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jeeptrip: Lhasa to KathmanduHello everybody,
We are back... Ten days of buddhist peace and wisdom bring us back in balance and put our Tibetan adventure in a broad persepective. To find this peace, we go to Kopan. A place on a hill close enough to Kathmandu to see the city, sometimes clearly, sometimes misty. We have been here in octobre as well. This time the stories, teachings and meditations concerning compassion, trandformation, cause and effect, altruisme, counciousness, emptyness etc... touch us even deeper. We open our mind for all this and enjoy the many things this place has to offer: exciting company from travellers from all over the world, colourfull tibetan temples, busy monks and nuns, delicious food, the stupa-garden, the eagles with their concentrated flight, the sun and the mighty storms at night.
Many monks and nuns here cannot forget about Tibet and go demonstrating daily. One night our whole group goes on a trip to bodhnath, the stupa with the beautifull eyes, to make a lightoffering for Tibet and China. It is a white privilige to do so (Nepal follows the strict rule China imposes, a financial deal). The tibetan refugees keep a distance (afraid of Nepali police with bamboo sticks), as we light the candles around the stupa. They thank us with a great applause. How greatfull they are for every support...
Afther heaven in Kopan, we descend to earth in Kathmandu in a lovely guesthouse. Once in a while we visit the orphenage where we worked in octobre last year. How these beautifull children have grown! Things go well here. There are four volunteers now.
We owe you some nice pictures... The road from Lhasa to Kathmandu was not only trouble and tension, we also saw the monumental beauty of the highest plateau on earth. Nomads on horses, with sheep or yaks, wave at us, while we speed along the road in our strong jeeps. We sleep in primitive guesthouses. At night we gather around the cosy yak dung stove.
We visit beautifull monasteries. The atmosphere in these religious places is silent, sometimes tence, sometimes deserted. We imagine how lively these places should be, busy with monks and nuns, pujas and koras. But then, like in a magnificent fairytale, suddenly we meet a group of pelgrims from the mountains. Children, men, women, with traditional braces, jewelery, yakjackets, colourfull skirts, ... Their beautifull brown faces open and curious. We look and look, can´t get enough. A small child cries, afraid of us, white aliens. So pure, these people... It feels like time is standing still. Especially for us they form a lively tableau vivant as we take pictures. Is this the most beautifull present Tibet gave us?
We want to do something in return. On our camera, we hide in the intern memory, a picture of the Dalai Lama, highly forbidden material. In a house in a remote place, we dare to show it to some tibetans. Their reactions are incredible... They are so respectfull and deeply moved. An old man cries as he raises the camera to his forehead.
We travel on. The last day before the border promises to be something special. Our good friends, companions, are persisting in many ways. They can achieve that we visit everest basecamp as the last tourists. So suddenly there we are. In the sun. In front of the highest mountain on earth. The view is great, unreal, ungraspable...
You know the rest of the story!
Steve and Ulrike
8/04/2008 - 8:00
Bonjour,
Je ne parle pas néerlandais. Je viens de voir le reportage de la RTBF sur votre voyage. Bravo pour ces témoignages et ce soutien aux peuples du Tibet par vos reportage. Take care....
Stéphane DADO
Stéphane Dado
10/04/2008 - 19:57
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