western china feels, in many ways, more tibetan than tibet. the plateau isn't as high and the air isn't as thin, but the people share the same traditions and are, if anything, a lot easier to talk to. all the travel permits and army checkpoints made tibet a pretty unfriendly place to travel; i was whispered stories of microphones in monasteries, undercover monks and blacklisted tour guides. In tibetan-dominated Sichuan province, by contrast, the main difficulty was deciphering the erratic bus schedule; people welcomed me to their homes and eagerly showed me pictures of the dalai lama. these pictures are from tagong, as well as a nearby panda reserve.

This insight has led me to look at all sides of every argument. (200)

a bunch of people have asked me what it is that i've been doing for the past year. at one point i posted something about my typical day in cape verde, but my typical day has changed a lot since. recently - partially due to the fact that i've been moving around so much - there haven't been many typical days. so, rather than posting 'typical day, pt. 2', i thought i'd instead write about two recent encounters related to my watson project. though a far cry from what most people would call "academic research," these are pretty good examples of what has come to constitute my "watson research."

monkey pictures: this had less to do with computers and the internet than it did to do with my digital camera. in tsongkappa's meditation cave, along the pilgrim route around ganden monastery (about 2 bumpy hours from lhasa - see first two pics), i met my first holy photographer. he was a young monk - late 20's - who had been stationed outside the entrance to the cave to collect alms and ensure that people didn't mess with the sacred murals.

over the past three weeks, on an epileptic tour of china's wild west (see map), i went to too many places to digest in words. so, this is a pictures post. this first set is from tibet, which is a place that was made to be photographed. (though i just found out that neither kundun nor seven years in tibet were filmed in tibet…)


photos of tibet are easily recognizable because you can see forever. i was told it's all the holiness that makes the land so beautiful. i can believe that. the next few aren't as majestic, i guess, but i like them anyways. these are of some uyghur and kyrgz people in xinjiang province: