Ben's Village

So we got on the bus and had one of the bumpiest rides I have ever been on! I must've hit my head on the ceiling of the bus 3 or 4 times, and that was while trying not to! 6 or so hours later we finally did make it. We were cold and miserable walking around the "downtown." But soon a tan Jeep Cherokee can cruising up and the driver was yelling my name. It was Ben! You can drive? Cool. So we loaded up and set out to his home. Being exhasted Ben fed us and showed us his house and then... we crashed. I took a 2 hour nap. But after that I felt great and was excited for the next three days. Which started early the next morning with a ritual the family does every Tibetan New Year with their semi-truck followed by a Groom from the nearby village coming to visit all of the bride's family before the actual wedding day.

The next few days included watching Ben's family's everyday life, eating lots of Yak dumplings and drinking walnut milk tea, visiting the local stupas, temples and monestaries and climbing a mountain. (with help from the family's Jeep of course :))

I am now in Chengdu waiting for my flight back to Lhasa and feel blessed to have been able to see what rural life for the Kham Tibetan looks like.