Drinking yak-butter tea in the Himalayas is a natural high, writes James Elam. Yak's butter mixed with boiling water and salt. It sounds disgusting, but it's strange how tastes can change at 5000 metres above sea level.
High on the Tibetan Plateau, the city of Lhasa is threatened with submersion, but not by its neighboring river. With the large influx of Han Chinese over the past several decades, the character of this once exotic and isolated city is changing rapidly.
It is another cold morning and I wrap my hands around a mug of hot water. I watch trucks approach from all directions as they send out tails of creamy dust. Smoke from a cluster of wool tents swirls around me.
