"Inspiring, Engaging, Compassionate! The story
and writing had heart, adventure, devotion, and truth. When the
book was over, I felt like I had treked with the author and his
wife and was sorry it had come to an end. This book is a treasure
to the Tibetan people and to the rest of the world. It gives us a
true glimpse of Tibet and captures a beautiful land and culture
that may not be around in years to come. Well done!" ~ Naomi C.
Rose, award-winning author of Tibetan Tales for Little
Buddhas
Introduction
(as read by the
author)
Author Reads the
Introduction
(click
above to listen to the MP3 file)
"The wind kicks up again. A vast, desolate swath
of sand stretches for miles, days in any direction. We are
insignificant: insects trudging across a desert. Meager possessions
are slung across a patient horse’s back. Once-strong bodies buckle
under the pervasive wind. We bend double, choking on dust. Sand
invades every pore. Pus seeps into stiff socks from sores pocking
our feet. Hopelessness, undeniable hunger and unquenchable thirst
fill us with a gnawing rage.
For hours or days hatred sustains us. Hatred of self. Each
other. The inadequacy of our bodies. The forsaken land we vowed to
cross, a ground that consumes our very souls.
Maybe we approached the journey all wrong from the very start,
gulping in its challenge in one gigantic breath, like diving
headfirst off a cliff into some mirrored pool of unknown depth. It
was bound to be a great adventure, we argued, a chance to prove
something to ourselves–especially to those who vowed it couldn’t be
done.
But any Western sense of toughing things out, of muscling our
way across a land as complex as utter darkness, soon fell by the
wayside like exhausted matchsticks.
Survival has somehow become mysteriously linked with the uneasy
idea of letting go. Perhaps it always has been. But leaps
of faith have never given me much personal comfort. Still, this is
Tibet; it’s unsettling, yet reassuring.
When life is bleakest, magic appears, tenuous at first. It’s a
strange, exhilarating force, a peace. Obstacles vanish and hurdles
disappear. We find water where there is none. Someone arrives out
of nowhere offering shelter. Another shares his meager food.
Another, his love.
At those moments we have a gnawing suspicion that there is
something more to our thousand kilometer trek, something more than
just two weary travelers tracing an ancient pilgrim’s path from
Lhasa to Kathmandu across the Himalayas.
And that sense of greater purpose, more than any personal
tenacity or courage, ultimately keeps us moving."
