Travel

Family, Food, Tibetan Culture, Travel

Family Life: A Day on the Grassland

  A day on the grassland with my paternal family—the biggest family reunion I’ve ever attended. Fifty-six families, 180 people total, from two distinctive worlds (agricultural and nomadic), joined together on Mgar-tse’s grassland in Rebgong, Amdo region. They included farmers, animal herders, educators from elementary school to university, small business owners, doctors, students of all […]

Donned with silver belts and coral necklaces, only unmarried Tibetan girls from the host village/group are privileged to dance in the Lerol festival.
Spirituality, Tibetan Culture, Tibetan Tradition

Amdo Tibetan ‘Klu rol’ Festival — Part II

  [Continuing Klu rol (lürol) Festival part I…] Summer is a festive season in Rebgong, Amdo region on the Tibetan plateau, and Klu rol (lürol ) festival is held yearly in many Tibetan villages and a few Monguor villages between June fifteenth and the twenty-fifth of the lunar calendar. My village, Gling-rgyal (AKA Langjia) is one of the most […]

Tibetan Lha-ba, Mountain God Amyes-magpa, who is temporarily manifested in a human medium, holding his hair and a knife with his teeth after cut his forehead.
Spirituality, Tibetan Culture, Tibetan Tradition

Amdo Tibetan ‘Klu rol’ Festival — Part I

  Summer is a festive season in Rebgong, Amdo region on the Tibetan plateau, and Klu rol (Lürol) ཀླུ་རོལ། festival is held yearly in many Tibetan villages and a few Monguor villages between June sixteenth and the twenty-fifth of the lunar calendar. My village, Gling-rgyal (AKA Langjia) is one of the most known sites for this folk culture. […]

Family, Tibetan Culture, Tibetan Tradition, Travel

On the Road to My Hometown—Rebgong

My twenty-hour journey, flying from Chicago to Beijing, then to Siling (ཟི་ལིང, officially Xining, the capital of Qinghai province) was long but rather a smooth ride. After a couple of days in the city, my little brother Chudar, niece Yechun, and I traveled to my birthplace, Rebgong (རེབ་གོང, Tongren officially), also known as ‘The Rebgong Golden […]