-----------

I've now spent nearly a year of my life in Asia. I'm thinking this will provide sound credentials for an Ambassadorship someday!

-----------

As I set off for my twelve day trek into the remote regions of Karnak, the primary objective on my mind is to explore further empirical evidence of the oneness of self and Earth; alignment with the Great Spirit; connection with the Higher Conciousness.

----------

My travel companions are a father and son who are just great. The father, Anchok, is a "ponyman" who makes his living by using his three horses as pack animals for tourist trekking. His son, Tenzin, is 22 and currently studying political science at university in Madras (Chennai) in SE India. He's home for a couple of weeks on summer break, and is helping his father on this challenging trek, and also because Anchok is slightly hard of hearing. They are Tibetans living in a political refugee settlement outside of Leh.

-----------

On the trail today, we passed a grave. Tenzin explained that the Ladakhis bury their dead, while Tibetans cremate. On a related note, I've been reading the book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and recommmend it highly to anyone interested in this spiritual classic.

------------

I've found that one becomes a much better steward of the streams when they are your only water source and that of the villages below. My stewardship of natural resources is much more responsible when I can see the entire process unfolding in front of me. The consequences of abusing resources in a place like Ladakh are very severe. Life hangs on a finer balance here. Sooner or later, it seems that the entire planet might hang in this more fragile state if we humans continue to consume as we do.

----------

We are in snow leopard territory now. Its one of the rarest cats in the world, and we're very unlikely to see one. There are under 100 of them in this entire vast region. We're sleeping tonight at 14,300 ft.

-----------

Donella Meadows: "The keys to environment and development lie not only in technology and production but in lifestyles and equity (among rich and poor)". I agree that the rich can no longer separate themselves from the dire consequences of poverty.

----------

Until our culture shifts to an attitude of belonging to the Earth, rather than the Earth belonging to us, we'll continue down this (self)destructive path. If in fact the ecological crisis stems from our collective disharmony as individuals, then the fundamental question becomes: Can we change ourselves? At present, the signs don't look too promising to me. It is astonishing to think that the U.N. Earth Summit in Rio was held over 17 years ago. It was at that global conference that the planetary crisis (natural resource depletion, rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, rampant population growth, etc.) was laid out by the scientific community, and the political establishment seemed willing to listen and possibly even act. They failed. While it is true that the "doomsday" scenarios that had been laid out have not exactly come to fruition as yet, the scientific proof for the problems identified back then in 1992 has only continued to strengthen. Still, we do not act. I'll state from my personal experience that despite being as connected to Nature as ever in my life, habits of consumption and waste are hard to kick. I really don't think that individuals have the will power to bring about the necessary change when a more comfortable option remains. Yet, I am not hopeless. Politicians leading the way? Never. Sustainable goods and services which are better and cheaper for individuals to consume might be our only hope.

----------

Just as suffering for the individual is caused by ignorance, (fear or desire for any given sensation) suffering for the Earth is also caused by humanity's ignorance of the total cost of our actions. Societal change must begin with individual change. We allow ourselves to pollute, so of course we're going to allow big businesses to do the same. We won't demand more out of businesses until we demand more from ourselves/each other. Wal Mart isn't the problem. We are.

----------

As I feel a shift of conciousness happening in me, I am deeply troubled. Even at this heightened state, my thirst to consume is not quenched. There is still too much ignorance within.

----------

Tenzin is a young man, but already feeling the heavy pressures and stresses of life. He is the only son, so he has immense pressure to provide for his parents, grandparents, and five sisters. He's currently enrolled at a university in Southern India. English is his fifth language. His father is almost completely deaf, so Tenzin is along to help on this long trek. He's taught me a lot about what it is like to live in exile as a refugee, and the discrimination that the Tibetan community endures. They are generally very grateful to India for the ability to live in peace here, but they are not citizens, cannot vote, and are often given last priority for university/degree placement.

-------------

Did I mention that I saw an inverted rainbow the other day? Tenzin saw it too. It appeared as a half ring around the sun. Pretty wild.

-----------

The goal is to experience inner peace as often as possible. I'm using the solitude of this trek to harness and familiarize this inner peace with my everyday thinking and actions. It is good to find peace and solitude, communing with Nature. It is perhaps better still if that peace can transcend into the mundane and daily tasks back in civilization.

-----------

"Sleeping people live each in their own world; only those who are awake have a world in common". - Heraclitus

"If hope is to pass the sobriety test, then it has to walk a pretty straight line to reality. Nothing is possible unless business is willing to integrate itself into the natural world". - Paul Hawken

-------------

How much longer will we remain asleep, destroying our Mother Earth without seeming to notice? I'm starting to notice. We must wake up to the reality of our time. We're slowly killing ourselves, and giving the children a bleaker outlook by the day. Why am I asleep? Why did I litter today? My connection to the Eternal is not strong enough. What is blocking it? There is nothing. I am here. I am.

-------------

When I pollute, I'm putting myself before the interests of Nature. The part cannot take precendent over the whole. I must improve my awareness of the non-separation between "Mark" and "Nature". Polluting is selfish and ignorant. Yet, you cannot tell others not to pollute. They must awaken to the connectedness of all things by their own experience. "My life is my message". - Ghandi

----------

Tenzin is also an impressive chef; serving up a variety of of tasty cuisine with severely limited ingredients and a single burner kerosene stove. Steamed vegetable dumplings (momos) was perhaps the greatest culinary feat in the teepee kitchen thus far.

--------------

Today we walk 22km to the village of Markha. Glad to put my pack on the horse!

----------

We cannot rely on technology alone to deliver us from this ecological crisis. There must be a shift in consiousness among a critical mass of people. Destructive consumption patterns will not change until we don't need to consume to be content. What if we only consumed what we NEED? That question sounds so far from our experience, which indicates how far we have to go in the "sustainability movement".

-----------

I picked up a great book at the guest house in Leh written by James George, who is the former Canadian Ambassador to India, Sri Lanka, Iran, and Afghanistan. He comments that we need to develop a culture that, "puts more value than we do on community and collective rights, and less on competition and individual rights". He's been challenging some of the persuations I formed after reading Atlas Shrugged. Now I guess I have to draw my own conclusions, or keep searching...

-----------

We are the only trekking party in the village of Markha. I'm astonished, and thankful. This is one huge, impressive valley, to be sure. I'm pleased to report that the camping is going just fine. My aversion toward tent-sleeping is diminishing, and I'm enjoying my dirtiness. Then again, we're only about a third of the way along the trail!

----------

I am making an experiential connection with myself, as Nature.

----------

We just crossed paths with two Israeli travelers. We began chatting about my time in Kashmir, and one guy said: "It is funny with Jews and Muslims. Its like we're brothers who fight a lot. We have a lot in common." Nice. Then I watched them try to negotiate a homestay, with three meals included, for both of them, for a total of $6. My experience of Israeli travelers is that they sure drive a hard bargain. Fairly or not, this reputation precedes them.

-----------

"Om mani padme hum" is beautifully written in the Tibetan language on carved stones which pile high on occasional stretches of wall along the trail. This is also the phrase you incessantly hear eminating from the gompas, and is repeatedly chanted by devout Tibetan Buddhists to remind them of the impermanent nature of all things.

-----------

We just set up camp on the fifth day. This afternoon, Anchok and I will climb to the Kang Yahtze base camp. This is an impressive 21,000 ft. peak which some daring mountaineers attempt to summit each year. We met one American from Seattle who had made an unsuccessful attempt a couple of days earlier. Tomorrow, we will take a much less traveled valley to the West of Kang Yahtze to the remote region of Karnak. From there, we'll have three more substantial passes (16,000+ ft.) to cross, and we will not again drop below 13,300 ft until I'm on a bus toward Manali in six or seven days. This is a great adventure, and certainly the most extreme terrain I've tramped around. I'm liking the challenge it presents. I'm not liking the freezing nights!

----------

There is a beautiful rythmic style to the way the horses eat grass. Their lips move in a cool sort of dance. This provides my entertainment in this desolate land! These three horses are 18, 17, and 6. The youngster likes to play with me. These animals represent the livlihood for Anchok's family. Needless to say, they're given a lot of love and are well cared for.

Two shepards just rolled up the valley with their flock. They're making their way toward the teepee. I better go get the lowdown...

It turns out that these goats are of the Pashmina variety. This is the most expensive and soft wool in the world, and the shawls made of pure Pashmina are very pleasant to touch.

----------

We are in a snowstorm, watching the blazing red sun set beyond many rows of mountains in the distant blue sky.

------------

Last night's sunset snowstorm resulted in a couple of inches of overnight accumulation. Packing up camp in the snow isn't that awesome. I started today's hike with my full-on ski gear setup, only to quickly shed several layers when the sun broke through a gap in the clouds. Then, we turned up a separate valley, and encountered another black cloud which prompted me to throw back on all of my cold-weather gear. I've never had to ford a river in an ice pellet storm before. I'm told the going gets a little easier from here! Tomorrow we tackle another big, snowy pass.

-------------

After a time, all things lose the very properties which define them. Ice melts, mountains crumble, civilizations come and go. You can either look forward to, or have hesitation about, the inevitable changes to come. Both desire and fear of a certain outcome in the future will eventually lead to disappointment. Ideally, you just stay in the moment, always. Nothing lasts forever, and most things don't last very long at all. Better to just stay cool, and watch reality as it unfolds before you. Eliminate anxiety, set yourself free. This is happiness for me.

-----------

For a couple of years now, when describing my thoughts on the fossil fuel/renewable energy dilemma, I've said: "There is no 'us' versus 'them', there's only 'us'. We all ultimately want the same thing: Life, eternally into the future if possible". If we extended this idea so that there is never any "other" or "them", mankind would live in peace and harmony. War is only feasible if there is an "enemy" or "them" that are so different from "us". Buddhism holds that there is no "other" whatsoever. Everything is connected unconditionally. There is no "away" either. All is one. It makes sense to me that if you could truly realize/experience this, you'd be without fault/pain/sin. As a government, if there is no fear of the "other", you are at peace. As individuals, if we can free ourselves from the illusion of "enemies", we'd deserve a government that delivered a land of peace and freedom. Similarly, if we could perceive that there is no "away" because everything in the universe is interdependent, we'd deserve to live on a planet that was healthy and bountiful and free of pollution. "Don't Hate, Don't Pollute". That's my bumpersticker.

-----------

Only technology that enhances/restores life-support systems would be profitable if our economy were "sustainable" and truly accounted for all costs of our economic activities. That tells you how far we have to go. You cannot impose "smart demand". Consumers consume, by definition. We need "smart supply"; enlightened producers who bring restorative goods and services to the marketplace. Reducing consumption is possible, but too cumbersome for most. Replacing consumption is better. This will never happen unless these replacement goods can offer a better quality of life. That is what consumers ultimately demand. We must get to a place where we realize that "more" does not equal "better". We need more people to taste the reward (or an Economist would say "utility") in a simpler life with deeper connections to each other and to the Earth.

-----------

The views from Zalung Karpo La Pass (16,570 ft) were as spectacular as you'd imagine. We are in Karnak now, and it is a little intimidating. We're at least four days from any sort of help if anything were to go wrong. I think we're all feeling strong though, and the weather is a little warmer on this side of the pass. I just did a little laundry in the stream running by our camp, and also washed my face for the first time in seven days.

The predominant sounds I've heard over the last week have included: the wind and whatever it makes contact with, the stream flowing by each campsite, the bells hanging around the horses necks, and the voices of Anchok, Tenzin, and myself. That's about it. It's a conducive environment for my meditative mode. I've been focusing a lot on my relationship with Nature. There's a lot there, and some subtle adjustments have been made. If you were to really and truly live as if there was no "other" or "away", that would be a radical and compassionate way of life. Of course, the real challenge lies in maintaining that existence upon re-entering society and human relationships. Its easy to feel connected to the eternal flow when you're tramping around in the wilderness for a couple of weeks. It is good to realign with the rhythm of the Earth.

---------------

Anchok and Tenzin have the coolest teepee. They are definitely the way to go for extended camping, as they are quick to set up and tear down, you can stand comfortably inside, they sleep at least four, and you can put the cooking stove inside, which provides a great heat source.

-----------

Today we had the unusual experience of having three French trekkers poke their heads into our teepee while we were eating lunch. I was very surprised to see them, and even more surprised when we learned that they were lost, very lost. They had no guide, and had made a couple of wrong turns according to their interpretation of the map they were carrying. We invited them in for chai, and helped them get back on the right track, which was a couple of days away! We gave them some food, and it was nice to chat with some other human beings besides Anchok and Tenzin. The woman in the trio has been living and working in Leh for the past year or so. Her organization is a French NGO that provides consulting for greenhouse construction and passive solar design for the Ladakhi homes. I thought it was pretty hilarious that the French thought they should come tell these people how to survive in this extreme terrain, which they've been doing successfully for many centuries. Another good example of why I'm so reticent to get involved in "third world development" work in the name of "progress". The unintended consequences are never factored in.

---------

High on a cliff above the abandoned nomadic settlement of Sorra lie the remains of an ancient royal palace from over a thousand years ago. I couldn't believe my eyes. Who in the world would build a palace here? It turns out that this wondrous edifice is what gives this region it's name, as "Kar-nak" means "black-palace".

-----------

Anchok playfully and skillfully hops on the back of the six year old horse for the larger stream crossings. It is pretty impressive for a guy his age. Tenzin and I try to get creative with rock-hopping or sometimes using a tree branch as a pole vault of sorts. Several times we've resigned to just taking off our shoes and wading across.

-----------

If I ever wanted to grow some dreadlocks, I've got a pretty good start after eight dusty days without a drop of water on my head.

------------

What a trip! We just arrived into Dat, the only semi-permanent populated village in this entire region, and there is another trekking party who had already set up camp. So, I started talking to this one guy...He's an American...He lives in Colorado...He goes to school in Boulder...He's studying business...His name is Mark! I think we both thought the other guy was being clever by repeating the same thing back, but it turns out that we actually have all of those things in common. It was totally bizarre, and we had a good laugh about it. They invited me into their dining tent for tea, and it was quite disorienting to find myself suddenly in conversation about the economy, Obama, travel stories, etc. After many days of isolation in my "dreamtime" state, I was unprepared for this. We then all decided to go visit the local gompa. When we got there, everyone was snapping photos and talking loudly, and I decided I was glad to be having this experience on my own and in my way.

---------------

The sun and I have a tumultuous relationship. Each morning I eagerly await its warming presense. By 9am, it's rays are so strong that I have to cover up every square inch of skin, against the compulsion to go lighter in it's heat. Then again, each late afternoon our love affair is rekindled, and I can hardly stand to see her go as she silently slips behind the mountains to the West, sealing another cold evening. All night I shiver and shutter, hoping she won't be too long before warming me again with all the intensity she can muster. Until, of course, her cancerous strength becomes too much to bear once again.

With most things in life, we tend to perceive that there is either too much or too little. How nice it is to occasionally ditch expectation and realize that everything is as it should be, or just as it is. That is being present. That is being.

------------

So, we just learned from the two monks who collected our camping fee here in Dat that the entire population of the village departed two days ago for higher pastures. I cannot believe that this is where they retreat to for the winter months. This is a seriously harsh environment, and I would think that sheer survival would be a daily concern. Tenzin translated the monks' description of the five day festival at the gompa before they left town. The houses here are the most primitive I've seen in Ladakh, and the people live almost entirely on barley and dairy products. Fruit and vegetables are very rare. They also eat meat when it becomes available, which is unusual for Buddhists. I guess you can't be a purist if you want to stay alive in Dat. I'm told there is now a helicopter pad for emergency airlift in the winter months.

--------------

We cruised over another 16,000 ft. pass today, and it seemed relatively easy. My fitness level is good to scary good right now. We've been camping above 14,000 ft. the past several nights, so the lungs and heart are working overtime. This is our second to last night, and I'm feeling like I could definitely keep trekking. But, a shower, a bed, and a beer are starting to sound pretty damn good.

written by  Katy and Mark Lewis on June 21, 2009 from Manali, India
from the travel blog: India and Nepal
Send a Compliment

---

Mark- The Economist has a weekely travelogue on its web site where a reporter takes in some weird ('not very well known or traveled') place(s) and describes them i detail each day. Your 'higlights' are among the best that I've ever read- interesting, detailed, humorous, serious and provocative. Keep up the great trip and reporting. Hope you get these comments. Russ

written by  r. haskell on June 22, 2009

---

You're the man, Uncle Russ. I'm just trying to emulate your "student of life" philosophy. Age quod agis.

written by  Katy and Mark Lewis on June 22, 2009

---

Mark, I must admit I have been quite poor at keeping up with your adventures and writing. After some reminders this weekend, however, I have thoroughly enjoyed the last hour I have spent reading your thoughts and imagining your adventures. I agree with Russ in being thankful for the privledge you have given us into your mind. I look forward to further processing some of your thoughts, both on my own, and with you in person in a few weeks! Love you bro.

Brad

written by  bRadford on June 23, 2009

comment on this...