And finally to complete the Tibetan dancing trilogy, I present Tibetans breakdancing…or rather my students breakdancing. Amazing how pop culture finds a way into almost every nook and cranny of the known world…”everywhere the light touches”. Currently reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman….scary scary book.
Traditional Tibetan Dancing…in nightclub
Since my other post of Tibetan nightclub dancing was so popular (500+ views on youtube), I figured I might post a follow up. This time, you can actually see what’s going on! Traditional dancing in non-traditional clothes, Tibetan style. Don’t you feel so much more cultured already?
It’s Saturday. That means Ricky and i have just returned from our 6 day romp across the Tibetan grasslands and mountain passes. We rented a black sedan, a tanka-painter/driver, and a university student from Xining and set off into into the cultural heart of Amdo - what is now Qinghai Province. Our itinerary was as follows:
Day 1: Qinghai Lake (pictured above), Sun and Moon Pass
Day 2: Kumbum Monastery, birthplace of 14th Dalai Lama, Baima Monastery
Day 3: Jianza Mani, birthplace of 10th Panchen Lama
Day 4: Sky-burial, Eight-corner Fortress, Labrang Monastery
Day 5: Lhamo Lake (Henan), nomad encounter, Lhamo Mountain Shrine
Day 6: Nyingma Monastery (Zeku), Mani Stone
Great times! Stay tuned for highlights!
Its a little dark, but its the closest you’ll get to a Tibetan nightclub unless you fly 24hrs…
Some of you might be wondering about the title I’ve chosen for this blog: “Prisoner of Shangri-la”. Indeed it is not so subtley borrowed from a book by Donald Lopez of an almost identical name that aims to debunk many of the myths related to Tibet embedded in the Westerner psyche, exposing our romanticized notions of some place called “Tibet” that supposedly flourished in a golden age (dated any time before 1959) free from all Western imperialism, corruption, and materialism (Read Dreyfus’s critical response "Are we Prisoners of Shangrila?"). The title as I am using it refers not just an idea of Tibet but to a mode of engaging our experience that all of us share. You (dear reader) and I are individuals chained to a myth, a dream, a fantasy that we create, safe-guard, and perpetuate about our lives and about others’ lives.
This blog, then, is about the personal myth of self and the collective myth of reality. But it’s also about more than that. It’s about crossing cultures and making a difference in an endangered community by investing knowledge in its children. It’s about translating experience in multiple languages, seeing beauty through multiple lenses, and writing words upon words that create an image, a sense of time and space, a world of its own.
