<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As sometimes happens when searching for a title for one of these <\/span>From the Vaults<\/span><\/i> articles,\u00a0 I am torn between telling readers too little or too much information from the get go.\u00a0 Such was the case with the title of this particular title.\u00a0 Truth be told, the whole title should be:\u00a0 <\/span>Everything I learned about the Himalayas from Levison Wood except what I already knew about Mount Everest<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 During the abundant reading time thrust upon us during the 2020 leg of the COVID-19 pandemic, I got hooked on the series of books Levison Wood wrote about his various walking adventures.\u00a0 Prior to the Ontonagon Township Library re-opening, I was cruising the Daedalus Books catalog searching for new reading material.\u00a0 Knowing nothing about the author, the description of Wood\u2019s book, <\/span>Walking the Nile<\/span><\/i> (Grove Press, 2015) caught my eye.\u00a0 Once the library was again open for socially distanced (and masked) browsing, I was able to pick up two more of his works (<\/span>Walking the Americas<\/span><\/i> (2017) and <\/span>A Saudi Arabian Journey <\/span><\/i>(2018)).\u00a0 All three titles were discussed in this space under the title <\/span>FTV:\u00a0 Walking with Levison Wood<\/span><\/i> (9-30-20).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Is it considered a sin to read adventure series out of order?\u00a0 The last volume of Wood\u2019s series (<\/span>Walking the Himalayas <\/span><\/i>(2016)) I was able to get a hold of via the interlibrary loan network was actually the second book in Lev\u2019s \u2018<\/span>Walking<\/span><\/i>\u2019 series.\u00a0 Apparently there have been companion documentaries filmed covering these rambles, but the one I have viewed (<\/span>Walking with the Elephants<\/span><\/i>) is the one book I have not yet read.\u00a0 Wood combines his anecdotal information about these treks with well researched history of the local cultures.\u00a0 The geopolitical wranglings of the past merge with Levison\u2019s need to navigate the current borders, multiple bureaucracies, and sometimes banditos he encounters during these marathon hiking adventures.\u00a0 As mentioned in the September 2020 <\/span>FTV<\/span><\/i>, Wood can fend for himself but he is no Lone Ranger.\u00a0 He enlists help to act as a \u2018homebase\u2019 he can contact as needed and also has a knack for finding colorful<\/span> characters to accompany him on different legs of these journeys.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Walking the Himalayas<\/span><\/i> opens with Wood talking about a gap year trip he took to the area as a nineteen year old.\u00a0 His habit of \u2018character collection\u2019 began before he entered university, served in the Royal Parachute regiment, or entertained the idea of making long, historical treks across five continents.\u00a0 He had the misfortune of being in Pokhara, Nepal in 2001 when the royal family was slaughtered by one of their own sons.\u00a0 With his passport being held in a shuttered travel office and low on cash, Lev had the good fortune to meet Binod Pariyar, a twenty year old local who invited him to ride out the post assasination riots and unrest with his family.\u00a0 Pariyar refused any compensation for helping Wood weather the political turmoil and Levison vowed to come back someday to return the favor.\u00a0 Lev eventually got his passport back and was able to continue his gap year trek into India never suspecting he would indeed end up back in Nepal when his second long trek ended fourteen years later.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 2004, Wood undertook a five month hitch-hiking adventure across India.\u00a0 Levison was disappointed that he had missed seeing the Dalai Lama when he was visiting Dharamsala.\u00a0 During his 2015 Himalaya hike, Wood would finally get to see and meet the Tibetian Holy Man who had just returned, ironically, from attending the Glastonbury Music Festival in England.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a lifelong Lutheran, I have always been fascinated by ancient religions as practiced by Hindus,\u00a0 Buddists, and other sects.\u00a0 Stretching back a mere 500 years to the beginning of Martin Luther\u2019s Reformation, Lutheranism is a fair amount younger than Buddhism, the roots of which stretch back between the 6th and 4th century BCE (Before the Christian Era).\u00a0 The 80 year old Dalai Lama is said to be the 14th reincarnation of the Buddah and is considered a living embodiment of God to his followers.\u00a0 As with any tale involving \u2018territorial disputes\u2019, the story of how the Dalai Lama ended up living in Dharamsala, India is complicated.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1959, the people in Tibet attempted to repel Chinese communist invaders;\u00a0 it did not end well for them.\u00a0 The Chinese crushed the rebellion which in turn forced the young Dalai Lama to flee across the mountains to India.\u00a0 With the support of the Indian government, thousands of refugees joined him at the monastery of McLeod Ganj.\u00a0 The exiled Tibetan government has since used McLeod Ganj as their home base.\u00a0 His Holiness and his followers work diligently from Dharamsala, hoping to free Tibet from the Chinese rule so they can return to their homeland as evidenced by the posters hanging just outside the monastery:\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>A million killed.\u00a0 6,000 monasteries destroyed.\u00a0 Thousands of political prisoners still in jail.\u00a0 FREE TIBET!\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Reading this book amid the kerfuffle from those who promoted the \u2018Free Michigan\u2019 rhetoric during the COVID shutdowns provided a stark contrast between the two movements.\u00a0 One pertains to regaining control of a homeland lost to invaders.\u00a0 The other stemmed from people upset by the inconveniences they were asked to tolerate to quell the spread of a deadly viral pandemic.\u00a0 At the time this article is going to press, the Delta variant is causing a spike in cases and hospitalizations, particularly among the unvaccinated.\u00a0 Still some people do not get the point.\u00a0 We are not being evicted from our homeland nor are our civil liberties being threatened any more than they were when the nation was thrilled (yes, thrilled) to have a polio vaccine!\u00a0 The Tibetans have not yet realized their goal, but they keep working on the problem.\u00a0 Tracking the statistics from the Michigan pandemic response shows the COVID-19 epidemic would have been much more lethal had the Governor not followed the scientific evidence to help protect all of Michigan.\u00a0 States still ignoring the science while pandering to the \u2018Free Us\u2019 minority are faring poorly in the swelling Delta COVID wave .<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Wood and his traveling companion Ash were sitting in a cafe in Dharamsala in 2015.\u00a0 The back of the laminated menu contained the following message that Lev remembered from his 2004 visit:\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>We have bigger houses, but smaller families;\u00a0 More conveniences, but less time;\u00a0 We have more degrees, but less sense;\u00a0 More knowledge, but less judgement;\u00a0 More experts, but more problems;\u00a0 More medicines, but less healthiness;\u00a0 We\u2019ve been all the way to the Moon and back, but we have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.\u00a0 We built more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but have less communications.\u00a0 We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.\u00a0 These are the times of fast food, but slow digestion;\u00a0 Tall men but short character;\u00a0 Steep profits but shallow relationships.\u00a0 It is a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room.\u00a0 Their lives have become easier and that has spoilt them.\u00a0 They expect more, they constantly compare themselves to others and they have too much choice – which brings no real freedom.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As Wood stated, \u201cWise words, I thought.\u00a0 They sounded familiar and I seemed to remember that I\u2019d read them before somewhere.\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 It was when I was last here in the Himalayas.\u00a0 I knew then whose words they were.\u201d\u00a0 While standing in line amongst tourists and pilgrims waiting to see the Dalai Lama, a young monk named Tenzin Nyima introduced himself to Lev and Ash.\u00a0 After learning why they were there, he offered to talk to the Dalai Lama\u2019s personal secretary about an audience:\u00a0 \u201cSometimes he likes to speak with foreigners, especially if he thinks you can help Tibet.\u201d\u00a0 Buddhism may be an ancient religion, but it seems the Dalai Lama is very much a modern man who understands how to carry on in the modern world.\u00a0 Wood noted that most of the robe wearing monks were wearing high tech Nike shoes and carrying equally modern phones.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In addressing the crowd, the Dalai Lama touched on many modern themes and across many cultures.\u00a0 Among these, Wood mentioned:\u00a0 \u201c…the need for simple things in life, highlighting the fact that people in smaller villages are generally happier than those in cities.\u00a0 Tibetans are not \u2018backward people\u2019 but the inheritors of an ancient legacy of teaching, medicine, and science.\u00a0 Medicine, the Dalai Lama reminded them, works better when you are happy.\u00a0 [People] have an obligation to learn and acquire new knowledge.\u00a0 Knowledge is power and if you are powerful and learned, then you are better equipped to confront life\u2019s problems.\u00a0 There is no such thing as evil knowledge.\u00a0 The only evil is misuse of it.\u00a0 He also reminded Tibetans their example of non-violent struggle sends a positive message to the world.\u201d\u00a0 Lastly, the Dalai Lama concluded with, \u201cIf you are unhappy, it\u2019s not because of external factors.\u00a0 It\u2019s nobody else\u2019s fault or problem.\u00a0 It\u2019s not because you\u2019re poor or live in a small house, or even because you are ill.\u00a0 It\u2019s because you have an inner emptiness that needs to be filled with light, and only you can do that.\u00a0 It is every person\u2019s responsibility to seek that light.\u00a0 Happiness is not a right;\u00a0 it is an obligation, because without happiness, you have nothing to give back to humanity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I absorbed all of this at the same time that the 2020 election cycle was coming to an end.\u00a0 These words spoken by an exiled Holyman to a displaced population on the other side of the world still resonated with me.\u00a0 The amount of divisiveness and selfishness that had consumed our own country made me want to take a step back and hope for the same kind of wisdom to spread across our own society.\u00a0 As I have previously mentioned, Levison Wood doesn\u2019t just write about journeying from Point A to Point B.\u00a0 He absorbs culture like a sponge.\u00a0 There are lessons in Buddhism we could all absorb, regardless of our own religious inclinations.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hiking the remote mountain roads and paths are not without dangers.\u00a0 Many miles after visiting with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, Lev recounted the first serious personal injury mentioned in any of his books.\u00a0 Just outside of the previously mentioned town of Pokhara, Nepal, the vehicle they had hired to take them to find lodging in Musikot snapped a brake cable and sent Wood, companion Binod, Levison\u2019s brother Pete (who had joined this leg of the trek), the driver, and an off duty policeman hitching a ride, off the road.\u00a0 When the vehicle stopped rolling and crashing into rocks and trees, they were over 200 feet down an embankment.\u00a0 The driver and policeman had been thrown out higher up the hill.\u00a0 Binod had been tossed from the back seat halfway into Levison\u2019s lap.\u00a0 Binod escaped with a blackeye and a twisted back because Wood instinctively had covered his friend\u2019s head with his upper torso.\u00a0 Wood wasn\u2019t as lucky.\u00a0 He broke his right upper arm bone and clavicle.\u00a0 The local police and villagers were able to get him to a local clinic and after several days living on painkillers, he was helicoptered out to a bigger hospital in Kathmandu.\u00a0 Levison then took a flight home to London where, according to Wood, \u201cThe doctor filled my arm with metal plates and screws and stitched me up well and before I knew it, I was doing bicep curls and arm stretches with a very patient physiotherapist who tolerated my profanities with a kind smile and gentle words of encouragement.\u201d\u00a0 Fifty days after flying off the cliff in Rukum, he was on his way back to Nepal to resume the hike from where they had left off.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With the ongoing political situation in Tibet, border tensions meant to reach his final goal, Levison and Binod would need to cross back into India to finally reach the secretive country of Bhutan.\u00a0 The contrast between the Indian border city of Jaigaon and Phuentsholing, Bhutan was jarring.\u00a0 Levison describes Jaigaon as, \u201cCrowded, filthy, and noisy.\u00a0 Lepers sat in doorways missing fingers and noses;\u00a0 con men and mystics plagued the streets and cows vied for supremacy of the roads with battered rickshaws overladen lorries, and mini-busses packed with so many people it always surprised me they could move.\u00a0 Nobody bothered to clean the streets because the monkeys and the cows would do it for them, and pigs waded around in the open sewers, delighted at the general lack of hygiene.\u201d\u00a0 Entering Bhutan was like, \u201c…another world.\u00a0 There were no beggars or lepers.\u00a0 No car horns – everything was eerily quiet.\u00a0 Almost all the men and women sported the traditional national dress and all the buildings looked identical.\u201d\u00a0 They would learn that the King of Bhutan (there are actually two – K5, the current ruler, and K4, his father who had passed down the throne to his son when the elder reached age 51) had strict building codes.\u00a0 Nothing could be built above a certain number of stories and all buildings had to conform to traditional architecture.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The population of Bhutan hovers around 800,000 and they only began allowing tourists to visit in the past few decades.\u00a0 Mountain climbing is actually illegal because the country lacks the infrastructure to rescue climbers who get themselves in trouble.\u00a0 K5 has opened things up a bit by allowing the country to expand the use of modern marvels like the internet, but they still favor rich tourists (mostly French) to help prop up the economy.\u00a0 There are numerous mountains in Bhutan that remain unnamed due to the climbing ban, but Woods had his sights on ending his journey as close to Gangkhar Puensum mountain as he could get without violating the laws that said tourists could only hike to certain elevations.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thus, the final photo of his Himalayan walk was taken on an unnamed peak within view of Gangkhar Puensum.\u00a0 Binod would not make it to the top.\u00a0 A Lama at the Tamshing monastery had warned them that one of them would not complete the journey and when Binod\u2019s legs swelled from tendonitis, he opted to not tempt fate and let Wood make the final climb with their local government approved guide, Jamyang.\u00a0 On the way down the last nameless mountain, they discovered a snow leopard den, the name Wood applied to the previously unnamed peak.\u00a0 Though they never saw a leopard or tiger (tracks only) or the local version of the yeti (called the Mirgula in Bhutan), Wood was more relaxed retracing their path down the valley they had just spent a week traversing to the end of his walk.\u00a0 For the first time in months he was retracing a familiar trail.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When he found his mind drifting to all of the Christmas doings that would be happening when he returned to London, Wood remembered the Dalai Lama\u2019s sage advice:\u00a0 \u201cLive in the moment.\u00a0 Stop concerning yourself with the future.\u201d\u00a0 Levison finally concluded, \u201cIt occurred to me that what I\u2019d been looking for all along wasn\u2019t to be found at the top of any mountain, it was always there, everywhere.\u00a0 When you can find the time to just be grateful for the air you breathe, then you\u2019ll be happy.\u00a0 Take away expectations and everything will come as a nice surprise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Can’t say I have seen much music about the Himalayas, but Bob Seger certainly did up Khatmandu but without the ‘h’ preferred in the British spelling – live from Atlantic City in 2011 featuring the late Alto Reed on sax and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad on drums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As sometimes happens when searching for a title for one of these From the Vaults articles,\u00a0 I am torn between telling readers too little or too much information from the get go.\u00a0 Such was the case with the title of this particular title.\u00a0 Truth be told, the whole title should be:\u00a0 Everything I learned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2283,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions\/2283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}