An Afternoon Out With Minam Rinpoche

I timed my trip to Yushu to coincide with the Yushu Horse Racing Festival but this year the celebration was cancelled. In any case Minam Rinpoche brought us to the grounds adjacent to the festival field and we had a lazy afternoon there. When rain came we took shelter in the tent.

Minam Rinpoche

Minam Rinpoche with his diciples from China

View inside a tent


Surrounding scenery

Snoozing

Looking for a place for call of nature

The Poor & Destitute In Xining BUT Are They???

Xining is the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau and sits at an elevation of about 2280m. Xining has a diverse population of over 1.2 million.

The east area of downtown is home to most of Xining's 350,000 Muslims. Halal restaurants, butchers and stores are found everywhere. One can find a good bowl of beef noodles anywhere.


One particular street in Xining is lined with many street beggars. The poor and the destitute. But no. For the almost 40 minutes I sat inside the car, I observed that these street people were well dressed, some even carrying handbags and wearing beautiful earrings with nice bag packs and they can easily be richer than many people. All of them were ladies - young and old. The children are trained to do their job well. One particular child, age around 3 or 3 plus was clearly an amateur and she was heavily reprimanded and ignored by, what I believe, was her mother.

The little girl in pink tracks in the video clip had a good field day. She was clearly the winner amongst the whole group and I dare safely say she can easily chalk up more than CNY100 in a day, going by what I witnessed in that 40 minutes

View this video clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3-VXjJwijU

UPDATE - Yushu

Minam Rinpoche's brother attending to a minor glitch during the journey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M4Hv9KLC2o

Along the Xining/Yushu road many a traveller will witness the impermanence of life. We witnessed one particular accident where the top of the car was ripped off and the driver was slumped onto his steering wheel with his forehead caved in and blood oozed out all over. A relatively big crowd gathered, some trying to extricate the 2 lifeless bodies while some were seen consoling a lady who seemed practically unharmed in this fatal accident.

Along this journey you will see very badly damaged cars hoisted high above to remind drivers to take caution but one wonders if anyone takes heed.

On my inbound into Yushu from Xining, we decided to have an early start at 4.30am to be able to reach Yushu before darkness sets in but half an hour into the journey the driver was already nodding off. I then asked myself "how am I ever going to reach Yushu safely with the driver's eye lids closing every few seconds." We made numerous stops to allow him to rest and rejuvenate and I pampered him with lots of sweets, ginger and water and supplied him with wet wipes to freshed him up. After some delays on the road and with many rest/toilet call stops we reached Yushu safely after 18 long hours.

We paid our respects to Minam Rinpche who had been waiting for us. We were then taken to our hotel suite set in the midst of nature and dharma. Had a simple dinner before we jumped into bed and called it a night..

UPDATE - The Road Less Travelled- Xining to Yushu

Princess Wen Cheng's Stopovers

Horse racing grounds

Mustard fields

Qinghai Lake

Tents by Qinghai Lake

Sand mountains

The Long & Treacherous Journey

Toilets by the road

It has been more than a week since I left home for this arduous and treacherous journey. Journeying from the lowlands to an all time high altitude of almost 5,000 meters has its many complications. Two members in our 'entourage' had to make use of the oxygen pillow on the road from Xining into Yushu.

Oxygen pillow

Apart from the very thin air that our lungs had to cope with, there is also a call for the strength of the heart and mind as one wrong move by any drivers on the road will result in a dewachen situation. When I reached Yushu I had tears of joy of making it there -30 hours of train ride and another 20 hours on the road

Inner Journey Will Be Away - 13 July 2009

Even though I will be away I will be updating with pictures and videos whenever possible. But there may be restrictions. My experience in my trip last month, I could not gain access into many sights especially blogspots. Especially so when I will be in Tibet Autonomous region. do stay tune.

Ryan's First Imagery Friend

Welcome Ryan to THE Club!

It was laughter when my daughter related this incident to me. It was kind of mean of me - right? Actually I cant blame her for getting goosebumbs especially when the metaphysical world is alien to her. For all the "run fire" (chow for yup moh) kakis, knowing or seeing such beings is just part and parcel of getting involved in energy works.

Read more here

Useful Tips & Update - Enzyme

It's almost a year since I prepared my drinking enzyme. It was ready for consumption in February 2009 (after six months) but I deliberately left it untouched. All drinking enzymes must be left to ferment for a minimum of 6 months, if not longer.

Fruits left to ferment turns alcoholic in the first month (when you drink you can taste the mild alcoholic content) so it is not so healthy for your liver if you are going to consume these enzymes in the long run. In the second month it turns to vinegar and only after the third month it turns to a healthy drink, people call enzyme. The longer you ferment it, the more potent it is. I only need to use a small capful of the enzyme to 1.5 liter of water and not drink it neat like a fruit juice.

I used raw organic honey with various fruits (dragon fruit, oranges, pineapple, apples, papaya, lemon ..... I can't remember what else). Using sugar is a no no as it again produces alcholic content.

See how clear the liquid is and the 3 layers of contents. The longer you ferment it, the clearer the liquid. After 3 months of fermentation, the liquid was darkish yellow but now, after almost a year, it has turned to clear golden yellow.

Bottom most layer - fermented fruits

Middle layer - murky enzyme mixed with fermented fruit residue
Top layer - clear drinking enzyme

The Strings Of Attachment

It will be another long trip away. On one hand I am really looking forward to this trip but on the other hand the string of attachment plays the tug-of-war. Want to see my little string of attachment?

Internet access may be far and few but I hope to be able to do as many updates as I possibly can especially with pictures and video clips on the life and culture of the land of snows, the roof of the world. Do drop by for some great clips from next week onwards.