a land of Tibet

We're in our coracle making our way down the Yangtze Dri chu on our way to the Jyekundo valley and the Gyanak mani! The energy here must be incredible with all those thousands upon thousands of prayers carved upon the stones and flying on prayer flags in the air! Unfortunately many of the stones were taken to be used for latrines in the 1960's during the " cultural revolution" period of Chinese communism when many wondrous things were destroyed. It's a sad irony that a sacred site empowered by the Chinese princess who helped to bring Buddhism to Tibet was treated so terribly by her descendants. Our Footprint Tibet handbook doesn't say who actually did this but it is certain that Tibetans would not have except under duress in work gangs. Anyway thousands of pilgrims coming from Ziling in Amdo a few hundred miles to the northeast would leave carved stones upon the mani wall as they travelled on the rugged trade routes on their way to Lhassa for hundreds of years and their efforts for the benefit of all living things became the greatest mani field in all of Tibet. It's about a square kilometer,about 0.4 miles or 250 acres! The Grove only covers about 2 acres on our precious snow mountain so you can imagine what this place must be like! Peltang is somewhat to the south of Jyekundo and is associated with King Songsten Gampo and the Princess Wen Cheng. There are a few legends associated with her there one of which is in the poem. I imagined that the mountain deity most likely to speak to her would have been Yarlha Shampo protector of the Yarlung dynasty who speaks through shamans to this day! I think about it in comparison to the Great Wall of China at times. One was an architectural marvel to protect a people from the 'barbarians' the other was built to protect all that lives from the suffering of existence. A remarkable difference in view! In the energetic sense the Gyanak Mani though seldom spoken of in the west is as great a wonder as the great wall of China! 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 making our way down the Yangtze Dri chu on our way to the Jyekundo valley and the Gyanak mani! The energy here must be incredible with all those thousands upon thousands of prayers carved upon the stones and flying on prayer flags in the air! Unfortunately many of the stones were taken to be used for latrines in the 1960's during the " cultural revolution" period of Chinese communism when many wondrous things were destroyed. It's a sad irony that a sacred site empowered by the Chinese princess who helped to bring Buddhism to Tibet was treated so terribly by her descendants. Our Footprint Tibet handbook doesn't say who actually did this but it is certain that Tibetans would not have except under duress in work gangs. Anyway thousands of pilgrims coming from Ziling in Amdo a few hundred miles to the northeast would leave carved stones upon the mani wall as they travelled on the rugged trade routes on their way to Lhassa for hundreds of years and their efforts for the benefit of all living things became the greatest mani field in all of Tibet. It's about a square kilometer,about 0.4 miles or 250 acres! The Grove only covers about 2 acres on our precious snow mountain so you can imagine what this place must be like! Peltang is somewhat to the south of Jyekundo and is associated with King Songsten Gampo and the Princess Wen Cheng. There are a few legends associated with her there one of which is in the poem. I imagined that the mountain deity most likely to speak to her would have been Yarlha Shampo protector of the Yarlung dynasty who speaks through shamans to this day! I think about it in comparison to the Great Wall of China at times. One was an architectural marvel to protect a people from the 'barbarians' the other was built to protect all that lives from the suffering of existence. A remarkable difference in view! In the energetic sense the Gyanak Mani though seldom spoken of in the west is as great a wonder as the great wall of China! 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!)