Monks, Bumps, and Bones (sounds like a good name for a rock band!)

A few days ago, we were in a subtropical jungle. A few days later, we were at an altitude of over 4000 metres, and the few plants that could grow only reached about a foot in height.

Oh, and there were human bones littering the hillside.

How did this happen? Read on.

Our desination was a town called Zhongdian. Actually, it's old Chinese name is Shangri-la. We were in search of paradise. We knew that the journey would take us across mountain ranges and through small villages, but we did not expect what we found.

On our second day of bus rides, we quickly found that this would not be an ordinary bus journey. Our bus driver appeared to be on speed and thought that he was invincible. Bad combination. Then we climbed to dizzying heights, passing other trucks on sharp corners atop steep cliffs with no shoulder to the road. Worse. Then the road all but disappeared into a bumpy dirt path. Then it started to snow. Egads.

Eight hours later, we arrived in a small town along the way. This town turned out to be one of the most memorable of our trip. Litang is a small village by Chinese standards (50 000 people) with a high density of Tibetan people. The town is situated in the Tibetan grasslands, surrounded by rolling, yak-covered mountains and the bluest sky we have ever seen.

We walked to a Tibetan Buddhist monestary, where we were quickly greeted by friendly monks. Because this is not a tourist town, the monks were quite pleased to have foreign guests. We were invited to sit with them inside the monestary, and quickly the place filled up with monks. It turned out to be time for their debate time/examination period. We sat with them and watched the action unfold. Each monk (there were about 100) had to get up infront of the other monks, four teachers and headmaster and take a turn asking and answering questions. We don't know what they were saying, but it seemed important.

On our way back to town, a nice old monk invited us to sit down with him. He moved a few pieces of drying yak dung aside and made room for us to sit. We didn't have much to say to each other, but he enjoyed our company and didn't want us to leave. In fact, after Corinne tried to stand, he quickly protested the movement. So we sat with the monk for a while and tried to explain which direction Canada was.

The next morning, we went to a truely unique and special place. The site of a Tibetan sky burial. What is a sky burial? We're glad you asked. In Tibet, the ground is frozen solid most of the year. This makes burying bodies a little tricky. Also, in Tibetan Buddhism, the body is only a vessle which holds a person's mind. Once the mind has been re-birthed into a new body, there is little spiritual significance of the body. So, as a last act of generosity, the deceased offers his/her body back to nature. At a sky burial, a priest-of-sorts cuts the body into six pieces and after a small ceremony, the body is given to the vultures. We missed the ceremony by one day, but we saw the site, the enormous vultures (6 foot wing span), and a few human bones, including an unmistakable jaw bone. It was an experience that not many people get to have.

After Litang, we took another bus. Actually a mini-van. There were eight people, lots of luggage, and two bags of dead chickens all crammed into a 7-seater, with little luggage space. It was a long four hours. Then we spent a night in another small town. Not much happened except sleeping. Oh, and we took shots of beer with the local police.

The next morning we took the bumpiest bus of our lives. A very bumpy bus indeed. On one particularly large bump, a seat fell off. There were so many bumps that Jason's skin hurt from all the rubbing of his shirt on his back.

Then, finally, after about 32 hours of agonizing bus rides, sleeping in grungy Chinese hotels, monks, yak butter tea, extremely high altitudes (the highest pass was just under 5000 metres), and pee-trouble on the highway, we arrived in paradise. Or so it would seem.

Shangri-la is nice, but it is no garden of eden. It's a bit touristy to be paradise, but we have warm beds, and good street potatoes, so we will stay a few days and wait for our laundry to dry.

Until our next destination with internet...

-Jason and corinne