a land of Tibet

We're in our coracle on the Miyam chu on the way to Miyam monastery Go-me Gonpa beneath the glacier of Kawa Karpo! Actually our Footprint Tibet handbook doesn't indicate where the village of Pandzara , the Miyam chu or Go-me Gonpa are! We've guessed a bit based on the general topography of the area and the descriptions we have. The forests here must be rather wondrous as we know well;a tremendous number of the plant species of Tibet are in the Southeastern Gorges. This is in part because of the tremendous variation in altitude but is also due to the deep valleys of the rivers of the Chuzi gangdruk themselves. They act like giant wicks to pull the monsoon winds up from the Bay of Bengal deep into Tibet. So while we're wandering about trying to make our way to Go-me Gonpa we can look upon the beautiful and wondrous plants that grow here among them the many rhododendrons in bloom. There are about 850 species in the world and over 500 of them grow in Tibet, most of them in the southeast portion of the Chuzi gangdruk! One variety grows to 100 feet 30 meters in height! There must be many plant spirits here to be sure! It's simply the sort of place where plants can try many different forms of expression and so take on many variations in form. Go-me Gonpa itself is described as once having 3 temples , the outermost devoted to Avalokiteshvara, the inner shrine to Vajravarahi Cakrasamvara and Shakyamuni all of whom we know already! Those shrines are now gone for the usual reason I think. The walls will speak of this to us in the portico as there is an inscription describing the history of the monastery here. We'll give the prayer wheels a turn when we go there then return to commune with the wondrous deities here! 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 Miyam chu on the way to Miyam monastery Go-me Gonpa beneath the glacier of Kawa Karpo! Actually our Footprint Tibet handbook doesn't indicate where the village of Pandzara , the Miyam chu or Go-me Gonpa are! We've guessed a bit based on the general topography of the area and the descriptions we have. The forests here must be rather wondrous as we know well;a tremendous number of the plant species of Tibet are in the Southeastern Gorges. This is in part because of the tremendous variation in altitude but is also due to the deep valleys of the rivers of the Chuzi gangdruk themselves. They act like giant wicks to pull the monsoon winds up from the Bay of Bengal deep into Tibet. So while we're wandering about trying to make our way to Go-me Gonpa we can look upon the beautiful and wondrous plants that grow here among them the many rhododendrons in bloom. There are about 850 species in the world and over 500 of them grow in Tibet, most of them in the southeast portion of the Chuzi gangdruk! One variety grows to 100 feet 30 meters in height! There must be many plant spirits here to be sure! It's simply the sort of place where plants can try many different forms of expression and so take on many variations in form. Go-me Gonpa itself is described as once having 3 temples , the outermost devoted to Avalokiteshvara, the inner shrine to Vajravarahi Cakrasamvara and Shakyamuni all of whom we know already! Those shrines are now gone for the usual reason I think. The walls will speak of this to us in the portico as there is an inscription describing the history of the monastery here. We'll give the prayer wheels a turn when we go there then return to commune with the wondrous deities here! 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!)