His Holiness the Karmapa teaching in Bodh Gaya

Tashidelek,

For those of you familiar with my blog you will know that I am a student of His Holiness the Karmapa and so from time to time I will announce events relating to His Holiness.

Today he is to be giving the first of a series of Dharma talks to the Kagyu Gunchoe Sangha in Bodh Gaya, India.

If you are interested in viewing these talks live, please click on this link: Live Webcast

 To those of you perhaps unfamiliar to Buddhism, the word Sangha is a Pali term which translates roughly as 'community' or 'assembly'.  The Sangha in this context refers to the annual gathering of monks for the Kagyu Gunchoe, or winter debates.  Each year monks from the various Kagyu philosophical disciplines meet for three weeks of rigorous and often lively debates.

Traditionally the debates are overseen by His Holiness the Karmapa who listens in on random debates and provides opinions, suggestions and corrections where needed.

Monastic debates are fascinating, I first saw debating on a television documentary and was captivated by the zeal and passion displayed by the monks.  I have since witnessed it at Sera Monastery in Lhasa, see my post from the 28th November 2011 and the image of a Sera monk engaged in a debate. I also saw debating at His Holiness the Dalia Lama's Temple in Dharamsala though I enjoyed the Sera Monastery atmosphere more.  If you've not seen debating before, watch the video below, these monks are from Sera Monastery.  The monks who are standing and clapping are presenting the monks sitting with a philosophical question and when he claps his hand, it is to accentuate the point he is making.  I have seen very 'heated' debates and those monks who are presenting a good argument can often attract many monks into the debate.

I have been remiss

My blog has been left unattended and unloved for far too long; the Christmas summer break, a pile of books and DVDs saw this blog go to the bottom of my pile.  However, Tibet is always on my mind more so now than ever given the recent escalation of violence in Ganze in the eastern regions of the land.  I hear that it is most likely that the region will be closed to visitors again this year until the end of March.

If you are contemplating a trip to Tibet this year, I strongly urge you to speak to your travel agent or visit the Lonely Planet website for updated information.

Visiting Tibet is like that, you can never be sure the date you planned your trip will actually go ahead given the volatility of the political situation there.  Only last year while I was readying myself to leave Kathmandu, the hotel owner assured me I would not make it over the border as it had been closed.  After some conversation and clarification it turned out it was the Nepali-Tibetan border that was closed but entry via Lhasa airport was fine.  So always be ready for possible last minute changes to plans.

At this stage I am planning a trip in August this year and am looking for clients to join me.  I have not mentioned it yet on this blog but I work with a travel company based in Lhasa who have been operating since the mid-80's.  They are a good travel company who really care about their clients, their guides are very experienced and the guide I work with speaks five languages very fluently.  I joined forces with the company last year bringing travellers with me to Tibet for the south-eastern route and Everest Base Camp trip, this year our destination depends upon the group but I hope to do a trek from Ganden to Samye Monasteries.

I am most interested in ethical and sustainable travel in Tibet, as visitors to the country I aim the small groups I take with me to have as minimal impact upon the environment as possible through the responsible disposal of waste through to respecting cultural practices.  By bringing travellers to Tibet I hope to support and encourage employment opportunities for Tibetans in the travel, hospitality and other related industries.

Anyway, that's it for now.  I hope you enjoy reading my blog.

His Holiness the Karmapa

Tashidelek to those of you who might happen to stop by.  

I am currently listening to talks given by His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmpa given in late December 2011, the image to the right is His Holiness.

If you would like to hear these talks or find out more about him, visit this excellent website: http://www.kagyu.org/index.php

I had the great fortune late last year to have both a public and private audience with him and I now consdier him as my teacher and guru.

Happy 2012

Still on break from work and blogging but will be back soon to share some more of my Tibetan experiences.

Happy 2012 to you all.

Land of Snows

 

It's a wet, rainy and windy Sunday here in Sydney, Australia and a perfect time for reflection.   

This windy weather reminds me of my time on the Tibetan Plateau where robust, dry, icy winds whipped at prayer flags, cracked lips and turned the skin on my fingers into sandpaper.  When I returned home from my trip my sister who picked me up from the airport, remarked at how wind-blown I had looked.  She was right, I felt as if I had three weeks being sand-blasted.  Little children in Tibet have rosy red cheeks due to the strong sun rays and an air of wind-sweptness about them.  

I digress though because today I want to talk about how I changed my mind about the ethics of visiting Tibet.  I had previously made a decision to never visit Tibet whilst the country remained under occupation, I felt that by visiting Tibet I was somehow supporting the occupation.  I felt a level of guilt when I changed my mind and bought the ticket in 2009, in my head I said to myself that I was going because I badly wanted to see Mt Kailash, the world's most sacred mountain and that the intention of my visit would be grounded in spiritual aspirations which made it somehow okay.  I liken this kind of thinking to the 'contemporary carnivore'.  When meat eaters buy a steak from the supermarket the meat is packaged on a tray all wrapped in plastic, maybe with a spring of parsley for good measure, and as a 'thing' it is removed from animal it came from.  I know this because when I was a meat eater many years ago, I had to psychologically remove myself from the source, otherwise I doubt I could have eaten it.  My trip to Tibet had echoes of the contemporary carnivore about it, I had mentally divorced myself from the political situation there and thought I could travel the land without having to face the reality of the cow.  The reality, I was to discover, was vastly different.  

When travelling Tibet the signs of occupation are everywhere, in Lhasa for instance there are men stationed upon rooftops looking down onto the Bharkor area in the old part of town as people shop and go about their daily business.  Troops of men march anti-clock wise around the Jokhang Temple, splitting groups of pilgrims (mostly old men and women) as they perform their daily Kora which is performed traditionally in a clock-wise direction.  Or it's the endless checkpoints that Tibetan's and visitors have to go through in order to move about the permitted parts of the country, or the long, long lines of army vehicles on the roads; one day we counted at least 40 in a convoy.  It's also what is not seen or heard, what cannot be said out in public, on the phone or by email.  It's the soldiers stationed at Mt Kailash during Saga Dawa, or the heavy military presence at Drepung Monastery during the Yoghurt Festival this year.

I would be kidding myself if I said that my visits to the Land of Snows have not in some way, shape or form been affected by the occupation.  You can't jump into water and not get wet.  I jumped and got wet and it has changed the way I think about travel in Tibet, why we do it and what responsibility we have to the people of Tibet.

and then

It wasn't until mid-2009 that I seriously put some thought into planning this trip to Tibet.  I just wasn't sure how it could be done as I didn't really know anyone who had been there recently.  I have a couple of friends who were lucky enough to visit in the 1980's when the doors to Tibet flew open and you could travel unassisted and on your own if you wanted to.  One friend cycled around southern parts of Tibet and camped out at night time.  There's no way that could be done now.  These days to travel in Tibet you must go in a group with a guide.

As the Saga Dawa Festival is held on the full moon of the fourth lunar month of the Tibetan calendar, the festival date varies from year to year.  I began my research by tracking down the date the festival was being held in 2010, once that was determined I started researching travel companies specialising in trips to Mt  Kailash.  I eventually found a good one who not only take smaller groups but they are also firmly committed to responsible travel principles and environmental sustainability.  I liked the idea of a company who employ local people as guides, porters, cooks and group leaders and ensure a good working wage and conditions.  With that, I took the plunge and booked my trip and I had nine months to prepare.

Where it all began

I had been telling myself privately for years that I would never visit Tibet given the political situation there. That was it, a closed argument and it didn't seem like the situation in Tibet was going to change any time soon. Then one night about four years ago I happened upon a documentary showing on ABC1 which was all about the annual festival of Saga Dawa at Mt Kailash, western Tibet. The stunning imagery of vast sweeping plains, huge mountains and the incredible festival itself which culminates in the raising of a massive prayer-flag pole just captivated me. I made an immediate decision there and then that I had to go to the world's holiest mountain at Saga Dawa, the festival that commemorates the Buddha's birth, death and enlightenment. My last overseas trip had been in October 2001, not long after that fateful day in September; my sister and I were going to Pune in India to study Iyengar Yoga at the source, Mr Iyengar's school. Many friends and family were nervous about us going at such a tense time in world politics but we were determined. We ended up having an amazing, safe two months of yoga immersion, but that was my last time overseas and it was very much a time of intense focus upon yoga, I was now ready for something new, something to perhaps enhance my practice of yoga.  It would be four years later before I made it to Tibet.