04 September 2006
18 May 2006
|
Tibet, India
The trip in and around Mcleodgunj was like flying across the Himalayas to the Dalai Lama’s kingdom. Only bits of India and the Raj cropped up.
|
08 October 2005
|
|
Lhasa LAYER BY LAYER
 Tibet's capital is not a city of instant spiritual gratification. Those in search of a deeper experience need the patience and steadfast heart of a pilgrim.
|
21 August 2005
24 March 2005
|
|
Dharmashala: Eclectic Encounters With Friendly People
 Travel in India can fill me with a strange type of euphoric dread. My trip from Delhi to Dharmashala, then, had the theoretic advantage of taking place at night. Except, of course, if you don't medicate yourself, the chances of sleep are similar to the chances of winning big on your next lotto ticket.
|
14 September 2004
18 July 2004
|
|
Land of many names
Flying over Ladakh, the landscape appears bleak, brown and empty across a corrugation of immense, lifeless ranges, so it feels as though we’re landing on the moon.
|
14 June 2004
|
|
Spiritual land
Over the centuries, countless explorers attempted to enter the spiritual heart of Tibet – Lhasa. Most failed, and many even died in their attempt. The lucky few who managed to see the magnificent Potala palace at the top of the world
|
03 January 2004
|
|
Seven days in Tibet
 Tibet may have been encroached upon by crass modernity,but only in the towns. Elsewhere, it is essentially unchanged, and remains a deeply mysterious, still forbidding land.
|
30 December 2003
|
|
Karaoke and karma
 We were close to the sacred city of Lhasa when finally I saw it: the legendary Potala with its golden domes and white and deep-red palaces. Here, at last, was the holy of holies; the fabled Shangri-la that was for so long off-limits to travellers from the West.
|
23 December 2003
22 November 2003
|
|
Travelling through Tibet
 It was a September afternoon and I was freezing in the bus as it laboriously chugged up the mountain pass. The bus was old and rickety, the windows wouldn’t close and holes in the floor allowed me to see the road.
|
21 October 2003
|
|
Sky Burials Of Tibet
 In the very early history of Tibet the dead may have been buried in the ground, but with soil at a premium and firewood equally scarce, Tibetans have spent the last few centuries coming up with alternative ways to get rid of remains.
|
19 July 2003
|
|
Once a Kingdom
Among the most important ingredients seasoning Sikkim are the cultural traditions of neighbouring Tibet. Thick fog flies in fast from the East, dulling the rich colours of Tsuk La-Khang, the Royal Chapel.
|
01 July 2003
|
|
A tipple in Tibet
 Drinking yak-butter tea in the Himalayas is a natural high, writes James Elam. Yak's butter mixed with boiling water and salt. It sounds disgusting, but it's strange how tastes can change at 5000 metres above sea level.
|
14 April 2003
|
|
Paradise in peril
High on the Tibetan Plateau, the city of Lhasa is threatened with submersion, but not by its neighboring river. With the large influx of Han Chinese over the past several decades, the character of this once exotic and isolated city is changing rapidly.
|
09 April 2003
|
|
Sweat and the spirit
It is another cold morning and I wrap my hands around a mug of hot water. I watch trucks approach from all directions as they send out tails of creamy dust. Smoke from a cluster of wool tents swirls around me.
|
|
They are trekkers and seekers, backpackers and Buddhist followers, and they come here for both spiritual sustenance and for rugged hikes amid ancient monasteries and snowcapped mountains.
