Armchair Travel to Tibet

Two books have lead me in an armchair journey to the very top of Mount Everest and around the holy Mount Kailas;  Into The Silence - The Great War, Mallory, And The Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis and To A Mountain In Tibet penned by Colin Thubron. 

Davis writes in sweeping historical context of the British imperial ambitions in Tibet, the Great War sufferings of Mallory and his generation and the post war attempts through the early Everest climbs to reestablish British imperial honor and glory.  The book is filled with detail and at times it overwhelms the strength of Mallory's saga to conquer Everest.  In the end, I gained an understanding of modern Great War and Tibetan history while coming to understand why people climb Everest in the first place.

Thubron pilgrimage begins in the aftermath of his mother's death in Simikot, Nepal below the western Himalaya and will lead him over the border through southwestern Tibet to the base of Mount Kailas.  Sacred to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Bon (an older Tibetan shamanistic faith) while sited within the sources of four major Asian rivers, Mount Kailas brings personal transformation to the author while sharing with the reader historical, geographical and cultural tales of the area.  There is a clear eyed view of both land and peoples that kept my imagination and intellect busy.  It also explained some of the modern political realities of Chinese rule in Tibet. 

Tibet of the 1930's is lost to us; swept away by the throes of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1970's and into modern Chinese sovereignty.  The following BBC video supplements the two books nicely and brings to life Tibetan peoples and their culture in a way print only suggests. 

 

Neither book convinces me to plan a trip anytime soon to Everest or Kailas.  My place is here in Toronto walking a different path.  There is though an admiration of those who would continue to uphold cultural and faith traditions in the face of Maoist insurgency and Chinese rulership.   There is also an understanding that the importance of a journey or quest is in the immersion into the physical world of action while centering heart and mind to learn of less material things.   There is no guarantee of success when on such a journey.  Mallory lost his life while Thubron's transformation is as the mist wrapping Kailas from view.  Both books will leave you with a bit of awe for the mountains, the people who would live and travel among them and the personal beliefs and faith systems that lighten their loads. 

 

Let me end with a favorite quote attributed to Buddha: 

 

We are what we think.

All that we are arises with our thoughts.

With our thoughts we make our world.