a land of Tibet

We're in our coracle on the Mekong Da chu on our way to Meili Dungjang and Mount Kawa Karpo! We've made our way after resting at Hongshan to a place north of Jol where our Footprint Tibet handbook indicates there is a fantastic view of Kawa Karpo but doesn't describe it except by the mile marker on a road. I'm guessing though that it is at Meili Dungjang. This is probably a Chinese name ; I think it is here that there is a memorial to the members of a Sino Japanese climbing expedition that died on Kawa Karpo. Since the Buddha Vairocana taught in Tsawarong in the Northwest of Kawa Karpo it seems almost certain to me that even millenia later he would have helped them! The Chinese I've read took terrible chances to summit the North Column of Mt Everest Jomolangma to prove the success of the Maoist doctrine. On a section of the column one of the climbers actually sacrificed his feet to frostbite by taking off his boots and socks and climbing in bare feet. They climbed to the top in the dark which is also extremely hazardous. I guess for them the return to China after having failed wasn't an option. This mindset may also have been part of the reason for the tragedy at Kawa Karpo. In any case Tibetans don't think of themselves as "conquering the mountains" since as we know well they consider them the sacred abodes of the mountain deities and places for sacred pilgrimage. The Kawa Karpo range certainly is since it's one of the sacred sites associated with Yeshe Tsogyel Padmasambhava in eastern Tibet! It has always been a center of the Nyingma faith. The Katok Dorjeden monastery to the north along the Yangtze Dri chu had branches here so perhaps practitioners shamanically flew over the mountains here as they did at Cloth Hill! As with Mount Minyak Gangkar glaciers descend to quite low altitudes; the largest one almost to the level of the Mekong Da chu at the base of it's deep gorge! 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 on the Mekong Da chu on our way to Meili Dungjang and Mount Kawa Karpo! We've made our way after resting at Hongshan to a place north of Jol where our Footprint Tibet handbook indicates there is a fantastic view of Kawa Karpo but doesn't describe it except by the mile marker on a road. I'm guessing though that it is at Meili Dungjang. This is probably a Chinese name ; I think it is here that there is a memorial to the members of a Sino Japanese climbing expedition that died on Kawa Karpo. Since the Buddha Vairocana taught in Tsawarong in the Northwest of Kawa Karpo it seems almost certain to me that even millenia later he would have helped them! The Chinese I've read took terrible chances to summit the North Column of Mt Everest Jomolangma to prove the success of the Maoist doctrine. On a section of the column one of the climbers actually sacrificed his feet to frostbite by taking off his boots and socks and climbing in bare feet. They climbed to the top in the dark which is also extremely hazardous. I guess for them the return to China after having failed wasn't an option. This mindset may also have been part of the reason for the tragedy at Kawa Karpo. In any case Tibetans don't think of themselves as "conquering the mountains" since as we know well they consider them the sacred abodes of the mountain deities and places for sacred pilgrimage. The Kawa Karpo range certainly is since it's one of the sacred sites associated with Yeshe Tsogyel Padmasambhava in eastern Tibet! It has always been a center of the Nyingma faith. The Katok Dorjeden monastery to the north along the Yangtze Dri chu had branches here so perhaps practitioners shamanically flew over the mountains here as they did at Cloth Hill! As with Mount Minyak Gangkar glaciers descend to quite low altitudes; the largest one almost to the level of the Mekong Da chu at the base of it's deep gorge! 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!)