In the Back of Beyond: Shangri-la

The Tiger Gorge Trail

On my way up to Shangri-la (elev 9500), I unwittingly put myself into the unwanted predicament of vertigo by allowing a couple of Aussies to persuade me into a 3-day gorge-trek above the Yangtze River just south of Tibet and the Himalayan Plateau.  The locals call this place the Tiger Leaping Gorge and it is among the deepest ravines in the world.  The trail is an ancient highway that was originally built by the Han Chinese as a means to ferry teas, silks, and opium from India, Nepal, and Burma to Southwest China's Yunnan Province.  I found it to be pretty harrowing at times because if you step off the trail, you die.  You will literally fall off the face of the earth into an abyss that runs straight down 3000 feet to the water.  But why would you fall off??  Because often, this trail is only 18 inches wide!  No railings, no lifeguards, no safety nets.  Just waterfalls cascading down from the 2.5 thousand foot vertical wall of rock to your left.  Cross the slippery slope and you live to cross another one later.  Turn back?  You're two days in already.  But the views are stunning.  These snow-capped mountains trump most places in this world.  Wise it is to let the goods-ladened donkeys and their sherpas pass as they approach; they are nimble and deft at these dizzying heights.  I'm glad I went but I won't be doing that again.

As for Shangri-la, I was happy to have my feet on solid ground when I got to it.  It's a funky little place with loads of Tibetan prayer flags doing their thing in the wind.  Shangri-la is home to a Buddhist Monastery that gives purpose to 600 monks who live and operate there.  It is also home to the world's largest Prayer Wheel.  The Prayer Wheel works like this... Inside of it there are 12.4 Billion Mani's (Om Mani Padme Hum's) and each time the wheel spins 3 times around, it lets off 37.2 Billion Mani's into the universe. How does the wheel spin?  By human effort only.  Each day, from morning until night, the people of the town come together and exert their effort to turn the wheel so the universe can have these billions of prayers sent out.  Chances are good that right now, on that hill next to that monastery high in the mountains of the Yunnan Province in a tiny old town called Shangri-la, the Prayer Wheel keeps on turning...