Buddhism

 Here are just a few random facts I learned while I was in Tibet and some pictures that I took.

 

I've never known very much about Buddhism. Here are some of the things I've learned about it. More specifically Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is mainly practiced in Tibet, Nepal and India, but it is in other countries as well.

There is not just one Buddha but hundreds of them. Buddha is just the enlightened one. To become a Buddha means you have reached the ultimate freedom, you no longer have worldly limitations. Tibetan's believe there are five sects in Buddhism and I don't remember what each sect is called.

They have five types of burials.  Tibetans are buried by ground, water, fire, stupa, or sky. Depending on who you are or how you died determines what happens to your body. If you die before you are 7 then you are buried. If you are a Dali Lama your body will be dried and put into a stupa. Monks bodies will be burned. Dying from a knife, sickness, or war will lead you to a water burial. Regular people are given sky burial's.

A sky burial is as confusing as it seems. After death the body lives in its home for three days. Family and friends bring money for everything during this period. On the third night the body is chopped up and wrapped tightly in a white cloth. On fourth day son or brother will take body around to temples. After seven days they believe the spirit has left. Between 7 and 49 days it is choosing where it wants to go, while the son is still taking body around to temples. The sky burial part is on the 49th day, they take the body up somewhere high to the top of one of the mountains and leave it so the birds can come eat it. This is my understanding of Tibetan burials. Every burial is much more detailed than I described and has much more to it.

I learned a lot more about Tibetan Buddhism and many of the specific stories about different Buddha's lives. These were just some of the more general facts I was told that I found really interesting. The Tibetan and Nepali culture are so fascinating to me because they are so different from everything I've ever been taught.

Free Tibet

Tibet has become a very restricted country. Everything that comes in and out of Tibet is being censored, first because its China, then even more because its Tibet. In order to go to Tibet as a foreigner you have to go with a group and a tour guide. Individual travelers are currently not allowed. This makes it much more difficult to get into Tibet, and you don't see many other travelers while you are there. We really saw only one or two other groups the entire time we were there, and neither were very large. To enter into Tibet you can either fly from Kathmandu or China, both of which have one flight a week, take the train from China, or bus from Kathmandu. We drove from Kathmandu then flew out.

While most places search you for knives, bombs, etc. Chinese boarder patrol makes sure that you don't have any Free Tibet memorabilia, Tibetan flags, Dalia Lama writings, pictures of Dalai Lama, the word Dalai Lama, or anything of this sort. The Dalai Lama was kind of the head of the Free Tibet movement, so he was exiled in 1959. I wasn't searched for anything else but they took about five minutes scrolling through my books making sure they were all acceptable.  I had a logic puzzle book that they spent a few min. looking at and kept going back to. I don't think he'd seen one before and there were lots of pictures. He kept looking at it like the pictures were of the Dalia Lama. Josh said he's Chinese so he probably was just solving all the puzzles real quick. It was funny how much the logic book really messed with him though.

On the flight out I got on the plane with a big knife in my bag. I went through all the airport security and they never took my knife. They did take my passport into a back room and had me sit on the side while everyone else went through customs. That was a little different. Apparently weapons are fine, just not information.

Our tour guides were a Tibetan couple who were illegally being tour guides. They told us that as Tibetans you can't be a tour guide, and if an exception is made then you have to pay super high tax's to the government and denounce the Dalai Lama on paper. Because of this they have been doing it under the table for a long time.

 They also aren't allowed to leave. I think there was once a point where Tibetans could leave Tibet, and most ended up in northern India or Nepal. Our tour guide left Tibet when he was young and grew up in India. That is what most Tibetan's do. He came back to see his father and then they wouldn't let him leave again. Tibetan's can't leave Tibet, and they are restricted in what they do in Tibet, leaving them with few options. His wife is pregnant and they said when their child is born they will illegally send it to India, its just more expensive to do it that way. Once they do this though they will not see their child for many years. This is what they have to do in order to give their child a balanced education. In India Tibetan Buddhists will learn both sides of the situation where as in Tibet the Chinese are controlling what is being taught. They said they think within about 50 years no Tibetan Buddhists will be left in Tibet, it will completely be Chinese. Young people have a hard time believing in the Dalai Lama because they are taught by Chinese and only about Chinese culture, and how Dalai Lama is wrong.

In order to be a monk in Tibet you have to sign a paper saying you denounce the Dalai Lama. So most Tibetan Buddhists don't believe the monks in Tibet to be real monks. When the current Dalai Lama dies that will be the end of the Dalai Lama's. They said the Chinese will keep electing people but no one will believe him to be true. Tibet culture and beliefs are luckily being preserved in northern India.

Media is also very restricted in Tibet. China blocks many websites such as blogspot and facebook and our guide said if we tried to look up stuff on Free Tibet or how to get on those sites that the Chinese have cameras and then he will be punished for it. He was really scared about us trying to get past the blocks on the internet because he didn't want to somehow get in trouble. He also was super cautious about what he told us. When ever he would be talking about what was going on he would get quite when someone Chinese would walk by. He said that in the media we will hear about a few Chinese being killed by Tibetan's but they never mention that 100's of Tibetan's were killed by the Chinese.

I learned a ton about Tibetan culture and the conflict between the Chinese and Tibetans while I was there. All of which left me very confused. Tibetans are an extremely interesting and unique culture, and learning their views and opinions on things was probably my favorite part about the trip. It wasn't the sites I saw or the things I did while I was there, but the information that I learned and experienced first hand. It was absolutely amazing learning about the unique and completely crazy situation Tibet has been left in.

Seven Years in Tibet

Really only about seven days, though It felt like seven years. I think that I just experience one of the longest weeks of my life.


Tibet has an average elevation of 16,000 ft. making it the highest region on earth. Meaning the sun is hot, the cold is cold, and altitude sickness is a given. We went from 4,500 ft. to over 17,000 ft. in one day. Every single person with us experienced altitude sickness at some level because you are given no time to acclimate. The worst part for me was the cold. In the sun you start sweating, and then you'll walk in to the shade and immediately be freezing. The temperature change is very drastic. The first few nights were absolutely horrible, there was no heat in hotels, so you are chilled to the bone. Your entire body ache's from being so cold.



On a better note. The first few days were breathtaking. I've always loved mountains and so the Himalaya's were a must see for me. In Nepal they are amazing because they move from flat plains, to green hills, to the giant Himalaya's. Driving through them was spectacular. Even when you are at 16,000 ft. they still seem huge! Since the Chinese have taken over Tibet I think the only thing positive they have done for the region is create an amazing highway from the Nepal border to Lhasa. They are in the middle of finishing it and it is probably the nicest thing you will see in all of Tibet. It really made the journey more enjoyable.


At the top of every pass and on many of the mountains there are always prayer flags. Tibetans are very superstitious people and so in order to have safe passage they always do some sort of ceremony and leave prayer flags. The higher the pass the more prayer flags they feel are needed. I figure anything can help when your above 17,000 ft., and it really adds to the atmosphere seeing all the prayer flags flying.



I've also always wanted to see Everest. The day that we were supposed to see it I was so so excited. Unfortunately, something I've been waiting to see most of my life was blocked by clouds. Of course. I was really disappointed. I had really been building that moment up, to see it from a lot closer than we had been able too, and then just had it ripped from me by something so mundane.

Unfortunately Josh got really really sick from the Altitude. While I only was sick for the first few days, he got increasingly more sick through out the drive. After the first few days he was restricted to seeing Tibet from the hotels and car. I think he probably had the worst week of his life, but I was lucky enough to get some joy out of it. I would go see the sites during the day, then come back to make sure he hadn't died while I was away. Run and get him more oxygen, food, etc. Then go out with everyone again. I felt really bad that he wasn't able to really experience Tibet while he was there, but super glad that we made it back to Kathmandu alright. He had a scary week.