Category Archives: Explorations
The Lost Route, Found – The Sacred Lakes in the Heights – Part ll
When a memory of a memory inevitably isn’t quite what one expected there is a kind of exasperation, a kind of disbelief that one cannot actually recall a place, a feeling, or even a person. It is hard to acknowledge … Continue reading
Memory of a Memory – The Sacred Lakes in the Heights Part l
*This article will appear in Mandarin on North Face’s Quyeba.com adventure website in the coming week as part of our collaboration A seventy-year-old medicine man, two remote sacred lakes, and a journey Legends, like the people who carry the memory of … Continue reading
Sacred Lakes Expedition – The Night-Before Departure
Picking up supplies today for the upcoming journey, I asked our resident elder Aniè – who will be leading the group – what I needed to pick up. His words were in very clear order: “Whisky, butter, tsampa, and pork … Continue reading
Sacred Lakes Expedition – Led by a Memory
Preparations are in full mode here in Shangri-La to ascend to the sacred Tibetan high altitude ‘White&Black’ sister lakes, here in northwestern Yunnan. Known in ancient times as bodies of water where divinities resided, the lakes were consulted by locals … Continue reading
November – Tea Horse Road, Jalamteas Event in Toronto – November 7th, 10th
Mupa, Nyima, and Songjè – (Cloud, Sun, and Songjè)
The word for mist, clouds, and fog in many Tibetan regions is the same: mupa. Mupa is what engulfs us and sucks us all into itself and into a world of soft focused hues and biting wind. Rain slices in … Continue reading
Songjè and a Sacred Lake – Part l of ll
Bells chime through the wet air and the odd manic high-pitched wail of urging in Tibetan rips over the grassland. Plodding through the pine and spruce are the sagging, deflated bodies of mules lugging packs that dwarf them. Their day … Continue reading
A Sacred Lake and the Horseman
Upcoming post is based on a recently completed journey up a mountain in northwestern Yunnan with a brilliant group of students…and an icon of the mountains, local horseman Sangjè. Hands of steel, a voice that silences and the requisite face … Continue reading
Doctor ‘Mountain’ and the Temple – Part ll of ll
With the doctor behind me, but very much still in the mind, I head north towards this “little temple on a mountain”. His words about the ills of the mind resonate but my philosophy has always been, ‘as long as … Continue reading
Doctor ‘Mountain’ and the Temple – Part l of ll
Within a valley west of Shangri-La’s vaunted title and grasslands, over the Shika range of mountains, around 40 bends, heat rages even as autumn and winter start to claw their way into the geography. It is a region that … Continue reading