The first rumblings of spring have reached the Central Atlantic. The green tips of daffodils and jonquils are pushing through the still firm soil, and in some sunny spots, snowdrops and crocus are already starting to bloom. This means that the early crops of rhubarb should be out by month’s end. Fluorescent pink stems topped with deep green, chard-like leaves will soon fill the market … Read more
I love yaks. I have many times admired their hulking, hairy majesty on the plains and hills of Western China, Tibet, and Nepal. Yaks are survivors – free-range animals manage to survive on some of the poorest pasture the world has to offer. Yaks are beautiful – from their natural flowing-haired glory of the wild to their domesticated cousins adorned by their humans with colorful … Read more
New Year’s Eve Night Bright torches fly overhead Sweeping evil far away Losar, the Tibetan New Year begins in a couple of hours and living a very different life, I look back on my travels and remember what Losar celebrations are like. Food and barley beer flow for days and even weeks and rituals of eschewing evil and beginning anew are performed across the Tibetan … Read more
The wind whistling across the cold, high, plain; sky-high mountains to the south and west and an endless desert to the north. You walk with your pack and your pony across the desolate, dry meadow. In the distance there are horns and bells crashing and booming to banish evil spirits. Silence and then a rhythmic batrachian chorus of monks starts to invoke a powerful Goddess. … Read more