The Road to Lhasa  (click on the pictures to see more detail)
I first learned about Kham from an English language interview program on CCTV. Pamela Logan, from the group Kham Aid was describing both her work in the region, and the remarkable resilience of traditional Tibetan culture. Deb and I had long considered traveling to Tibet but, even starting from China, the trip would not be easy or cheap. We decided that we could get a better view of Tibetan culture and have a greater opportunity to meet with and speak to Tibetan people if we traveled in the Kham region of western Sichuan.
Welcome to downtown Litang. This is a parking lot of sorts across the road from the long distance bus station. Even in town, the yaks almost outnumber the people, and they certainly outnumber the cars. We arrived late at night, after our 7 hour bus ride stretched to double that time; a result of repeated breakdowns and several futile repair efforts (including an attempt at patching a blown radiator hose with scotch tape.)
In the morning, from all over town, you could see a large, golden-roofed temple, high up on the hill. We were now at over 14,000 feet, and climbing the wooden stairs in our rickety hotel was challenging enough. But we figured we could ascend slowly - we had all day with nowhere else to go - and we expected many interesting sights along the way. This gate bounded an older village that appeared to be associated with the temple; most of the building within were painted white, unlike the bare stone of the houses closer to town.
Technically, this is not Tibet. But this is pretty much what we would have hoped to see if we had flown into Lhasa and then headed for the hills. We were now in a place that is higher than Tibet's capital, and which has a greater percentage of ethnic Tibetans. Now all we had to do was find some.
Close to the temple, we came across this stupa (the white structure), which is built to house some relic of a monk, along with this pile of stones. While in Kham, we were never able to uncover the purpose of these stones. But I have since learned from Tommy Shiekman, a visitor to this web page, that these are called Mani stones. There is a prayer written on them, and Buddhists walk around the piles for good luck.

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