​#memoriesat60 #missing community

My children were young. We were still relatively new to Billings. I was seeking out ways to connect deeply with others. I had already participated in a women’s spirituality retreat with Jean Shinoda Bolen at the Feathered Pipe Ranch west of Helena, but the rest of the participants were from out of state. Something intrigued me about the idea of going back to the ranch to build and learn to play an ashiko drum with the Drum Brothers. In 1997, I went and a new passion was born.
 
The simultaneously diffuse and focused attention required to play polyrhythms. The waves of rhythm filling the room and my body. The pure joy of being so intensely present and connected. The sweet high when our hands and souls were in sync within the music. And the freedom in the dances accompanying these songs.
 
This rhythmic journey and its communities took me to retreats and workshops, found me buying a djembe, a set of djun-djuns, congas, frame drums, a doumbek, a tambura in Venezuela, shakers and sticks and learning how to move my body in expansive ways. I was grateful to have amazing drumming and dance teachers: the incomparable Nigerian Babatunde Olatunji, master drummers Abdoul Dumbia from Mali and Joh Camara from Guinea, master dancer Youssouf Koumbassa from Guinea, Bangoura, a member of WOFA, the dance and drum from Guinea that performed at the ABT and came to our house for dinner and, so much learned from the Drum Brothers of Missoula and Arlee.
 
I created a drumming circle in Billings and my dear friend Robin and I began teaching free gatherings so that we could recreate the magic locally. We played on the Rims before remembering that the drums were designed to send their sounds miles away. {My apologies to those who lived below.} Robin and I played in front of the Sun'e Eye in Monument Valley. We played for an outdoor wedding, for church services, Vicki Coffman and Bess Fredlund’s improvisational theater and dance performance at McCormick’s Café, and casually, at my house, with the Puentes Brothers from Cuba. But, mostly for each other.
 
It was a glorious adventure and exploration. And then ... I learned to weld… and a new passion began to eclipse this one. Now, my steering wheel is most often my instrument as I play along with songs in my car. The rhythms, though, are forever part of me.

​#memoriesat60 #missingcommunity #missingmountains #gratitude
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Three years after leaving Portland and my women's circle, which met very two weeks to study, explore, celebrate and support each other, four of us gave ourselves four glorious days of reconnection along 40 miles of the wild and scenic Rogue River in Southern Oregon - an area only accessible by foot or boat and winding towards the Pacific. 

The trail took us through sun drenched hillsides, curved into valleys trickling with springs and feathered with huge ferns, opened up to hot rocky faces, wove to and from the river banks and surprised us at just the right moments with cool pools or refreshing cascades where we could strip down and refresh our feet and sweaty bodies. The abundance of flora and fauna delighted us... the sublime Pacific mandrones exfoliating their outer skins in layers of shimmering smoked salmon and fresh pistachio, osprey, sugar pine, Douglas fir, king snakes, western fence lizards, salamanders, a black bear, deer, star thistle, buckwheat, scotch broom, manzanita, blackberry, bead lily, and poison oak, which we successfully avoided. 

We met few other hikers and and reveled in the beauty and isolation that gifted us with time to delve more deeply into each others lives, as mothers of young children and adventurous women. I was so very grateful for my good boots, my comfortable pack, my strong legs and this time to nurture my soul in nature and the beautiful community of these friends. 

Ancient Tea Horse Caravan Trail
Deliciousness
Besides the delightful Erhai Lake fish dish in Dali (posted previously):
Peach Gum Soup? Beverage?
We enjoyed several versions, and key ingredients are Tears of Peach Blossom (an amber like resin secreted from the bark of wild Chinese peach treas that, when soaked, expands into gelatinous masses), white fungus (I first thought it was a kind of cabbage, but this is good for lungs), sugar and then optional goji berries, longans, dates, pear, snow lotus and snow lotus seed. Very comforting and I will to replicate the multiple day process at home!
Tsampa (roasted barley flour) mixed with salty yak butter tea, a bit of sugar and walnuts for breakfast. Stomach filling and tasty.
The ubiquitous Yunnan hot pot, but, unlike Emma, who enjoyed hers with thin slices of yak, my versions contained varieties of mushrooms and fungi. So many of these on this adventure... though flavorful, I might need to take a bit of a break from them.
Soup dumplings (particularly chicken and truffles) so good they were consumed before I could take photos and this spongy braised bran dough with more mushrooms... I have no idea how this is made and it isn’t attractive, but oh so yummy.
I am also bringing home some of the rose liqueur, saffron and dried morels!

Ancient Tea Horse Caravan Trail
Randoms from Xianggelila
Back to the not so high country, Emma and I had another beautiful day to wander the Ganden Sumstelling/Songstam Lin monastery area.
We circumambulated the exterior walls of the complex and found elders doing the same, pausing at spots where sacred trees provided shade, smiling to us in a generous, kind way that reminded me of my paternal grandmother’s welcoming face.
A paved side path lead up to another sacred hill festooned with hundreds of prayer flags. The path itself was painted with the series of meditative symbols found in the monastery, such as the dharma wheel, and the Shrivasta or Eternity Knot, which was prominent on the temple entrance curtains, decorated our the curtains in our room and is the symbol of enlightenment, auspiciousness, unity, harmony and perfection of the wisdom of Buddha.
Our last circumambulation was another walk around the lake in front of the monastery. As with the first time around days prior, a cat came up to me, climbed onto me and made itself comfortable, purring and moving its head, as cats are so wise to do, to guide my hands to the next preferred massage spot.
An empty barley drying rack resembled a huge, sculptural chair, worthy of Storm King or Tippet Rise.
Across from the temple was an outdoor gym, where I found a place to massage my calf muscles, and which we saw most used by older folks. We determined that the prevalence of squat toilets motivated people to stay strong and flexible

Ancient Tea Caravan Trail
Bai Ma Xueshan and Three Parallel Rivers
Kawagebo Peak and the Meili Xuashen (snow mountains - glaciated peaks) lie in the Three Parallel Rivers region.
The Yangtze/Jinsha River, third longest in the world, starts in the Tibetan Plateau and winds down through Lijiang (one of our previous stops) and empties into the East China Sea at Shanghai, where we return soon. Already at this Moon Bend of the river it is large and shows why it is named River of Golden Sands (or as we have often heard it, the Yellow River) because it picks up so much glacial silt and ochre earth. The other two rivers are the Nujiang/Salween, which is on the other side of the Meili Xueshan and empties into the Indian Ocean in Burma and the Lahcang/Mekong which empties into the South China Sea in Vietnam.
In this area, and just south east of the Meili Xueshan, with its 13 peaks, are the Baima Xueshan with 20 peaks. All do this are - the Meili, the Baima, the Three Rivers, are heritage sites. UNESCO: “ Baima may be one of the most biologically diverse temperate zones in the world”). Our road back down to Xianggelila took us through and past and under (long, long tunnels) several of these. On a side road of the high pass we climbed to 4292 meters/14081 feet. Standing there, I thought of altitude comparisons from my past, the “14ers” , 14000+ peaks in Colorado and that where we slept with the view of Kawagebo, at 11,800, was equivalent to sleeping at the top of Lone Peak in Montana. These peaks are so craggy and stupendous and raw and high, yet, due to latitude, some are still not covered yet in snow.

Ancient Tea Horse Caravan Trail
Kawagebo Mountain, Meili Xueshan
And here, my family and friends, is my birthday gift, on my birthday, during this 60th birthday adventure (with Emma Kriner - I could not have done this without her and wouldn’t have wanted to) ... Kawagebo Mountain in the Meili Snow Mountains on the border of Yunnan and Tibet.
[Thank you all for all of the birthday wishes. My VPN and thus my access to social media, google, email has been intermittent, so I haven’t been able to respond to all of you.)
Our first glance at Kawagebo (also called Kawa Garbo and Khawa Karpo) had us wide-eyed and jubilant. It is a virgin peak (never been climbed and now it is forbidden to do so) at 6740 meters/22122 feet and one of the most sacred mountains to Tibetan Buddhists. We spent time with it at Thirteen Pagodas, from our hotel room at 11,800 feet (sleep was difficult with the altitude, full moon and mountain energy, but so very worth the lack of it), at sunset, at sunrise at Feilaisi Temple prayer platform. I imagined being on top, taking in the mountain energy and sending out to all those I love. It was hard to leave, but this mountain is now part of me.

Ancient Tea Caravan Trail
Dukesong or White Stone Village (just south of Xianggelila)
At the top of Great Turtle Hill in the largest, best preserved of the Chinese Tibetan villages - Dukesong- is Big Buddha Temple (built in 1667). Emma and I climbed up the numerous steps (steps on our health-o-meter are definitely steps on this trip ... lots of up and downhill) to the temple entrance where, in exchange for a small donation a happy monk gave us each three incense sticks, mimed how to light them in front of the indeed very large Buddha and then to circumambulate around the statue. We kept one of Collin’s friends, who went through a tough surgery, in mind and then placed the incense at the front of the temple.
An outer circumambulation took us to the world’s largest prayer wheel (perhaps 30 foot tall). It was still when we reached it. A ring around the bottom held webbing straps, but we couldn’t budge it. A man joined us ... still no movement. More visitors came down the steps and one man called out something like “everybody help!” Slowly, then faster and faster, like a playground merry-go-round, it and we gained speed. Though this was designed for prayer and a woman behind me in traditional clothing did appear to mindful, the overall mood was joyous!

Ancient Tea Horse Caravan Trail
Xianggelila
The monastery complex included, under its protection, two Tibetan villages (one with our hotel), and Lake Lamuyangcuo, around which we strolled. The tea horse traders would stop at these sacred trees to pray for auspicious journeys. We climbed Sacred Dongqesheng Hill, on top of which were a stupa and hundreds of prayer flags, the tinkling of cow bells below and a long view of the monastery complex. We sent out our love to family and friends with the fluttering of the flags. Could you feel it?
We had seen empty versions of these 30 foot+ structures, seemingly randomly placed in fields and besides homes, and eventually discovered that they are for drying barley, grasses and wheat at a height not tempting to the yaks.
The homes in the villages included expanses of panes glass and beautifully carved and painted doorways. The shot of multiple dwellings is of the homes for the monks.
We walked through Conqulong village as the cows/yakswere walking themselves from the hills back to their barns under the homes.
There were many reminders to protect our earth as a sacred place.

Ancient Tea Horse Caravan Trail
Xianggelila/Shangri-la/Zhongdian
We left Lijiang, an old border of Tibet, north for Zhongdian, which was renamed Shangri-la (locally called Xiangelela) by the government to encourage the tourists who were seeking the Shangri-la, Shambala in Hilton’s 1930’s book “Lost Horizon,” which I read before my travels. Hilton’s Shangri-la was a combination of descriptions from the people, geography, culture and religion of Dali, Lijiang, Zhongdian and the Meili Snow Mountain area.
Our Tibetan home styled hotel was steps away from the golden roofed Ganden Sumsteling Monastery, (which may have been the inspiration for the lamasery in Lost Horizon) the largest Tibetan monastery in Yunnan. (Built in 1679) It has several names, as most places do in this region. One is Little Potala Palace, due to its similar architecture to the one in Lhasa. Photos were not allowed inside buildings, but we circumambulated the exterior of the main buildings and within each temple and prayer hall. The centuries of positive intention were palpable, encouraging us to slow our pace, speak softly, be present. Red-robed monks were in prayer and their deep throated chanting reverberated inside me. The younger boys were, well, boys and one threw something at another, obviously not yet as dedicated to praying. An older monk quietly stepped up beside him, his presence reminding the boy to return to meditation.
Interiors were resplendent in intricate wood carvings, gold leaf, columns of multi-colored brocade, the larger than life Buddhas and other deities. I had also just read the Dalai Lama’s autobiography, which was historically fascinating, yet his description of all the layers and paths and symbols of Buddhism needed more time to absorb. My eastern religions college class was too long ago. The main takeaway is that each of us can help ourselves and the world by detaching from our distractions and concentrating on our our true selves, our spiritual selves and then we can more easily be kind and generous and caring.

Ancient Tea Horse Caravan Trail
Lijiang, Yunnan
ShuHe Naxi Village, also called Longquan
Upon entering the village, about a 3 km walk from our hotel, we were greeted by this Dongba (Naxi religion) Aspiration Windbell. “ This is a miracle place. You call the heaven, it answers. You call the earth, it responds.” These wish cards are similar to the prayer cards that Priscilla Otani showed me at the Shinto shrines in Kyoto and which were part of my inspiration for the memory card component of my What [(Is It) About My) Memory community memory project.
Though this village also has shops offering local specialities to tourists, there are sections that retain the older buildings and the sophisticated water ways that channeled water from the mountain.
The lunch highlight was the Ba Ba, a thin, fried, warm potato cake filled with, what I think was, a mix of sesame and walnut pastes. Afterwards, we searched for, and found, a delicious mei qui (rose) filled moon cake and a delightful shop where we not only bought some of the mei qui liqueur, in traditional glazed, ceramic, corked bottles, but also discovered (trial sips are encouraged at these shops) a less intensely flavored and delicious pu’er tea variety.
In Dali and onwards, I have seen women sweeping streets, from small alley ways to the sides of busy two lane urban roads. Roadside construction has often been with non-electric tools. (There are many, massive infrastructure projects in the larger cities and between them.) The rhythm and pace and noise are, what has been a common descriptive for me on this trip, moderate, not rushed. Smiles come easily. As I move along, I find myself slowing down also.

Ancient Tea Horse Caravan Trail
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
Stepping out of the train station in Lijiang, I was stopped by this powerful massif, sacred to the Naxi people and, if I lived here, it would be certainly central to my life. I became immediately obsessed, to the point that Emma had to point out other, more pressing matters, like getting to our hotel, and finding food.
We were in Lijiang for less than 24 hours, so unable to get on the mountain, but it’s presence accompanied me on our explorations in the ancient Su He village and woke me up to witness sunrise on its flanks. I read Laurence Brahm’s book on sacred mountains (part of his trilogy of his explorations searching for Hilton’s Lost Horizon versioning Shangri-la). In it, he talks to a woman from Dali, who says, “When you live close to the mountains, you can better listen to what they say. They are the world of spirits.” Mountains have been significantly spiritual in my life.
Places have many names here, due to different peoples, different translations... Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is called Satseto by the Naxi, and Yulong Xueshan (xue shan is snow capped mountain. Now that we are heading north with glaciated peaks, we will be seeing more xue shan). It is the southernmost snow mountain in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Ancient Tea Horse Caravan Trail starts in the pu’er tea region in southern Yunnan (further pu’er explorations for us soon) up through Dali, Lijiang, Zhangdian (the original name of Shangri-la City, along our travels), past the sacred Tibetan mountain of Kawagebo (under which I will spend my birthday), through Lhasa, Nepal and into India.
The Naxi and Mosuo men ferried the tea and other goods along this route, so were gone for months at a time. Therefore, women ran the villages and social networks, and loved whom and how many men they chose (called walking marriages... the concept of father is vague).

Traveling the Ancient Horse Tea Caravan Trail, Yunnan
Dali
Sacred Cangshen (mountains) and The Jade Belt Wandering Cloud path
These are the mountains sacred to the Bai minority people of northwest Yunnan. They are on the west side of ErHai Lake ( ear-shaped sea). The path, reached by a moderately paced (most everything here is moderately paced), 2 person chairlift (or climbing, if so equipped), runs approximately 11 miles across these mountains on a fairly level paved, blue-stone path.
The lift passed over many shrines/tombs built amongst the trees on this sacred mountain with sod roofs so that the forest can grow around them. Like a scene from a mystical fairy tale.
At the top of the lift and level with the path is Zhonghe Temple, Taoist, built 738-902.
The path is at the altitude where the Jade Cloud usually occurs, like a belt along the range, so walkers on the path would pass through the clouds. We had a sunny day with views across the lake and up to the peaks, (Zhonge Peak is 4092 meters) Over the seven miles or so we walked, we found deep valleys and gorges and small rivulets and waterfalls... places where travelers wedged sticks under rocky overhangs as if to hold up the mountain. Many side paths were closed, but we enjoyed the mossy, lichen covered rocks and rising mist from the valleys and a sighting of a most theatrical bird - a Lady Amherst’s pheasant ( photo courtesy of an alpine bird site with no reference to local name) and the feeling that so many people have walked this path in peaceful contemplation over centuries. And... this traveling, for me, certainly focuses on sacred mountains and tea and sharing these experiences with my daughter.

There is Dali City, which wraps around the southern lobe of ErHai Lake and is modern and bustling and then there is Ancient City of Dali and its surrounds, where we stayed on the west bank. Some consider this the Chiang-Mai of Yunnan because western spiritual travelers (ie, hippies) landed here years ago and it is a village vibe with children playing in front of shops, small dogs wearing human clothes, and very friendly folks . During our time here, we saw only 5 other foreigners and Emma’s excellent Mandarin was quite necessary.
Dali, in fact most of this northwest Yunnan area, is known for its flowers and mix of mushroom infused foods, particularly roses. And, apparently, love. (Side note: on our hotel room side table was displayed a packaged condom with an image of a sunglassed, happy “condom man”)
We ate twice at the Xinghui Fairy Dali Love Theme Restaurant, where people came to declare their love via “love certificates” which were then added to the restaurant walls. The ErHai Lake fish stew, cooked by adding hot rocks to the broth, was sublime with its delicate celeriac? slices. Shipping Tofu - pan fried with an egg yolk? broth of chilies and peas and fresh herbs - mmmm! And chicken in clay pot with buckwheat noodles. Our waitress treated us to a warm mug of, what we think was, honey broth, fragrant Dali snow pear bits, a form of cabbage and a bit of rose water. We think this is supposed to be good for digestion. And, at the end, a small, beautiful blue dish of extremely aromatic rose liquor.
We went back to Xinghui ( by now the same waitress and Emma were laughing together) for the fish stew and, this time, a most comforting mix of shredded chicken and mushrooms and Bamboo rice, which is smoked in bamboo with a few sweet beans.
In the walled ancient city of Dali, we saw the Bai architecture and bravely tasted the pepper prevalent Bai chicken dish and mushroom mix. And, a large, intricately designed smoker device, the windows of which changed colors as if from some scI-fi movie.
The occasional English translation on signs, such as our fave Fairy Love restaurant and a shop subtitled “Formerly Slow” add to Dali’s endearing nature.
Doing research to learn more about these experiences is challenging as my VPN is blocked for days and google, including my gmail, is banned from my Chinese data plan. The upside, is that this trip is that much more experiential!

The power of centralized government paired with technology, part 2
Shanghai
Social Credit System = an ongoing assessment of citizens’ and businesses’ economic and social reputation.
Emma warned me not to step foot into a cross walk until the lights turned green. In populous areas, such as The Bund, these facial recognition towers are just one way the government keeps track of those who don’t follow good citizenship protocol. The system rewards and punishes based on scores ... “keeping trust is glorious and breaking trust is disgraceful.”
Walking across the street at the wrong time, spending too much time playing video games, paying bills on time...
Punishments can include: having your photo displayed on these towers, getting your dog taken away, being banned from gettin on trains or into good hotels, having your internet speeds throttled....
On other fronts, technology shows up in helpful ways, such as using WeChat for instant payment at most places. My hotel room knows if it is day or night and opens/ closes my drapes accordingly. The multitude of cleansing options of the Japanese toilet have been embraced in most places I visited in this city.