travellers' tales

"Few lands are as beloved, mysterious, spiritual, or controversial as Tibet."

—from the anthology Travelers' Tales Tibet

From the flanks of Everest to the fabled city of Lhasa, Tibet is a guaranteed adventure—with the world's highest and roughest roads. Hang onto your seat—you could be in for a rough ride—

• The Lost Kingdom of Guge
• Rafting the Drigung
• Strolling Around the Barkhor by Alec Le Sueur
• In Search of the Blue Poppy

POSTCARD FROM 1904

Can you travel back in time? Teleport yourself to another era? Well, why not...

THERE ARE TIMES, travelling, when you fall into extraordinary circumstances—doing things you couldn't even imagine you might be doing...

Picture shows the author (guess who) dressed up as British trooper, conscripted as an extra during the making of a Chinese propaganda movie about the 1904 British invasion of Tibet. You can read the full story in Heartlands: Travels in the Tibetan World, and also in Travelers' Tales Tibet.

Get hold of the anthology Travelers' Tales Tibet to read more than 25 inspiring true tales from the roof of the world. Writers include Pico Iyer, Peter Hessler, Wade Davis, Pamela Logan and Alec Le Sueur. Go to www.travelerstales.com for details.

These rambling anthologies are like mosaics. Each piece might add only a single note of colour, but combine them and step back, and a rich and multifaceted portrait emerges. When told well, intimate little travel stories have a remarkable way of illuminating much larger worlds.
—John Flinn, San Francisco Chronicle

top7 lists

on the pilgrim wish-list

TOP7 WONDERS OF TIBET

• Potala Palace, Lhasa
• Jokhang Temple, Lhasa
• Tashilhunpo, Shigatse
• The Kumbum, Gyantse
• Lake Namtso
• Sakya Gompa
• Mount Kailash kora

Notes: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was Greek-inspired and generated. The thousand-room Potala Palace would easily rival those—in the context of Wonders of the Eastern World. In their lifetime, Tibetan pilgrims aspire to reach the most sacred sites of the plateau. The 'list' is debatable: you might want to get to all seven wonders listed—just to witness pilgrim fervour.

View Slide Show

from the Forbidden City

TOP7 HOT TOPICS

• Dalai Lama
• Tibetan independence
• Taiwan independence
• Falun Gong
• human rights
• democracy
• freedom

Notes: 'hot topics' means forbidden keywords scanned from the Forbidden City (Beijing) via the Great Firewall (Chinese internet blocking and monitoring). By coincidence, another forbidden topic is right at the doorstep of the Forbidden City: that taboo is Tiananmen Square, June 1989—about which any discussion is completely off-limits.

say what?

TOP7 THINGS TO SAY OUT LOUD IN TIBET

• peaceful liberation
• splittists
• Dalai clique
• imperialist foreign devils
• "progress, modernity and unity"
• that's a very reasonable price for a permit
• I'd love to have a mandatory Chinese tour guide who's never been to Tibet before please

Notes: Guidebooks are full of things you can't say in Tibet. This list tells you seven things you can safely say out loud. Some are more effective when shouted in a chant, preferably while waving a banner or large red flag. This list was contributed by Alec Le Sueur, author of The Hotel on the Roof of the World (Summersdale, UK).

in this lifetime or the next?

TOP7 REASONS TO VISIT TIBET

• because it's there
  and coz u know u have to
• because it's the most life-changing
  place you'll experience in this lifetime
• to smile with the Tibetans—
  with all your heart and soul
• to see the way the Chinese government
  treats the Tibetans in their own country
• to witness plastic palm trees and plastic
  coconuts in the streets of Lhasa
• to ask your official Chinese guide
  to arrange a visit to Drapchi Prison
• to tell Chinese tourists that
  you admire the Dalai Lama

Notes: this list was contributed by Isabel Losada, author of A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World, a book about how one person can make a difference to a cause—the Tibetan cause.

why are we silent?

TOP7 REASONS TO DO NOTHING FOR TIBET

• compassion, as a guiding principle, is overrated
• what does it matter if a 5,000-year-old civilisation is destroyed?
• it's their karma
• I have lots of TV to watch
• support for Tibetans makes them dependent on Westerners
• there are lots of ineffective Tibet groups already
• "Tibet will always be part of China"

Notes: this list was contributed by Isabel Losada, author of A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World, a book about how one person can make a difference to a cause—the Tibetan cause.

got a wild travel tale to tell?
spill the beans, unwind the talk-tapes—
email the author
himmies757 (at) gmail.com

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