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A chance encounter with a devout Buddhist au pair changed everything about my understanding of spirituality. After watching her weep for crabs we cooked and eventually leave her family behind to become a monk, I found myself on an unexpected journey to the remote corners of Tibet – places where foreigners rarely venture and Chinese visitors are almost unheard of.
My invitation came from a high monk we called "LB" (Live Buddha), a young man whose wisdom belied his years. Despite my extensive reading on Buddhism, our initial meetings in Shanghai revealed how little I truly understood. When he invited me to his temple deep in the Gansu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture – a mountainous region sandwiched between Sichuan province and Tibet's capital – I couldn't resist becoming the first Chinese person to visit.
The journey itself was as transformative as the destination. After landing at Kangding Airport (the world's third-highest at 4,300 meters), altitude sickness hit me like a wall. "Your mind can still think, but your body doesn't react anymore," perfectly describes the disorienting experience. What followed was a harrowing 16-hour drive in a battered Toyota Highlander along muddy cliff-edge roads with no phone signal, passing through four seasons in a single day as we crossed mountain passes exceeding 5,000 meters.
The landscape revealed extraordinary sights: massive yaks moving sluggishly through snowstorms, stunted vegetation clinging to steep slopes, and most remarkably, small caves dotting mountainsides where monks meditated in isolation for years. These glimpses into extreme spiritual dedication began a profound shift in my own worldview, transforming me from someone raised Christian but largely nonreligious into a person deeply engaged with Taoist and Buddhist practices.
Have you ever wondered what lies beyond the tourist-approved regions of Tibet? Join me as I share more stories from my numerous visits to this breathtaking, otherworldly place in upcoming episodes – where ancient wisdom meets breathtaking isolation.