The Horizon That's Lost

Episode 9 

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Not long ago He had a fairly satisfying life. He was married to a beautiful wife and together they had two very smart children. They had a house in a village, where His wife and children spent most of the time living. He, in contrast, had to support his family by raising sheep in the surrounding region. He had to spend nights alone in some of the most remote areas that no one lived nearby. Only in this kind of places would he see abundant grasses for sheep and a huge field for them to run like they had freedom. When the sheep were well fed, they could be sold at higher prices. Shepherding was a profession that no one would ever associate with making a whole bunch of money. But since it was adequate to describe his family life as "happy", no one really cared about how much he would make from this humble profession which required a lot of hard works.

However, everything changed on that day.

He returned home from a longer than usual shepherding work period. When He approached the door, He realized that the door was unlocked. 

He gently pushed the door open, only to realize that no one was home. The barley flour scattered all over the place, and the cookwares were being thrown to the ground everywhere. The lamp He just bought last year was completely shattered near the window.......

What happened!?

He went to talk to the villagers, hoping to find any clues about the chaos at his house. 

"Your children were kidnapped by some human traffickers. Your wife was desperate. She couldn't wait until you came back. She went to find the children on her own........"

His body collapsed to the ground.  He thought if He didn't go out that long this time, none of these would happen.

In the next couple of months, He sat by the door every day, hoping to see His wife returning with the kids. 

But nothing happened.

He raised His tired eyes, and saw a statue of Mahākāla on the shelf where the family used to worship every morning. 

Why? Why did it happen to me? I've done my good deeds. I never cheated or stole in my entire life. 

He suddenly grabbed the offering bowl in front of  Mahākāla, and smashed it against the wall. The bowl went broken into pieces, but it still couldn't be compared to how broken he was.

He kicked the shattered pieces of the bowl, which sent the dirt on the ground flying in the air. He slammed the door shut, and strode towards the west. He would travel to Sukhāvatī, not to enjoy the eternal peace, but to ask those who live there:

What have I done wrong to deserve this kind of punishment?

As the sun sank below the western horizon, He realized that He must hurry up before the darkness completely engulfed him. 

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"Before coming to Tibet, I went to Shangri-la in Yunnan. From there I went to Yading in Sichuan and walked the kora on the pilgrimage road". Our group mate Ross told us as we left Shigatse for the highest point on earth.

We asked him how Shangri-la was, he said:

"A bit overrated, but I liked Yading very much. Well.......both places were kinda like where we are right now."

Scenery just outside of Shigatse

Shangri-la was a mysterious place that was made famous by James Hilton's novel The Lost Horizon. It depicted a harmonious heaven on earth which had very strong impressions of Tibet: somewhere in the Himalayas, the lamaseries, and surrounded by huge mountains- so huge that Shangri-la was pretty much isolated from the rest of the world. James Hilton didn't really give away the place's exact locations, but generations of explorers were inspired by the mysterious Shangri-la and set foot on the high plateau just to look for the utopia that haunted their minds.

Tibet is a land of sharp contrasts

Because people were willing to pay big bucks to see what Shangri-la looked like, the name itself became very lucrative. Over the past thirty years alone at least a hundred locations from the foothill of the Himalayas all the way to the Altay Mountains in Siberia all claimed that they were James Hilton's Shangri-la. But the most famous of them all was the one in Northern Yunnan, where was featured in a National Geographics project titled The Shangri-la back in the 1930s. To "forever get stuck" with "Shangri-la", instead of being featured only once or twice in National Geographics, the province of Yunnan decided to officially change the name of a town formerly known as Zhongdian into Shangri-la.

Certainly nobody would expect to see a solar farm and a factory in the middle of Shangri-la

But once again, if everywhere became Shangri-la, the meaning of Shangri-la would be lost. Shangri-la should be isolated where its residents could enjoy peace and the freedom from any outside interference. One thing I knew was that anywhere with big money, there would be no peace. Human beings would all naturally want a piece of a big pie, some would even fight for it.

A Tibetan village at the foot of a mountain

A snow capped peak

Reflecting on the previous day's visit to the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, I realized that Shangri-la, a rather abstract, intangible, and totally fictional concept coming out of a novel was definitely not the only big pie humans wanted to put their hands on for their own benefits. Yes, after the death of the 10th Panchen Lama there were two 11th Panchen Lamas who both claimed that they were the real reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama, with each candidate having powerful groups standing behind them trying to grab the benefits just for themselves. Yes, there were even two Karmapa Lamas in the world today, which (both unsuprisingly and unfortunately) there were two other powerful groups supporting each candidate hoping to claim all the benefits for themselves. These conflicts weren't even hidden from the eyes of the public: Everyone knows it, and everyone saw it happening every single day. 

Prayer flag poles could be found in many places across Tibet

Mongolian style houses in Tibet

But soon I figured out that we would see this kind of things everyday ourselves. People with authorities of all types, from governments to academia, were busily trying to tell people that they knew it all and whatever they said and did were of benefits to the people.  The words of false prophets were being spread from one alley to another pushing people to the brink of desperation and violence, letting them know that only by surrendering their own notion of "self" completely to the terrifying tentacles of the power hunger beasts could make their world a better place. And apparently we all knew about it, and we saw these kind of things everyday. One giant beast was slayed, another stood on top of it with glories decorated by the bloody meat in its mouth. 

A ruin in Tibet

Around noon our vehicle stopped at the first 5,000 meter point I ever reached in my life. The guide told us that on a very nice day, we could view 6 of the 12 highest mountains in the world from that point. Unfortunately all we saw were clouds stacking together vertically, blocking the views of these mountains like a curtain.  

The cloud blocked 6 of the world's 12 highest mountains in the world, including the tallest one

Prayer flags

Beside the observation terrace of that high point, there were a bunch of tents. Just outside of these tents some Tibetan children and their parents were selling random artifacts such as colored stones, counterfeit antiques, singing bowls, and prayer flags. Our guide told us that we should keep our hands clear from whatever they were selling as these dealers from remote areas tended to practice "if you touch it, you buy" rule.  Before we could even reach the observation terrace from our vehicle, Peter from our group was already surrounded by two children, probably no more than ten years old who were trying to convince him to buy some prayer flags. Eventually our guide and driver had to step in so Peter could return to the vehicle, but the children just wouldn't give up that easily. They still chased Peter until he was completely inside the vehicle. 

Tents where some Tibetan families live in remote areas

Prayer flag

I noticed that the parents, who stood near the stands full of counterfeit goods, were simply staring at us and the children.Instead of obtaining education and enjoying their childhood like all other children most of us know,  these children, however, spent their childhood making money for their parents. I began to wonder what would happen to these children when they grow up. Were they on their way to become some sort of "highway robbers" who would force a deal with whoever touched their merchandise like their parents? At that moment I really hoped either the monastery or the government should step in and offer these children some helps. But it looked like nothing was really done by either party. Yet the monks and government officials were pointing fingers at and trying to blame each other for some of the negative aspects of Tibetan daily lives in general. Impressive roads were built to improve the local economy, but the opportunities for children to escape poverty didn't come with the construction of the roads. Singing bowls and prayer flags were brought all the way to the remote tents, but the Buddhist spirit printed on those singing bowls and prayer flags advocating honesty and fairness was absent. 

Tibet was so high that it was also so close to the sky. We were literally standing in the clouds!

Still, telecommunications and electricity somehow found their ways to Tibet....

As our vehicle descended, the air became less foggy. Once we hit the bottom of the hill, the road took us high up again. This time a giant iceberg suddenly appeared in front of our eyes. What was it? Which one of the tallest 14 peaks in the world was that one?  

Shishapangma

Our guide told us that the enormous mountain in front of our eyes was Shishapangma - the shortest mountain on earth that was over 8000 meters. 

Towering peaks of the Himalayas

I just couldn't wait to see what the tallest mountain on earth was like.

A Tibetan village hidden in a valley

All of the sudden our vehicle plunged into the valley once again. When we reached another hilltop, Shishapangma disappeared, but another shorter mountain appeared. Eventually we reached a relatively flat region. I could tell that we were at an even higher altitude place. However, when I looked around, we were surrounded by towering peaks looking down at us, laughing at the small and insignificant human beings sitting in a small cube that was dashing on snake shaped roads to the horizon of the unknown.

Another high peak in the region

But one thing I knew was that we must be closer and closer to the world's highest mountain.

What was hiding behind the cloud?

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The morning sun rose right behind the sleeping giant's snow capped peak. The first sunlight of the day spread to the rest of the mountains in the nearby area like an out of control wildfire. Suddenly a deep orange colored firewall was formed, while the valley below still stayed in the seemingly perpetual darkness. 

He now stood at top of a hill that was dwarfed by if not all, but most of the peaks surrounding Him.  He looked at the sleeping giant - the tallest mountain of them all in the region. For most of his life he was told that the deity dwelt on that very mountain supposed to protect ordinary people like Himself. However, that moment He felt nothing but being cursed.

The orange color began to fade, but the luminosity increased. All of the sudden a monster appeared out of nowhere. He was blinded instantly by the strong light emanated from monster. He tried to wave it off, but the monster wouldn't go away.

He immediately went down into the valley, and retreated Himself back into darkness.