Along with the Tibetan community in Paris, the Bureau du Tibet, Paris, organised a grand ceremony on 10 July in celebration of the 70th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Paris. The Kalon for Departments of Finance and
Global Vigil for the Panchen Lama of Tibet was concluded peacefully and observed by many local Tibetan, Nepalese, foreigner and press person here in Boudha stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Travel in India can fill me with a strange type of euphoric dread. My trip from Delhi to Dharmashala, then, had the theoretic advantage of taking place at night. Except, of course, if you don't medicate yourself, the chances of sleep are similar to the chances of winning big on your next lotto ticket.
They are trekkers and seekers, backpackers and Buddhist followers, and they come here for both spiritual sustenance and for rugged hikes amid ancient monasteries and snowcapped mountains.
Flying over Ladakh, the landscape appears bleak, brown and empty across a corrugation of immense, lifeless ranges, so it feels as though we’re landing on the moon.
Over the centuries, countless explorers attempted to enter the spiritual heart of Tibet – Lhasa. Most failed, and many even died in their attempt. The lucky few who managed to see the magnificent Potala palace at the top of the world
Tibet may have been encroached upon by crass modernity,but only in the towns. Elsewhere, it is essentially unchanged, and remains a deeply mysterious, still forbidding land.
We were close to the sacred city of Lhasa when finally I saw it: the legendary Potala with its golden domes and white and deep-red palaces. Here, at last, was the holy of holies; the fabled Shangri-la that was for so long off-limits to travellers from the West.
If you are seeking the old, magical Tibet, now trampled by Chinese rule and depredations, venture to this pine-green, far-flung valley guarded by snowy Himalayan peaks and peopled by lamas and pious laity.
