Preparing to Travel to Tibet

 July 1999

Kathmandu, Nepal

I just arrived in Kathmandu where I will prepare to go to Tibet in four days.  This first part of the journey is at an elevation of 4000 feet. It is here that I will acclimate myself to higher elevations. While in Tibet we will travel to elevations of 17,000 to 19,000 feet. Frankly I’m a little worried. That’s some pretty thin air.

Doma, our guide has just introduced herself to the six of us. There is a married couple, Michael and Bob, from Minnesota. Lois is from New York and traveling by herself. Helen and Wen Wen are cousins and traveling together.  And then I have come by myself.

Doma will be with us during the entire three weeks.  But we will pick up local guides along the way.  Doma is a Tibetan refugee in exile. She was raised in India and Germany but has an American passport. It’s a little hard to really understand her complete story. She doesn’t give out all the details.

She warns us that It is politically dangerous to travel to Tibet. The Dalai Lama is still considered an enemy of the Chinese government.  So Doma suggests we not speak poorly of the Chinese people or the government. She also suggests we NEVER refer to the Dalai Lama as such as is that is illegal. We may not have any photos of him as well. “So maybe we could use a code name for His Holiness such as Harley-Davidson” she tells us. This way we couldn’t get in trouble and we would all know what she meant. She indicated she did want any of us to be arrested and imprisoned for allegations of spying. Nor did she want any of us tortured. We all indicated the same.

She asked that we not talk to any of our guides or taxi drivers or anyone in Tibet about the Dalai Lama as that was illegal and she didn’t want to cause them any problems as well. She asked me what I thought of the plan. With fear reverberating through my entire being, I told her I had no intentions of mentioning Harley Davidson at all during this entire trip.