After jumping throught the various hoops required by the chinese government, joining a "tour group" and acquiring the neccesary permits, we flew from chengdu to lhasa. the flight over the himalayas was amazing. most of tibet is a giant platau at about 4000 meters. it is mostly dry and barren, but supprisingly colorful. what really makes it beatiful is the massive size and scale of everything; huge open valleys with broad rivers flowing through their center, massive rolling hills with giant rocks jutting out in all directions and some of the most dramatic mountains in the world. more than a painting, i saw tibet as a giant earthen sculpture, everthing to such a mightly scale that nothing seemed overtaken by another.
added to all this natural beauty was a people unmatched in my travels. to say that religeon was is an intrical part of their lives would be a unforgibvable understatement. pilgrams will travel for years, prostrating themselves on the ground every step of the way, to make it to one of tibets many sacred monastaries or temples. these sacred places are continually surrounded by devout pilgrams spinning prayer wheels, manipulating prayer beads and reciting various buddist mantras. to watch these acts of devotion is absoluting mind boggling and humbled me to incredible depths.
most of my time in lhasa was spent visiting the potala and various other temples in the area. each time i was around the tibetans i was incredibly impressed. unfortunately, along with the devotion, you could also sense the deep repression imposed upon them, their religion and their country, by the chinese. I had the opportuniy to read "freedom in exile" the autobiagraphy of the current dali lama and as much as his life is admirable, his depiction of the reperession, torture and numerous unthinkable acts performed by the chinese in their "liberation of tibet" made me sick to my stomach. thinking of these acts make it difficult to write about my time spent traveling in tibet.
due to chinese restrictions and high costs i wasn't able to do any treking in tibet. I did do some hikes in the hills surrounding lahsa which were wonderful. one hike in particualr took us to some peaks which were draped with colorful prayer flags. the flags were streched out between the 200 or so feet between two peaks and created an incredible feeling flapping in the breeze, soaring upwards as it increased in strength. sitting underneath them in the sun, i had to grab on to the rocks as i felt i would be carried away as they took off upwards with a fresh breeze.
a group of ten of us rented two jeeps to take us to the border of tibet and nepal, passing numerous monastaries and everest base camp along the way. the towns we passed through tended to be small and dominated by the monastaries. prayer flags, stupas and various temples dotted the hills and mountains surrounding the villages. We stayed in small guest houses and ate what was available, usually rice and eggs or some noodles.
the road was rough and dusty, and we, as well as all our bags, were covered in dust at the end of each day. i was pretty well monastaried out even before we started the 8 day trip, so i spent most of my time exploring the towns and nearby hills. the smaller towns had less chinese influence, although in most spots they tried to make us stay in the chinese run, "approved", guest houses. we were stubborn, so usually ended up staying somewhere with more of a local flavor.
the highlight of the trip was visiting everest base camp. is rests at about 5400 meters, 17000 or so feet, with a spectacular head on view of everest. the base camp itself is higher than any north american mountain and then everest itself blasts up another 3500 hundred meters. mt. everst is 29,028 feet high.....a big, big, rock. as luck had it, we were up there for the full moon. it rose rather late, but it was still crazy to see it lit up at night.
the following day we started climbing up toward some of the glaciers at the base of the mountain. needless to say at 5400 meters the lack of oxygen could really get to you. throw in a wind that blows the snot right out of your nose if you stand sideways, and your in for some great hiking. as it turned out, i climbed for 12 hours that day. The views along the way were amazing and the scale of everything was awe inspiring. as the hours rolled on, the mountain kept on beckoniong me. even though i could barely walk or breathe i kept on pushing on. i finally made my self turn around and head back. where i had ventured there was literally no path so i had to find my way along steep slopes coverds in alternating huge rocks and small loose rock fragments. coming down, i would follow what i believed to be a good route, but would inevitably find my self to low and would have to climb up sleep and slippery faces until i reached a new ledge and could find a more suitable route. each one of these climbs was a killer,. I would littlerally climb on all fours and collpse about every 20 feet. i was chomping on peanut butter to try to keep up my energy, but had little water left to wash it down.....sticky.
i managed to get back to the lowere area which had a well marked path. then i just put it in go mode and kept on walking. my body was absolutley dead. i felt like i had just played a weekend full of ultimate and still had one more game to go. i almost made it back by dark.......the truck searching for me picked me up about a mile from camp. some food and water brought me back. I always knew i would make it back, but honestly wasn't sure how at times. i likely made it up around 20,000 feet and really felt like everest and i shared an incedible day together. I would love to go there again and spend more time taking in all she has to offer.
after a couple of small towns we arrived at the border. we spent one night in what was the perfect representation of a border town; dirty, dusty, full of action and craziness. that night the room next to us had a all night party including singing, laughing, fighting, crying, and all the other things that go a long with a spontaneous alcohol enhaced celabration of life. quite the way to end my travels through china and tibet. the party seemed to epitomize all the joy and hope for the future as well as the pain and uncertainty that makes up the current situation in china and tibet.
crossing the border the next day was in the most part a relief and a release. it was time to move on and to experience something totally new. our arrival in katmandu, with its hundreds of shops, hotels and restaurants was such a contrast to the starkness of tibet, that i spent the next couple of days reading, eating and just letting everything settle.
