CONIFERS IN YUNNAN.pdf - Porterhowse Farms

he was face down. He then brought himself to a vertical standing position and then returned to the prostrateposition. His knees and torso were on a mat. He was reciting a mantra as he repeatedly stood and thenprostrated himself before the shrine. His hands would slide into leather sandals with each prostration, whichhe would leave beside the mat when he rose to the standing position. He never took any notice of ourpresence. Like the other monks his head was shaved with only a stubble of growth showing. The floor infront of the mat was worn with two parallel grooves where the sandals and hands of countless monks hadprostrated themselves over the years, and possibly centuries. Across the room below the lone window sat avery young boy. He was on a small platform with a scroll open before him on a tilted table. He was recitingwhat ever was on the scroll, as though it was a lesson. His recitations were sung like a chant. He would turnto look at us, and them immediately return to his lesson. I am sure we were a distraction to him. This roomlike the others was decorated with very colorful murals. Many animal forms were depicted in the murals,along with people and deities. The pathway to enlightenment seemed to be a common theme in all themurals. There was so much to see and so little time. I truly felt I had been in a very sacred place. Howeverour Chinese hosts from Kunming were bemused by the place and acted as tourists to be entertained. Theydid not seem to recognize the spiritual quality of the place, and one person even mocked the religioustraditions. I had to remind myself that these people had lived their lives in a communist state, devoid ofreligion and spiritual devotion. Before leaving the monastery we went to a shelter where a large threepersonprayer wheel was housed. We took turns, in-groups of three and spun the wheel, which caused bellsto ring, and a loud gong to sound. In another nearby building we could hear people pounding on metal. Itseemed to be a workshop, and we assumed they were working on the metal for the tall Buddha sculpturebeing constructed in the main building.Each day we would have breakfast and again dinner in a different restaurant in Zhongdian. We had adiverse assortment of foods offered to us throughout our trip. We ate well, but we were not always sure asto what we were eating. Everything was cooked fresh and served in platters and bowls hot from the kitchen.The food was generally quite spicy, as they use many red peppers, garlic, ginger, and other condimentsliberally in their recipes. We had fish, chicken, and pork dishes at every meal, and often yak meat. Beyondthat we did not ask. We found that we were served plants that some times we were hunting for in the wild,like Lilium davidi bulbs. Steamed Amorphophallus sp. greens were quite slimy, and not very pleasant. Wethought that we had been served greens of spinach or kale, which turned out to be Convolvulus sp.(Morning Glory). Most every meal was accompanied with plates of scrambled eggs with tomatoes and redpeppers mixed in. Fried goat cheese was also served regularly. We found we all enjoyed the noodle dishesthat were served in the mornings. Sweet cake cut in squares was also common fare. At one restaurant inKunming a large fish was brought to us on a platter, that had been gutted and cleaned, but was still alivewith its mouth gaping open and the gills moving. It was to show us how fresh the fish is, before it is cooked.Some times we cooked the food ourselves with a hot pot in the center of the table. We carried processednutrition bars, and dried fruit from home in our packs. Our hosts had oranges, bananas, bread, cookedsausages in wrappers, and other portable foods for us during the day trips. We only drank bottled water thatthey provided, which we took to our rooms each evening. One evening at the end of dinner Sun brought outa decorated cake, so we could all celebrate Kelly’s birthday. As we cut the cake we realized that there werechildren in the restaurant, so we also served them. As we did so they multiplied, as word of the celebrationspread into the community. They were all delighted, and we enjoyed seeing the joy expressed on their faces.Tianchi Lake, also known as Heavenly Lake, was our goal one particular day. It is in the mountains at about12,500 feet near to Zhongdian. The route there was via a very rough logging road that was cut out from asteep mountainside, with a deep canyon below. The road was so narrow that at times looking out the buswindow one could not see the ground at the edge of the road, but only a thousand or more feet of openspace into the gorge below. Of course there were no guardrails, and plenty of potholes and washed outportions of road. We had hired another bus and driver in Zhongdian for this specific journey, because of thedifficult terrain. Our Tibetan driver must have been at least 16 years old. He had another young companionwith him. As we left Zhongdian on the paved highway he commented that there seemed to be somethingwrong with the steering. He and our hosts discussed the matter at length, and even stopped the bus andclimbed underneath to investigate the problem. They decided to continue, and hoped all would be well. Weleft the highway and started to climb into the mountains. The road forked numerous times with out anydirectional signs pointing the way to Tianchi Lake. As luck would have it we had taken a wrong fork and wewere on the wrong narrow road. The area had been harvested of all of the timber and replanted with twospecies that were now about 8 feet high. The trees were Picea likiangensis and Larix sp. We had8