but before
Sakyamuni. The story tell us that he was 30 cubits tall and lived for
thirty thousand years. Apparently he attained enlightenment while
sitting under an Udumbara tree.

King Asoka identified a site where Kanakamuni attained enlightenment
at Niglihawa, about 5km northeast of Tilauakot. He erected a stone
pillar there and inscribed it in the Brahmi script and the Pali
language. Translated by V. Smith, the inscription says,

"His Majesty King Priyadarsina [Asoka]in the 14th year of this reign
enlarged for the second time the stupa of the Buddha Kanakamuni and in
the 20th year of his reign, having come in person, did reverence and
set up a stone pillar."

Today the pillar is broken into pieces, two of which can be seen at
Niglihawa. The inscription is clearly visible.

In recent times, this pillar was discovered in 1893 by a Nepalese
officer on a hunting expedition.

Lumbini

2009-10-23T01:01:00.001-07:00

Lumbini was identified in the late 1800's as the birthplace of Buddha
and now there is strong archaeological evidence to support this. There
are also many nearby sites that are important to understanding the
life and teaching of Gautama Buddha. Most have not yet been
investigated by archaeologists.

The key points of interest at Lumbini are the Asoka pillar, the
Mayadevi Temple, the Sacred Pond and several Buddhist temples.

In the third century BCE, Emperor Asoka was a great and powerful king
who ruled all of north India. After a devastating battle at Kalinga,
he became a strong proponent of Buddhism and over the years, went on
several pilgrimages to visit Buddhist sacred sites. His patronage was
a strong stimulus to the spread of Buddhism.

In 269 BCE, he visited the birthplace of the Buddha and erected a
stone pillar to mark the site. He had the following words inscribed:

"King Piyadasi [Asoka] the beloved of Devas in the twentieth year of
the coronation himself made a royal visit; Buddha Sakyamuni having
been born here, a stone railing was built and a stone pillar erected.
The Bhagavan having been born here, Lumbini Village was tax-reduced
and entitled to the eighth part only".

The inscription was in the Brahmi language. For many years, the
commonly accepted translation of one phrase was "stone railing", even
though there was no evidence of a railing. However, in 1996, after
careful excavation of the Mahadevi Temple, an important discovery was
made-- a special marker stone was unearthed at the base of the temple
which marks the exact spot at which the Buddha was born. Now the
consensus seems to be that the phrase was actually referring to the
marker stone, not a railing.

The Mayadevi Temple also contains a stone Nativity Scene of Lord
Buddha's birth. Exposed for hundreds of years, the Nativity Scene has
been worn smooth by being touched by innumerable pilgrims and
worshipers. Today the temple is surrounded by a new building that
protects the temple excavation and the nativity scene has been raised
up to be out of reach of passersby.. The recently discovered Marker
Stone is protected by a glass enclosure.

According to legend, the Sacred Pond is where Mayadevi took a bath
just before giving birth.

In 1978, a master plan was completed for the development of Lumbini.
It set aside areas for the construction of temples by governments and
Buddhist organizations. A few temples have been completed, but most
are still under construction or postponed. It appears that development
has been hampered by the lack of roads, bridges and other
infrastructure. There is potential for large and beautiful gardens
once construction is completed.

It had been fourteen years since we had visited Lumbini with our
children and we saw many changes. We were also struck by how much
additional work must be done to make this place attractive for
pilgrims.

Among the best sources of information are the two books written by the
archaeologist, Basanta Bidari: Lumbini: A haven of Sacred Refuge
(2002) and Kapilavastu: The World of Siddhartha (2007). Much of the
information in our blog posts about Lumbini and Kapilavastu come from
Mr. Bidari's two books.

Personal Encounters in Nepal

2009-10-23T00:57:00.001-07:00

Encounters with people along the trail in Western Nepal

We come across a middle aged Nepali couple in the Humla District. The
woman has a large goiter on her neck. I wonder whether they were
heading down to Simikot to get some medical attention. I know that
goiters are due to an iodine deficiency. In my pack I have a bottle of
iodine tablets, as a backup for water purification, in case our
Steri-Pen stopped working. Should I offer this woman some iodine
tablets? I have no idea what the proper course of treatment is for
goiters-- what form of iodine, what dosage, how frequently, for how
many months. Would it do more harm than good by giving her some iodine
tablets? I don't know, so I do nothing and we continue on our way.

Another man stops to talk with our guide, Lal Bahadur. He describes an
ailment where some kind of black substance came up from his stomach.
He asks us whether we have any medicine for this. I have no idea what
this might be. I'm pretty sure we don't have anything to help. We
continue on our way.

A man stops us, complaining of a headache. Do we have any medicine
that would help? I think Julian has some ibuprofin tucked away in his
medical kit. Maybe it would give the man some relief. Maybe not. We
keep walking.

We come across a group of about 20 people working on road
construction. One of them holds out his hand and asks for "money".
Another chimes in, "money!" With extended hand. A group of three women
step in front of us, blocking our path. "Money!, money!" They shout.

I continue walking forward, between two of the women. One woman grabs
my walking stick and tries to wrest it from my hand. I hang onto it
more tightly and continue walking forward. I glance at one of the
other men in the group, who simply shakes his head, as if to say,
"Just ignore those women." I continue walking, realizing that I have
become just a bit upset with this incident.

We arrive in Hilsa and wait at the police station for word about the
whereabouts of our passports. A man has been sorting beans on a flat
wicker basket. He picks out two beans, one white and one black and
comes over to talk with us. He indicates that one of his teeth is
black, like the black bean, and it hurts very much. Is there anything
we can do about it?

Probably an abscess; probably a tooth that needs to be extracted.
Julian points out that we have some dental floss with us-- perhaps we
could tie it around his abscessed tooth and give it a good yank. Well,
it's a nice idea, but we say there's nothing we can do. Sorry.

Encounter with a family in Taulihawa

We're visiting a family I have known for many years. The nephew of a
friend of mine, about 10 years old, has been complaining of a fever
and constant pain in one of his teeth. He opens his mouth to show me
the tooth, and sure enough it has a brownish color. Definitely
something that calls for a trip to the dentist.

The boy has been told that he will be taken to a dentist soon , but
the trip keeps getting postponed. We suspect that the delay is due to
financial reasons. After a few days, there is less pain and the tooth
seems to be getting better. Is it really healing on its own, or has
the decay advanced to the point where the nerve is dying. I suspect
the latter. Will he be taken to a dentist? I doubt it. The nearest
dentist is a day away.

The boy lives with his mother and grandfather; his father committed
suicide a few years back. The grandfather is financially well off, but
extremely tight with money. Also, he has a long history of being
abusive to his sons. After the death of his first son, the grandfather
built a wall to divide the house into two haves. His one surviving
son, the boy's uncle and his family have been banished from the
grandfather's side of the house and the grandfather hasn't spoken
with them for years.

Obviously there is complicated set of relationships going on here.
Intervening on behalf of the nephew with the toothache could really
set off some sparks. But the fact remains that the boy really does
need to see a dentist.

Just before we leave, I put some cash in an envelope and give it to
the boy's uncle, explaining that this is to pay for a trip to the
dentist. First, he is hesitant to take it, saying that the grandfather
has money and is able to pay. But after we discuss it a few minutes,
he agrees to take the money and see what can be done.

I have no idea whether this will actually benefit the nephew or not.
But it seems worth the risk.

David's Report on Taulihawa

2009-10-23T00:53:00.001-07:00

It's been 38 years since I first came to Taulihawa, assigned here as a
Peace Corps volunteer to teach science and math in the village school.

While there are more people and more buildings and the town has grown
in all directions, it feels not that different from when I first
arrived. The population has grown from about 4,000 to 20,000. I
recognize the main street intersections and temples that have been
here for ages.

As the bus from Lumbini entered town from the east, I spotted the
two-story building that I lived in during my third year here in
Taulihawa. I had two rooms -- one I used as a kitchen and bedroom, the
other as a meditation room. The building is currently being used as a
gas station and it looks rather run down.

We hired a rickshaw to take us to the home of my friend Dinesh
Gyawali. The rickshaw driver recognized my friend's name.

Dinesh, about 5 years younger than me, was a good friend, always
looking for interesting places to take me and people to meet. Now he
is married and has a son and two daughters. His eldest daughter,
Sumita was able to come to the US on a Diversity Visa two years ago.
When I mentioned to Sumita's grandfather that Sumita was "just like a
daughter" to us, he corrected me, saying, "No, she IS your daughter."
Sumita returned to Taulihawa for the holidays so the whole family was
together during our visit.

When Dinesh heard that we would be visiting, he decided it was time to
build a bathroom with a Western style toilet and a shower. So when we
arrived, workers were putting the finishing touches on a flush toilet,
a sink and a shower, (all outdoors) which required installation of a
water pump and a water storage tank.

The wiring definitely wouldn't pass inspection in the U.S. -- the
wires to the pump were connected to an extension cord with Scotch
tape, laid over the walkway and threaded through an open window to an
outlet. But it worked. Sort of.

The project was a wonderful gesture of hospitality. I'm just sorry
they had to cut down one of their two coffee bushes to make room for
the bathroom.

Dinesh's wife Nirmada is a wonderful cook and prepared not only our
morning and evening meals, including different vegetables and chutneys
each meal, but various kinds of tasty snacks in between.

We celebrated the Festival of Lights which involves worshiping Laksmi,
the goddess of wealth and prosperity, setting up electric lights,
candles and butter lamps outside and throughout the house, and
watching groups of singing and dancing children who go door to door
offering blessings and collecting money.

We've been visiting lots of friends around town, having tea and snacks
at the homes of former teachers at Buddha Padma High School, and some
of my former students, most of whom have children of their own.

I thought I was going to wander about the market to take some pictures
one afternoon, but there are so many people here who remember me, and
want to visit, it became a sequence of invitations to come have tea in
people's homes. We already have more invitations for dinner than we
will ever be able to accept.

Former students still remember some of the science demonstrations and
experiments we did in the classroom-- the sodium metal in the pan of
water which sizzled and hissed as it skimmed across the surface,
vigorously producing hydrogen gas until the gas ignited with a loud
bang; the human skull we had found by the riverside-- apparently it
still peers out of the display cabinet.

Today we have moved to the home of Gopal Bahadur Singh which is where
I lived during the first two years of my stint as a Peace Corps
volunteer. Back then the home was occupied by an extended family that
included Gopal and his wife, their five children, both parents, and
two or three other relatives. Now the children have their own families
and have moved away. The parents have passed away, so now only Gopal
and his wife live here, along with a servant woman and her son.

We continue joining in the holiday festivities by going to the home of
a family member and Bhai Tikka where everyone blesses everyone else by
putting a dab of red color on each person's forehead.

We'll leave for Delhi on Wednesday (10/21) and start planning the
remainder of our trip.

Cynthia's Report on Taulihawa

2009-10-23T00:44:00.001-07:00

It felt like time to leave Kathmandu though it was sad to say farewell
to Deepak and his wonderful family. After a 2-hour wait, we caught our
flight to Bhairhawa, a very short 35-minute flight.

The taxi from the airport to Lumbini dropped us in a very dusty street
next to a "rustic"
Garden Hotel. The room had two single beds, each with a single sheet
and a mosquito coil. In its favor was an attached, though barely
functional bathroom with a non functional shower.

We visited the sacred sites of Lumbini in the afternoon. Much of it
was familiar from our previous visit and some was new. The grounds
were better maintained than I had recalled and it felt less forgotten
than it had on our previous trip.

The following afternoon, having explored the other temples and
monasteries in Lumbini, we climbed aboard a crowded bus to Taulihawa,
the village of David's Peace Corps experience. At stops along the way,
a few people would get off, but many more would get on. The bus
conductors were hanging on the outside of the bus, making sure no
passengers fell out of the opened doors as we bounced along the narrow
rutted road.

I don't know if it was our gray hair or our foreign appearance, but
the conductors insisted that David and I have seats. Once seated,
there was no wiggle room and it was necessary to hold ones feet on tip
toe or they were stood on by one of the standing passengers. I had fun
imagining the meaning of the conversations going on around
me. When we peeled out of the bus at our destination, we found a
rickshaw to take us to the home of David's friend, Dinesh.

Our stay with Dinesh Gyawali's family was delightful. We know Sumita,
the eldest daughter because she had lived with us for a few months
when she first arrived in the USA. Her younger brother and sister were
also there since it was holidays for them. It is obvious they are a
close knit family and there was a great deal of joy and celebration.
We were treated like treasured long lost family.

David is truly a celebrity here and everyone has their own stories of
experiences with him that they treasure. It was fun for me to sit back
and be the observer of such rejoicing. Our visit with Julian and
Allison of 14 years ago was recalled with great pleasure and they
wanted to know what each of the kids were doing now. We were shown
many pictures, some framed, taken with our family on that trip.

It has been humbling to spend time here with people living very simple
lives of necessity (and in some instances of choice) and yet
experience the generosity of spirit that expects nothing in return. I
am grateful to have returned here.

more photos of Bhutan

2009-10-09T22:57:00.001-07:00

I've uploaded more photos to our Bhutan slideshow, at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622449743440/show/

Enjoy!

David

Gross National Happiness

2009-10-09T22:47:00.001-07:00

Since the 1970s, the king of Bhutan has been advocating the concept of
"Gross National Happiness" (GNH) as measure of societal well-being. He
has often contrasted this idea with the widely used measure of
economic development, the "Gross Domestic Product" (GDP).

Computation of a country's GNH uses a "methodology of multidimensional
poverty" developed by Alkire and Foster. It uses 72 indicators of
well-being, including both numerical and categorical variables.
Examples of numerical variables include number of years of schooling
or annual income. Examples of categorical variables would be answers
to questions such as, "In general, how would you describe the state of
your health? (Excellent, Good, or Poor)" And "To what extent do you
trust the media? (Trust, Trust Somewhat, or Distrust)"

Quoting below from an article in Business Bhutan, Sept 26, 2009, Vol 1, Issue 1:

__________

Last month, the Prime Minister [of Bhutan], Lyonchen Jigme Y. Thinley,
delivered a speech on Gross National Happiness (GNH) in Japan where he
said the world now has to review its pursuit of economic progress.

Three weeks later, on September 14, the same message echoed from
France but with a new found optimism. The French President, Nicolas
Sarcozy, declared that France "plans to include happiness and
well-being in its measurement of economic progress."

The president made his assertion after embracing a study he
commissioned last year was published. The study was led by two Nobel
laureates, Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, with 23 other experts
including four other Nobel laureates who studied the limitation of
having Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of economic
development.

Summing up the study, Joseph Stiglitz said, "The main message is to
get away from GDP fetishism and to understand the limits to it."

Addressing President Sarkozy's new found reason for hope for the
future, Lyonchen Jigme Y. Thinley told Business Bhutan, "the world is
acknowledging Bhutan's intellectual leadership" in "human society's
search for an alternative development paradigm, an alternative
framework for the growth and continued progress of human society."

...

GNH was advocated by the fourth [king of Bhutan] Druk Gyalpo igme
Singye Wangchuck since the 1970s who declared collective happiness as
the national goal.

...

Joseph Stiglitz describes GDP as a "false choice" for measuring
national progress. The GDP measures market economic activity and not
societal well-being. He added, "What we measure affects what we do. If
we have wrong metrics, we will strive for wrong things."

Advocates of happiness as an index stress that an increase in GDP can
also occur in a society where the majority of the citizens have become
worse off. GDP does not take into account unemployment, cultural
disintegration, resource depletion or environmental degradation.

Tshoki Zangmo of the Center for Bhutan Studies said, "In GDP,
externalities, i.e. Outside events over which we have no control --
such as war, natural disasters and disease -- and which lead to
increased spending would be considered to be unambiguously positive
inasmuch as they increase economic activity."

...

The economic affairs minister, Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk said pursuance
of GNH does not mean undermining economic growth.

He said that Bhutan is looking to contribute to GNH through economic
development. Only through sound economic development can a country
have peace, security and prosperity.

"For Bhutan, the transition to a successful democracy can only be
possible with economic development" he said "because only then can we
meet the aspirations of the people."

While the French President publicly made a bidding of his new claim,
Bhutan was not mentioned even once. Neither the 291-page report nor
its five-page references used for the study, mentions Bhutan. But the
findings of the report bear stark similarities with the works of the
Center of Bhutan Studies which has been trying to quantify GNH for
about five years now.
__________

Makes some good sense to me!

Visit to Taktsang Hermitage

2009-10-09T22:42:00.001-07:00

[Written by David Oct 8, 2009]

The Taktsang (Tiber's Lair) hermitage is located on the face of a
sheer 3,000 ft cliff above the Paro valley. The trail up to the
hermitage is steep and requires a lot of knee action, so Cynthia
decided wisely to sit this one out. Sangay and I set out in a light
rain and thick clouds; we had no idea what we would be able to see
when we got there. But as we moved up, the clouds lifted and the rain
stopped and the hermitage came into view in all its glory.

The several temples have been recently rebuilt as they were destroyed
by fire in 1998. The new temples have been authentically restored and
are quite impressive.

The head lama, Lama Dorje is a freind of Sangay, so he invited us in
for tea. Apparently he is a highly revered and well known lama who has
many disciples. I used the opportunity to ask him what was the most
important teaching of Buddhism to be remembered.

He replied simply, "learning to control the mind".

At dinner yesterday evening, Cynthia and I were talking with Sangay
about the phallus symbols that we saw in some temples. Today, Sangay
asked the lama what the meaning was of these. He said that there was
no meaning in Buddhism. He though that perhaps they were put there by
lay monks who did not fully understand.

According to Sangay, the mages of phalluses painted on the walls of
people's homes and the wooden phalluses suspended from the roof
corners were believed to protect the home from evil spirits. He didn't
think they were fertility symbols..

Obviously the phallus had prominent role among the clowns or jesters
during the sacred dances we saw in Jakar. They made quite a display of
miming sexual activity, often directly with members of the audience,
especially the tourists. There is certainly a great deal of overlap
between the role of the phallus in Bhutanese culture and its role in
Buddhiist temples.

I also asked the lama about the meaning of the AK-47 rifle that we saw
in two temples we visited. He said that the protector dieties have
always had weapons -- originally swords and bows and arrows, and that
the AK-47 was just another weapon for protection.. He said that
ideally, the protective dieties would have all the weapons of the
world, but since they couldn't all be included, these would have to
suffice.

We heard a story about how long ago a lama created a miraculous animal
from the bones of a goat and an ox. The animal, called the Takin is
the national animal of Bhutan. It does in fact resemble a goat, but
it's much larger. The information at the Takin refuge says that it has
been difficult for taxonomists to classify the animal, given its
unique characteristics.

Farewell Thoughts of Bhutan

2009-10-09T22:22:00.001-07:00

[Written by Cynthia Oct 8th, 2009]

In some ways Bhutan seems like a much larger country than it actually
is. In this small country there are 14 dialects and 16 different
ethnic groups. It seems surprising that it developed a national
identity centuries ago. It is likely that the strong spiritual
practice of Buddhism is a major factor.

Although it is less than 400 miles across the main transportation
route, the east-west highway, it takes two full ten hour days to drive
that distance. This drive is not for one subject to car sickness. The
road has few sections that are straight for as much as 20 feet as if
winds up and down through the mountains which cover most of the
country.

We found ourselves grateful to have arrived back in Thimphu just ahead
of the recent unseasonable 30 hours of continuous hard rain. It is
likely some of the road we just traveled has been blocked by
landslides. Yesterday in traveling 2 hours to Paro, there were many
large rocks and a few huge boulders on the road making travel
hazardous.

The only airport in Bhutan here in Paro was completely shut down
yesterday and we are uncertain what it will take to catch up as only
one airline with two planes flies into this airport. We are scheduled
to fly to Kathmandu tomorrow and will wait and see if flights are back
on schedule. As I write, the sky is clearing and I just saw a plane
take off.

We feel concern for trekkers in the mountains when this storm
occurred. Hiking here involves crossing many streams and rivers, often
by balancing on logs or jumping from rock to rock. Many of these
temporary "bridges" many have washed away and some of the more
permanent ones may be damaged. I am certain that the people living in
the mountains will find ways to get trekkers safely down but it may
take some time.

As I look out my window there are already white sheets, towels and
pillowcases drying on the line and things are getting back to normal.

Cynthia's Bhutan observations

2009-10-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

After three days of travel we ended up in a tiny village outside the
small town of Jakar. As we drove through Jakar, it reminded me of a
wild west town with small wooden storefronts on both sides of a narrow
main street. Half of them were a General Store and Bar/Saloon.
Virtually all of them advertised cell phone recharging cards.

Across the road from our rural hotel was a small 14th century
monastery. We spent most of two days at the festival there which had a
very local flavor. The night before the festival the Lama came to
bless each house (and our hotel) in the neighborhood after which a
half naked monk dances through with a flaming branch.

That completed, we walked down the road to a field in which a large
circle of branches had been erected. The Lama's completion of home
blessings and arrival at the circle signalled the masked scantily clad
monks to light the circle. The crowd of hundreds surged forward and
began moving through the circle, a purification ritual.

Next day the sacred ceremonies began at the monastery with rather
bawdy clowns (monks) entertaining the crowds with wooden phalluses
prior to the real cham (sacred dances) beginning. In the intimate
atmosphere of this small monastery, we were able to see the costumes,
masks and dances, musicians and locals' reactions. These dances are
often lengthy and intricate which gave us a great appreciation for the
effort put into these ritual performances.

We were amazed at the number and size of cameras at this event. I
finally learned that a number of photography clubs from around the
world had organized excursions. I wish they had paid more attention to
honoring the local people and it's significance to them. They came
across as fairly self-centered groups.

As interesting and colorful as it was, after 2 full days we were ready
to move on and begin our trek. The first day was a pleasant walk
through forest and fields, gaining a little altitude. Camp was set up
in a field above a river which was inhabited by cows, horses and dogs.
Nearby farmers were happy to porter tents, food and other supplies 3
km from across the river where the car was.

This was camping like I had never experienced it before. There were
folding chairs and a table and even a latrine tent and someone to cook
our food. Wow!

Because of the ongoing challenge of my knees, David thought having a
horse in reserve was a good idea. Since there were horses already
going over the pass carrying supplies for another group, this was no
problem. My success the first day made me quite determined to cross
the pass on my own two feet. Allieve at night and -Ibuprofon in the
morning seemed a winning combination plus the aid of my hiking poles.
The temperature was perfect, my shoes were comfortable and I was
confident as we started climbing through beautiful forest of
evergreens, rhododendrons, bamboo, and a diversity of plants we had
never seen before. We wondered if David Hinkley had cataloged or
propagated the plants of Bhutan.

We continued to play leap frog with the farmers and group of horses
and each time I was asked if I wanted a horse yet. Given that the
saddles were uncomfortable wooden things and the path frequently very
steep over large rocks and occasionally less than a foot wide with a
precipice on one side, I felt far safer on my own 2 feet. It was a
long way up and I was exhausted and very sore by the time we got to
the pass. The prayer flags flying all around us immediately lifted my
spirits as we shared lunch with Sangay, our very steady guide. He said
it would be about an hour down to here our camp would be. Three hours
later with dusk upon us, I dragged into camp, wanting only to wash up
and sleep. After forcing down a bowl of soup, I did bask in my
accomplishment. I did it on my own 2 feet and my walking sticks and
with the support and encouragement of David and Sangay, both very
patient men.

It was a brief 2 hour hike the next day to a small very rustic house
(actually the vacation home of the minister of agriculture) where we
spent the next two nights. We also became acquainted with a Bhutanese
tradition, the hot stone bath.

Large stones are heated on top of a fire until they are white hot,
then they are put in a wooden tub of fresh spring water. This steaming
hot outdoor bath is very soothing after physical exertion. We are
thinking of building one at Greenbank.

The next couple of days we had shorter hikes to nearby dzongs and
visited a nunnery which is under construction. As in China, I felt a
completely different energy at the nunnery than I felt at the
monasteries. We saw the small cell that 4 nuns shared and had tea with
them. Some part of me would have liked the opportunity to spend a few
days with them. The other still aching part of me realized that I
would be useless in the hard work of construction that they were
engaged in. Maybe on another visit.

We are back in Thimpu, the only capital city in the world without so
much as a single traffic light. In a few days we will be leaving
Bhutan, but not without dreams of someday returning.

David's Bhutan observations

2009-10-06T05:17:00.001-07:00

We're on a rather routine schedule here in Bhutan. Having a
prearranged tour means that we never have to figure out where to stay
or where to eat or how to get from one place to another. There's one
main east-west road that winds around these mountains. It's paved most
of the way but very narrow. Our driver skillfully negotiates the
curves, the occasional oncoming traffic and the passing around diesel
fume-spewing trucks.

Just as in Tibet, the cars here are equipped with seatbelts but no one
uses them. Generally at home I always use a seatbelt, so I feel
uncomfortable without one, especially as I look over the edge of these
steep mountain roads and witness vehicles passing with only a few
inches of clearance. Unfortunately, the back seat of our car is
covered with a Tibetan carpet that makes it impossible to insert the
buckle into the metal fitting. So for the past several weeks, I've
just been trying to accept the local custom of not using seatbelts,
and gradually I've forgotten about it.

However today, I started thinking about seatbelts again, especially
about how stupid we would seem to our children if we were to meet our
demise because we hadn't buckled up. After lunch, I mentioned my
concern to our guide and we talked a bit about the seatbelt campaign
in the states, how we teach our children to use them and the safety
statistics. When we got back in the car, the Tibetan carpet was
removed and voila! Cynthia and I were able to fasten our belts. And so
did our guide (but not our driver). We only have a couple of days more
in the car, but maybe this will benefit some other guests in the
future. Cynthia asked if I felt better now … Yes, indeed I did, but
it's nothing compared to how good I will feel as we roll over the
shoulder into a ravine.

The restaurants we visit have essentially the same fare, all served
buffet style -- red rice, white rice, chow mein noodles, sliced beef,
roast potatoes, mixed vegetables, and the Bhutanese favorite,
chili-and-cheese. It's amazing how similar the whole meal serving
routine is from one hotel to another. Seems that restaurateurs would
rather do what others have found to work with tourists rather than try
something new.

The hotels we've been staying in have hot showers, if you can figure
out how to regulate the temperature. Unlike some hotels in Nepal, the
shower drain seems to be installed at the lowest point of the tile
floor rather than somewhere else. Unpredictable as to which knob
controls the hot and which the cold, and sometimes puzzling as to how
to open and close the sink drain, but all still workable.

Every sizable town in Bhutan seems to have its own dzong -- a large
fortress-like structure built in the mid 1600s and containing watch
towers, administrative offices, monks quarters and shrines. They each
accommodate both secular and religious functions and they are very
formidable. Some have burned at times over the past 400 years, but
they are always rebuilt and put into service again promptly. The first
four or five dzongs were quite fascinating, but they were all built in
the mid 1600s with similar architecture and by the 15th dzong, we felt
totally dzonged out.

Religion has an important role in Bhutanese daily life. It's important
to make offerings to the various deities, both on designated days and
in accordance with things happening in one's family and among one's
friends. Buddhist shrines in Bhutan are quite interesting. Here is a
pop quiz question for you.

Question: Which of the following items would you NOT expect to find at
a Bhutanese Buddhist shrine?
(a) a statue of the Buddha or Guru Rinpoche
(b) a pile of money
(c) a multi-colored flower arrangement made out of butter
(d) an oversize anatomically correct model of an erect male organ
(e) an AK-47 rifle

See answer at the end of this post.

To an outsider, there are uncountable numbers of different deities and
historical figures the Bhutanese people pay homage to. However, there
is enough commonality among their attributes and icons that if a
person lived in this culture long enough, it would definitely be
something you would gradually develop a sense of. Guru Rinpoche is
one of the most prominent figures. There are his eight manifestations,
his consorts and his disciples. There are long lines of
reincarnations— of body, of speech and of mind. There are those lamas
who left secret treasures behind for others to find later (such as
sacred texts) and there are those treasure finders who found them.
There are all kinds of demons and evil spirits, and all kinds of
deities who subdued the demons and spirits. It would take a lifetime
of study to grasp all the personages, to say nothing of the daily
ritual practices and sacred objects.

Of course, all the items (a) – (e) can be found at the alter of
Bhutanese temples we have visited.

Bhutan slideshow

2009-09-26T04:42:00.001-07:00

For a collection of photos of Bhutan, go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622449743440/show/

Bhutan's beauty

2009-09-26T04:09:00.001-07:00

Our guide, Sangay, recommended by a friend on Whidbey Island, is wonderful, happily answering our endless questions. When we stayed on in Thimphu, his hometown, we were able to meet and have dinner with his family which gave us another look at Bhutanese life. We had a conversation with his wife about education here since she is a primary school teacher. The official policy is education for all children, but some children in rural areas still don't receive an education.

Although we attended the festival for the first day of the sacred cham (dance), there was such a big crowd of thousands that I, being of short stature, could see almost nothing. Fortunately, there was a second day of cham and because it was not an official holiday and most people were back to work and school, we were able to see everything clearly. The monks perform these sacred dances in elaborate costumes and masks after having performed rituals for 23 hours a day for the previous 15 days. The dances last several hours and are quite complex.

These past two days we have traveled a hundred miles in about 7 hours of driving (2 hours yesterday, five today). We are traveling on the main east -west highway which is a very narrow, very winding, often one track road through some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen. Since Bhutan is entirely mountainous, we are always going up to passes or down into beautiful valleys, traveling through small villages.

There is a plan afoot to increase tourism from 30,000 last year to 230,000 in five years. We and our guide think this is unrealistic and potentially harmful for the environment and the people of this country. This makes me very glad we are here now.

First Impressions of Bhutan

2009-09-24T02:32:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Bhutan Monday afternoon the 21st. We touched down in the
western town of Paro just an hour after an earthquake struck in
eastern Bhutan, but didn't hear any news about it until Wednesday.
Apparently this was the most powerful earthquake in Bhutan since 1941.
Over 1100 homes were destroyed and the death toll stands now at 13.
Cynthia and I are fine.

Tuesday was a holiday, the Rainy Day Festival, to celebrate the end of
the monsoon season. Actually, the day was sunny and pleasant. It was a
day for families to pack a picnic lunch and go out to watch archery
and darts competition.

Archery is the national sport of Bhutan. Men use traditional wooden
bows and bamboo arrows. The target is placed 113 meters away and teams
vie for the greatest number of hits. Whenever anyone hits the target
(perhaps one out of twenty shots), the whole team stops to perform a
little dance together in celebration.

We spent two nights in Paro, then drove about 50 km to the capital
city of Thimphu. Both towns are a welcome contrast to Kathmandu --
nothing like the extremely crowded streets, the noise and the litter
that dominates the Kathmandu scene. Here, you are struck by how neat
and clean the streets are, the well kept homes and businesses and the
prevailing quiet, even in downtown Thimphu. Kathmandu suffers
immensely from the overcrowding, the unregulated over abundance of
cars, trucks, motorcycles and vans, and the deterioration of the city
due to the inability of the government to deal with any of the
pressing social issues.

In Bhutan, it's clear that the leadership of a benevolent king has
been crucial for maintaining a way of life, preserving Bhutanese
culture, protecting the environment and cultivating a sustainable
economy.

The monarchy in Bhutan began in 1907 and there have been five kings
since then. The fourth king, now about 55 years old has turned over
power to his son, now 28. Last year the son relinquished his royal
authority to a democratically elected government. The Bhutanese people
were quite happy with the monarchy, but the fourth and fifth kings
have made it their mission to educate their people about the benefits
of a democratic system and have moved to install such a system to
replace the monarchy.

Prior to relinquishing power, the king set up an electoral commission,
an autonomous commission with the power to investigate corruption, two
legislative houses, and a supreme court. A constitution was drafted.
Now the country is gradually learning how to use these new democratic
institutions, while the king serves an advisory role only.
Today was a special festival in which people dressed in the finest
clothes and brought their families to the courtyard of the dzong where
they watched monks perform a dance with elaborate costumes and masks.
There were several thousand Bhutanese in attendance and a few dozen
foreign tourists.

Mt Kailash slideshow

2009-09-22T03:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's becoming a bit more challenging to keep this blog up to date. My Blackberry no longer works for either voice or data communication and these Internet cafe and hotel computers seen to be less and less reliable. Now I sitting at the office computer of Dechen Hill Resort in Paro, Bhutan. The manager here, after learning that I was looking for an Internet commection, immediately dropped what he was doing and invited me to sit down and use his computer. Amazing.

Cynthia and I arrived in Bhutan yesterday and look forward to exploring this country. We will return to Kathmandu on Oct 9.

For some slides of the Mt. Kailash trip that Julian and I completed, go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622290803119/show/

David

Returning to Kathmandu

2009-09-20T03:57:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, Sep 15
Mingma suggested that we drive from Manasarovar all the way to Saga, instead of spending the night at Puryang; he said the hotel in Saga would be better. I was keen to do this as well, since it would put us in Kathmandu on Thursday and Julian and I would have more time to spend with Cynthia before Julian leaves on Sunday.

We saw several groups of wild donkeys (the Tibetan Wild Ass, or kiang) and many small antelope. The antelope have big white puffy rear ends that are prominent as they run away.

At one point we spotted two black necked cranes, but we didn't stop the car to photograph them.

We soon encountered road construction that forced us to get off the main road and detour around some bridge construction. I didn't realize it at the time, but it turned out that the next twelve hours would be negotiating a construction zone 300 miles long. We detoured around at least 100 bridges. Some places the dust was a foot deep and the wheels spun in the dust, kicking up huge brown clouds. In the "good" sections, we bounced over large gravel; in the "bad" sections, we practically bounced out of our seats as our Toyota Land Cruiser barreled over rocks and holes and ridges. Averaging 25 miles an hour, we arrived in Saga around 8:30 pm permeated with dust and grime, but happy to have made it more than half way to Kathmandu.

Wednesday, Sep 16
Soon after we went to bed last night at the Telecom Hotel, a loud alarm of some kind went off in one of the China Telecom utility vehicles. It went on for ten minutes or so before quitting on its own, but it was enough to jar us from a sound sleep.

We finally left around 10:00 am and happily discovered that we had left most (but not all) of the road construction behind us. I also learned that we would be taking a shortcut to the Nepal border. Instead of taking the main highway all the way to Lhartse and then doubling back southwest to Nyalam, we would be taking a smaller road south from Saga which joined the China-Nepal Highway near Lalung pass. This route would shave off about 200 km from our trip.

We reached Nyalam in about 5 hours and headed on down to the border town of Zhangmu, which is quite a large town, in spite of the fact that it's not on our map of Tibet. It's an interesting place in that all the businesses are strung along a winding road that drops over 1000 ft in elevation from one end of town to the other. So taking a stroll down mainstreet is like climbing a small mountain.
Actually, Julian and I took an after dinner walk uphill and the incline was hardly noticable -- much easier than walking uphill at 18,000 ft.

On the way down, we stopped in one of the many pool halls along the road and planed a couple games of pool. Something about us must have been incredibly interesting as we drew a crowd of 8-10 people as we played. Julian and I each lost one game in the same way -- by sinking our cue ball with only the eight-ball left.

Farewell Kathmandu

2009-09-20T03:43:00.001-07:00

David and Julian arrived from their ADVENTURE yesterday, two days early, brimming with great stories. I am thrilled that I get two extra days with Julian before he departs for Seattle.

I spent 3 days with Rita Thapa, a feminist peace and social activist here in Kathmandu. I had the good fortune to hear of and then meet her through our dear Nepali friend, Sarita, who lives in Seattle. Rita has created two NGO's in Nepal. TEWA, an organization that fundraises to provide grants to women's organizations mostly in rural areas of Nepal. The benefits of one small grant are very impressive. $500 trained 15 women in pre-natatal care and midwifery in a district many miles from any health care with only one aging woman to handle birthing needs. This turned around infant and maternal mortality rates. Five years after creating this organization, which has served as a model for Funds for Women all over the world, she transitioned out of leadership.

Rita then turned her attention to peace building due to the conflict that Nepal was in at the time. Various military factions were drafting young people at gunpoint to serve and people who were fleeing rural villages to the Kathmandu valley in search of safety. The result has been displacement of many conflict affected youth, and the breakdown of the family and village life as the safety net of rural life. Nagarik Aawaz has created a year-long program for displaced youth from varying geographic areas, ethnic, class and political backgrounds. The team assists healing from the psychological/emotional results of having lived through such trauma.

Many of these youth eventually go back to their homes as peace ambassadors, sharing the skills they have developed during the year with Nagarik Aawas. Every Thursday, these young people gather at the Peace Kitchen and cook and serve a meal to Kathmandu's homeless. As difficult as their life has been, they expressed gratitude for the learning that comes from serving others. During a nonviolent communication workshop I facilitated, one lovely young woman expressed constant fear for her life she experienced as a Maoist, while others spoke of being caught in the crossfire between opposing factions. The sense of compassion for one another they are already learning is very impressive and gives a sense of hope for Nepal's future. Rita has been able to take intention and vision and deeply held values and with strong organizational skills, she has invited others to join in creating NGOs that are models for the rest of the world. It was a huge gift to share time with her and her family and Edwina, a wonderful young woman and peace activist from Australia who made her way to Nagarik Aawas via Naropa in Boulder, CO.

It was farewell to Julian today after a couple of days to sharing stories. Off to Bhutan tomorrow for David and I.

Mt Kailash kora

2009-09-20T03:18:00.001-07:00

Thursday, Sep 10
Today we drove from Taklakot to Chiu Gompa on Lake Manasarovar. The road is fully paved from Sera where we first entered Tibet up to Darchen where we go tomorrow. The asphault road was completed just last year.

We stayed in a hotel near the lake. They charge batteries using their solar panels during the day and then each hotel room receives a charged battery.which you connect to a flourescent lamp with alligator clips.

We walked up the hill to Chiu Gompa and saw an alter devoted to Padmasambhava and a shrine room. Much of the monastery has been rebuilt fairly recently.

We visited a hot springs and checked out a couple of bathing facilities. We decided we would try a hot bath the next morning.

In the afternoon, we walked up to some hermits' caves. We were surprised to find one with bedding, books and other signs of recent habitation.

Friday, Sep 11
We woke to clear skies and a fabulous view of Mt. Kailash just before sunrise. Lots of snowy peaks around the horizon.

After breakfast (buckwheat pancakes again, this time spiced up a bit with chunks of pear), We packed up the car and drove to one of the baths. There were three other people waiting to take baths, but no sign of the proprietor. Mingma called the phone number painted on the wall and someone said they would be right over. Soon each of the five of us were in our own private bath, waiting for the wooden tub to fill. But the flow was so little that we only managed to fill about 2 inches in the tub. That was enough for a bath, using the cup provided. It felt good to have a bath, our second since arriving in Tibet.

We then drove to Darchen, about a 2-hour drive. There were some great views of Mt. Kailash along the way. We checked into a guesthouse and went out for some lunch. Not that we were particularly hungry yet, but we ate a hearty lunch, knowing that we would burn it all off tomorrow when we start the kora.

In the afternoon, we hiked up to the Gyangdrak Gompa, a 5-mile trek up to just over 16,000 ft. This was a good bit of additional acclimitization and training for tomorrow. Our destination is just slightly higher than we reached today.

We returned to the guesthouse and started packing our gear. It looks like we can reduce our things enough to hire just two porters and not deal with yaks at all.

So we're back on schedule with our original itinerary; by advancing a bit more quickly, we have made up the time lost due to canceled flights.

Saturday, Sep 12
Today we started the kora. Mingma had arranged for two porters to carry our gear, instead of hiring a yak man to guide a yak.

We carefully set aside the things we wanted our porters to carry and the things to be left behind. In addition to our personal things, I had explained to Mingma that we wanted to have the Gamow bag carried on the kora so it would be available in case any one of us experienced altitude sickness.

There was a group of about 20 Russians from St. Petersburg who were setting out about the same time. They had mabe 15 or 20 yaks for their gear.

The weather was cloudy so we only got glimpses of the base of Mt. Kailash from the first prostration point, Chag-Tsal-Gang. Saw the thousands of prayer flags at Darpoche, where the big Saga Dewa Festival is held each year on the full moon day of May or June.

Here also, we saw the sky burial site, which is no longer used -- apparently there are too few vultures and too many dogs.

We encountered large numbers of India pilgrims returning on horseback from Dira Phug, Monastery having turned back after hearing that there was snow on Dolma La pass. One person told us the pass was "closed" due to snow.

Julian and I were both determined to forge ahead, of course. We figured we both have enough mountaineering experience with snow and ice that we weren't all that concerned. Besides, at the bath yesterday, we met a German woman, Evita who had just returned after completing the kora and while she described some snow, it wasn't anything that made it too difficult to cross.

We arrived at a newly constructed guest house just across the river from the Dira Phug Monastery around 3:00 pm

Just as we were arriving I was surprised to hear a Land Rover coming up behind me. I didn't realize that it was possible to drive all the way up here. It went on to the monastery. Later we learned that our two porters and our two bags were on that vehicle-- they rode all the way up here with their loads. I guess that was Mingma's plan all along -- he had mentioned sending our gear ahead with the porters on a vehicle. I just hadn't realized this meant they would drive all the way to our day's destination.

Julian was keen on walking up to the Kangjan Glacier, so after resting for an hour, he and Lal and I headed on up. Julian went on ahead, reaching a point 17,400 ft, according to the altimeter on his watch. I wasn't moving as fast, so at about 17,000 feet, I decided to just sit down and rest and wait for Julian and Lal to return. It was a pleasant place to sit by a mountain creek.

We returned to the guesthouse around 6:30pm and took a rest. Climbing up to 17,000 ft today was probably good for acclimatization for tomorrow when we plan to cross the Dolma La pass at 18,400 ft. We were too tired to visit the Dira Phug Monastery.

Sunday, Sep 13
Today we rose early, at 7:30am. Here in western Tibet, on the same time zone as Beijing, everthing happens at later clock times. The sun rises around 8:00am.

Today the sky was clear at sunrise. In fact, the weather today turned out to be the best weather we have had on the entire trip so far-- calm and sunny.

We began walking around 8:45am. It was cold-- below freezing. Many of the streams and rivulets were iced over or frozen solid. We left about the same time as the Russians, but gradually overtook them.

The guide for the Russians had a need to two additional porters and had plenty of yaks, so he and Mingma arranged to have our gear loaded on yaks while our two porters took a different job; I think they returned to Darchen.

I soon found that I had to adjust my pace downward at this altitude. The first part of the trail was relatively steep and I moved slowly. Then it leveled out and I could pick up the pace a bit, but still kept it relatively slow. Julian meanwhile forged ahead at his 25-year-old pace, with Mingma (28 and Tibetan). Lal and I didn't see Julian againg until we reached Dolma La pass.

There are all kinds of sacred rocks along the way. One is a place for people to leave something behind (representing their former selves) -- clothing, a drop of blood or a lock of hair.

There are rocks with "footprints" of the Buddha or Milarepa. There is a "sin-testing rock" which you can try to crawl under to test your sins. It was too far off the trail for us to make use of, however.

As we approached Dolma La pass around noon, I was advancing very very slowly, breathing a couple of times for each step. The pass is marked with thousands of prayer flags, many attached to a sacred rock depicting the goddess Tara.

The site is rather trashy, with discarded packaging scattered all over the place. Discarded pop cans, fruit juice boxes, beer bottles and other bits of paper and plastic are a huge problem here. Neither the local Tibetans nor most of the pilgrims seem to have any concern about the garbage-dump-like character of the place that results from just tossing aside trash without looking for a proper place to discard it.

Even our Tibetan guide, Mingma had tossed his fruit juice box under a rock where we had been taking a break. Julian explained to him that in America we never do this and insisted that we carry the trash with us.

At Dolma La Pass, Julian was there waiting for us, having arrived about 45 minutes earlier. Mingma had decided to press on to Zutul-puk Monastery in order to secure a room for us at the guesthouse.

We sat down to rest and have part of our lunch. We would eat the rest later after we reached a lower elevation. Large ravens and smaller birds helped pick up apple cores and food scraps.

A porter came up to us and asked for some food. Lal gave him a package of biscuits. The porter removed the wrapper and immediately tossed it on the ground. I couldn't stand to see him discard his trash like this, and, inspired by Julian, I immediately objected and told him to give me the wrapper to carry down.

We headed on down, a fairly steep descent at first. Then came a long long relatively flat trail along a river valley toward our day's destination, the Zutul-puk Monastery.

At one point we found ourselves on the wrong side of a river and we searched for a way to cross it-- each point we checked seemed to be just a little too wide between stepping rocks. Lal had remembered that there was a primitive bridge farther down the river, but when we arrived there, the bridge was gone.

So the only alternative was to remove our boots and wade across the river in bare feet. Lal found a suitable place. Julian proceeded to cross on his own carrying his own pack. I accepted Lal's offer to carry my pack and hold my hand as we crossed together. Rather cold, but not lasting too long. I'm glad we each had our walking poles for stability on the slippery rocks.

We reached the guesthouse at the Zutul-puk Monastery around 5:30 pm and immediately took rest in the rooms that Mingma had arranged. Mingma told us he was going to head on down to Darchen for the night, another 3 hour walk. I was glad to take a break at this point.

I must say, it feels really good to have crossed the pass with no mishaps. Neither Julian nor I have felt any nausea and while we've felt just a bit of borderline headache during heavy exertion at high altitude, neither of us has had a real headache.

In fact, we haven't had any intestinal problems either, save Julian's brief discomfort after eating soup prepared from a mix which contained wheat noodles. His gut reacted adversely to the gluten. Other than that, we've both been healthy.

Monday, Sep 14
Lal, Julian and I checked out the Zutul-puk Monastery first thing in the morning, before breakfast. It was a good time to visit, as one of the monks was doing his morning chanting.

After breakfast we set out again for the third leg of the kora.

We packed up our gear for the yaks to carry on down and at this point we realized that there was only one bag and the Gamow bag was not with us. In fact, it had never left Darchen! Lal explained that Mingma had decided to leave it behind because the Russian group was carrying one and he figured if we needed one we could use theirs! Well, fortunately, no one needed to use it, but it seemed a bit devious on the part of our Tibetan guide to make this decision without informing me, especially as I had asked him specifically to send it along.

We left around 10:00 am. The walk was fairly flat all the way to Trungto. This is where vehicles wait to pick up their clients and where yaks are unloaded. It's where most people end their kora, though it's still 4 km short of Darchen.

Julian was intent on completing the full circuit back to Darchen. The road to Darchen is flat and the 4 km goes pretty quickly. Lal has done the kora about 16 times and this is the first time he has come across anyone who has wanted to forego the ride in a vehicle back to Darchen. But he was happy to join us in our walk back to our original starting point. We arrived around 2:00pm

We stopped for lunch in a restaurant in Darchen and then got in our vehicle for the drive to the northeast corner of Lake Manasarovar. There is a camp here with semi-permanent tents set up for pilgrims. They also have rooms in a guesthouse, but Julian and I thought we would like to try out a tent. There are 8 beds in here, but with a high roof, it looks like it will be quite comfortable.

After leaving our things in the tent, we drove off to Seralung Gompa, another monastery that was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt since. This one was rebuilt in the 1980s, but it looks older than that. The thankas and murals look like they've been around for 100 years at least, but things seem to age more quickly around here.

Since we only got about 4 hours of hiking in today and Julian is training for a Marathon in November, he decided to go for a run. He was amazed that he could actually run at an elevation of 15,000 feet. Now he's taking a bath in the river, which is reputed to have "warm" water. We'll see what he thinks when he gets back.

Well, Julian says that "warm" is not a good descriptive term for the river water, but he's glad he had a chance to wash up after the run anyway.

Tomorrow we do some serious driving. While our itinerary has a destination of Paryang, Mingma hopes we can make it to Saga, which may take 10 hours or more. If we reach Saga, that will be about half way to Kathmandu. At this point, I'm eager to get back to Kathmandu and I'm hoping that Julian will have at least an extra day, maybe too to be with Cynthia before he has to head back to Seattle on Sunday.

Our approach to Mt Kailash from Western Nepal

2009-09-18T04:30:00.001-07:00

Julian and I are back in Kathmandu with Cynthia, having completed our kora (pilgrimage walk) around Mt Kailash. Here are some of our journal entries during our trek through Western Nepal:

Tuesday Sep 1
Arrived in Nepalgunj, a town in Western Nepal near the Indian border. Loaded up a trailer with our gear and checked in at Hotel Sneha. Increasing clouds.

Wednesday, Sep 2
Weather in Simikot reported to be cloudy. Flight cancelled. Julian and I each went jogging. I met him on his way back from a run to a nearby army barracks and we returned to the hotel together. After a mid-day meal of dahlbhat, we went for a walk around town. Then slept for a few hours in the afternoon.

Thursday, Sep 3
Around 5:00 am I got up to shut off the noisy air conditioner I heard a dripping sound and figured it was condensation from the AC. It lasted several minutes. I remember thinking, "That AC unit sure draws out a lot of moisture from the air!" Then I realized, it wasn't condensation from the AC; it was raining outside.

We learned at the desk that the rain in Nepalgunj and clouds in Simikot had caused flights to be cancelled a second day. No need to go to the airport.

Our guide, Lal Tharung, started discussing the possibility of returning to Kathmandu, then taking a Jeep to Mt Kailash, instead of trekking from Simikot. We discussed this with Deepak Mahat, owner of Thirdpole Treks.

We decided to wait one more day for the weather to clear. If the flight is cancelled a third time, we have the option of flying back to Kathmandu and executing Plan B. Julian is hoping to avoid the long drive from Kathmandu to Mt Kailash and back. So am I except it may be a better option than hanging out in Nepalgunj any longer (and losing any acclimitization I may have gained in Lhasa).

The rain gradually increased. Julian took this as a welcome respite from the heat -- he went ahead jogging in the rain. After running with him to the end of the driveway, I turned around and returned to the hotel, where I dried out my clothes.

Another day of dahlbaht (rice, lentils and vegetables), an afternoon nap and some reading. Julian just finished the book, Three Cups of Tea and now I'm reading it -- quite a well written, engaging book.

Friday, September 4
We met a couple from California, Vajra and Pema and their 14-month old son Mela. Vajra was getting just as impatient sitting in Nepalganj as we were. His contact in Simikot at the Sun Valley Resort, Sunny Travels suggested we drive to Surkhet and catch a helicopter to Simikot. We were told in Nepalgunj that planes could not fly to Simikot until the mud on the runway dried out. So we decided to go with Vajra and Pema, share a car to Surkhet and try to catch a helicopter.

We piled in the car and set out on a 3-hour journey to Surkhet. The road had many landslides partially covering the pavement, but enough rocks had been moved away that it was passable.

I had no idea how we were going to pay for a helicopter. Vajra thought the fare would be about $250 per person, but adding up all my travelers cheques, US bills, Nepali rupees, as well as Julian's money would have barely covered it, but not if there were extra charges for baggage, which of course we had a lot of. I had no idea what we were going to do.

We arrived in Surkhet around 1:00 pm. First we were told that there was only room for the couple to fly. We found a hotel, the New Nepal Hotel and rented a room. We stayed Friday night.

I asked whether there were any banks in Surkhet and was told yes there were. We immediately tried to find one, it being mid-afternoon Friday. We were eventually guided to Nepal Investment Bank. I went in and asked whether they cashed Travelers Cheques. No they didn't. I held up my debit card. How about this? Oh, yes, you must go downstairs to the ATM machine. Whoa! A stroke of luck.

Downstairs there is a dark narrow passage way with an electronics shop and next to it an ATM machine. I went in and inserted my debit card. The Withdrawal button was dead-- it did nothing. But the Fast Cash button brought up a list of different amounts of Nepali rupees to choose from. The largest about was 10,000, or about $120. So I withdrew the full amount 6 times and Julian withdrew the full about 2 times. We left. But then after dinner, I had been worrying that this probably still was not enough, so we walked back to the ATM machine and withdrew another 20,000 rupees. Now we had 80,000 rupees and the helicopter fare for three people with all our gear came to 72,000 rupees.
Stayed at the New Nepal Hotel. The evening was blustery, with the wind blowing and the rain falling horizontally. Lightning and thunder.

Saturday, Sep 5
We woke up to rain on Saturday morning. All day the weather was bad and helicopter flights were postponed. The morning weather was still not suitable for flying, but we were told to wait in our hotel until we got a call from the helicopter company. Around 2:00 pm we got the call and went to the airport. At 3:00 we boarded a Russian built helicopter and took off for Simikot. Flight was relatively smooth. Some fantastic scenery of vertical cliffs-- probably one of the most remote regions of the planet I have ever seen.

Spent the night at the Sun Valley Lodge in Simikot. Light misty rain falling.

Sunday, Sep 6
Departed around 8:00 am in light intermittent rain, our first walking segment of the trek. Hiked until lunch at Dharipari where Lal caught up with us. Then continued on to a house just about an hour short of Kermi.

As we were resting, a man showed up with a note which he gave to Lal. As Lal read it, we knew that something was wrong. Turns out that before leaving Simikot, we were supposed to take our passports to the police sation there and have them stamped with "a departure stamp". The Sun Valley Hotel had sent this runner to catch up with us, pick up our passports and bring them back to Simikot. Seemed weird to me. Especially since I didn't know how or when we were going to be getting our passports back. And why couldn't we get a departure stamp at the police checkpost in Hilsa, just before we departed Nepal? The idea was that after getting the passports stamped, the runner would catch up with us and return our passports. Hmmmm.

We finally relented, trusting in the Nepali system, strange as it was. In Kermi, we stayed under the roof of a home. It was nice to not have to use the wet tent. It rained for much of the night.

The trail was incredibly muddy everywhere. Mud mixed with cow dung, yak dunk horse dung, mule dung, sheep dung, goat dung and human excrement.

Monday, Sep 7
Hiked for about 8 hours to just short of Muchu. Set up tent outside of a temporary structure where Lal prepared out dinner. It was a stone wall structure covered with a blue tarp. Had to stoop inside and dodge the pieces of meat hanging from the ridge pole.

Sleeping in the tent was pretty wet. It rained hard in the night and water leaked through the rain fly and the tent roof, dripping on our sleeping bags. Fortunately when it was time to pack things up in the morning, the rain stopped for awhile.

Tuesday, Sep 8
Hiked to Yari. Seems like light misty rain is permanent in this region. Only a few times during the day when the rain stops and the sky brightens. Haven't needed to use sunglasses yet.

When we reached a police checkpost at Yari, we learned that our passports had been sent to Hilsa via helicopter. Okay. Hope we have them when we want to enter Tibet.

We stayed in Yari in a storage room for rice and supplies.

During the night, we heard a loud knock at the door. Went to check and found that a herd of goats had bedded down outside our door and one apparently had beat against the door four loud raps with its horns.

Later we heard rats running around on he ceiling, causing debris to rain down on us. A rather fitful night.

Wednesday, Sep 9
Today our goal was to reach Hilsa, the border town on the Nepal side and pass into Tibet. We had a long steep slog up to Nara La pass (15,000 ft), but fortunately this was the first day when we had a break in the rain for a couple of hours. After reaching the pass, it was a long gradual descent into Hilsa. It took us 5 hours to get there, arriving at 11:30 am.

Our Tibet permit was valid from Sep 8th, so by hiking from Simikot to Hilsa in four days, we were only now one day behind schedule.

Lal borrowed a cell phone from a local person who subscribes to a China telecom service (There are not Nepal Telecom towers in this part of the country). He talked to our Tibet guide, Mingma to let him and the driver know that we had arrived in Hilsa. I hadn't even realized that we would have a Tibetan guide as well our Nepali guide, Lal on this portion of our trek. An SUV and driver (the same vehicle and driver Cynthia and I had when traveling outside Lhasa) were ready to pick us up.

We went to the police station, showed our trekking permits and had them stamped. No one seemed to know anything about our passports.

Lal suggested we sit down and have a cup of tea. The person who might know something about our passports had left and "gone up into the mountains" for a spell. Oh, great.

After several minutes of drinking tea, Lal all of a sudden bolted out the door. The man with our passports had just walked by. Sure enough, he had the passports so we went back to the police station to once again fill out paperwork. Now we're ready to cross into Tibet. Except for one thing: the mules carrying our gear have not shown up yet.

Time for another cup of tea. And a walk around Hilsa. And another cup of tea. Finally, around 3;30pm the mules show up. We arrange for some locals to port our gear across the bridge.

But is the immigration office on the China side open? All of China, including Tibet is on the same time zone, so Tibet time is roughly 2 hours later than Nepal time. Is their office still open?

Fortunately, the Chinese immigration official, the customs agent and the medical officer who checks your body temperature by putting a thermometer under your armpit are summoned and arrive with our SUV in a separate vehicle.

Our luggage is carefully inspected. I have to discard the yak cheese I had packed for lunch. We give up our passports once again. We hold the thermometers under our armpits for 10 minutes and have them read. No one has any symptoms of swine flu.

Then we have to drive to the customs office in Taklakot and have all our gear scanned in a Nuctech scanner. More forms to fill out. I really need to memorize my passport number. Seems like every time I need to fill in a form, someone else has my passport.

We are delivered to the "best" hotel in Taklakot. Which means hot running water, but no towels. Julian and I relish the shower, shampooing our hair and washing our socks and underwear. It takes two wash cycles to bring the water to a point you can see through it.

Then dinner at a local restaurant. Some meat for a change, which will help us produce more red blood cells. Those will come in handy in the next few days. Elevation here in Taklakot is just over 13,000 feet. Neither Julian nor I are feeling any symptoms of being at altitude. I'm looking forward to a restful night in a comfortable bed.

September 13,2009

2009-09-12T21:03:00.001-07:00

Rested in Katmandu

I continue to become better acquainted with Kathmandu. I finally found my way out of Ranibari, (Queen's Garden) where I am staying, a warren of small street and alleys . Making only two wrong turns on my way out, I felt quite confident I could make my way back. I made my way to Thamel, the main shopping district and tourist center, home to countless trekking agencies and restaurants of every description. I then made my way directly to Deepaks office to print out material for the workshops I will give. As I later wandered around Thamel, I attempted to keep track of the number of languages I heard but soon lost track as I dodged rickshays, bicycles, motorbikes, cars, tuk tuks, buses, and trucks all moving on streets in different directions. If takes a certain fearlessness to drive on these streets as it seems to be a constant game of chicken - who will back down first. I am quite pleased to have figured out how to cross these streets with a degree of confidence. I did, however, sacrifice what little dignity I had as I returned home in a light rain and my feet slipped from under me and I found myself in the mud one all fours. I cleaned up as best I could with the tissues I had, but basically I was a muddy mess. I was really too muddy to go in any place to clean up so I continued on home pretending it was a new natural look.

I am called aunty almost universally here. I am convinced it is because of my gray hair. I see very few people with gray hair other than those who are really elderly and infirm. People my age still have pitch black hair. hmmmmmm...

David and Julian were finally able to catch up with their itenerary in Tibet by giving up rest days. I eagerly await the details of their trek and the Kora around Mt. Kailash which they are in the midst of as I write.

September 6

2009-09-05T22:34:00.001-07:00

Weather - Beyond our control

David and Julian had 3 days delay in their flight to the mountain village of Simikot due to weather. This is near the end of the monsoon season so weather is unpredictable. With no room for error in the small landing strip of the mountain village, caution prevails. They were waiting in a small, very hot town in southwestern Nepal and finally yesterday they were able to helicopter to the village. Hopefully they will begin their trek to the Tibet border today. They will then cross the border and begin the Mt. Kaikash pilgrimge. Due to the delay, they will have to trek the Nepali portion faster than planned as the Tibet visa is for a very limited time. I am fortunate to be staying with Deepak. Though David and I have no means of connecting directly, Deepak is able to get reports and lets me know how things are going. We may not hear anything now until they reach the border.

In the meantime, I remain happily here in Kathmandu. I will start volunteering this week and I have begun studying Nepali with my hostess, Lalu. Already I begin to imagine myself returning to Nepal in the future.

In Kathmandu

2009-09-03T21:32:00.001-07:00

September 1

I said farewell to David and Julian this morning as they left Kathmandu to begin thier Mt. Kailash adventure. I am very excited for them as they have a wonderful guide and thorough preparations have been made. They both seem well prepared, physically and mentally. Each time I read anything about this pilgrimage I felt ready mentally, but unfortunately, my knees have a way of reminding me that I may need more new body parts before attempting something of this magnitude.

I will move to the home of Deepak Mohat, the director of Third Pole Treking. We met him 14 years ago when we treked in the Langtang region here and he has arranged this trek for David. He and his family have invited me to spend this time in their home. We had dinner with them the other evening and they were all so warm and welcoming. I am sure this will be a very interesting time.

September 4

We are reminded that we have no control over weather. The mountain village David and Julian were to fly to has had bad weather so they have been stuck in Nepalgunge in southwesteern Nepal. They are hoping a helicopter can get them there today. Deepak has been trying hard to figure and refigure things out for them.

In the meantime I am comfortably settled in the the Mohat home with a delightful 10 year old girl to introduce me to the neighborhood and the location of each and every chocolate shop. Anuj is their 19 year old son who is in the process of applying to college in the USA. He is suffering writer's block in his essay, so I am trying to offer encouragement. Lalu is a delightful women who thinks and feels deeply. A former Nepali teacher for the Peace Corp, she teaches private English and Nepali classes.

Adita, the 10 year old, is trying to convince me that anyone over 55 should not do any work around the house. I almost sneak around to do some dishes just to feel a bit useful.

Kathmandu seems to have deteriorated. With the government in a stalemate, there has been little work on badly needed infrasructure projects. The population has exploded with people moving in from the countryside. There are countless motor bikes and scooters as well as cars (far fewer rickshaws), but the air is clearer than in 1995 as they have banned the most polluting vehicles.

It is heartwarming for me to be here after an absense of 14 years.

On the eve of the Mt Kailash trip

2009-08-31T05:54:00.001-07:00

Julian and I are packed up for our trip to Mt Kailash. Cynthia will be staying with the family of Deepak Mohat, owner of Adventure Thirdpole Trekking. His wife, Lalu was a former Peace Corps language instructor before the Peace Corps pulled out of Nepal in 2004. They have two children, a girl 8 and a boy 19. Cynthia is looking forward to living with the family and learning some Nepali.

Julian and I fly to Nepalgunj tomorrow, then Simikot the next day, where we begin our trek to the Tibet border, then on to Lake Manasarovar and Mt. Kailash.

When we arrived in Nepal, my Blackberry was unable to connect to Nepal Telecom, so I called AT&T. They had me remove the SIM card and reinsert it, which I did. Now, I am unable to use the Blackberry for communication at all. I get messages about "Iniialization Failed". I suspect I will have to reinstall the operating system on the Blackberry. But no time for that now.

So for the next three weeks, there will be a lull in our blog postings -- Cynthia may post some entries, but there won't be any photos until Julian and I have returned to Kathmandu on about September 19.

Thank you to all you readers who motivate us to keep in touch.

David

The Feeling of Occupation

2009-08-27T22:50:00.001-07:00

Leaving Gyanste a couple mornings ago, a caravan of at least a dozen large military trucks loaded with soldiers passed. Our guide thought they might be headed to the border with India at Darjeeling. About an hour later, our car was stopped by soldiers. Several ran further along the road while one remained beside us with his finger on his rifle trigger. Another group of soldiers was further ahead of us.

Our guide tried to ask what was happening and he was told not to ask and not to watch. After about ten minutes and some shouting back and forth among groups, the soldiers started heading back to their vehicles. We were told they would signal when we could move. After 15 - 20 large trucks passed us heading the other way, we were able to move again.

I could sense the responsibility our guide felt for us, his feeling of helplessness in this, his own country. Street corners are controlled by Chinese military as are open air markets and the surrounding roof tops. The old part of cities which are largely Tibetan have survailance cameras. There is no doubt that the Tibetans are treated as second class citizens. Educations is all in Chinese with Tibetan taught as a foreign language. The number of monks at any of the restored monasteries is controlled by the Chinese and is just a handfull of the number who previously became monks. Restoration of monasteries destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, as in mainland China, comes from donations from individuals, not the government though 90% of the entry fee to visit monasteries goes to the Chinese government, thus becoming cash cows for them. It is difficult for Tibetans to get passports and thus travel freely.

The Tibetans way of life is strongly identified with their form of Buddhism and in spite of attemps through the Cultural Revolution, it remains the central focus of life for many Tibetans. We witness thier devotion everywhere we go.

The Chinese have contributed much that has modernized Tibet: an improved road system, better water, improved farming methods, hydro power, promotion of tourism. Most of this has come from the top down with no consultation with the Tibetans, which has resulted in changes to a landscape that they have cared for and regarded as sacred for centuries. Undoubtedly, most of these changes will not be reversed. The best we can hope for is that the Tibetans will eventually receive an equal voice and receive the full rights of citizenship.

This experience gave us a token feeling of what it must be like for populations in countries that the US has occupied in the name of democracy and liberation.

Yungdrungling Monastery

2009-08-27T22:46:00.001-07:00

When we read the description of Yungdrungling Monastery in our Lonely Planet guidebook, we asked our guide if we could possibly visit there on our way back to Lhasa, even though it was not on our original itinerary. He had never been there but was willing to give it a try.

The reason it sounded interesting is that this was a Bon monastery, not a Buddhist monastery. Bon was the religion of the Tibetan people before Buddhism arrived in the 8th century.

We expected to find something very different from what we had seen in Buddhist monasteries and temples, but surprisingly, this monastery had much in common with them.

According to "The History of Bon" in Lonely Planet (p. 68),

"Bon has its deepest roots in the earliest religious beliefs of the Tibetan people. Centered on an animist faith shared by all central Asian peoples, religious expression took the form of spells, talismans, oaths, incantations, ritual drumming and sacrifices. Rituals often revolved around an individual who mediated between humans and the spirit world.

...

"Bon is thought to have its geographical roots in the kingdom of Shang-Shung, which is located in western Tibet, and its capital at Kyunglung (Valley of the Garuda). Bon's founding father was Shenrab Miwoche, also known as Tonpa Shenrab, the Teacher of Knowledge, who was born in the second millennium BC in the mystical land of Olma Lungring in Tajik (thought to be possibly the Mt Kailash area or even Persia). Buddhists often claim that Shenrab is merely a carbon copy of Sakyamuni (Sakya Thukpa), and certainly there are similarities to be found. Biographies state that he was born a royal prince and ruled for 30 years before becoming an ascetic. His 10 wives bore 10 children who formed the core of his religious disciples. Many of the tales of Shenrab Miwoche deal with his protracted struggles with the demon king Khyabpa Lagring.

"Bon was first suppressed by the eighth Yarlung king, Drigum Tsenpo,and subsequently by King Trisong Detsen. The Bon master Gyerpung Drenpa Nampa (a gyerpung is the Bon equivalent of a lama or guru) struggled with Trisong Detsen to protect the Bon faith until the king finally broke Shang-Shung's political power. Following the founding of the Samye Monestary, many Bon priests went into exile or converted to Buddhism,and many of the Bon texts were hidden.

...

"To the casual observer it's often hard to differentiate between Bonpo and Buddhist practice. It can be said that in many ways Bon shares the same goals as Buddhism but takes a different path. The word 'Bon' has come to carry the same connotation as the Buddhist term 'dharma'. Shared concepts include those of samsara, karma and rebirth in the six states of existence. Even Bon monasteries, rituals and meditation practice are almost identical to Buddhist versions. Still, there are obvious differences. Bon has its own Kangyur, a canon made up of texts translated from the Shang-Shung language, and Bonpos turn prayer wheels and circumambulate monasteries anticlockwise. The main difference comes down to the source of religious authority: Bonpos see the arrival of Buddhism as a catastrophe, the supplanting of the truth by a false religion."

Yungdrungling
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622039657057/show/

Travels outside Lhasa

2009-08-27T21:53:00.001-07:00

Our Tibetan guide and driver took us on a three day trip to the sacred lake of Yamdrok Tso and the towns of Gyantse and Shigatse outside of Lhasa. Here are some photos:

Yamdrok Tso
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622033688987/show/

Gyantse
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622033565031/show/

Shigatse
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622158137512/show/

An operational barley mill

2009-08-27T21:45:00.001-07:00

We took a 3-day trip to some towns outside Lhasa and came across this mill used to grind roasted barley into flour. The flour is used to make tsampa, the traditional staple meal of Tibetans. The mill was humming along smoothly, powered by a water wheel.

Barley Mill
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622033516495/show/

More photos from China

2009-08-27T21:34:00.001-07:00

Our hotel here in Lhasa is the first one we have found in which computer access if FREE! Everywhere else in China we have had to may anywhere from $2 - $13 per hour. So on our last day in Lhasa, we've had the chance to catch up on e-mail and upload some pictures we took a couple of weeks ago.

Here are a couple of slideshows:

White Horse Temple
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622039825379/show/

Longmen Grottoes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622100791362/show/

The Jokhang

2009-08-24T05:30:00.000-07:00

The Jokhang in Lhasa is the most revered religious structure in Tibet. Buddhist pilgrims walk around the structure in a clockwise direction carrying prayer beads and spinning prayer wheels. Inside there are dozens of chapels and hundreds of statues, including the most important shrine in Tibet, the chapel of Jowo Sakyamuni, which houses the image of Sakyamuni Buddha at the age of 12 years.

Thousands of pilgrims stand in lines for hours waiting to enter the chapels where they make offerings of Yak butter and paper money.

Cynthia and I stood in line for about half an hour watching people and taking some low quality video of circumambulating pilgrims (see slide show below). Then someone let us know that tourists were expected to move directly to the front of the line purchase an entry ticket and go on in (pilgrims standing in line didn't have to pay the entry fee). We were glad to move forward but also happy that we had the opportunity of people watching.

Slideshow is at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622128452590/show/

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Impressions of Ganden Monastery

2009-08-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

Some of the sights and sounds I most enjoyed at Ganden Monastery had little to do with the monastery itself, but with the rituals the locals were using in rebuilding it.

At one point we heard call and response chanting between groups of men and women, each call and response accompanied by pounding. Looking up we saw that workers were tamping the ground to provide a smooth surface for the next layer.

Later we saw a group of women applying a grout of mud with their fingers between stones as they rebuilt one of the destroyed walls. As David took a picture, they all smiled and said "hello", a word even Tibetan children use when they see a westerner.

There is a woodblock printing press at this monastery. It consists of two men sitting at either end of an 18-inch wood block. One, with a graceful motion picks up a long strip of paper, lays it precisely on the woodblock in one fluid movement. The other spreads ink on the woodblock and when the sheet is in place, swipes a roller across the paper. They get a lovely rhythm going with this work and break into a chant. Using sets of woodblocks they create entire books of sutras.

For the first time on this journey, I was disallowed to enter a chapel because I was a woman. Instead of being upset, I chose to enjoy the chanting and the sound of the symbols and drum without breathing in the fumes from the butter lamps. The chanting is really quite beautiful.

To listen to a minute of chanting, try this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/3847633281/in/set-72157622116696100/

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Ganden Monastery slideshow

2009-08-23T01:52:00.000-07:00

Ganden Monastery is the central monastery for Gelug, the sect in which the present Dalai Lama received his training. It was founded in 1409 by Tsongkhapa.

According to the Wikipedia article on Gelug sect:

"Tsongkhapa was an enthusiastic promoter of the Kadam School's emphasis on the Mahayana principles of universal compassion as the fundamental spiritual orientation. He combined this with a strong emphasis on the cultivation of in-depth insight into the doctrine of emptiness as propounded by the Indian masters Nagarjuna (2nd century) and Candrakirti (7th century). Tsongkhapa said that these two aspects of the spiritual path, compassion and insight into wisdom, must be rooted in a wholehearted wish for liberation, all impelled by a genuine sense of renunciation. He called these the 'Three Principal Aspects of the Path'"

Much of the monastery was destroyed by artillery fire in 1959 and 1966. Today it is once again undergoing reconstruction.

Photos taken today are at:
www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622116696100/show/

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China slideshows

2009-08-22T02:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some more photos of our trip before leaving Beijing:

Bailin Temple
www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622051143340/show/

LinJi Temple
www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622051152752/show/

Zhaozhou's Bridge
www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621926716653/show/

Beijing
www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621967004057/show/

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Lhasa slideshow

2009-08-22T02:48:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from our first three days in Lhasa:

www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157622091614958/show/

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Lhasa

2009-08-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

Lhasa today is a Chinese city with a minority Tibetan population. The city has grown enormously over recent years with large scale new construction of office and apartment buildings and a huge influx of Chinese.

When we arrived from the airport, it wasn't until we entered the "old city" that we felt we were in a Tibetan culture. The majority of Lhasa residents do not have a Tibetan background; instead they are recent arrivals from other parts of China.

Signs on businesses are in Chinese; some include Tibetan script (in smaller writing) as well.

Chinese is the language of instruction in the schools; it's essential for students to be fluent in Chinese in order to take advantage of opportunities for further schooling or work.

The Chinese government provides incentives for people to move to Tibet and set up businesses here. There seem to be clear advantages here to having a non-Tibetan ID card in terms of freedom to travel or establish and run a business.

We have had the good fortune of spending time with a Tibetan guide with whom we have been able to have candid conversations which have created a richer experience for us.

The Tibetans are a very devout people; they continue to observe their religious practices of visiting shrines, making offerings of Juniper incense and money, spinning prayer wheels and circumambulating sacred sites, known as koras. Many practice prostrations before Buddhist statues or in the course of circulating around temples (always in a clockwise direction).
In fact, we saw several devotees who have been doing prostrations to the ground for so long that they have developed large calluses on their foreheads and noses. It's common for these practitioners to use padded blocks on their hands and feet to reduce skin abrasion.

In years past, the tradition was to send at least one child from each family to a monastery or nunnery. There were literally thousands of monasteries in Tibet and many had hundreds to thousands of monks. Now many of these are gone and the few remaining monasteries have only a few monks.

The Potala Palace, built in the mid-seventh century has been the home of Dalai Lamas from the Fifth in 1645 to the Fourteenth in 1959. At its peak, there were over 6,000 monks in residence. Today there are no monks at all and it has been converted into a museum and living quarters for Chinese military personnel.

The Palace has over 1,000 rooms. We saw the burial tombs of several past Dalai Lamas, shrine rooms for various deities and rooms where Lamas met with ministers and foreign dignitaries. The room where Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama practiced his lessons was most interesting. He loved mechanical devices and was fascinated by clocks. We saw one of the clocks he tinkered with (it looked complete; I'm not sure whether it still functions.

We also visited the Summer Palace, Norbulingka. The day we visited was a festival day when families gather under the shade trees and have picnics. Tibetan opera is performed and musicians and storytellers ply their trade. People also pay homage to buddhas, bodhisatvas and lamas. In a museum we saw the tricycle that Tenzin Gyatso used as a child.

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Gastronomic Feasts

2009-08-20T04:13:00.000-07:00

While we didn't do a lot of sightseeing in Beijing, having seen most of the historic sites 25 years ago when there were almost no domestic tourists and only a few foreigners on highly controlled group tours, we did enjoy several feasts with our friend Patrick as our guide.

Our first evening we experienced food from Northern Mongolia consisting of a delicious soup of mutton and vegetables in a delicious broth accompanied by several other delicious dishes.

The following evening we enjoyed a central Beijing lakeside setting near the Imperial Palace. The evening temperature was perfect for great food and great conversation. Patrick introduced us to Plum Flower Wine which had been his father's favorite. We had a delicious spicy fish soup with a tomato base accompanied by the best spicy green beans I've ever tasted and a salad with some wonderful kinds of sprouts and other goodies I can't recall. I do remember the walnut paste cookies that were beyond belief, not only in beauty but in taste. Patrick and I each had one and my husband the cookie monster ate the remaining four.

On our third evening in Beijing, we were on our own and selected a vegetarian restaurant listed in Lonely Planet. Unfortunately, the address given was incorrect and we couldn't find it. While we were puzzling over our Lonely Planet map and Google Maps on David's Blackberry, a rickshaw driver came and peered over our shoulder. When we pointed to the Chinese characters, he lit up, gave a broad smile and flashed the international gesture for eating. We hopped in and he took us directly to the restaurant.

The food was absolutely amazing -- a hundred different dishes to choose from by selecting the glossy pictures. Very tasty. The kind of place we would go to often if it were nearby.

In a phone call earlier that day, Patrick's wife, Angelika, had encouraged him to take us for a Chinese foot massage after dinner. Late that evening we found ourselves in a health club, in side by side reclining chairs, our feet in basins of hot herbal water, warm neck pillows and warm kidney pillows comforting us as our warm-up shoulder and back massages. In good time, our presoaked feet enjoyed about an hour of pampering and exfoliating. Indeed, neither David nor I recognized my happy feet after the treatment. The experience was like a whole body massage. We all walked out totally relaxed.

Our final meal before we headed to Lhasa was a gorgeous meal of Peking duck with all the trimmings. They even provided us with a certificate of the duck's number.

In every place we were treated to gracious service as well as great food. Thank you Patrick for all you did to make our Beijing stay special.

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Zhaozhou

2009-08-19T04:15:00.000-07:00

[Note: We actually arrived in Lhasa today. But if I start writing about Lhasa, I'll forget the things I want to say about previous destinations, so just hold tight on Lhasa.]

This post is about Zhaozhou (Joshu in Japanese), a Zen master who lived from 778 to 897. (That's 120 years, by the way). We visited the place where Zhaozhou, at the age of 80 settled down and taught for 40 years. Many of Zhaozhou's teachings are still used today.

"Someone asked, 'Master, will you enter Hell?'

The Master answered, '[I'll be] the first to enter it.'

The man said, 'Why should a great and good [Zen] master enter Hell?'

The Master said, 'Who would transform you through the teaching if I had not entered it?'"
[From Roaring Stream, p. 101]

We had high expectations when we arrived at Bailin Temple (also known as Cypress Grove Temple), having spoken with Andy Ferguson, who has taken several Zen groups here to participate in the practice schedule. (See, for example, the description of the 2007 pilgrimage by the Ancient Dragon Zen Gate group at http://www.ancientdragon.org/sangha/news/more/china_trip)

But as it turned out, ours was an experience of Falling Through the Cracks. Just by chance, shortly before we arrived, an international Buddhist Studies tour group had arrived and the attention was focused (quite rightly) on this previously organized tour.

So first we had trouble finding the person who could check us in to guest quarters, then here was a problem making photocopies of our passports. We were told that we would be able to meet the abbot, that there was an evening meal available and that we could participate in evening meditation. But when the time came for each of these events, we had no one to show us where to go or what to do. So we simply enjoyed the evening air and reflected on the folly of building up expectations.

The breakfast routine was similar enough to what we had experienced at the Fourth Patriarch's Temple, so that went fine. I did find that the Chinese seem to be able to eat about four times as much rice gruel as I would normally eat (this was the one food item for which you didn't indicate an amount you wanted -- you just accepted (a gigantic) ladle-full in your bowl. I gulped it down, still taking longer than anyone else. Suffice it to say I was well fed that morning.

One thing I remember at Bailin was overhearing the translation of a Zhaozhou dialog by a monk guiding the tour group. It was the famous Mu koan, but I had not appreciated the 3rd and 4th lines before:

"A monk asked, 'Does a dog have buddha nature?'

The Master replied, 'Mu' [meaning 'No']

The monk continued, 'But if all sentient beings have the buddha nature, then why not a dog?'

The Master said, 'It's your own mind that discriminates.'"

And that gem made our trip Bailin Temple worth it.

So the next day we were off to visit Zhaozhou's bridge, the oldest stone arch bridge in the world (completed in 605 CE). In a famous interchange with a monk, Zhaozhou used the bridge ("Donkey's cross, horses cross")" as a metaphor for the mind being a bridge for everything.

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Wealth in China

2009-08-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

It is challenging to reconcile the China we see today with the China, truly a third world country, that we saw 25 years ago.

Then, getting permission to travel anywhere was always a bureaucratic nightmare, and the state controlled where people could live.

While generally, people had jobs and earned small salaries, few commodities were available for them to buy.

Now, while tight governmental control is still there to some degree, people do have freedom to travel and choose their residence and livelihood. The country has completely embraced capitalism.

Along with the amazing progress of the past 25 years, a voracious consumer society has developed. In any city of any size, shopping seems to be the major past time with every level of quality available. It tempers our view of America as the ultimate consumer society. Advertising is ubiquitous, billboards, giant LED video displays, TV, sometimes appealing to classist instincts.

Here, as at home, we wonder where all this consumption will lead. At the present time, it seems to have created a very solid middle class here in China.

Patrick shared with us last night that the recently wealthy in China are quickly developing philanthropic interests. We had heard that in the case of rebuilding Buddhist monasteries, individuals had contributed all the funds but this wider philanthropy was new to us.

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Green China

2009-08-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

Among the hundreds of high rise apartment buildings and residential complexes we have seen, essentially all have solar hot water panels on the rooftops. In fact, China has 40% of the worldwide installation of solar hot water systems. Even many of the homes of the small farmers we saw as we passed through the countryside have solar hot water units on their rooftops.

In all the hotels we've stayed in, there is an electric power conservation system installed in which lights and air conditioning in each room only comes on when you are present in the room. Most of the lights are efficient fluorescent types. Toilets are either low volume or dual flush types to conserve water.

Recycling is big; China has one of the highest rates of recycling plastic water and beverage bottles. Most refuse cans on the streets are divided into recyclable and non-recyclable sections.

Last night we had dinner with Patrick Tam, an old family friend from Seattle who has been working in China for the past several years setting up green technology investment funds. Basically, their company seeks promising start-ups or small businesses that are developing environmentally beneficial technologies and connects these companies with investors who seek to make a profit.

Patrick says that China has decided to bypass hybrid gas-electric vehicles and go directly to all electric cars. The three largest companies for manufacturing lithium ion phosphate batteries, the kind that will be used in electric vehicles are all in China. Lithium is a light metal that occurs naturally in only a few places in the world, but there are extensive salt flats in China where lithium can be mined.

So we're getting a rather different perspective on China and the environment here than we could get from the American media. If there is a lesson here, it is probably a caution: next time you read a news article about pollution in China, just remember that China may very well become the world leader in green technologies.

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Worship the Measuring

2009-08-12T06:40:00.000-07:00

While the Guanxing Tai Observatory is on the same map as the Shaolin Temple, there must be 1,000 visitors to the temple for each one who visits the observatory. Even our taxi driver seemed to be puzzled as to where the entrance to the observatory was.

Built by the astronomer Guo Shoujing in 1276, the Guanxing Tai Observatory is China's oldest surviving astronomical observatory. It was one of 27 observatories distributed around the country.

One of its main purposes was to ascertain the length of the year as accurately as possible. After four years of observations, the astronomer's best value for the length of the year (measured as the time between vernal equinoxes) was 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds. It turns out that his value is only 26 seconds longer than the modern accepted value.

I think careful measurements such as this are often too little appreciated. If fact, I would even go so far as to assert that objective physical facts are sacred. That's why I was so delighted to see a stone stele with the following engraving, referring to a Master Zhou who continued the work of the observatory until 1528 during the Ming dynasty:

"Worship the Platform Measuring -- by Master Zhou in Spring"

"This inscription was written by the famous Chinese calligrapher Zheng Dayuan in the Ming Dynasty. The poem pictured grand scenes of measuring shadows and observing stars by Master Zhou the ancient times."

Well said, well said.
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Bodhidharma's Cave

2009-08-12T05:44:00.000-07:00

The path to Bodhidharma's cave is through the grounds of Shaolin Temple, just outside of Dengfeng. Shaolin seems to be primarily a gung fu training facility for boys and young men. Just inside the gate we saw several hundred of them, organized in groups of 30 or so, practicing their martial arts routines.

In fact the whole Dengfeng area has a strong gung fu focus. We saw school boys practicing their running flips in the air and the shouts that go along with various stances. There are shops selling gung fu paraphernalia everywhere.

Since we were more interested in visiting Bodhidharma's cave, we set out directly to find the path up the mountain toward Wuru Peak. Part way up we came to the Chuzu Nunnery, where Cynthia decided to sit under the Cypress Tree allegedly planted by the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng while I went on up the steep stone steps to the cave.

According to Zen tradition, Bodhidharma was the first Chinese Zen patriarch and the twenty-eighth master in a lineage traced from Shakyamuni. He is generally thought to have died around 536 CE.

In Zen's Chinese Heritage, Andrew Ferguson writes (p 17),

"Central to the Bodhidharma legend is his interview with Emporer Liang Wudi of the Liang dynasty. The legend of their meeting serves as the preeminent example of Zen's uncompromising method of instruction.

"The emperor Wudi had attained power through intrigue and murder, but after assuming power he became a great supporter of Buddhism, and in atonement for his past sins, he established many Buddhist temples and provided for the welfare of the Buddhist clergy. But when he asked Bodhidharma what merit he had attained from these activities the sage answered, 'No merit.'

"As recounted in the Blue Cliff Record, the emperor then asked Bodhidharma to expound the highest truth of Buddhism, to which he replied, 'Emptiness. Nothing holy.'

"The emperor then asked, 'Who is it that faces me?'

"Bodhidharma replied, 'I don't know.'"

When I arrived at the cave, three young Chinese men were already there. They went inside to offer incense and do their prostrations. There was an alter with a statue of Bodhidharma. A nun, responsible for overseeing the alter sat off to the side and struck a gong once for each prostration. After the three left, I entered the cave, made an offering, lit some incense and did my own prostrations. Three rings of the gong.

The place did seem like just the right place to be if you were going to meditate for nine years. Except for the constant stream of visitors, or course. The rocks in these mountains seem very old. Immediately around the cave there were lots of cracks. I could just see Bodhidharma moving rock pieces around to fashion himself a place to sit.

Another thing that struck me was how stories of Bodhidharma and his successor, the Second Patriarch, Huike change as they are told over the years. Compare, for example, the story as related in Zen's Chinese Heritage (p 20) with the inscription on a stone stele just outside of the cave, erected by the headmaster of Sholin Temple in 2006. First, the story from Andrew Ferguson's book:

"Huike met Bodhidharma and studied with him at Shaolin Temple on Mt Song for six years. Huike is remembered and extolled in Zen tradition for his determination to realize the great truth of the Zen school. According to legend, Huike stood waiting in the snow outside Bodhidharma's cave, then cut off his left arm to show his sincerity. Recognizing Huike's great resolve, Bohidharma accepted him as his student. Huike said to Bodhidharma, 'My mind is anxious. Please pacify it.' To which Bodhidharma replied, 'Bring me your mind, and I will pacify it.' Huike said, "'Although I've sought it, I cannot find it.' Bodhidharma then said, 'There, I have pacified your mind.'"

This is basically the same story story told by most Zen teachers, and while there is weak historical evidence to back it up, it has important instructional value.

But when I read the recently erected stone stele next to the cave, I was struck by the differences. One side was in Chinese; the other in English. Note that "Dharma" refers to the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma, and "Hole" refers to the cave. Here is what it said:

"Dharma Hole"

"The first year of Da Tong of Nan Dynasty emperor Liang Wu (527 AD), Dharma left Jian Ye (Nan Jing), touring the Central China, came to Five Peaks of Song Shan Mountain, finding a hole beneath the central peak named Fire Dragon Hole where an immortal -- Fire Dragon had been practising. It is all mystery inside, 24-section main keel centers clearly with two dragons on both sides correspondingly protecting the doctrine, stars, moon, colorful clouds, The Yangtze River. The Yellow River, high mountains and flowing water all appear inside, looking like "a mini-universe" The second generation ancestor stands on the right.
The Fire Dragon went up to the heaven after first ancestor Dharma came here who then faced the wall nine years, being in deep meditation. Inside the hole, he experienced "trance" to "conscious trance"; When in trance, birds nestling on his shoulder did not undulate him; Outside, he climbed up branches and stretched body, and imitated monkeys, snakes, etc, forming a whole set each of "Xin Yi Boxing" and "Arhat Stick", becoming the founder of "Shaolin Boxing".
The second generation ancestor -- Hui Ke was determined to formally visit and learn from him. He knelt down on the snow ground outside the hole for nights running, and cut off part of his arm to show his will. Finally he became the second generation ancestor.
First ancestor faced the wall for nine years, and the opposite wall reflected his image, just like a watercolor painting. It is said the stone hole on its left just the one where the king of Qin of Tang Dynasty Li Shi Min escaped being captured under the safeguard of martial monks.
This monument:
Set up by: headmaster of ShaoLin temple -- Shi Yong Xin, abbot of First Ancestor Nunnery -- Shi Yong Mei
Organized by: Shi Yan Zhen from Rizhao City, Shandong Province
Donators: Yan Zhen, Chang Yuan, Chang Qing, Chang Jing, Chang Cheng, Chang Fo, Hao Yu, Jia Yi
Accompliished: on Nov. 25, 2006 (Oct. 5, 2006, Chinese lunar calendar)"

So Bodhidharma is remembered as a martial arts adept, as "the founder of "Shaolin Boxing". And there seems to be a lot of Taoist influence here too. Given that restatements of the story have gone on for 1500 years, I guess it's not too surprising to see these differences, but I think it's good to keep in mind that history is one thing and legend is another.

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They all look the same (bus stations, that is)

2009-08-11T03:15:00.000-07:00

Cynthia's take on a day of travel

We thought we had it all figured out. The lovely receptionist at our hotel in Xian checked on the bus station we needed and wrote it down in Chinese characters and also wrote down Louyang, our final destination as well as Sanmenxia, our midway destination for the day.

We confidently handed the taxi driver our information and he took us to the bus station. However, upon handing the scrap of paper with the Sanmenxia Chinese characters to the ticket seller, we learn, No, there is no bus to Sanmenzia from this station. She writes down instructions on a slip of paper and we leave the window. To get to Sanmenxia, we need to go to a different bus station.

Oh well, the buses leave every hour so off we went to another bus station in another taxi. There we learn that it will take us all day to get to Sanmenxia because we have to make other connections and the first bus won't leave until 2:00 so there is no way to get to Louyang tonight.

A quick conference and we decide to skip Sanmenxia altogether and just head to Louyang. Well that means yet another bus station. The young women in the bus station insists we mustn't take another taxi. We end up following a very insistent Chinese couple down the street and in a few blocks we are standing on an island in the middle of the street; the wife is inspecting every bus that goes by and after about 10 minutes we see that the husband has boarded the bus to explain our predicament to the driver. The driver pulls over. They hustle us onto the bus with our packs, hand our bus fare over to the driver and jump off the bus, leaving us to fend for ourselves. After about half an hour or so, David decides to check with the young man across the aisle. Indeed, we are on the bus to Luoyang and four hours later we indeed arrive. Amazing.

We find a clean, quiet, small hotel, go out and have hot pot for dinner and marvel that we actually did arrive.

We had heard that long distance buses in China were quite luxurious. So far, that hasn't been our experience (Maybe we are just at the wrong bus stations) but we have seen a lot of the countryside, a lot of expressways, many country roads and large numbers of poor villages as well as both small and large farms and mountains of many descriptions.

I believe the next best thing to being a young and lovely travelers is being old (gray hair, gray beard) and doddering travelers.

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Pilgrim of the 7th Century

2009-08-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

Before this trip I had never heard of the monk Xuanzang. But when we were visiting Big Goose Pagoda, I decided to look him up in Wikipedia. He's a rather interesting fellow. Seems our paths have crossed several times, separated only by fourteen centuries.

I ended up reading the entire article to Cynthia. The article is at,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanzang

Xuanzang was born in Luoyang (the city where we are right now, having arrived from Xian this afternoon) in the year 602 CE.

While raised in a Confucian family, Xuanzang became interested in Buddhism at an early age and in 622, at the age of twenty, he became fully ordained as a monk.

At the time, there were apparently many inconsistencies and discrepancies among the documents being used to teach Buddhism, and Xuanzang decided he needed to go to India to find some of the originals. So first he learned Sanskrit in order to do the translations himself.

On his way, he traveled through what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan before passing through Kashmir and into the Terai region of Nepal, to Kapilvastu, the place where Sakyamuni grew up as a boy (and the place where I first developed an interest in Buddhism in the early '70s).

At Lumbini, he reported seeing the pillar erected by king Ashoka, which was still there in 1995 when we visited.

He went on to Kusinagara, Sarnath, and Bodh Gaya before going on to Bengal to continue his research for two years at Nalanda University.

After returning to China in 645 CE, (with 657 Sanskrit texts), Xuanzang continued his research and translation work until his death in 664 CE. Many of Xuanzang's translations remain important to this day.

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Xian slideshows

2009-08-08T19:29:00.000-07:00

Ban Po neolithic village
Archeological excavation of a village occupied from 4500 BCE to 3750 BCE. Evidence of a matriarchal culture
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621961370356/show/

Terracotta Warriors
Constructed by emperor Qin Shi Huang around 240 BCE as part of his tomb, the army consists of 8,000 terracotta soldiers, horses and chariots
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621836851639/show/

Xian street scenes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621984236858/show/

Big Goose Pagoda
Completed in 652 CE, this pagoda was used to house Buddhist sutras brought back from India by monk Xuan Zang
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621859702461/show/

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Impressions of China after three weeks

2009-08-08T03:33:00.000-07:00

The China we see today, 25 years after our previous visit, is a completely different country. Twenty-five years ago, we could sense the potential of an economic powerhouse, from the intense energy of the people, their huge numbers and the vast size of their country. Now it has become a reality.

The capitalist engine is running at full steam and the consumer culture is in high gear. There are huge construction projects all over the country -- superhighways, city skyscrapers, countless housing and commercial development projects, as evidenced by the myriad construction cranes in nearly every city.

At the moment, many of these projects seem to be in a state of suspended animation -- the cranes mostly stand idle over partially finished buildings, due undoubtedly to the worldwide economic downturn. But you sense that when things turn around, these projects will restart where they left off. And China seems to be poised to lead the recovery.

We haven't seen the sprawling ghettos that surround so many large cities around the world; there are plenty of extremely wealthy families here, a strong middle class and a huge working class that seems to be getting by -- we haven't seen much abject poverty at all -- a few homeless people on the streets, but not as many as in Seattle or San Francisco.

Commercial advertising is intense. The big public squares of Xian have giant LED video screens blasting messages to stimulate desire to purchase flashy cars, fancy clothes, perfume and liquor. There are hundreds of shopping malls hawking products of international brands. The only category "missing" relative to current American-style advertising is the class of pharmaceuticals that you should really ask your doctor about.

While the theme song of today's youth may seem to be "Material Girl," there is another trend we discovered in talking with a 26-year old girl and a young man of similar age who came to attend a week-long workshop on Buddhism at the Fourth Patriarch's Temple near Huangmei. She and her friend agreed that while their courses at the university provide them with a huge amount of information, it's difficult to find instruction on how best to live one's life. This is why the summer workshops at several Buddhist temples around the country are in such high demand.

While many temples were in disrepair for much of the 20th century, and huge numbers suffered further destruction during the Cultural Revolution, since the 1990's there has been a surge in reconstruction of temples driven entirely by donations by wealthy patrons and a hands-off policy by the government.

The government tolerates worship and encourages tourism in temples, especially as entry fees provide a revenue stream to the department of tourism.

There is much greater openness now than there was 25 years ago. Then we had to be kept under the watchful eye of a "guide." Now we can travel relatively freely on our own. There still are clear indicators of a heavy-handed central government trying to control the media.

The most aggravating example is the way the government blocks certain web sites. For example, you cannot get to Facebook or Twitter or most of the social network sites via an Ethernet connection. [I can still get to Facebook using my BlackBerry via the cell phone network, however.] Even Google's blogspot site is blocked. This means that none of the photos I post to our blog can be viewed on computers in China.

The English language newspaper, China Daily is an interesting mixed bag. There are plenty of articles bemoaning corruption of government officials, but on the other hand, there is no tolerance for printing the views of the Uygur separatist leader, Rebiya Kadeer whose film has caused so much controversy at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

The strong central government and the fact that all land is owned by the state makes it possible to bulldoze huge neighborhoods and turn them into development projects without much resistance. There is some talk in the paper about compensating people for the loss of their homes or providing them "better" living conditions, but obviously there is a lot going on behind the scenes that is not finding a public forum.

Education is valued highly. Universities have hired many professors from the West, especially in the areas of science and technology. English seems to be the main medium of instruction in these fields.

According to a French student studying aerospace engineering in a Chinese university, it is sometimes difficult to ask questions of his Chinese professors as they tend to take this as a sign of disrespect.

Chinese universities crank out 6 million graduates a year, but as in America, a college degree is no longer a ticket to a good paying job, as least right away. Youth everywhere seem to be facing strong challenges after graduation.

An article in today's paper says that China plans to launch a robotic rover to the moon in 2012 and a manned lunar landing mission as early as 2025. A recent editorial in Sky and Telescope magazine suggested that the first manned mission to Mars will be by the Chinese. I won't be at all surprised if that turns out to be the case.

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Slideshows of Temples near Huangmei

2009-08-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

Fourth Ancestor's Temple
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621961414886/show/

Lu Hua Nunnery
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621836923887/show/

Fifth Ancestor's Temple
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621961419232/show/

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Cynthia's memories of 25 years ago

2009-08-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

As I was waking on the morning we were to fly from Nanchang to Xian, the memory of our only internal flight 25 years ago came back to me. We arrived at the airport about an hour before the flight from Beijing to Nanjing. The airport terminal, a dirty, squat building was completely locked up. There was no sign of activity. We wondered if we were in the right place. After about twenty minutes, some officials turned up, unlocked the doors, took our tickets and we were escorted to a plane, a very shabby plane. The seat back wobbled. There were no seat belts. It felt like the seats were missing a few essential bolts. The attendant offered us a piece of hard candy.

David and I glanced at one another wondering if it was really safe to take our five-month-old first born child on such a contraption. And, of course, we breathed deeply and settled into out seats, arms around our sleeping son, and had a safe flight.

Now airports are large and modern, especially considering the somewhat limited amount of air traffic during this economic downturn. We did wait in the plane for two hours due to a thunderstorm in Beijing but that was a welcome wait in the interest of safety, given the rough weather.

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The Fifth Patriarch, Hongren

2009-08-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

The Fifth Patriarch, Daman Hongren (Hung-jen in Chinese Wade-Giles and Daiman Konin in Japanese Romanji) was born near Huangmei in 601. He became a monk at a young age and was one of the first residents of the temple built by Daoxin. In 651, when Daoxin, the Fourth Patriarch died there were over 500 monks living here.

Three years after Daoxin passed away, Hongren sought a site for a new temple. He found a place on Fengmaoshan, a mountain that belonged to a man named Feng Mao, located about a half-day's walk from Daoxin's temple. When Mr. Feng heard about Hongren's plans, he gave him the mountain. The new monastery was able to support over 1,000 monks by the time Hongren passed away in 675. [From the book, Zen Baggage, pp 206-207]

According to Bill Porter [ZB, p. 209], the only record we have of Hongren's teaching is from his "Discourse on the Supreme Vehicle":

"The key to cultivating the Way is knowing that your own mind is originally pure, that it is neither created nor destroyed, and that it is free of discrimination. The mind whose nature is perfectly pure is your true teacher and superior to any of the buddhas of the ten directions you might call upon. ... If you concentrate on guarding the mind, delusions will no longer arise, and the reality of nirvana will spontaneously appear. Thus you should know that your mind is originally pure."

After our taxi dropped us off at the entrance to the Fifth Patriarch's temple and drove away, we stood with our bags at our feet, as a woman walked up to us, excitedly pointing to our bags and loudly shouting to us in Chinese, very concerned about something for which we had no clue. Should we move our bags? Should we pay an entry fee? Should we get out of there as soon as possible? The busybody wouldn't stop. We kept saying "Bu dong, bu dong" (I don't understand), but she kept on berating us in Chinese. I fumbled with my phrase book, hoping I could find something that would calm her down. We just wanted to visit the temple for a few hours; we didn't intent to stay overnight. Maybe a phone call to the travel agent in Nanchang would help explain this to the woman. So I called "Mary" in Nanchang and had her speak with the busybody. That seemed to help. The woman stopped her tirade.

We entered the temple and paid the entrance fee. We turned to go in and right in front of us, completely blocking passage into the temple was a mound of construction debris about 20 ft high. So now what?

It was time to bring out the big guns from my phrase book: "Cesuo dzai nar?" (Where is the bathroom?)

The ticket collectors pointed to a hallway on the left -- lucky for us, no only was the toilet just a few feet away, but this was the temporary access route to the temple during construction.

The temple was quite fascinating-- especially the statues of the mothers of the first six Zen patriarchs and the rice-pounding stone used by Huineng, the "jungle rat" who became the Sixth Patriarch.

And my mind felt considerably more pure after the bathroom break.

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Lu Hua Temple

2009-08-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

Cynthia's impressions of Lu Hua ("reed flower") temple:

In the mountains above the 4th Patriarch's Temple, about 2 miles up a steep, still-being-built road, a newly built nunnery nestles gently in a setting that seems to have been waiting for its appearance. Unlike other temples we have visited, this modest temple seems perfectly integrated into the surroundings with a lovely lake fed by a waterfall. Plants from outside the walls flow into the grounds. The buildings have more human, less grand proportions. A young Chinese man commented that everything in the "female monks" temple was required to be smaller. I am guessing the nuns are more comfortable in their connection with the earth and more earthly proportions.

There was a welcoming shyness in the smiles of the few nuns we encountered. They all seemed very busy as they went about their daily routines. I feel very pleased with this brief encounter in what has otherwise been a very male dominated institution.

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Feeling unblogable

2009-08-04T05:05:00.000-07:00

With 4:00 am wake-ups for the past couple of days, neither Cynthia nor I think we will be able to stay up much past 8:00 pm tonight at our hotel back in Nanchang.

But I did want to share this little quote from Hakuin in today's newsletter from the Upaya Zen Center:

___________

Hakuin's Four Ways of Knowing

When you see something, shine through it; when you hear, shine through what you are hearing; shine through the five skandhas; shine through the six fields of sense perception---in front, behind, left and right, through seven calamities and eight disasters, become one with radiant vision of the whole body. See through all things, internal and external; shine through them. When this work becomes solid, then perception of reality will be perfectly, distinctly clear, just like looking at the palm of your hand. At this point, while increasing the use of this clear knowing and insight, if you enter awakening, then shine through awakening. If you get into agreeable circumstances, then shine through agreeable circumstances. If you fall into adverse situations, then shine through adverse situations. When greed or desire arise, shine through greed and desire; when hatred or anger arise, shine through hatred and anger; when you act out of ignorance, shine through ignorance. When the three poisons of hatred, greed, and ignorance are no more, and the mind is pure, shine through that pure mind. At all times, in all places, be it desires, senses, gain, loss, right, wrong, visions of Buddha or of dharma, in all things shine through with your whole body.

From The Upaya Zen Center's newsletter, Aug 3, 2009

http://www.upaya.org/newsletter/view/2009/08/03

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The Fourth Patriarch, Dayi Daoxin

2009-08-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

Dayi Daoxin (Tao-hsin in Chinese Wade-Giles, and Daii Doshin in Japanese Romanji) lived from 580 to 651.

Some background from the book, Zen's Chinese Heritage, by Andrew Ferguson (pp 24-25):

_____
When he was fourteen years old he went to pay respects to Sengcan Jianzhi, the Third Patriarch.

Daoxin said, "I ask for the Master's compassion. Please tell me of the gate to emancipation."

Sengcan said, "Who has bound you?"

Daoxin said, "No one has bound me."

Sengcan said, "Then why are you seeking emancipation?"

Upon hearing these words, Daoxin experienced great enlightenment.
_____

Daoxin acted as Sengcan's attendant for nine years. After leaving Sengcan, taught at "Broken Head Mountain" for thirty years. This is the present location of the Fourth Patriarch's Temple.

Daoxin is often credited with creating the first self-sufficient monastery for Zen monks in China.

According to Bill Porter, Author of the book, Zen Baggage,

"When people think about Zen, they usually think of it in external terms: nonsensical talk, spontaneous behavior, or minimalist art forms. But that would be to look at it from the outside. If you look at it from the inside, from your own mind, Zen is just a way of living. And that way of living is far easier to realize in a communal setting with the support of others than it is alone. Seclusion has its place, especially once a person has practiced in a community, but it was its communal approach to spiritual cultivation that was the strength of Zen. That was why it overwhelmed all other Buddhist sects in China, both in terms of numbers and in terms of influence. Its success was Darwinian. It produced a better-trained monk and more of them. Other sects were ideology-driven. Zen didn't have an ideology. Zen was life-driven. Its motto was 'No work, no food.'"

Self-sufficiency has been a hallmark of Zen in China and is probably partly responsible for its resurgence today.
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Fourth Patriarch's Temple

2009-08-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

As we walked into the Fourth Patriarch's Temple, the one thing we needed most was someone to let us know whether it was possible for us to stay overnight, and if so what the procedure was to do so. We had no idea how to find out or where to go.

At that moment, a taxi pulled up and two women got out carrying some luggage. This looked hopeful.

I went up to the older woman and asked if she spoke English and she motioned to the younger woman, her daughter. The younger woman came over and asked if she could be of any assistance.

She introduced herself as "Carla", and asked us to follow her. It turns out she and her mother had come to stay at the temple for three weeks where she would participate in a week long "camp" for university students interested in Buddhist practice. She took us to the monk who was responsible for checking in visitors.

Carla has been our personal guide, interpreter and assistant throughout the day. We couldn't have asked for a better welcome.

Cynthia and I were directed to separate (but adjacent) dormitory rooms, where we have been relaxing and enjoying refreshing cold showers.

Carla showed us around the temple and escorted me up the long flight of stairs to Tao-hsin's stupa, which house his relics. Cynthia chose to pass up the stair climb and enjoy the quiet pond instead.

We had a nice long chat with Carla about the resurgence of Buddhism in China and the number of new reconstructed temples that are have been conducting summer camps for university students for the past 6-10 years or so. In fact, the camp here will start next week with 180 participants. There are a huge number of preparations underway to accommodate the students. The daily schedule has been modified so that the formal meditation periods have been omitted.

A cafeteria style vegetarian dinner was served around 6:00. Men eat on one side of the hall and women on the other.

At 7:00 pm we joined the chanting service held in the hall with three big buddha statues There are cushioned low benches for doing prostrations. There were about 50 monks and 10 nuns plus about a dozen lay people in attendance. The chanting has a soothing quality that tends to stay with you after you leave the hall.

Lights go out at 9:30 pm. Carla suggested I set my alarm for 4:00 am, as the morning service begins at 4:30. We had a few moments to stand outside the hall to listen to the head monk doing some chanting. His chanting was punctuated by a rooster crowing and some bats flying around. Seemed a bit early for the rooster, as it was still pitch dark.

The morning chanting service was similar to the evening's. Most of the monks knew the chants by heart, but a few held chant booklets to read along. When the head monk noticed that I asn't chanting and didn't have a chant booklet, we went over and got one for me. At first I thought I should refuse it as it was all in Chinese, but then on second thought I accepted it as to not be rude. About the only thing I could gather from the booklet was that you turned the pages from right to left and the characters were read vertically in columns from right to left. Oh, I did notice that some characters were repeated.

Other than that, my practice was to try to keep track of when to have my hands palms together and when clasped over my chest, when to go down into a prostration and when to come back up again.

After the morning chanting service we were served breakfast, this time in a slightly more formal "Zen-like" style. We each had two bowls in front of us and a pair of chopsticks. People serving the food came by periodically and you could indicate our wish to have some by placing your bowl forward, or pass it by by pulling your bowl back. No food is to be left in the bowl when you are finished. They come by with hot water so you can wash out the last grains of rice and drink the liquid. After some meal chanting, we each filed out to wash our bowls in a sink, before placing them in an upright steam sterilizer.

Everyone is busy preparing for the summer camp while Cynthia and I are reading and writing.

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Numerous kindnesses of strangers to strangers

2009-08-01T18:53:00.000-07:00

[Cynthia's observations]
On Mt. Lu, we as westerners are very rare. In fact we hadn't seen any others as we took a morning walk up to the village. In the park near a viewpoint into a valley, we saw many elderly Chinese people playing games -- a unusual version of checkers, majong, and a gambling game with Chinese characters on thin strips of paper. Women were engaged in dancing/qigong and another man was playing a traditional two-stringed instrument.

We glanced up and spotted a young western man across the street. We nodded in recognition and went about finding a place for a breakfast bite. A moment later, the young man along with several Chinese young people followed us in, curious about how we came to be there. His grandmother had gone to school in this mountain top village. I would have liked to know more of this story as I think it would have been quite an interesting piece of personal and cultural history.

We returned to our overpriced, musty, mildew-smelling, dirty hotel and checked out, needing to figure out how to make our way down this steep mountain. The three young women working there brainstormed, and hailed a taxi for us which took us up the mountain. The driver then secured us a place in a minivan to take us down the mountain. The minivan dropped us on a busy street corner 3 km from the bus station.

A young Chinese man who spoke some English then secured us a taxi to take us to the bus station. After 1-1/2 hours we ended up on a filthy old bus to Huangmei. We looked longingly at the air-conditioned long distance buses next to us as our rickety bus pulled out of the bus station. When the conductor at the gate saw our ticket was to Huangmei she gave us a brief look of pity (or was it sympathy)?

In Huangmei the bus driver dropped us at the corner of some rutted back streets. Across the street some young women in a bathroom fixture shop motioned us in. They gave us glasses of water and they and the people from the neighboring shop decided they must help us find an appropriate place to stay.
Then they called the owner of the shop who came and took us to a lovely hotel, the Royal Hotel; he stayed with us until he was assured that we would be well cared for. The staff of the hotel are enjoying practicing their English language skills with us and we are enjoying clean surroundings and air conditioning and a bathroom without jumping spiders.

In general, in the countryside, not many people speak English and here in the south, they speak a dialect that little resembles the Mandarin we learned. With almost no direct communication, quite a large number of people have helped us arrive at our destination with relative ease. We feel great appreciation for all the efforts they made for us.

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Baofeng Temple and Ma-tsu's Teachings

2009-07-31T05:18:00.000-07:00

Baofeng Temple, located just north of Nanchang is a large, operating Zen temple. It looks like there has been a lot of recent refurbishing, We didn't see a lot of monks, but the few we did see looked us in the eye and greeted us warmly.

In the eighth century Baofeng was the dharma seat of Ma-tsu (Baso Do'itsu in Japanese), who lived from 709-788. Rinzai Zen in Japan traces its origins to Ma-tsu, seventh in the line of patriarchs after Bodhidharma.

Ma-tsu excelled at training monks, producing nearly a hundred successors.

Quoting from THE RECORD OF MA-TSU in the book Roaring Stream,

"The Ancestor said to the assembly, '... If one wants to know the Way directly: Ordinary Mind is the Way! What is meant by Ordinary Mind? No activity, no right or wrong, no grasping or rejecting, neither terminable nor permanent, without worldly or holy.' "

This is the instruction I needed during our overnight train trip to Nanchang.

Cynthia and I were assigned the upper and lower berth in a Soft Sleeper compartment and were looking forward to a restful night aboard a gently rocking train.

Then a young man, in his mid-thirties showed up to claim his upper berth opposite ours in the same compartment. He seemed like a nice enough fellow, and we had no problem with him taking a phone call before we turned out the lights.

Then he got another call, around 11:00 and that lasted for nearly an hour. Then another call around 1:30 am; it sounded like he was talking with his girlfriend, for at least another hour. Then another call at about 3:00 am. What's with these people with their cell phones!!

At that point I felt that I was really being tested-- I didn't feel like I had slept at all. So I got up and put in some ear plugs, but they were only partially successful.

I tried to maintain an attitude that his end of the conversation was just random sounds, basically no different from the random sounds of the train wheels on the tracks. But I had a hard time convincing myself of this.

The guy was still talking with his girlfriend at 4:00 am! In desperation, I got up and sat zazen on the lower berth beneath the man with the cell phone. That helped a bit. Then I tried one last time to get some sleep before the train arrived in Nanchang at 5:35 am.

I managed to catch a few minutes of sleep, but Cynthia was still awake. She found it challenging to fall asleep, especially when she realized that she was only about four feet away from a person having telephone sex.

So when the train arrived, we were both rather bleary eyed. Fortunately our driver was there to meet us at the train station and take us up to Baofeng Temple.

I remembered a line from the book, "The Art of Pilgrimage" by Phil Cousineau:

"The bittersweet truth about travel is embedded in the word, which derives from the older word travail, itself rooted in the Latin tripalium, a medieval torture rack."

That night on the train really did feel like torture.

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Butchering Chinese

2009-07-30T02:59:00.000-07:00

Cynthia and I are at the train station in Hangzhou, waiting for the overnight train to Nanchang, scheduled to leave at 7:41pm. We are in the Soft Sleeper Waiting Room. We haven't had dinner yet and the options here in the waiting room include candy, biscuits and fruit juice. So I was curious as to whether we would be able to order dinner on the train.

So I went up to the woman who took punched our tickets, showed mine and asked,

"Qing wen, zhege huo che, yao buyao, wan fan?"
(Lit. Please may I ask, this train, is there or not, dinner?)

[Probably not grammatically correct, but it contains the main ideas)

And she replied, "Yao de" (It is)

Not sure what the "de" means, but the "Yao" was good enough for me. We'll expect to have dinner on the train.

So I just wanted to say, thank you, Ms. Pamela Lin, our Chinese instructor and Josette Hendrix who hooked us up with her.

Lin Laoshi, you just saved us from a dinner of candy and biscuits!

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seeing/not seeing

2009-07-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

I (Cynthia) sit in a hotel at the top of the Yellow Mountains. Those famous mountains that appear out of the fog with beautifully shaped trees growing at perfect angles out of the rock. No landscape designer could plan such perfection. Whole ridges appear and disappear in a few blinks of the eye and each scene seems like it must have been the most beautiful. It does, indeed, have a spiritual quality. I feel a deep gratitude to be in this place.

This constantly changing view leaves me pondering what may be before me that I don't see due to my own fog or mist.

Anticipating what is next...

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China slideshows

2009-07-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

To all our perspiring Seattle friends: wish you were here in nice cool Hangzhou.

Here are links to some of our photos of the past two weeks:

Eclipse
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/721576217440843411/show/

Huangshan
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621856871074/show/

Hangzhou
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/7215762176426156/show/

Jingci Temple
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621868433172/show/

Lingyin Pagoda
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621868407490/show/

Chungkang Village
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621868269900/show/

Keep cool!

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Huangshan Slideshow

2009-07-28T01:41:00.000-07:00

For a slideshow of some of our photos of Huangshan, try this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11790404@N02/sets/72157621856871074/show/

Good luck!

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See it to believe it

2009-07-27T00:19:00.000-07:00

These two well-named sights are called "Flower Blooming on a Brush Tip" and "Beginning to Believe Peak".

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The Mountains that inspire Chinese landscape paintings

2009-07-27T00:06:00.000-07:00

We spent the night at the city of Huangshan, which is about two hours short of the summit of Huangshan mountain. "Huang" means yellow and "shan" means mountain. We will be staying in one of about 5 hotels that are located near the top of the mountain. To get here we took a van for an hour and a half, a shuttle bus up the mountain road and a cable car similar to what you see in large ski resorts. The elevation here is about 5,000 feet.

It was raining when we left this morning and the rain has continued pretty much the whole day. There are shops that sell plastic raincoats, including rain pants for 10 Yuan - about $1.50. That was one of our best investments. We passed up the booties they sell, so our shoes need to be dried out tonight, but it hasn't been cold, just wet.

The heavy cloudiness has obscured some of the views so far, but this place is obviously incredibly scenic -- steep granite peaks with pine trees clinging to the crags, misty clouds drifting among the foliage.

We will be up here two nights, so we may get some more photography opportunities tomorrow.

Our Lonely Planet guide book says that Huangshan "is not one of China's sacred mountains, so little religious activity is evident," but I wonder whether there may be more to the story than that. The scenery is so stunning, it looks like the place calls out for sacred.

Any Buddhist or Daoist scholars out there who can shed more light on the subject? What religious significance do the Huangshan mountains have?

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Jingci temple in Hangzhou

2009-07-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

In the dharma lineage recognized by Sogenji monastery in Okayama, Japan, the 27th ancestor after Bodhidharma is Nampo Jomyo Zenji, who lived from 1235 - 1309.

According to Andy Ferguson, author of the book, Zen's Chinese Heritage, Jingci Temple in Hangzhou is where Nampo Jomyo learned much about Zen and tea culture before taking his knowledge back to Daitokuji Temple in Kyoto. This is where the famous Japanese tea master Sen Rikkyu established a tea dojo.

Today, Jingci Temple is visited my many Chinese people who pay tribute to the ancestors by lighting incense sticks, bowing to the north, south, east and west, then placing their incense in a very larger burner in front of the temple.

What I liked best here was the billboard erected recently by a Buddhist organization which says, "A harmonious world begins in the mind".

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That feeling of not understanding a thing about what is going on

2009-07-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

We knew that finding our accommodations at Moganshan Loft required that we take a bus to De Qing and then catch a taxi to Moganshan. What we didn't realize is that our taxi driver didn't know how to get to Moganshan Loft (and neither did we) nor that his three-wheeler taxi didn't have the power to climb the mountain.

So we were puzzled as to what to do when he dropped us off midway up the mountain. We were reluctant to pay him, as we had not reached our destination but were not sure how to proceed. Fortunately we were rescued by some Israeli travelers, one of whom spoke Chinese. They invited us to join them in their larger van and the one who spoke Chinese explained that their driver would pay our driver once we got to our destination. We accepted that and went on with them.

The Israelis were staying at a hotel inside Moganshan National Park. We soon found ourselves at the entrance to the park and had to pay the entrance fee. It was only later that we discovered that our hotel was not within the park at all, but farther down the mountain. So after the Israelis were dropped off and after several phone calls, we were delivered finally to our accommodations at Moganshan Loft.

But there was no front desk and no receptionist to be seen. Only an elderly man with a bandaged arm, dressed in boxer shorts. The man spoke rapidly and insisted that we pay him some money. I understood practically nothing of what he was saying and I was not at all sure why we should pay him; we had just arrived and I had already paid a 33% deposit for our room.

When we called the owner, with whom we had made our reservations, he informed us that he lived in Hangzhou and was presently on a business trip. He explained that the man in the boxer shorts was the manager of the property. Soon the manager gave us a key and showed us our room.

We hadn't eaten all day, so we were getting hungry. He motioned with the universal fingers-together-and-hand-to-the-mouth gesture, indicating that we could get something to eat next door.

Next door we saw several laborers eating at a table next to a makeshift outdoor kitchen. We waited until the men finished eating and left the table.

With the universal eating gesture, the two women cooking asked if we wanted something to eat and we nodded enthusiastically. Then we were led into the food storage area where there were all kinds of vegetables and meats and spices. They seemed to be expecting us to point to the foods we wanted. We had no idea whether they were inviting us to purchase the food and cook it ourselves, or whether they would cook it for us and serve us a meal.

We pointed to some eggs and some tomatoes and some tofu.

They motioned for us to sit down. Soon they were placing in front of us a mouth watering tofu dish, an egg-tomato dish and a plate of rice.

We ate it all with gusto.

So it all worked out just fine; we had a place to stay and our bellies were full. The day just didn't resemble the expectations we had about finding a hotel, checking in, and ordering a meal. And without being able to understand what people were saying, we had precious little information to use for making sense of the situation.

And you remember those Chinese lessons we took before the trip, to learn some Mandarin fundamentals? Well, it turns out, in this part of China, the dialect is very different from Mandarin; it sounds like a completely different language.

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The Origin of Awe

2009-07-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

Anyone who witnesses a total solar eclipse knows what awe is. Our normal perception of diurnal cycles is so deeply ingrained that when daylight suddenly turns to darkness and an unfamiliar ring of light hangs over our heads, our attention becomes acute and our sense of mystery is heightened. Tears start streaming down Cynthia's face. My eyes widen. THIS is unique! As clouds part for a few seconds in this longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, we are granted brief witness to this amazing astronomical spectacle.

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Glimpse of partial eclipse

2009-07-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

The whole sky is cloudy, but as clouds drift in front of the sun, there are times when we can make out sun's disk (before the partial eclipse has started) and a little later, we catch glimpses of the crescent sun, partially blocked by the moon. We take some pictures through the dark #14 welder's glass. If we are totally clouded during totality, we will still have a few souvenir photos of a partial eclipse.
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Cloud conditions over the eclipse path

2009-07-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

This morning we woke to overcast conditions and flashes of lightning in the distance. A couple of hours before the eclipse, it started raining.

We sat down with a cup of coffee and checked the weather forecast. Not promising. Basically, a wide swath of clouds from Shanghai in the east to Wuhan and Chengdu in the west. Not favorable for eclipse viewing.

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24 hours until eclipse time

2009-07-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

The apartment we are staying in, the Moganshan Loft is in a beautiful setting overlooking Laoling Lake and a view of Mogan mountain. We have a top floor unit with an open view of the southeastern sky where the sun will be during the eclipse.

With less than 24 hours to go before eclipse time, we are seeing increasing cloudiness, a mixture of high cirrus and incoming lower stratus.

The forecast for Hangzhou, a city about 25 miles from here for tomorrow is:

Isolated thunderstorms in the morning becoming more widespread in the afternoon. High 92F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

So it all depends upon how those thunderstorms play out.

I am reminded of the time several months ago when a group of school kids came up to visit the observatory on Whidbey Island. Just before they set out, the sky was clear, but when they arrived, a thick fog had settled in. It was impossible to see anything in the sky. I explained to the kids that all we could see was the fog. But they were undeterred. They shouted excitedly, "Can we see the fog through the telescope?! Can we? Can we? Please, please?!!!"

I had never before tried to look at fog through the telescope, but I invited them into the observatory nonetheless.

Looking through the eyepiece, there was nothing but darkness to be seen. But the kids exclaimed, "Cool!" And they all wanted to take a look in turn.

So there was a good lesson there, probably one we will have an opportunity to apply tomorrow morning.

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First Impressions of Shanghai

2009-07-18T01:12:00.000-07:00

Our flight arrived on time early Friday evening. We hired a taxi to take us to our hotel in the city.

The concept of freeway driving here is quite different than in Seattle. Everyone is free to weave in and out of lanes without ever signaling. Any gap in traffic is free for the taking-- the first driver there wins, and if you don't seize the spot, the nearest driver will. Amazing that the system works as well as it does. In the U.S., this style would be considered rude; here, it's just the way things are.

The Astor House Hotel is listed as a "Budget Hotel" in Lonely Planet. Built in 1846, it is the oldest hotel in Shanghai. According to the welcome book, the first electric light in China was lit here and the first telephone was installed here. It turns out that Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Charlie Chaplin and Scott Joplin have all stayed here.

Our room is HUGE, about 25' square, with 12' high ceilings. Quite comfortable.

We visited the Jade Buddha Temple on foot and had lunch at the vegetarian restaurant there. Tasty noodles with lots of different kinds of mushrooms.

Tomorrow we're off to Moganshan, a mountain from where we hope to see the eclipse on Wednesday. The weather forecast for mid-week is calling for clouds and rain, but things could change before then. Stay tuned.

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Gratitude Cafe, San Francisco

2009-07-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

Kyosan comes to the San Francisco Airport to see us off. We take BART to 16th and Mission where we get off to visit the Gratitude Cafe, a perfect venue for a last meal before boarding our flight to Shanghai.

I have a really tasty Bhutanese red rice dish and Cynthia orders a stuffed avacado dish called a Celebration Special. Kyosan sticks with granola and fruit on the side.

Did our gratitude draw us to this cafe? Or did the cafe instill in us the gratitude? It defies logic.
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Leaving Whidbey

2009-07-17T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here we are leaving Whidbey Island on the Clinton-Mukilteo ferry. We are incredibly fortunate to have found Susanne to be our house sitter while we're away.
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Departure July 16

2009-07-17T14:33:00.001-07:00

The day of our departure, July 16 seems auspicious. This is Mumon Roshi's birthday. He was born in 1900 so this would be his 109th birthday. I met him in 1973 when I visited the Zen monastery, Shofukuji in Kobe, Japan. I would have to say that having tea with Mumon Roshi was a key event in my life, and his influence continues to this day. He passed away in 1988.
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The Gamow bag and the tiger eye

2009-07-03T08:01:00.001-07:00

Gamow bags are airtight nylon bags, invented a few years ago, that have become popular among mountain rescue organizations, as they have proven to be effective in alleviating altitude sickness. When a person starts to feel symptoms of altitude sickness, they can be placed inside the bag. The bag is then pressurized using a foot pump to about 2 psi, and the person breathes the pressurized air for a few hours, usually finding that their symptoms subside. There is evidence that Gamow bags can be effective in the prevention or treatment of pulmonary edema, which can be fatal.

A close friend of ours has given me a tiger eye amulet to keep for the purpose of warding off misfortune. It's a beautiful small polished stone with a shimmery cast to it, and it's pleasant to hold.

Our friend says she has always kept this stone with her, while traveling to uncountable numbers of places and it has served her well, protecting her and keeping her safe. So she wants me to have it on this trip so we can draw upon its magic. I am so grateful to her.

On the subject of Gamow bags, the trekking agency we will be working with does provide these and bottled oxygen as options. Their availability is a relatively new development. Altitude sickness has always been a risk in mountain travel; the rule has been that a person suffering from headache, nausea, shortness of breath, a dry hacking cough or dizziness should descend to a lower elevation as soon as possible. Of course, circumstances can sometimes make this an untenable option. So there is a definite risk. And the Gamow bag and bottled oxygen can reduce the risk.

If I think about a scenario in which one of us is coming down with acute symptoms of mountain sickness and thinking that if only I had ordered a Gamow bag but chose not to, then I know there would be some deep regret. In fact, thinking about the possible outcomes gives me a sense of dread.

So the question arises as to whether I want to spend $500 to rent these devices and have them carried by our porters, or leave them behind. They are considerably bulky and add extra weight. I've never had a Gamow bag with me before on a high altitude trip, and so far I have never needed one.

And then there's the amulet.

I'm certain that this stone is not going to provide more oxygen to my blood if and when I experience symptoms of altitude sickness. And I'm equally certain that it is not going to kill microbes in my gut if and when I come down with an intestinal infection. And it's obvious that this little rock is not going to have an effect on local weather conditions or divert storms.

But perhaps it can help with my worries. While the Gamow bag clearly provides an objective benefit under specific circumstances, it doesn't do much about the tendency to weave endless what-if scenarios. On the other hand, the tiger eye has no objective benefit, but it sure feels good to know that a close friend, for whom this object has been so special for so long, cares enough about our well-being on this trip she has loaned it to me.

So I haven't decided for sure about the Gamow bag, but I'm definitely going to take along the tiger eye amulet.

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Surprising Development: Reflections

2009-06-26T06:31:00.001-07:00

It's really interesting how our minds can launch into worrisome thoughts so quickly and weave such a complex tapestry of "what if" scenarios related to one's health.

Within minutes of hearing the doctor's concerns about my heart, I was remembering the stories of Enso House guests who only 18 months prior to admittance had been in apparently perfect health. Then all of a sudden ... BAM! They've been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

It would have been difficult to have had to wait weeks for my follow-up appointment with a cardiologist. We're incredibly grateful that I was able to get an appointment the following day.

Getting the "all clear" from him meant that after only about 30 hours of mental spinning, our concerns suddenly went POOF!

Now if I could just use this awareness of mortality as reminder of the preciousness of these moments, without getting stuck in fearful thoughts. It's good to get these reminders from time to time.

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Surprising development

2009-06-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

Going on a long trip like this was a good motivation to get a physical exam and deal with scheduling that long overdue appointment for a colonoscopy. So I had the physical, scheduled the appointment and purchased the "prep" medication -- 10 ounces of magnesium citrate and 4 liters of polyethelene glycol solution. To drink in big glasses at 15 minute intervals for two hours.

Yuk! But I found that by not eating any solid food for two days before the procedure, I was able to completely clean myself out after drinking only 2 liters of the solution. Interesting. Liquids flow right on through.

So everything was moving smoothly along for having the colonoscopy on Monday morning. I had my blood pressure and pulse taken and an IV inserted in my left hand. My pulse was typical -- 44 beats per minute. It's always been low, as long as I can remember.

When the doctor came by to explain the procedure, he asked about the low heart rate. He was a little concerned about it, because sometimes a person's body will have a response to the procedure that lowers their heart rate by 10-20 bpm. And that would be dangerously low. He thought it would be prudent to do a quick electrocardiogram before starting. So they rolled over a compact device and attached half a dozen electrodes to my chest. They ran the monitor for a couple of minutes and the device then spit out a graph of the electrical signals from various parts of my heart.

The doctor looked at the graph, paused a few moments, then briefly placed his hand on Cynthia's shoulder as he walked around to discuss the results with me. Cynthia knew immediately that he had some concerns.

The signal from my left ventricle was much stronger than from any other parts of the heart. The machine had automatically applied some algorithms to the data and printed out some diagnoses. The doctor explained that there was some indication that my left ventricle was thicker or larger than normal, and there was some question as to whether the artery serving it was able to provide enough blood. He decided that this was enough to cancel the colonoscopy and recommended that I see a cardiologist as soon as possible.

Well. That was unexpected. I haven't felt any symptoms of anything amiss with my heart. I climbed Mt Rainier last summer, Kilimanjaro the previous year and Longs Peak before that. I've been confident that doing the kora around Mt Kailash will not be too difficult for me. So it seems really puzzling.

In any case, I was very fortunate to be able to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist in Everett this afternoon.

Stay tuned.

Visas, itinerary

2009-05-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it took us TWO trips to San Francisco to get our visas for China, but fortunately on our way to Arizona to attend Allison's graduation, we were able to pass through San Francisco both on the way down and on the way back. The Chinese Consulate requires that one submit one's passport in person (oneself or one's agent) and they offer to mail it back with the visa if you provide the stamped, self-addressed envelope. Problem is that when you select this option, you cannot pay the visa fee with your Visa card -- (seems like you should be able to) -- you have to pay the $130 x 2 in cash, which we didn't have with us. Anyway, we now have passports with visas in hand.

Also, we have a draft of an itinerary the first leg of our trip in China, which we've posted on our Resources site. According to the countdown counter, we have just 53 days until we leave.

How light can we travel?

2009-05-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

Well, now we face the test: How much can we reduce our luggage for this trip? Given that we will be carrying it around for 18 weeks, the less we have the better. Generally, this is a difficult area for me. I have a kind of Boy Scout "Be Prepared for any Eventuality" mentality and it often ends up that I'm carrying a much heavier bag than is necessary. After all, it's possible to find the essentials almost anywhere in the world.

I remember reading that when Mother Teresa traveled, she never took ANY luggage! Of course, I don't expect Cynthia and I will have anywhere near the retinue that followed Mother Teresa, but still, it's a good lesson to remember about feeling sufficient and letting the universe provide. My more modest goal is to pack everything into a 44-liter Lookout daypack from REI.

Tempting as it was to bring along a telescope for the solar eclipse, I resisted that and settled for a pair of binoculars and a #14 welder's glass. Also, no scuba diving equipment on this trip. See? I really have made progress toward traveling with less.

Good Fortune

2009-04-28T06:23:00.001-07:00

Due a fortunate set of circumstances, a 42 lb bag of our cold weather gear has been delivered to Kathmandu. What a relief! Our sleeping bags, boots, warm coats, gloves, and hats, etc will be ready to pick up there when we need them.

Our friend Sarita decided to make a trip back to Nepal to visit family and generously agreed to take along an extra bag. So we packed up the things we won't need during our travels in warmer climes and sent them with Sarita to be stored at her sister's home in Kathmandu.

Now we can travel with carry-on bags only and still have what we need for mountain trekking in Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet.

Yay!! Thank you, Sarita!

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A short hike

2009-04-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

Well, putting on the hiking boots and getting out into the woods is the best way to find out how the body will respond to the challenges of trekking. So Cynthia and I set out on a day hike to Mt. Si, near North Bend, just off I-90, about 45 minutes outside of Seattle. This time of year, the Mt Si trail can get pretty crowded, but on this cool drizzly day in mid-week, there were plenty of parking spaces and we just came across a few fellow hikers.

We took it quite slowly, so we could monitor how Cynthia's new hip functions on mountain trails.
Well, the hip did quite well; amazingly well, actually. We didn't have time to go the entire 4 miles to the summit, since we had an appointment for our Chinese lesson in Bellevue at 3:00 pm so we turned around after going about 2 miles up the trail.

But after we got back to the car, it was obvious that Cynthia's knee was having some issues. Some pain and swelling started developing right away. We stopped at a service station restroom to change our clothes and pick up some ibuprufen at the Handy Mart.

Why was the knee acting up? Could it have anything to do with the fact that this was the first day of Cynthia's typhoid medication regimen? Or was the two miles down the mountain trial just a bit too much? Too early to say, but this isn't boding well for long-distance Himalayan mountain trekking.
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Oh shit! What have I done now?

2009-04-15T02:35:00.001-07:00

It's 2:00am and I just woke up to take a pee. Then I started thinking about the process I have just yesterday set in motion -- a trip to the remote NW region of Nepal and a trek into Tibet to Mt Kailash.

It suddenly took on a feeling of reality when our son Julian responded to my inquiry as to whether he might like to join us. His enthusiasm is marvelous, but it also makes me realize that I have started a chain of events that may very well lead to.a challenging, or shall we say, scary experience. After all, this is a route that gets up to about 18,000 feet and where there are plenty of real dangers of exposure in an extremely remote part of the world.

What is it that brings me to do things like this?

Especially as my body starts to show signs of aging. An adventure like this is certainly not "necessary". So why expose oneself to risks like this?

When I got Julian's reply, I was delighted that our son might be joining us. But it also is quite sobering to realize that we are moving from the purely speculative planning stages into the reality of boots on the ground, facing a distant mountain vista and asking ourselves, what have we got ourselves into now?

Time to go back to bed; maybe having written this, I can get back to sleep.

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Cynthia and David in the AT&T store

2009-03-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

Here we are in the AT&T store purchasing a memory card that we can use in our digital camera for taking pictures and then inserting it in our Blackberry to upload photos to this blog. This is the first photo taken with our Panasonic Lumix camera that we successfully uploaded from the Blackberry Bold 9000. No computer was needed!

Blogging with a Blackberry

2009-03-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

During our travels, I'll be using a Blackberry Bold 9000 to post journal entries and photos to this blog, abidingnowhere.blogspot.com

For details, see Blogging with a Blackberry on our Resources site.

Sure is handy having this bluetooth external keyboard (Freedom External Keyboard) so that I can touch type the way I am accustomed, rather than trying to learn how to type with my thumbs!

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Our Pilgrimage to Asia, 2009

2009-03-01T16:48:00.000-08:00

It's time for us to return to Asia. We want to spend time in China, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and Thailand, so we've set aside four months and bought round trip tickets to Shanghai, leaving July 16 and returning November 19.

It's been 25 years since we visited Beijing with our four-month old son Julian in 1984. David gave lectures at Beijing Normal University on uses of computers in education (when the most popular machine was a Digital VAX 750).

This trip feels a bit like a Buddhist pilgrimage; there are several temples and monasteries in China that are important in the history of Zen. We'd like to find some of the quiet places in China where we can sit with the patriarchs.

We've always wanted to go to Lhasa and explore Tibet. This time, we hope to do a walk around Mt. Kailash in Western Tibet.

We will be returning to Nepal where David had served as a Peace Corps volunteer 1971-73 and where our family had returned to visit David's village in 1995. We have lots of friends, including former students and teachers at Buddha Padma High School in Taulihawa, though we discovered in 1995 that sometimes it was a bit hard to recognize former students who had now grown up and had children of their own.

The trip to Bhutan will be our first -- the combination of remoteness and a beneficent king has resulted in a fascinating country.

Finally, we would like to explore parts of Thailand outside of Bangkok. Maybe we will get to visit one of the forest monasteries and we're hoping to relax on the beach before returning to Seattle.