a land of Tibet

We're in our coracle heading to the villages of Minyak and the prayer flag circle of Rilung Drongde! Our Footprint Tibet handbook indicates that the Minyak Chakdra Chorten is the major landmark. I'll tell more of this in the next poem. In shamanic terms though the prayer flag circle and mani stones could be just as powerful! We remember of course that Sarangerel describes implements for shamanic protection as often being small and insignificant in this world while being very powerful in the world of spirit! The pasture with it's poplars and willows certainly would be a wondrous place for a small lhakhang temple in any case. The villages of Minyak are described as having three-storeyed mansions of stone that are quite distinctive. I haven't found any pictures of them anywhere so I can't add anything more to this description! As with many parts of Tibet there are probably many medicinal herbs here. It's not far from here to Dartsedo where Tibetans travel to trade herbs they've gathered for the tea grown in China most particularly that of the Ya'an region which is located in neighboring Sichuan province. The tea began as leaves and thick twigs there. These were compressed into bricks and packed into bamboo cases which were then transported all the way across Tibet! Assuming that the nomads of the Chang Tang drink similar tea it might have travelled several hundred miles from the lush forested hillsides over the most rugged terrain on earth before the bamboo cases were unpacked in a yak hair tent upon the plains beneath the Kunlun mountains! In any case it helped Tibetans to live more easily in the cold dry climate with the stress and fatigue of the high altitude while the herbs brought to China were prized for their healing capability. It would be fascinating to find out more about these healing plants. Yeshe Tsogyel Padmasambhava certainly would have known of these as would many pilgrims enduring the hardships of travelling vast distances across the great plains and mountains.Perhaps we could grow some on our precious snow mountain! There's a lot more to add but as usual two as one we'll add to the notes later beautiful one!


	Through My Eyes * We're in our coracle heading to the villages of Minyak and the prayer flag circle of Rilung Drongde! Our Footprint Tibet handbook indicates that the Minyak Chakdra Chorten is the major landmark. I'll tell more of this in the next poem. In shamanic terms though the prayer flag circle and mani stones could be just as powerful! We remember of course that Sarangerel describes implements for shamanic protection as often being small and insignificant in this world while being very powerful in the world of spirit! The pasture with it's poplars and willows certainly would be a wondrous place for a small lhakhang temple in any case. The villages of Minyak are described as having three-storeyed mansions of stone that are quite distinctive. I haven't found any pictures of them anywhere so I can't add anything more to this description! As with many parts of Tibet there are probably many medicinal herbs here. It's not far from here to Dartsedo where Tibetans travel to trade herbs they've gathered for the tea grown in China most particularly that of the Ya'an region which is located in neighboring Sichuan province. The tea began as leaves and thick twigs there. These were compressed into bricks and packed into bamboo cases which were then transported all the way across Tibet! Assuming that the nomads of the Chang Tang drink similar tea it might have travelled several hundred miles from the lush forested hillsides over the most rugged terrain on earth before the bamboo cases were unpacked in a yak hair tent upon the plains beneath the Kunlun mountains! In any case it helped Tibetans to live more easily in the cold dry climate with the stress and fatigue of the high altitude while the herbs brought to China were prized for their healing capability. It would be fascinating to find out more about these healing plants. Yeshe Tsogyel Padmasambhava certainly would have known of these as would many pilgrims enduring the hardships of travelling vast distances across the great plains and mountains.Perhaps we could grow some on our precious snow mountain! There's a lot more to add but as usual two as one we'll add to the notes later beautiful one! * courtesy of A Luminous Diamond (Bright) Crystal Show productions. The information for the sketches is courtesy of the Footprint Tibet handbook by Gyurme Dorje. ( please click here to return to my spinning for you!)