This past August, our family took a 14 day, 2000 mile road trip across the Kham region of Tibet. The goal of this trip was to visit some of our many friends that live across this vast area, make new relationships and to pray for the region. Covering an area roughly the size of Texas, our journey took us over countless high mountains, nomadic grasslands, isolated lakes and small villages. The roads were often dirt, usually rough and always a bit dangerous. We came across several roads that were wiped out due to flooding, which required us to take dangerous detours through narrow, high mountain roads that were narrow and muddy with steep drop-offs of up to 5000 feet.
Just outside the city, yaks are grazing on the high grasslands. These sparsely populated grasslands extend for nearly 1000 miles from east to west.
Young Kham Tibetan boys during a festival in Dartsedo (Kangding)
A Tibetan-style home in the farming region of Garze county at an elevation of 11,500 feet.
Dargay Monastery, elevation 11,500 feet
A yak wool nomad tent on the grasslands at nearly 14,000 feet. These nomads have no electricity, , no bathroom/toilet, no running water and few modern amenities.
The first part of our journey took us through the nomad grasslands of the far eastern portion of the Tibetan Plateau. In this area, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans spend the summer and early autumn months living in yak wool tents…the same style of tents that Tibetans have lived in for well over 1000+ years. While this area is open to tourism, no foreigners are able to live in this region due to government restrictions. We saw several hundred thousand yaks being herded in this region that lies between 12,000 and 14,000 feet in elevation. Though this area is remote and difficult to access, the Lord has used us in the lives of 2 Tibetans in this region who are now followers of the Truth. We hope that more will come to know the Truth from this inhospitable area.
An older Tibetan man from the Garze region sitting alongside the road, spinning his prayer wheel, thumbing his prayer beads and chanting Buddhist mantras.
The huge stone houses of the Barkham region. These houses are 3 or 4 stories high and are like small castles.
After driving through the Tibetan grasslands for 2 1/2 days, we came to the large town of Barkham, which serves as the capital of Ngawa Prefecture. Compared to the remoteness of where we had been, Barkham seemed like Seattle, even though its population is only around 1/10th of Washington’s largest city. We stayed in a nice, modern hotel and were able to eat a good dinner. The town lies in a deep valley, surrounded by high mountains. A clear, glacier-fed river runs through the center of town. The homes in this region are built with huge stones and resemble castles.
The Barkham region is extremely fertile and is regarded as one of the best farming areas in all of the Tibetan Plateau. Though Barkham is quite civilized and modern by Tibetan standards, no foreigners live here or anywhere in Ngawa prefecture. We know some people who have tried to get permission to live here, but all have been denied by the government. This region has had severe political unrest for the past 6 or 7 years, so it is no surprise that government officials keep this region off-limits. The Tibetans in this area are fiercely anti-China, which has caused numerous violent protests in the recent past.
Prayer flags on the high grasslands
Downtown Dartsedo (Kangding). Three years ago, Jamin hiked this river up to the glacier it starts from.
From Barkham, our destination was Dartsedo (Kangding), the capital town of Garze prefecture. Those of you who have been reading our reports for the past several years will remember that we lived here for 12 months from late 2010 until late 2011 while working at a small guesthouse in the mountains.
The road leaving Barkham immediately became quite bad. It was “paved” but with huge potholes…everywhere. We could only drive about 15 miles per hour on this horrible road. After around 4 hours, we noticed that no vehicles were coming in the opposite direction that we were traveling. We were headed south, but no cars were driving north. This could only mean one thing….road closure. This stretch of road followed a very large and fast moving river. In the past, large sections of this road had fallen in the river. In fact, in 2010 a long distance bus fell in this river killing around 15 passengers. Sure enough, a short time later we came upon a police checkpoint. Jamin got out to talk to the police who informed him that the road had been completely washed out and would take many months (or even years) to fix.
Jamin knew another route around the washed out road, however, it would take 2+ days to get around this detour. Jamin asked the police if there was a different way to go and the police told him about a dirt road that went up in the mountains and around the washed out road. The police, who told us the road was poor, seemed confident that our vehicle could make it. So, up this narrow, muddy, one-lane mountain road we went!
We quickly found out that this road was extremely dangerous. Jamin put the vehicle into 4WD low to give the vehicle as much power as possible to climb this extremely steep and extremely muddy mountain. The road wasn’t really a road, but a path. Huge boulders were all over the road with deep, slippery mud everywhere. In addition, the narrow road clung to the side of a mountain which had drop-offs between 3000 and 5000 feet straight down with no guard rails. Jamin several times wanted to turn around, but the road was far too narrow to make a safe turn around. So, slowly and nervously we continued to drive. After tremendous stress, we finally made it to the top of the mountain after about 90 minutes. The descent from the mountain top was much less stressful. We were extremely thankful to be finished with that part of the journey. However, our road troubles were far from over…
Prayer flags along a river in Kham
Tyler and Josiah playing along a river
Once we got down off of the mountain, we were expecting just a “short” 4 hour drive to our destination of Dartsedo (Kangding). However, we found out that the main road to Dartsedo had also been washed out due to heavy rain/snow melt. So we had to make another detour along a rough dirt path. This bone-jarring road was in horrible condition. Most of the road was along rough boulders that had us bouncing all over in our vehicle. Our journey ended up taking nearly twice as long as we expected. Instead of arriving in Dartsedo that late afternoon, which is when we thought we would arrive, we didn’t get there until around 10am the next morning. We ended up having to stay the night in a crummy hotel in a small Tibetan town that night before continuing on to our destination the next day. Altogether, it took us nearly 4 1/2 days to drive from the city to Dartsedo. We were relieved to arrive as we were going to spend 4 full days there visiting with friends, which didn’t require us driving on rough mountain roads!
Josiah along Ylhun Lha Tso, one of the most beautiful lakes in all of Tibet
A farming village in Garze county. Thought the elevation here is 11,500 feet, high altitude barley grows well here. This special type of barley is only found in fertile areas lying between 10,000 and 12,000 feet.
We had a great 4 night stay in Dartsedo. The weather wasn’t very nice as it was cold and rainy, but we still had a great time visiting our friends who live in this town. It was nice not having to drive anywhere! We were able to rest and recuperate in preparation for the rest of our journey. From Dartsedo, we climbed back up to the nomad grasslands to a small trading village called Lhagang. In Lhagang we met up with our old friend “Andy”. Andy is a 27 year old Tibetan guy whom we have known for over 10 years. He works managing a small guesthouse and leads trekking trips around a 19,000 foot snow-capped peak just outside of town. We have had numerous opportunities to share the Truth with “Andy” over the years. Though we only had 1 day with “Andy”, it was good to see him and spend time with him.
A 600 year old hand-carved prayer stone located in the waters of Yilhun Lha Tso, an alpine lake sitting at 13,100 feet in the mountains.
From Lhagang, we continued driving northwest and eventually made it to Garze county. We finally had good roads and it took us only 3 or 4 hours to cover this leg of our journey. We stayed in a simple Tibetan-owned hotel in the center of town. We were the only guests in the hotel the first night. The Tibetan manager and staff were extremely friendly and were very happy to have us staying with them. Jamin has studied the dialect of Tibetan spoken in this area so he was able to make small talk with the staff who were shocked to find a “sigyal” or foreigner, who could speak Tibetan.
The next day, we continued along a decent road to Yilhun Lha Tso in Derge county, a beautiful alpine lake that is considered holy to the Tibetan people. The lake, which would be the furthest point of our journey, sits at 13,100 feet above sea level surrounded by glacier covered peaks that rise to nearly 21,000 feet. All along the shore of the lake are prayer flags and hand-carved prayer stones that are over 600 years old. Tibetans will often go on religious pilgrimage to this lake, prostrating all the way to the ground every 3rd step. The lake is amazingly beautiful. It was raining hard and only in the upper 40’s (despite being mid August) when we arrived, but the weather slightly cleared giving us great views. We spent a couple of hours at the lake, soaking up the amazing views. After 10 days and over 1000 miles, we had reached the furthest point of our journey. Going any further west would take us to a large area of Tibet is permanently closed to foreigners.
Looking out across the prayer stones and prayer flags at Yilhun Lha Tso Lake, elevation 13,100 feet
Yilhun Lha Tso Lake in Derge county
From the lake, we had a couple of different options to get home. One option was to go north to Jyekundo in Yushu prefecture. However, Jamin heard some reports of major road problems causing delays of 12 to 24 hours. The other option was to travel east before driving north back to the city. We decided on the east route, which we estimated would take about 3 days (32 to 40 driving hours) to lead us home. However, just 3 hours into our drive we came across another horrible stretch of “road”. This road had also suffered from a massive slide that only allowed big cargo trucks or 4WD vehicles to pass. It took us nearly 7 hours of driving in 4WD to pass through the slide area, but we eventually made it. We pulled into a hotel that evening, exhausted and happy to be done driving for the day.
Jamin and the boys with our friend “Gabriel”, whom we have know for nearly 10 years. Gabriel is holding his 5 year old son.
The next day, we set out for the mid-sized town of Jigdril, located in Golok prefecture. Our good friend “Gabriel”, who was a student of Jamin’s from ’05 to ’07, lives in this nomadic region with his wife and 5 year-old son. Our family had a great evening having dinner and visiting with “Gabriel” and his extended family. It has been several years since we had seen him. We were very thankful for our short time with him.
Labrang Monastery, the largest monastery in northern Tibet.
Tibetan pilgrim prostrating around Labrang Monastery. These types of pilgrims can be found all over Labrang.
After our time with “Gabriel”, we continued our long journey home. We drove back through the high grasslands of eastern Tibet where hundreds of thousands of yaks live. Yaks in this region far outnumber people. We were back in the land of nomads living in yak-wool tents, living an archaic lifestyle. In the mid-afternoon we arrived in Labrang, a large town containing the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in northern Tibet. Because of the monastery, Labrang is a major pilgrimage destination for Tibetans. People from within a 750 mile radius often will go on pilgrimage to Labrang. They will walk while prostrating to the ground every 3rd step. This causes the journey to take many months to complete. These pilgrims can be seen all over in Labrang. We stayed in a nice, new hotel in Labrang owned by a local Tibetan friend of ours. We spent the evening talking with our friend, excited to be home the next day.
We woke up early the next morning, happy to return home. We set out to make the final 5 hour drive to the city. About 2 hours into our journey, we came to a high mountain pass. From the bottom we could see that a storm was happening higher up. We proceeded with caution. Sure enough, we came upon thick fog which turned into snow…heavy snow. In most areas of the Tibetan Plateau, snow can occur any day of the year. We came across a car accident due to poor visibility. The last thing we wanted on the last day of our journey was to get in an accident. We descended down the 14,000 foot mountain without issue and made it safely back home.
A traditional style home in the Derge region of Kham. Houses here are built with 3 walls of mud-brick, with the front wall being made of logs. Windows are always brightly decorated.
Altogether, our journey across the Kham region of Tibet took 14 days covering 2000 miles. We had a great time visiting with old friends, making new friends, spending time in prayer and doing some strategizing on how to make deeper relationships with people in this area. Because of strict government regulations on Tibet, it is nearly impossible to get permission to live full-time in any of the areas that we visited. A huge 1000 mile-wide chunk of the globe where nearly no witness of the Truth exists that is off-limits for foreigners to live…pretty crazy if you think about it. That’s why traveling to these areas is so important. Since the people in this area rarely, if ever, come to the city where we live, we need to make the long journey out to see them. Though the roads were terrible, weather poor and the food often less than desirable, we had an amazing time as a family. We look forward to our next adventure like this.
