After leaving Repkong, I said goodbye to Aku and took a 12 hour bus from Xilang to Tawu, the capital of Golok in Eastern Tibet. The bus travels along high roads, with many switchbacks, and at one point journeys through a large red canyon with high walls. One some of the high mountain roads, the bus feels as if it is headed over the cliff but then turns the corner at the last minute. Each time we did a sharp turn I braced myself for death, trying to ease my fear...didn't work too well, eventually I just got tired and complacent.
We stopped for lunch at a small roadside town, at which point some of the passengers approached me and started asking me where I was from etc... They were all surprised that I could speak Tibetan, even though my Tibetan is very bad.
Towards the end of the trip, we stopped for a pea break. A Tibetan man approcahed me and pointed to his head, saying he had a headache, and asked if I had one. That's when I realized we were at a much higher altitude, although I didn't have a headache. I did however have a slight ringing in my ears and a dreamy fealing.
We arrive in Tawu at night. Aku and I had called a contact the day before telling them I would come. When I got to the bus station I gave them a call, and the man said he would be right there to pick me up. After waiting about 5 minutes, a clean, nice looking elderly man with a black hat approached me and asked me if I was from America. I said yes, though I was confused, because I thought the contact I had was a young man. I also thought his name was Tenpa, but he said his name was Loden. We were both a little confused. Finally, I showed him the phone number I had dialed, and he took the phone and realized that it was indeed his own house.
I arrived at the small house, greeted by a massive but old Tibetan dog with dreadlocks. I would have to walk past him every night in order to go to the bathroom. There are no bathrooms, usually, in houses in Golok, they seem to prefer the "open field" style. One of my predicaments was that Tibetans constantly offer/force tea on me, even at late hours, so I am constantly waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
"Old Dog with Dreadlocks, and a Big Bark"They sat me down next to the fire and began to feed me with tsampa, tea, and bread. We talked for a while and they were impressed that we could carry on a conversation. For some reason I kept laughing, which would make them laugh, because I didn't know these people, yet there I was sitting in their house. They also didn't know anybody by the name of "Tenpa", but they said they knew the Khenpo that gave me their name. The family consisted of an old man and his wife, their daughter, and another young girl, who I believe must have been their grandaughter. This young girl is a descendant of Dudjom Lingpa, the famous 18th century Dzogchen Yogi.
"Loden, Wife, and Great Great Graundaughter of Dudjom Lingpa"The next day they took me to a dance performance at the nearby school. It was fun to watch, but it was long, and the sun was intense. My face got sunburnt.
"Boys and Girls in Chubas and Cowboy Hats"That same day Loden took me to see a Lama who lived near their house. It wasn't exactly a monastery, though there were monks there, but it seemed like a community prayer hall, with lots of templese under construction and small temples housing large prayer wheels where all the locals would go and pray. The feeling at this place was great, people old and young were constantly spinning the large prayer wheels murmuring prayers to themselves. You could see Lamas sitting in open fields giving teachings throughout the day to the people of the village.
The Lama we were to meet was known as Aku Choying. I didn't know too much about his history but Loden kept referring to this Lama and sticking up his thumb in approval. I was also advised by another Lama in the U.S. that I should see him, so I was eager to find out who he was. We arrived at the temple complex and I saw a hill absolutely covered in prayer flags. I hadn't seen prayer flags in this magnitute in Amdo, but in Golok it seems that people never get tired of prayer flags. You can't really tell by the photo below, but the hillside is just covered in prayer flags.
"Got Prayer Flags?"After a few minutes at this place, I noticed a man in the distance near a large yellow tractor. He was wearing a yellow hat and was being folowed by a group of people. I figured that this must be Aku Choying, and I was right. We walked up to him and Loden tried to introduce me. Aku Choying didn't seem to be interested...which is something you have to be prepared for when meeting a great Lama. So we left and decided to do a circumambulation around the temples.
On our way around, we saw Aku Choying, he was standing in the dirt of a newly plowed road...almost as if he was waiting for us. We sat down, in the dirt, for a few moments and talked. Loden explained that I was from America, and I tried to tell him the names of some of the Lamas I knew, but Aku Choying didn't know any of them. Then he gave us permission to take his photo.
" Aku Choying"I admired the way Aku Choying, though revered by many as a high Lama, looked more like a construction foreman. He spent all his days near the tractors, and in the dirt, overseeing the construction of the temples.
