We traveled into the countryside to visit a district hospital. We were sitting in a meeting room talking to the head of the hospital and the doctor (there are only 3 pediatricians for 400,000 children in Laos). The doctor mentioned that they had a birth just a few hours ago where the baby was born with the intestines outside of the body. In the U.S. this would have been seen on an ultra sound but there are no ultra sound machines here. Nobody was prepared for this birth. The doctors in these small hospitals are not qualified to handle these kind of births. The doctors told the mother and father to take the baby home so it could die at home. If they kept it at the hospital, waiting for it to die, they family would have to pay.

We heard the story and asked the doctor to take us to the family’s home. It was a little village shack with no running water, there was dust and dirt, chickens and dogs. The baby was lying on a mat on the floor with it’s stomach exposed. The baby was screaming waiting to die.

We talked to the parents and convinced them to let us take the baby to the district hospital in Luang Prabang. We arrived in the district hospital just to find out that there was no pediatrician and no doctor who could help or was qualified to deal with this. We then called the University Hospital in the capital city of Vientiane, the only hospital that had done this surgery successfully in Laos. The doctor asked us to e-mail a photo. We did. He called back and said “send the baby”. We were told it has a 50/50 chance to live.  We booked tickets on the next flight to Vientiane which left at 9.00 p.m. The father and baby were put on the plane that was met by an ambulance in Vientiane.

The next day we received a call at 11.00 a.m. that the baby was now stable enough to go into surgery. At 2.00 p.m. we received another call that the surgery was finished and the baby was still alive.

This morning we received a call that the baby was “through the worst” and was “jolly happy”. The father asked if he could use some of the money we gave him to buy a rice cooker as he has to remain at the hospital with the baby. We also found out that the father has relatives in Vientiane that he had not seen in 6 years. The relatives were contacted, his uncle is on the way to the hospital to help out.

The baby will need post surgery treatment and will have to remain in Vientiane hospital for about 2 months. One of our board members has committed the funds to cover the baby’s hospital stay, the food for the father and the airline tickets back home to Luang Prabang. The doctors say the baby will live a normal and healthy life!

I guess on the day we visited the hospital, we were meant to come into that baby’s life and she was meant to come into ours and change it for the better.

Download this beautiful desktop calendar.

This is also the site where Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche received a transmission and subsequently wrote the Sadhana Mahamudra. We were granted access to one of the shrine rooms, overlooking a 3,000 foot steep drop into the valley.

Together with our monk Jigme and Judy who led the practice, we recited the Sadhana Mahamudra just a feet away from the famous cave. We sat in silence for a while before we headed back down to mountain. Dark clouds started to come into the valley and it began to rain and storm. Judy said it was an auspicious sign.

Now we are off to our farewell dinner at Ms. Sonam Trophel’s restaurant in Paro. She will serve her famous tomato soup and ginger potatoes. Everyone will sleep well tonight!

Once it got dark we went back to Mr. YT’s Hotel. Mr. YT greeted each one of our travelers personally and surprised us with home made village ara (rice wine) and a bottle of local Courier Whiskey! 

This morning after breakfast, we gathered under the avocado tree in front of Mr. YT’s hotel for Judy’s lecture on loving kindness, compassion and the practice of tonglen. Our next stop was the famous Punakha Dzong where the coronation of the young king took place. The coronation room houses a huge golden Sakyamuni Buddha statue, a statue of Shebdrung and of Guru Rinpoche. The wall paintings reflect the live story of the Buddha which Kinga patiently explained to us one by one. The group was fascinated by Kinga’s ability to make the paintings come alive. 

By mid-day we had reached Thimphu for an afternoon of shopping. However, the highlight of the day was our dinner since we finally got to meet Kinga’s family, his wife , Mrs. Dechen who works as a nurse in the operating room, and three beautiful daughters (age 7, 9 and 12). Mrs. Dechen was happy to share stories of how the two of them met many years ago in their home town of Mongar. Wine was served, we toasted to Kinga’s wonderful family and saw them off with hugs and hopes to meet them again in the future!

The day started with a great lecture by Judy on the Wheel of Life before we set out to watch Mr. Karma compete in a local archery tornament. In the end it was a draw with both teams winning one game. Our next stop was Kurje Monastery, which houses a body imprint of Guru Rinpoche. From there we walked through the fields and across the river to Tamshing Monastery, built by Pema Lingpa in the 15th century. The wall painting are amongst the oldest in the country.

The most fun part of the day began around 6 p.m. Mr. Karma and his sons had built a large bonfire and had invited local people to come and perform some traditional dances around the fire, including one of Bhutan’s famous mask dances. We were served ara (local rice wine), rum punch and whiskey! Before the sun had set, the whole group joined in the dancing and singing which lasted a few hours until the fire died down and the first evening rain drops began to fall.

Once we reached Kunzandrak we made a butter lamp offering and sat in meditation for a while. We visited the cave where Pema Lingpa lived. Our guide Kinga had a wonderful surprise for us when he showed us an old Tibetan book dating back to the 16th century. It was the Heart Sutra and Jigme, our monk recited the text for us. The group was very moved and touched.

We made our way back down to the mountain, meandering through lush fields where no tourists had every walked before. A delicious hot picnic lunch was waiting for us as we reached the road.

Just as we returned to Jakar, it began to rain and Kunzandrak disappeared behind the clouds.

We arrived in Trongsa at the Yangkhil Resort in time for dinner. It was dark outside and we went to sleep not knowing that the morning light would greet us with one of the most spectacular views in Bhutan. The Yangkhil Resort is located on a mountain slope and in the morning the mist rises slowly from the valley and the first rays of sun touch down on the impressive Trongsa Dzong. Magical!

Another 3 hour drive took us to Bumthang and the wonderful Mountain Lodge, owned by Mr. Karmaand his family. It is a charming little wooden lodge where every room comes with a small wooden stove. In the afternoon we visited Jambay Lhakang and took a leisurely walk through the farms to Kurjey Lhakang.

This evening Jigme (our wonderful monk) gave us yoga/breathing instructions followed by sitting meditation and a talk by Judy Lief on the practice of meditation.

We will go off early tomorrow morning at 7.00 a.m.  to join a Puja in one of the local monasteries. This will give the group a chance to sit with the monks while they are chanting! What a great way to start the day!

And, before I forget it, I wanted to mention the 4 pillars of Gross National Happiness which were explained to us by Mr. Karma, the head of the Commission for GNH. They are: Good Governance, Economic Sustainability, Cultural Preservation, Environmental Preservation. Driving through the country side with school children waving at our bus, looking at a pristine environment, farmers working in their villages (happily) and visiting living monasteries, one cannot help but think that maybe Bhutan did discover the secret to happiness!

We met our wonderful guide Kinga and his friend Jigme, a Kagyu monk who will be traveling with us. Jigme speaks English quite well and was educated at the Kagyu Institute in Darjeeling. His knowledge of Buddhist iconography is overwhelming.

We spent the first day getting over the jetlag and exploring Thimphu. We were granted access to the inside of the town’s Memorial Chorten dedicated to Vajrakila. This is one of the sacred sites in Thimphu were the local people come to circumambulate and turn their prayer wheels in devotion. Kinga told us that this a place where many of the older people gather. Since all the generations live together in Bhutan, the husband or wife will drop of grandma or grandpa at the memorial chorten in the morning. They will walk around the chorten, sit and turn the prayer wheels and chat. In the evening they are being picked up again by their family. It is a wonderful place!

On our second day we hiked up to Cheri Monastery located just 45 minutesoutside of Thimphu. We settled down inside one of the shrine rooms and Judy gave her first lecture on what it means to be on pilgrimage followed by a simple meditation instruction. The monks served us tea while Jigme patiently answered our questions. One of the questions was “What is enlightenment”? Jigme explained that contrary to what many of us believe it is not this amazing and overwhelming moment in time in which everything changes. He said it is simply a time when there are no more negative thoughts and intentions left in you mind!

In the evening we set out for dinner at Bhutan Kitchen where Kinga’s friend Mr. Karma joined us. He was the former head of the Commission for Gross National Happiness. A lively discussion took place around the dinner table and we learned a lot about how the idea of Gross National Happiness came about, how Bhutan has developed an index to measure Gross National Happiness and how other countries such as Canada and the UK are making serious efforts to include this concept in their schools and governments.

We are off to Trongsa tomorrow, a journey that will take us 8 hours withbreathtaking stops on Dochu-la Pass, lunch near the Wangdi Dzong and a picnic tea/snack at Chendibji Chorten.

More to come once we reach the East….

Tina in Bhutan last year

I am off to Bhutan again this week. More to come once I reach Paro. Stay tuned.

Tehran is a city of almost 15 million people and aside from the beautiful museums there is not much to see in Tehran. However, I was struck by how modern and progressive the city looked. It is a clean city (except for the air) and surprisingly, the architecture is very Western looking. But the most amazing part of Tehran are the mountains that ascend from the city everywhere you look.

We visited the Shah’s old palace which is located in Northern Tehran which happens to be the most affluent part of town. The cost for an apartment in Northern Tehran is about $ 500 per square foot. And if one wants to buy one you have to pay cash. There are no mortgages in Iran. As for owning a car, it costs about $ 15 to fill up a tank. Our guide told us that someone in Tehran just brought in 150 Porsches from Germany which will be sold here within a week or two. Iran is the source of the second largest oil reserve in the world but has only the capability to refine 35%. This means they end up importing gasoline mostly form India.

Although Iran has all that oil money, the infrastructure and the tourist facilities and nowhere near as developed as they are for example in Dubai or the Emirates. Although the money is there, the government does not allow for it to be used for private investments in hotels for example or up scale restaurants.

We don’t see a lot of poverty here though. The only beggars so far were illegal immigrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The best thing about Tehran was a visit to one of the tea houses where people go to socialize, have tea and smoke water pipes. Women are allowed inside. As a matter of fact, women in Iran enjoy pretty much the same rights as men. Women own businesses, there a 9 women representatives in Parliament, women go to college etc. Only the clergy positions are strictly reserved for men. Marriage is often still arranged but less and less so. When a couple gets married the husband and wife agree on the dowry i.e. the value of the dowry. If the husband divorces the wife he has to pay the dowry (and only then does he have to pay it) plus alimony. Divorce is allowed by both parties so it’s not as strict as we think!

Our guide is fantastic! He lived in the U.S. for over 12 years and went to college in the U.S. He has a Masters in Business and he is incredibly knowledgeable. His English is perfect and he has taught us more in 4 days about the history of civilization in general, Islam and the politics in Iran than I will ever be able to remember. He is very liberal, speaks his mind about the political situation which he opposes (he watches CNN, BBC.. he even gets FOX TV which he does not think much of and VH1… he is totally up on today’s music scene!) He knows about everything… history, culture, politics, social issues. I hope some of you will have the pleasure of traveling with him and getting to know him. He is an exceptional guide with a great personality.

We were lucky to have been here during the last few days of Ashura, the holiest day of the year in the Shiite religion. During this time people honor the martyrdom of the third saint Hussein. People walk through the streets and flagellate themselves with small chains. This tradition dates back for 1400 years.

On the second day we flew to Kerman where one of the most important Sufi saints is buried. From there we set out on an amazing drive across the desert to Yazd. Iran is surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges and you can see them in the distance as you drive through the desert. Many of the mountains are snowcapped. It’s amazing to think that we are in the cradle of civilization. Mesopotamia is only a few hundred miles away and so, by the way, is the Afghan border.

Yazd is home to the Zoroastrians. This is an ancient religion which honors and worships fire (Thus spoke Zarathustra) and used to have sky burials (just like the Tibetans). The fire in the Zoroastrian temple is said to have been kept lit since the 1600s. Yazd is also home to one of the most beautiful and well preserved Friday Mosques in the country with incredibly intricate and magnificent tile work.

Today, New Year’s Eve we are driving for 6 hours to Shiraz with a stop at the ancient site of Pasargadae. Nothing but desert as far as the eye can see. Our guide is giving a talk on the evolution of civilization in this part of the world and on the evolution and origins of writing and settlements. The first signs of civilization in Iran date back 8000 years!! Yesterday we learned about the old Silk Road as we drove by a caravanserai in the desert which once was used to provide food and shelter for the merchants and their camels. The Silk Road began in China on to Mongolia, on to the steppes of Transoxiana (Northeast of Iran), then down to Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan then Turkmenistan, then to Isfahan and Shiraz in Iran, then to Baghdad, then to Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Ethiopia. Fascinating!

When we visited the site of Pasargadae today, which marks the beginning of the Persian history, our guide said that if all the Iranian people understood and appreciated their long and rich cultural heritage, there would have never been a revolution in Iran!

On that note I leave you all with a Happy New Year’s wish from one of the most fascinating places in the world! Enjoy the photos!