A
Trek Across Tibet
by Norm G
Today, Norm Goldman, editor of
Bookpleasures.com and Sketchandtravel.com is pleased to have as a
guest, Brandon Wilson, author of Yak Butter Blues.
In 1992, Brandon and his wife Cheryl
travelled 40 days from early October to the end of November in 1992
over 1000 kilometers travelling along the ancient pilgrimage route
across Tibet. Evidently, they were one of the first Western couples to
trek this ancient route alongside, by the way, a horse they named
Sadhu.
Good day Brandon and thank you for accepting
our invitation to be interviewed.
Norm: Brandon, could you tell our readers
something about yourself and your wife Cheryl, and why did you want to
trek across Tibet and did you ever had any fears prior to your journey?
Brandon: Tashi delek, Norm! We had been
travelling for years as budget travelers, traveling light, with only a
backpack to sustain us for months on end. In the process, we'd made our
requisite trip around the world for a year and had seen many of
civilization's greatest achievements. We'd also traveled overland
across Africa for nine months (which is the subject of my book to be
released in 2005, Dead Men Don't Leave Tips.) So, we were ready for a
more intense experience something more in line with that of the great
explorers.
Our decision to attempt to trek from Lhasa,
Tibet to Kathmandu, Nepal sprung from the notion that this was the
ultimate adventure. Everyone grew up with the legend of a Shangri-La,
that fanciful place from James Hilton's Lost Horizon. The more that I
read about Tibet, the more I was fascinated by its remoteness,
inaccessibility, and its exotic reputation.
Then, as luck would have it, we were told
several times that this trek had never been done by a Western couple
and that it was "impossible!" That ultimately sealed our fate.
As far as "fears" prior to the journey,
first, I had real concerns that we wouldn't be allowed into Tibet as
independent travelers, since the border had been closed to them for
many years. A Chinese organized group tour was simply out of the
question for us.
Then, although we were assured the trip was
"impossible" due to lack of food, water, accommodations, and maps,
personally I was more worried about the weather. Knowing the severity
of weather conditions in the Himalayas, would we be able to reach the
lower altitudes of Nepal in time before the roads closed, stranding us
until May's thaw?
Finally, I must admit that I was also wary
about the reaction of Uzi-toting Chinese soldiers along the way, as
well as the various cadres of bureaucrats unused to dealing with
outsiders. Guess I'd prefer to deal with nature any day, rather than
the vagaries of human nature.
Norm: What were the most harrowing
experiences you encountered during your journey?
Brandon: It's a toss-up. This entire journey
was chock-full of uncertainty. The spectre of running out of food and
water was a daily concern. Where would we stay? Would our bodies be
able to physically able to make 1000 kilometers at 12-17,000 foot
altitude for 40 days?
But I'd have to say that the most singularly
harrowing experience we had was being shot at by Chinese soldiers as we
overlooked Mt. Everest from a hilltop in Tingri. What do you do?
As second runner-up, I'd nominate that
morning where we awoke to a blinding blizzard and realized that we
still needed to press on.
Norm: What impressed you most of all about
the trip?
Brandon: First, we were impressed by the
unexpected generosity of the Tibetan people. Originally we packed a
tent, stove and fuel for the trek, expecting to be totally on our own
along the way. However, after our first night spent camping in a potato
patch, we were taken-in by local villagers who shared their meager
possessions, including yak butter tea and a warm spot around their
fire. We really grew to look forward to these human exchanges, even
though we had to rely on clumsy sign-language and a limited phrasebook
to communicate. Fortunately, we started to run into former monks who'd
received training in Nepal and still spoke limited English.
Through talking to them, we became better
informed about the hardships of living in Tibet today under the Chinese
Communist occupation. We learned that Tibetans are prevented from
making pilgrimages along the same route that we trekked into Nepal, as
they've done for centuries.
So the trip for us became more than just an
"adventure" trek. It became a political statement. If we could make
their trek as pilgrims, we'd show to the Chinese that it could be done,
even by Westerners, without disrupting the geo-political balance of
power.
In fact, on the trek's conclusion, we
presented a set of prayer flags to the king of Nepal's personal
representative at the palace with the hope that the king would fly them
as a symbol of solidarity with the Tibetan Buddhists.
Finally, we were impressed by the unwavering
faith shown by many of the Tibetans. At night, in the dark stillness of
their homes, we shared photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama with them
that we had secreted into the country. Gingerly holding the photo, they
touched it to the foreheads of the members of their family, blessing
them. Then drawing back several layers of curtains, they reverently
placed it in their private altar beside other statues and holy
instruments.
After over 40 years of oppression and death,
could we still be so patient or retain so much faith?
Norm: If you had to do it all over again in
2004, would you still jump at the opportunity? As a follow up, would
you advise anyone else to follow in your footsteps and what are the
possible dangers they may encounter today?
Brandon: Frankly, no. This trek is a
once-in-a-lifetime experience. From what I've read since then, and I
receive Tibetan news every day now, the country has vastly changed
especially Lhasa. As inundated as it was then with Chinese settlers,
solders and foreign culture, it is even more so today. Now, they're in
the process of completing a railroad line into Lhasa from western
China, so the transformation will be accelerating, the assimilation
complete. The world saw the same effect in Inner Mongolia and Manchuria
with the arrival of the railroad.
With that said, I'd love to return, perhaps
to the more remote Mustang region this time, far removed from the
propaganda tours. Of course this is assuming I would be granted a visa.
Writing this book has certainly made that possibility more remote&
However, I would advise readers to explore
any part of the world that interests them by walking. There is nothing
so satisfying as discovering a culture one-step-at-a-time. This is a
traditional way of exploration which creates total immersion in a
culture: its food, history, art, architecture, people, language and
nature. I like to think of it as a walking meditation, too. You place
your body on "auto-pilot" and travel outside, while traveling within.
If readers are interested in this rewarding
mode of travel, they can check out several options on my WEB SITE where
I have free "how-to" articles about walking some of Europe's most
spectacular pilgrimage routes, along with web links for more
information.
Walking across Tibet was the beginning of
this, my latest passion.
Norm: How would you describe the
relationship with your wife after the trip? Reading the book, I noticed
there were some tense moments between you both during the adventure.
Brandon: I really admire Cheryl's courage
and willingness to take a chance. Traveling with daily hardship,
uncertainty, and often life-threatening situations, will put any
relationship to the test. Fortunately ours survived and this experience
provided an even stronger foundation. If we could survive that, why, we
could survive anything.
Norm: Did you keep a daily journal while you
were travelling?
Brandon: Of course. It was sometimes hard to
find the energy or time at the end of one of these 14-hours days to sit
down and write. But I wanted this account of our journey to be real,
raw, and authenticnot some romanticized notion of adventure travel. To
capture that essence (while the blisters were still fresh) was vital.
Time heals all wounds, as they say, and if you wait to write about it
all later you lose much of the minutiae of the moment until it becomes
merely a Disney version of your memorywithout the dancing hippos, of
course.
Norm: After you returned home, did you write
any magazine articles about your adventure or did you lecture anywhere
about it?
Brandon: I wrote magazine and newspaper
articles about the experience, and would have liked to lecture about
the journey and situation in Tibet. Living in Hawaii, there's always a
logistical problem and cost of traveling outside the islands.
Now that the book is published, if there's
great enough interest throughout North America, I would welcome the
chance to talk to groups about this life-changing experience and about
the Tibet we grew to appreciate.
Norm: Why did you choose the title Yak
Butter Blues for your book?
Brandon: Well, as a global citizen, I was so
disturbed by seeing the destruction of this ancient culture; the
dismantling of temples, the corruption of monastic life; the
re-education of a population where the children are prevented from
learning Tibetan in schools; the removal of Tibetan food and clothing
from the stores, plus the mass settlement of Han Chinese into Tibet
causing Tibetans to become a minority in their country.
It is reaching the point where yak butter
tea, that nourishing food that has traditionally fed and sustained a
people throughout the centuries will soon be all that remains of an
enlightened culture, while all the world looks away. These are the "Yak
Butter Blues."
(Besides, I liked the kind of Kerouac-ian
ring to it!)
Norm: Did you ever hear any news about your
horse Sadhu you left behind?
Brandon: The Internet is an amazing tool.
Although we wrote to his new owner, the fellow who ran the Kathmandu
guesthouse, shortly after our return home, we never heard back from
him. Just recently, I "Googled" the hostel and was able to reach his
brother.
Sadly, Sadhu, our old friend, passed away a
couple of years ago at a very ripe old age. He spent his last years in
a luxury resort, but will always be remembered by us as the only
Tibetan we could bring to freedom.
Norm: Have you kept in contact with anyone
you may have met during your trip?
Brandon: Unfortunately not. We sent copies
of some of the photos we took along the journey to families we'd met,
as our way of thanking them. That's all.
Norm: How long did it take you to write the
book?
Brandon: The first draft of the book was
written in a few months. After that, it was revised through several
drafts. Then I added the most current news on Tibet I could find,
sorted through photos, and incorporated some of the simple truths which
were initially planted in the mountains of Tibet and blossomed along
more recent pilgrimage treks.
Norm: How are you going to market the book?
Brandon: Ah, the ultimate question! I
consider this, in many ways, an extention of the journey. Perhaps, in
retrospect, it is just as difficult with over 100,000 books released
each year.
We're reaching out to supporters of a free
Tibet, colleges and universities, libraries, adventure travelers,
trekking and outdoor organizations, newspapers, international adventure
magazines, Buddhist and dharma groups, Indians & Nepalese, and
independent bookstores to help get the word out. Much of this has been
started and we use the Internet a lot to let people know about our web
site.
The national reviews so far have been
excellent and I'm awaiting others from abroad. Yak Butter Blues is
currently listed on Internet bookseller sites from Europe to North
America to Japan and Australia/New Zealand.
I'm also writing and sending articles to
related sites and creating links, especially to the vast, displaced
Tibetan community, as it is their story as much as our own.
Since book promotion these days ultimately
rests with the author, I'm participating in book signings and
interviews to further develop interest. As I said, if I find there's a
great enough interest in presentations, I might be tempted to put
together some sort of North American tour. Whatja think?
Finally, after all those small moments along
the trail where we felt like we owed our survival to some mysterious
force, we have learned to "have faith," to trust that we were meant to
have this journey and that I was meant to write this book.
I can only trust that once again we will be
blessed and that our audience will find us along life's trail.
Meanwhile, if readers would like a
first-hand look at our journey, complete with a sample chapter, maps,
photos, Tibetan music and Tibet/Trekking/Peace links, please drop into
my WEB SITE. Then take a moment to sign our guest book, email me, tell
your friends, or post a review at Amazon.com. Namaste!
Thanks Brandon and I wish you good luck in
all of your future endeavours.
Norm Goldman is a graduate of Sir George
Williams University (now Concordia University) in Montreal, Canada, as
well as the Université de Montréal, Faculty of Law. He
practiced law for 35 years then retired to pursue a career in book
reviewing and travel writing. He and his wife Lily are a unique husband
and wife team, writer and water colorist, who write and paint about
romantic destinations and wedding destinations featured on their site
at http://www.sketchandtravel.com, as well as several other sites. Norm
is also editor of a book reviewing site http://www.bookpleasures.com
and contributes to various other sites, as well as being a regular
contributor to the Canadian Book Review Annual.
Norm G may be contacted at http://www.sketchandtravel.com
or l.goldman@sympatico.ca
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