Chapter 6 - Trekking and Tracking the Self in Tibet

Summary

Many travel narratives set in Tibet record a trek, a long and difficult journey by foot in mountainous areas. Two early tales by Alexandra David-Neel and Heinrich Harrer show the typical Western fascination with heroic adventure and exotic Oriental culture. Four more recent travel narratives – by Jim Reynolds (now Ajahn Chandako), Robert Thurman and Tad Wise, Ian Baker, and Matteo Pistono – show in contrasting ways how a trek triggered experiences of unselfing that they interpret through the lens of Tibetan Buddhist ideas. Circling the Sacred Mountain presents the differing perspectives of Thurman, a renowned scholar and confident practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, and his wayward and struggling student, Tad Wise. Ian Baker’s The Heart of the World records several journeys to remote Himalayan valleys in search of beyul, Tibetan “hidden lands,” where ancient scriptures are preserved and the landscape reveals the nature of the mind. Matteo Pistono’s transformation in Tibet involves learning to overcome the anger that had crippled his political efforts; he finds a capacity to unite political action and religious devotion, guided by Tibetan teachers and the ideal of the bodhisattva.