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The lure of TibeTPagES 8-10

forgeT resTauranT pasTa

PagES 11

PagES 4-5 •AmericA’sfemAlefAcesoffreedom •TheWomen’sArmycorps •WomenpiloTsinWorldWArii •WomeninThemArinecorps •WomeninTheU.s.nAvy

PagE 6 •memoriAlshedslighTonhisTory •poemsbylAToriAlfAison

Since the beginning of time, women have played pivotal roles in cultures all over the world. As societies vary, so have the roles of women. Historically, women have served as caregivers, cooks, planters, inventors, mechanics, build-ers and businessmen. They have even served as leaders in their families and communities. However, if there is one place where women have transcended the traditional roles of gender to serve as heroically as their male counterparts it is in our nation’s armed forces.

Military women

History that built a nation

by lAtoriAl FAiSon, StripeS KoreA

8 StripeS KoreA A StArS And StripeS Community publiCAtion tHurSdAy, FebruAry 28, 2013

Editor’s Note: Sounds like Kat Nickola and her family had an experience of a lifetime in Tibet, so give this a read. And if you had an adventure of your own, tell us about it. You can submit a story at Korea.Stripes.com.

Tibet is one of those places that inspires all kinds of emotions for those not liv-

ing there. And regardless of your preconceived notions, a visit there will be an exciting adven-ture.

My family and I traveled to Tibet for eight days in the month of May during a month-long

whirlwind China tour. Our first adventure was getting in! Weflew from Chengdu to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, on an early morning flight.

It is recommended that you arrive a day prior to touring to acclimate to the altitude, but we were unlucky in that there was a simple misspelling on my hus-band’s Tibetan permit, forcing us to delay our flight and stay an extra day in Chengdu. Needless to say, we were a bit tired as our guide TseTan greeted us at the airport with traditional Tibetan welcome scarves and whisked us away to our first site.

Potala Palace is the famousformer home to the Dalai Lama, the former spiritual and political

leaderofTibet.In1959,the14thDalai Lama fled Tibet as the Chi-nese invaded and has not been welcome to return.

Fortunately, Potala Palace es-caped major damage during the turbulent history of Tibet and we were able to experience it first-hand.PotalaPalaceiscomposedoftwoparts,theRedPalaceandtheWhitePalace.

WemarveledattheDalaiLa-ma’s living quarters within the WhitePalace–themodestyofde-cor and small size took us by sur-prise. Then, as we crossed a huge courtyard into the Red Palace,the ornate decor took our breath away. This part of the palace is much larger with numerous halls and chapels. It is was the place

for study, worship and ritual. Everywallhasamural,every

room has amazing colorful tapes-try, and the smell of burning in-cense and yak butter is permeat-ing. It was sensory overload for a family just off the jet!

Before leaving, we needed tovisit the toilet. I must share that a highlight of my day was squatting over a hole and looking through it down a 30-foot cliff; I never thought a bathroom experience could be so exhilarating!

For the afternoon we had some welcome free time exploring (in a clockwise direction) the huge outdoor vendor market along Barkhor street – a cobblestoneroad that encircles the Jokhang Temple. The many side alleys

were fascinating, and we quite enjoyed bartering for souvenirs among the unique stalls selling everything from yak-fur clothing andTibetanBuddhistamuletstoshirts and DVDs. Our guide, Tse-Tan, also took us inside Jokhang Temple to see all the happenings within this very active and very spiritual place.

There were huge colorful fierce-looking protector-god stat-ues,acentralBuddhastatue,andan altar overflowing with incense, yak candles, and fragrance. It is here that we saw the first of many Tibetan pilgrims slowly mak-ing their way around the temple by standing in prayer and then prostrating down to lie belly-down

The lure of TibetStory And photoS by KAt niCKolA,

StripeS KoreA

StripeS KoreA 9THURSDAY, FebRUARY 28, 2013 A STARS AnD STRipeS CommUniTY pUbliCATion

on the ground only to rise again and repeat

one body-length further. Throughout our entire trip we were humbled by the pilgrims we saw in towns, on roads and in the middle of nowhere slowly progressing in this manner.

On our second day in Lhasa we visited two outlying and active monasteries: Drepung and Sera. Again, we were overwhelmed by the sights and smells within the numerous halls and chapels. Both places also reflected theunique Dzong architectural style wesaweverywherefromPotalato the smallest of temples.

The buildings are made of stone or clay bricks and are set up much like a fortress; the ex-terior walls are thick and slope inward as they rise up, the mas-sive windows are numerous but always quite high, and the roof isaflattenedChinese-style.Redochre color is used to highlight the white-washed facade that seems to hide the lovely court-yards, temples and living quar-ters within.

As we visited these places, we found friendly monks dressed in their dark red and yellow robes.

And, as always, having children along helped ease the steps into conversation.FewspokeEnglish,but many times monks wanted to come over and hold our daugh-ter, see her blond hair and get a picture.

As we walked through the Sera monastery, our daughter was given a special blessing with ash placed on her nose from the altar burning beneath the horse-headprotectorofchildren. Ev-erywhere we went, Tibetans seemed eager to have their chil-dren play with ours.

Another outing found us be-ing serenaded by the children atDickeyorphanage. Wespenta warm afternoon playing with the children, letting them show off their rooms and art, and truly appreciating the joy that can only come from helping those less fortunate.

After feeling like Lhasa was getting a bit to touristy (which it isn’t), it was time to hit the open road and see what the ‘real’ Tibet was like. We boarded aminivan with our small tour group–aboutfiveother folkonadventures of their own. Then we drove for hours into the

Tibetan countryside. It is incredible and immense.

In May the summer rains have not yet started, so the mountainsides are still quite brown with the only greenery appearing along rivers in the valleys. If you have ever been to Nevada, you have a glimpse of Tibet, except that Tibet is HUGE. The mountains arehuge, the rivers are huge, the distances are huge. Weogled the scenery, stopped at sacred lakes, visited another monastery inGyantse.Weeventook pictures next to an active glacier. We ended up drivingalong dirt roads for six hours up over 5,000-meter passes into the Tibetan Himalaya and the town of Shigatse.

Along the way we were truly able to learn about Tibet and it’s people through conversa-tionwithourguides. BothTse-Tan and Tsering (who joined us for this portion) were very open about their lives and love of their culture. We found a new senseof “the middle way,” as the Da-lai Lama would have it, when it comes to opinions about Chinese

rule in Tibet.The sizeable town of Shigatse

has another famous monastery, theTashilhunpo,wherethePan-chen Lama traditionally resides. TheroleofPanchenLamainde-claring the next Dalai Lama has created a tense situation between the Chinese government and Tibetans. The controversy lies inwho andwhere the PanchenLamais-–withBeijingclaimingone person and the Dalai Lama declaring it another who disap-pearedatage6.

The Panchen Lama alive atthe time of the Chinese invasion of Tibet supported the progress

brought into the country by the Chinese, which meant the mon-astery was spared complete an-nihilation. He has since died, leaving the controversy in his wake and Tashilhunpo without its traditional leader. The place is huge and sits up on a foothill above the city - visible for miles while approaching. Inside is a vast network of temple build-ings, monk residences, court-yards, and libraries.

The monastery is still very ac-tive with numerous monks and

seeTibeTonpAge10

10 StripeS KoreA A StArS And StripeS Community publiCAtion tHurSdAy, FebruAry 28, 2013

lay people busy everywhere; sometimes it was as if we had stepped back in time. It was here that we saw a room filled with ancient texts, a hawk circling a sky-burial stupa high above, and old women carrying mud bricks on their backs up to men rebuild-ing walls. The Tibetan people are still very involved in the hap-penings at their religious sites –itistheirvolunteerhardworkand pilgrim’s devotion that keep these places so amazing.

We spent the evening in Shi-gatse and took another full day along the dusty roads to reach thehamletofShegar.Watchingthe remote barren landscape was fascinating as we tried to spy signs of life. Our daughter especially enjoyed spotting yaks grazing on meager grasses along the steep hillsides.

Through the occasional vil-lage–maybe10houses–wewereable to glimpse daily life for the Tibetan people as they washed in the cold river, plowed fields with yak-drawn equipment, or sat grindinggrain. We stoppedoften for breaks; the roads have strict speed limits monitored by periodic checkpoints, so our tour guide’s technique was to drive fast and then take breaks to absorb the additional time. It worked out great to meet locals

and have a chance to play. Traveling with children is

such a joy as it really breaks the ice with local people. I will never forget the vision of my daughter playing with five Tibetan kids out front of their house; their toy of choice was a broken machinery belt and the dust. I will also nev-er forget the views as we trav-eled over 17,000-foot mountain passes. Not sure what to expect, I was always shocked to see such a giant expanse of more glorious ‘nothing’ as far as the eye could see, plus nearby prayer flags at the highest point and the occa-sional farmer peddling yak pic-tures. Whocanresistapictureof your kid on a yak in Tibet?

Our fifth day in Tibet we woke before dawn to get on the road. We were racing the sun to ourlast high pass and views of dawn over the highest mountain in the world.Butitwasovercast.Thesun did make a dramatic glowing appearance through a hole in the clouds, but, alas the big moun-tain was shrouded. Bummed,my daughter and I went back to sleep as our minivan bumped and jostled the rough dirt road back down the other side.

I awoke to the shock of my life. The clouds had parted and glorious Mount Qomolongma (Everest) stood in all her gloryshowing off to the world. The

vanstoppedatRongbukmonas-tery – the highest in theworld,and as we drooled over the view, our guides took care of the pa-perwork necessary to make it through our final checkpoint and on to base camp. There was a village feel to the area with 10 semi-permanent tents acting as restaurants, bunks, and the high-est post office in the world.

I have no way to verify this, but I believe my daughter is the youngest non-Tibetan to visit MountEverest;shewasamonthshy of two at the time. Of course, one of the few local families that live at the tiny seasonal tent vil-lagehadanewbornbaby. Basecamp is really a small collection of tents for tourists to bunk over-night or for trekking groups pre-paring their ascent.

The first climber’s base camp is visible beyond here below the Rongbuk glacier at the base ofthe mountain. There are also about 30 yaks mulling about, a huge pole with thousands of prayer flag streamers hanging from it, and a small stone-walled ranger station. My daughter was fully obsessed with playing in the rocks, dirt and yaks. The view, however, was the highlight: MountEverestshiningwhiteun-der a crystal blue sky.

The mountains surrounding us were simply made of rock and

scrabble, while a snow-covered Everest lay between them, justbeyondthevalley.Wetookaba-zillion pictures! We wandered.We got lunch at a restauranttent. Then, before we left, we watched a quick-moving cloud formaroundEverest’smid sec-tionlikeaskirt.Bytheendoftheafternoon the enigmatic moun-tain would be hidden from view again. May is the best time to see Everestbecausethereisabetterchance to get the experience we had, but it is still a long shot.

ReturningtoLhasawasanoth-er two-day event across the bar-ren landscapeofTibet. Ween-joyed a new route following the Yarlung river through a slightly agricultural area. Returning toLhasa after so many days on the road felt like returning from an-otherplanet.Backintownwitharenewed appreciation for the Ti-betan people, we decided to join them for a day’s walk around the pilgrimage route known as the Kora.

Starting at Jokhang Temple, the route circumnavigates all the highlights of the city - going past statues, prayer wheels, carved scriptures,andtheparkatPotalapalace where we enjoyed the cool shade and a trip around the lake in a duck boat. Some shopping in the market rounded out our Ti-betan experience and made for a

relaxing final day before board-ingtheLhasaExpressforatwo-daytrainrideboundforBeijing.

Typically I plan all the details for our trips, but visiting Tibet it slightly more complex. In order to gain entry into Tibet, you must already be in possession of a Chi-nese visa; for this I drove to the Chinese consul in Seoul where I filled out the paperwork and left my passports and a hefty fee.

One week later I returned and picked them up! Next, you must have a hand-written Tibetan TravelPermitsignedwithintheweek you travel, and you may not obtain one for yourself. It is com-pulsory to enter Tibet and be on a tour with a tour guide or group that is approved by the Tibetan TourismBureau.Aslongasyoufind a good tour guide, they will handle the Tibetan Permit de-tails for you and ensure that you have the permit in hand before boarding a flight or train into Lhasa. There are also additional travel permits required for cer-tainregions(likeMountEverest)within Tibet, whose complexities should be handled by your guide.

WefoundthepeopleatTibet-Travel.com to be super helpful and knowledgeable. They are also a fully local run guide group with very reasonably priced small group tours. I highly rec-ommend them.

Tibet: A journey to a timeless landconTinUedfrompAge9

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