Back from the Himalaya’s

After spending nearly 3 weeks in southern Tibet and the Himalaya’s, I (Jamin) returned home about a week ago. In addition to leading a group of 10 through the highest mountains on earth, I was able to visit with several of our good friends who live in the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa. Lhasa and the rest of central Tibet (known in Tibetan as U-Tsang དབུས་གཙང་), is a highly restricted region that requires foreign travelers to be on an organized tour that requires multiple travel permits in addition to a Chinese visa, a government appointed tour guide and you must travel using a private vehicle with a driver. No independent travel  is allowed in the area and living in the region is virtually impossible.

Tibetan woman from Nangchen on pilgrimage in Lhasa

The friends I visited in Lhasa, we have known for many years. In fact, one of the guys I spent time with is the first Tibetan I ever met nearly 10 years ago. Though my 4 days in Lhasa went by incredibly fast, it was great seeing our friends, most of whom we only see once or twice a year. From Lhasa, we set off for Kathmandu, Nepal going through the Himalaya Mountains. This amazing route covers a distance of 575 miles going through the Himalaya’s. We took a 3 day detour off of the main highway to stop at Mt. Everest Base Camp, lying at an elevation of 17,000 feet.

Mural on a wall at a monastery near Lhasa

Monks chanting prayers inside Lhasa's famous Drepung Monastery འབྲས་སྤུངས་

Yamdrok Lake ཡར་འབྲོག་གཡུ་མཚོ། with Mt. Nojin Kangtsang in the background rising to 7191m/23,590 feet

Farmers using yaks to till the ground

After crossing the Himalaya’s, we descended to Kathmandu, Nepal. Nepal is a small country situated between Tibet and India. There are about 20,000 Tibetan refugees who live in Nepal, with many of them in and around Kathmandu. Most of these refugees arrived in Nepal by crossing the Himalaya’s on foot to escape the communist government. Over the past few years, I have gotten to know several Tibetan refugees in this area including several who are Christians. There is a small Tibetan church on the east end of Kathmandu. This church also includes a few Sherpas and a couple of other ethnic groups native to the Himalaya’s. Though the church is small, they are very active in outreach. They go out nearly every month to small villages located in the mountains near the Tibet border. During the times I spend with this group of Tibetan believers, I listed to their outreach stories and listened to the needs they have. I was able to encourage them and share with them what is going on with the Tibetan church on the Tibet side of the Himalaya’s.

Young boys from a village near Mt. Everest

Mt. Everest ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ viewed from Rongbhu Monastery at 17,000 feet

Everest viewed from our tent at base camp

Thank you all for keeping our family in your prayers the last month. Our internet connection was incredibly slow in March and April, so we were unable to send out our updates during that time. We will do our best to regularly post updates on our lives in Tibet.

Blessings!