Nehkor (Pilgrimage)

After the teaching gig fell through, Aku and I went on pilgrimage to some important places in Amdo. There were many places I had read about that I wanted to see, and after going to the first one, I realized that my ambitions were pretty high and to go to all those places would be quite exhausting, though we did accomplish almost all I had set out to do.

The first stop was Drakar Tredzong (White Rock Monkey Fortress). I had read about this mountain in Shabkar's autobiography. Shabkar is a Tibetan saint from the 18th century who is famous in Tibet. His life story is almost as popular as that of Milarepa. One of the main things I remember from Shabkar's autobiography was that he was extremely compassionate and generous. There is a story that someone gave him a horse, and then he met a beggar on the road, and decided to give him his horse, without any second thought. He was also extremely realized and spent many years meditating in caves throughout Tibet, there is hardly any sacred place in Tibet that he didn't set foot on. His name "Shabkar" means "White Foot", the color white being associated with purity.

The bus trip to Drakar Tredzong wasn't so bad. It was about a 4 hour scenic drive for the first leg of the journey. Then we got to a crossroad in the middle of nowhere, the road to the right went to the town called Chabcha, and the road to the left...well I wasn't sure yet. And I wasn't expecting to get off the bus there either, but that's just what we did. Then we waited...and waited...



The road was long and straight, and we could see the cars coming from a mile a way. The cars would appear in the distance, then you could stand and watch them approach for about 5 minutes, pondering whether or not they were going to stop. We were actually waiting for a bus, but not many buses came by. Many tractors did drive by. Tractors are a common form of transportation for Tibetans. We also saw many motorcycles, driven by Tibetan men wearing their big oversized chubas, or Tibetan clothing that resembles are large thick bathrobe. Finally, after about 3 hours, a bus stopped. It was full of people, but we managed to fit inside. I should have taken a picture of this crowded little bus, full of interesting characters, but I guess you'll just have to use your imagination.

Drakar Tredzong

Finally we arrived in the town of Xinghai, which is the closest town near Drakar Tredzong. I had read good things about this town, but my first impression of it wasn't that impressive. As I stepped off the bus I was immediately greeted by a strange man wearing a long green Chinese army jacket. Not in the army, but sporting the fashion that some Tibetan men fancy, he grabbed my shirt and started tugging on it. Smiling, he revealed his brown, decaying teeth, and glossy eyes. "Muh Muh....Maaaaa....Uhhhhh" he said to me. I realized that he was either mute, dumb, retarted, or crazy...or all of the above. He tugged pretty hard on my shirt and Aku tried to pull him off of me. He was harmless, but his presence rattled my mind for a moment, as I had just stepped off the bus.

We wandered to the main street, first looking for a restaurant. Aku asked an old man where the restaurants were, and we walked to a nearby alley, Aku with his small bag, and me with my large backpack....I always feel like a target when I'm carrying my huge backpack through an unknown town. The first restaurant we stepped into didn't look that great, then Aku looked over his shoulder towards the old man who showed us where the restaurants were...the old man shook his head in dissaproval, and we moved on. Aku explained that the restaurant we stepped into was a Muslim restaurant. Tibetans and Chinese muslims often don't get along in Tibetan towns, and the disputes can often be violent. So we walked to another restaurant down the road. This restaurant had some kind of Chinese action movie playing inside, dubbed over in Amdo-Tibetan. So we decided to eat there. We both ordered Tentuk (or Tibetan Noodle Soup).

I needed to use the bathroom, the lady at the restaurant told me it was in the back. So I walked to the back and found the bathroom in a courtyard of some kind of apartment complex. I stepped inside and realized that this bathroom was the dirtiest one I had visited yet. I'll spare you the details, but lets just say on the walk back to the restaurant I wiped my feet many times on the concrete.

After eating we hired a jeep, filled with two old Tibetan men, that were both going to Drakar Tredzong as well. The journey took about an hour, and the road was bumpy and windy. But it was well worth it. Drakar Tredzong is a beautiful place.



After visiting many monasteries and temples, I was impressed by Drakar Tredzong, seeing it as a natural monastery, a natural temple, where many great beings had lived. These great beings all lived inside of the mountain itself, in it's caves, for many years. It is full of caverns, valleys, caves, hidden places, wild animals, meditators, and who knows what else.

That night we stayed in one of the worst hotels I've ever stayed at. It shouldn't really be called a hotel, more like a bunker, a concrete box. My bed was sloping to the left, so it felt like I was sleeping on the edge of a hill. It was cold, and it was dirty. The "town" at the base of Drakar Tredzong consists of a large monastery and one street with small shops and a few restaurants and "hotels". In one restaurant we went to, many young nomads smoked cigarretes and drank beer, telling stories, as their long knifes occasionaly were revealed hanging from their belts on their sides. At breakfast one morning, a man sat by the wood stove (which they burn dried yak poop in), already drunk at about 8am, talking about how he had just witnessed his brother or cousin kill a man the other day over some dispute.

We decided to circle the mountain that day and visit many of the sites on the mountain. The entire circumambulation took about 8 full hours, and at the end we were exhausted. Here are some photos from the walk:

"Mani Wall"


"Nomads in the Valley"


"Resting"

"View"

"Guru Rinpoche Cave"

Self-Arisen 'Ah' Syllable"

"Prayers"