Yunnan - November 2003

Some Like It Hot
But not the Tibetans. Outside it's cold and inside not much warmer. In spite of freezing temperatures outside they still like the windows in the bus wide open. The doors in the houses and restaurants are never closed. Hotels do not have any heating. Only at night in bed in the hotel do you get the chance to get warm. If you get some proper blankets that is. But the Khampas from Tibet proper travelling to the Kawa Karpo area in North West Yunnan do not bother with hotels and do not seem to feel the cold. They come, men, women and children, with whole villages in the back of open trucks, travelling for five to ten days over a large distance crossing high mountain ranges and eat and sleep under the stars along the way. This is the year of the water sheep. A very auspicious year for pilgrimage to the holy Buddhist places which only comes once in 60 years.

Entering Shangri-La
Shangri-La, the mythical country in the book Lost Horizon by James Hilton, supposedly was modeled on North West Yunnan. The town of Zhongdian as well as Deqin, a 5 hour busride further west, claim the title of actually being that Shangri-La. Zhongdian has raised the stakes by officially renaming the town Shangri-La, or Shangelila.
Pleasant as Zhongdian is, I'm not quite sure what it's claim to fame is based on. Or maybe the ugly Chinese part of town is clouding my judgement as the old Tibetan part of town is quite lovely if a bit hidden. But massive restauration of this area is under way so in a year or two this could be a new Lijiang, attracting busloads of domestic tourists.

After a much needed laundry and hot shower break in Zhongdian I take the bus to Deqin in order to enter the Kawa Karpo region, or Meili XueShan in Chinese (beautiful snow mountain). I have teamed up with Japanese Chiyo who is studying Chinese and provides translations along the way.
In Deqin I do some last minute shopping for an additional t-shirt and another pair of socks as in hindsight maybe it was a bit too minimalist to think that one t-shirt and one pair of socks would be sufficient for a full week's journey. My big pack I have left in Zhongdian.
After a night in Deqin Chiyo and I walk up the mountain road to Feilai Si, a village on top of the pass that provides access to the Kawa Karpo mountain range. Feilai Si is also the name of the little temple there which is the first stop of the pilgrims. Many trucks are parked here and throngs of pilgrims flock to the temple.
The pass offers breathtaking views of the entire Kawa Karpo range. Once we get into the mountains we are too close to actually get a good view of the peaks. Chiyo is born in the year of the sheep and does her offerings in the temple as well as at a pagoda, burning juniper branches and scattering some sort of seeds of grain are is being sold at the side of the road. At 3pm we hop on a mini bus bringing us to Wenchen, the starting point of our intended trek along the pilgrim's trail.

The busride takes us through some amazing mountain scenery. The road is hacked out of the cliffs high above the valley and looking into the depth makes you dizzy. In the distance we see little dinky toys, pilgrim's trucks, crawling aginst the mountain cliff on what seems like a tiny ledge. Eventually we zigzag down the mountain and cross a bridge over the Mekong river into the Kawa Karpo range. But that day we won't go all the way to Wenchen. Along the way we are being invited by an old lady in the bus to stay at her house in Sidan, a village close to the river.
As we get off the bus, Chiyo is talking to a handsome Tibetan man standing outside the bus who turns out the be the schoolteacher in Sidan. Later on we are to meet his brother along the way to the holy waterfall. Two beds are made for me and Chiyo in the room of the daughter of the house. During my toilet break at night I don't bother leaving the courtyard as the guarddog right positioned on the way to the latrines is on a long leash and is hard enough to avoid in daylight. The horse in the stable where I think I have found an appropriate alternative location doesn't seem to mind too much.

The next morning we walk up the hill to Wenchen. This is where the road stops and the real hike will start. We are heading for Yubong which lies over the mountain and we are not alone. Pilgrims young and old join us on the path and the greeting Tashe Dele can be heard many a time. Fruit and drinks are being shared during stops and it's one big family of worshippers. After about 6 hours we reach Yubong. A beautiful little village with one mountain in the Kawa Karpo range looming over it. Chiyo is staying with a family where she has stayed before last year, I am heading for the school master's house, who has a few guestrooms and reportedly has a solar-powered hot shower.
I think I'm the only one staying there but when I'm tucking in my dinner the Nordics Henrik and Kristian who I have come across before, Paul and Mark, two Chinese Americans, and Italian Marisa join me. The school master is a happy man and the baijo , rice wine, is flowing generously. The morning after I have my first hangover in a long time.

Okay, Tashi Dele!
The next day together with Chiyo and Marisa I head for the holy waterfall under Mount Miacimu. This is one of the points of worship of the pilgrims in their circumambulation of the Kawa Karpo range. We come across many a pilgrim campsite. Some entrepreneurs along the way have set up beds and blankets under plastic covers where you can stay for ten Kwai a night.
One of these entrepreneurs happens to be the brother of the schoolteacher we met earlier in Sidan. When we are having a teabreak at his campsite for some reason he asks us if in our country one can marry more than one person. This is how we learn of the Tibetan custom to marry two or more sisters or brothers. He himself is married to the same wife as his brother. But his brother is not very happy with the arrangement as he has received an education and has developed more modern expectations about love and marriage. Apparently he has a girlfriend in Guangdong province. The brother or sister who hasn't actually chosen the other party is allowed to have lovers.
Poor Chiyo has to translate all sorts of questions from Marisa and I about the practicalities of sharing a wife.

Our ultimate goal for that day is a half dried up, half frozen waterfall. About a kilometer of prayerflags announce the imminence of our arrival. Sheep wool hung in the bushes along the way will allow the sheep of nomads to accummulate good karma although they couldn't actually come on the pilgrimage themselves. At the actual site, masses of clothers are scattered all over the place. But no this is not what remains of an ugly riot, but Tibetans leave an item of clothing behind in a symbolic gesture. According one explanation this will safeguard them against illness, according another leaving clothing behind symbolises leaving behind all evil and coming back cleansed from the pilgrimage.
We watch some men climbing the cliff trying to hang up high some prayer scarfs. The more crawling is done the more good karma is accummulated and the same seems to count for the higher you go. We witness a group of nuns performing prayers and prostrating themselves before the waterfall before we head back. It is getting dark and cold.
Chiyo and Marisa want to spend the night with the pilgrims under the plastic sheets but I decide to head back to Yubong as I want to start for the village of Mingyon the next morning early. Mark and Paul who passed us as we were already heading down from the waterfall, arrive back at the last night stop when darkness has already set in and we head the long way back with two dodgy flashlights. But we are happy to finally reach the house at 10pm that night.
Mark and I stay sitting around the fire in the living room for a while that night with the son and law of the schoolteacher and his father. The son in law has a toothache and is looking for advice. What follows is a lesson on oral hygiene and after taking a closer peek into his mouth, Paul slaps 200 Kwai on the table for the young man to go see a proper dentist. I look and think there is not much to make of that mess anymore.

To Roll an Ankle and Wrestle a Pig
The long hard walk from Yubong over the mountain back to Wenchen was a glorious one up to the moment when on a steep downhill patch I roll my ankle yet again. It's only a half an hour walk further to Wenchen and I limp it the rest of the way. It's a while before the bus comes that will get me on my way to Mingyong so I pick a spot in the sun on the parking lot with a view on a couple of pilgrim trucks and put my foot up.
By 3:45 pm, although the 4pm bus has not even come up the mountain I decide to already find a strategic position for getting on it and leave my resting spot near the trucks. On my way out of the parking lot I overtake a scavenging pig and decide to give it a pat on the back. As soon as I touch it, it startles and leaps to one side screaming loudly. A couple of young Khampa men that pass me at that moment let out whooping laughter. But then brought out of balance by the pig's manouvres I step on a loose rock with my bad foot and roll over it unable to find my footing and I land flat on my back. This the three young men find even funnier. A day later I thought it was quite funny myself but at that moment I felt very sorry for myself.

Last Encounters of the Tibetan Kind
As I am heading towards Mingyon I am very aware that this is it, my last days in Tibetan China. Hereafter I will be heading out and my travels through China as a whole will almost have come to an end. But first up towards the glacier of majectic Mount. Kawa Gebu with it's incredible glacier. I believe it's the longest of broadest or lowest glacier on this longitude. But these are only statistics and what matters is experiencing this natural wonder and the nevertiring pilgrims celebrating another Buddhist sanctuary.
I get a ride on the back of a truck together with Mark and Paul who also are heading to Mingyon. There is no bus to take us to Mingyon but this is even better, it makes us feel like a real pilgrims! We get dropped off in the tiny village of Mingyon at a restaurant which also rents out rooms and what follows that night will be my most miserable night ever since there are no proper blankets and this place gets VERY COLD at night.
Before it gets dark we make a round of the small village. We circumambulate the local stupa three times. It's a very popular stupa so quite hard to find an opportunity to join the busy traffic going round. The small village square is the only place where the pilgrims can park their trucks and overnight. It's packed with people setting up camp, cooking, eating and sleeping.
The next day we head up towards the glacier. On the way up we come across pilgrims who are already returning from their visit to the glacier. They started as early as 3am. I see many familiar faces as we are all doing the same pilgrim's route and move to the next location at about the same time each time. People respond very positively to our 'pilgrimage', yamoyamo!, very good, and the air is filled with Okay, Tashi Dele!. They seem pleasantly surprised that anyone not of Tibetan constitution is capable of doing such a thing. It is true that these are very hardy and fit people, for whom the greatest inconviences are being endured with a smile. I have been helped up steep bits more than once by elderly women who seem to have no trouble climbing up rockfaces and conquering steep mountain trails. On the way down from the glacier I was even invited to climb on the back of a woman. She offered to carry me down! One should not be fooled by looking at an old granny on the trail and thinking that if she can do it must be not too hard.

Sad Goodbyes
On 28 November I finally leave Zhongdian, the southernmost gateway into Tibetan China. I have long postponed my departure from this wonderful world and made excuses to stay and venture into yet another Tibetan region. But I am freezing, crippled, have had a bad cold with a hacking cough for weeks, my clothes are filthy and so am I. It's time to head towards south warmer climes but this is definitely an area I want to go back to.
I head for Lijiang more southward in Yunnan province for some R&R and next a sleeper bus to Kunming to catch a plane to Beijing before proceeding to Shanghai as my last stop in China.