American Autumn Shishapangma Expedition 2005: Lessons from Lhasa

Sunset on Shishapangma from Base Camp

Lessons from Lhasa --

1. Never pay more than 50% of the asking price in Tibet.

2. You've never really lived until you've been yelled at by a monk. So make sure you don't take any photos of a room in the Norbulinka summer palace when you're not allowed.

3. Don't count your eggs (or fixed lines) until they are in hand. So if your porter or the mountain guide association contact are charging you an order of magnitude higher than you expected to pay for fixed lines, try and think of alternatives--even if it is 6:30 pm on the night before you are leaving town for seven weeks. For example, grab your local guide Mima and driver Tsering and head down to Barkor Square to scour the mountaineering shops (all two) for inexpensive fixed line. If you have no luck there, try one of the smaller local alleyways that will contain perhaps 3 sellers per ten feet and look for inexpensive rope. If the first one you see has only a limited supply, try the next seller across the way. Once they offer you a price that is an order of magnitude less than that of your mountain association, refer to lesson #1. Then smile as you put 600 meters of fixed line into a huge plastic sack and go have dinner.

4. Meditation rooms, bedrooms, and throne rooms can be independent or the same room. Just ensure that you have offered wheat or money to the protective diety and added butter to the burning butter lamps before heading out on a two month expedition.

5. Excessive standardization will very quickly destroy culture.

6. Stairs inside palaces can be very steep. So if you are touring the Potala Palace, you might want to use the hand rail.

7. Don't forget your hand sanitizer and Kleenex, and don't forget your pen and paper for negotiations.

8. Buddhas appearing naturally out of sandalwood are very important.

9. When designing a summer palace, make sure to include funds for gardening and ground upkeep, and don't just focus on putting in bathrooms.

10. Watch out for electric motorcycles zooming through the small aisle when looking through the squid, beef tongue, squirming eels, or pigs feet at the local market.

11. When you find something you appreciate and value, remember that, communicate that, and act on it.

Tomorrow we leave Lhasa and head to Shigatse!

-Val

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