Himalayan Journeys Along the Ancient Silk Roads: My Cultural Immersion in the Wisdom Traditions of Asia

By Pamala Wayland

In choosing this manuscript, you are entering into the realm of adventure, travel, synchronicity, and enlightenment. It is a rich read with stories of high altitude adventures and deep cultural immersion. It is the story of my journeys that unfolded in the Himalayas and the Asian landscapes of the Silk Roads over decades of travel which sculpted a complex worldview. It offers a looking glass into a serpentine and deeply philosophical world filled with the textures, tastes, and splendor of the Asian continent.

It is an opportunity to visit this part of our human heritage, to hold a gem in your hand. The text is lined with maps and gorgeous photos that place the far flung cultures of Asia in context where they live, where they have evolved with the philosophies and the exchange of ideas along the trade routes that have reshaped my own worldview. It is an account of what it is possible to learn when you travel with purpose, describing encounters with shamans, hermits, and wise people. The book refers to how synchronicities flow with ease when deeply engaged in the world and as I set foot on the Buddhist path to compassion, understanding, and awakening.

As I criss-crossed the Silk Roads, I photographed the cultures that I was moving through and gathered an understanding of life as it is lived in indigenous sustainable cultures. The beauty, the pageantry and the symbolism I have explained in detail intending to impart an understanding of the ancient cultures that so richly offer us a path back to ourselves, back to our true nature.

It is a beautiful read and has been described as, “Stunning and gorgeous
writing.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798823017466

Book preview

© 2023 Pamala Wayland. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

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ISBN: 979-8-8230-1745-9 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1746-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023921529

Published by AuthorHouse 12/13/2023

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Contents

Awakening to the Journey On Distant Shores

Chapter 1Awakening: The Inspired Journey

Chapter 2China: Synchronicity

Chapter 3Into China: Entering the ‘Forbidden Land’

Chapter 4Through the Ancient Heart of Yunnan: Tiger Leaping Gorge

Meaningful Diversions on the Path

Chapter 5Sri Lankan Tsunami: Reasons for Journeying, My Education was just Beginning

Chapter 6The Ashram and the Train Across India: Eco Community

Chapter 7Nepal Odyssey: Clean Water, Mountain Climbing and Finding Buddhism

Chapter 8Nepal in a Time of Revolution: Deciphering Complexity

Chapter 9Annapurna Circuit: Unexpected Consequences

Shamanism, Survival, and Tangible Mysteries

Chapter 10Ladakh: Finding Shamans

Chapter 11The Passage: Immersion in the Great Himalayan Range

Chapter 12Tibet: The Mystical Towers

Confucianism, Origins of the Silk Road, and Immortality

Chapter 13Tagong: Immortality, the Hermit, and Sky Burial

Chapter 14The Great Wall, Confucianism, and Understanding the Chinese Way of Life

Chapter 15Origins of the Silk Roads: Xian Accompanied By the Terracotta Warriors

Chapter 16Turtuk Through Nubra Valley

A Buddhist Worldview, Ladakh in Perspective, Journeys in the Zanskar

Chapter 17Leh: The Women’s Alliance Project

Chapter 18A Month in the Zanskar: Karsha Monastery and The Masked Dances

Chapter 19Zangla: The Wedding and the Queen of Zangla

Chapter 20Phuktal Monastery: Teaching English in the Cave and Chasing the Wind Horse

Chapter 21The Dalai Lama Teaches

Chapter 22Women Inside Buddhism

Chapter 23Ladakhi Conclusions

Out of China Into SE Asia and Down the Mekong

Chapter 24Out of Ancient China: Finding the Missing Piece, Myanmar

Chapter 25Cambodia: Celestial Kindom of Angkor Wat

Chapter 26Slow Boat Down the Mekong: River of 9 Dragons Into Laos

Chapter 27Infinite Pause: The Completion of Knowledge in a World Gone Mad

Epilogue

Himalayan Journeys Along the

Ancient Silk Roads

My Cultural Immersion in the

Wisdom Traditions of Asia

By Pamala Wayland

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this manuscript to my parents who brought me into the world and who taught me the importance of having ethics as we go through life. They inspired me to seek traditions that are imbued with meaning and with wisdom.

When I was about 10 years old, I asked my father if he could give me wisdom, he said that he couldn’t and that I would have to come by it as I lived my life. I was so disappointed but he was right, as this book attests.

I dedicate this manuscript as well, to those who honor the spirit of adventure, inspiration, and enlightenment, and to those who choose to live in an awakened state of compassion and kindness.

Ancient Silk Roads

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Introduction

Each of our lives unfold in the form of stories if we survive to share them. My journeys and the stories that unfolded in the Himalayas over decades of travel sculpted a complex worldview. I hope these stories will act as a looking glass into a serpentine and deeply philosophical world filled with the textures, tastes, and splendor of the Asian continent.

I write this so those who may not have the opportunity to visit this part of our human heritage will be able to hold a gem in their hand, a microcosm providing a glimpse into the cultures of Asia. The philosophies and cultures are explained through my personal experiences of trauma, difficulties, synchronicity, and understanding while traversing the varied landscapes of the Asian continent.

In this time of modern day adventurers the world has been intrinsically accessible. The combined knowledge of all of our world cultures has been at our fingertips. Most international borders have been open, while all adventures have been possible. In the recent past I have had only to consider what I wanted to learn. If by interacting with diverse indigenous cultures I could come to a deeper understand of the world, then I had only to move in that direction.

It is in this light that I set out to explore and to discover the mysteries held in the forbidden land of China where foreigners are few and far between. It is however, the whole of the Southeast Asian and South Asian cultures that constitute that portion of the history of the ancient Silk Roads. This is what I set out decades ago to understand by journeying deep into the landscapes of Asia along those rough and sometimes not so silken roads.

This is a collection of stories that have a common thread, the journey along the ancient Silk Roads. While life sometimes seems to take place on a linear timeline, at other times it seems to happen in a circular way as we continuously return to our evolving self, hopefully wiser and more aware. This was the nature of my interactions along the Silk Roads of the Asian continent as they weave their way across a vast landscape.

I share these journeys as a woman of the modern era yet these stories are entwined with the ancient world. They will take you into the world of the ancestors who reside within the multitude of civilizations on the Asian continent.

Central to my writings on the journey are the philosophies, the history, and the evolution of these ancient worlds which have shepherded them into the current moment. My own worldview has greatly evolved as it has become steeped in compassion for our shared humanity.

I am deeply grateful for the volume of experiences, the people, the families, and fellow adventurers with whom I have shared these precious times traveling throughout Asia.

However temporary, it is not now possible since 2020, to move freely between countries, culture to culture. Yet it is one of our most precious abilities which I am certain we all hold dear, to roam freely on our beautiful planet earth, this blue green gem moving through a vast universe that belongs to all of us...now off to the Silk Roads!

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Where the Silk Roads cross Nubra Valley, Ladakh

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The Oracle

Chapter 1: Awakening: The Inspired Journey

Chapter 1

The Inspired Journey:

Reflections On The Nature of Life

"I’ve been preparing for the climb all my life...

now I know how I’m going to die."

–– Jimmy Chin, Climber, Film Director, ‘Free Solo’

It was the end of the summer season in the high altitudes of Ladakh. One of the last festivals of summer, the very Buddhist, Mani Rimdu Dances were being held at the Hemis Monastery. These are the masked dances which are designed to illustrate through emoticon masks what negative emotions can cause internally. Circumstances will always influence us emotionally, while we have the choice as to how we react, in wisdom or in travail. The Mani Rimdu Masked Dances were taking place simultaneously at many monasteries throughout Ladakh in the ‘chimney of India’ in this land of Kashmir.

I had decided to camp in my own little tent above the monastery in the cradle of the mountain to attend the masked dances. My friend Andres had camped out beside me to attend the dances as well. I’d met Andres in Leh, Ladakh’s provincial capital, two months previous. We had discussed our mutual longing to trek through the Markha Valley tucked into the Great Himalayan Range. It was renowned for its incomparable beauty. There was only one high pass to cross and just enough time in late September for a last trek through the high altitude landscapes before winter arrived. After a deep and engaging experience of the Masked Dances at Hemis Monastery, we agreed to meet in Leh to finalise our plans. The trekking season was coming to a close and time was of the essence. We stuffed our survival gear into our packs and headed into the wilderness of the high altitude landscapes. Little did we know, we were truly leaving all that we knew behind.

After a week of intense trekking over extreme terrain, we were in the midst of it, crossing the 17,000 ft. (5200m) pass and facing completely unexpected circumstances. The temperatures had dropped well below freezing and it was beginning to snow as we descended from the pass. We were still well above tree line and found ourselves walking on the edge of an iced over river framed by frozen waterfalls along cliffs concealed within the Great Himalayan Range. We watched the snow laden storm clouds gathering at our backs throughout the day as we hurried across the high altitude scree fields. Darkness fell and snow enveloped us. It was apparent, winter had indeed arrived.

We had no choice but to carry on despite having been trekking for thirteen hours. We seemed to be moving through a wilderness of great proportion, engulfed in the unknown and the unseen as our body temperatures fell and darkness descended. We were using head lamps to guide our footsteps along cliffs in the pitch blackness. One step off the edge of the icy rock strewn path could send us plunging hundreds of feet to our death. Hypothermia and dehydration began to overwhelm us as we descended through the snow and ice.

Finally, out of the darkness, there emerged the faintest smell of smoke lacing the air. Suddenly 10,000 years of evolution passed in moments, we had entered civilization again with its languages, its fire, its shelter, and most of all its human ambiance. We had surfaced out of the darkness and the cold into the warmth of humanity again.

Knowledge of the nearness of death walking beside us while in extreme circumstances leaves the clearest impression of what compels us to live the life we choose. It is the crossroads where our emotions synchronise with our future aspirations. These reflections emerged through a close encounter with death in the Himalayas in 2008 while trekking at high altitude. The impact of those experiences served as the driving force in my desire to know more about these insurmountable mountains and their ancient indigenous cultures.

The Himalayas had drawn me into their mystery. Like a cat with nine lives, I died many times on this journey to understand the world from all angles. I came to understand that it is the journey through the universe and our understanding that matters. While death is a profound event, it is a mere moment in time, what leads up to that moment is where the meaning of life is continuously formed.

What opened within me through this experience, was a keen desire to understand the evolution of the people who populate the vast ranges of the Himalayas. Knowing the entirety of the Himalayan cultures meant I would have to travel to China, then into Tibet. Traveling to China to understand its ancient cultures takes a lot of preparation, practically and psychologically. There is a beautiful synchronicity which can happen while contemplating the journey, where all of the coordinates align and the journey falls into place with ease. The coordinates aligned for my entry into China with an easy synchronicity in early 2018 when I was in North Vietnam teaching English in a small municipality on the border with China. I was enveloped in the ambiance of the Hill Tribes at their origins, teaching English as a second language. The hope was for the current generation to be able to navigate the greater world more easily. It was a mere 15 minute motorbike ride to the border crossing into China, however, this overland crossing was prohibited to foreigners.

During that year my friend Elizabeth’s husband, Steven, had been running a school in Suzhou (su-jou), China just outside of Shanghai. She was there visiting him. We got in touch and it seemed that Steven had a week’s vacation coming up. We agreed this was the perfect time for them to come visit me and I would introduce them to North Vietnam.

We met in Hanoi and planned a week long tour of the North by motorcycle and by boat. Given the thousands of years that went into its making, a week is an infinitesimally short amount of time to spend exploring Vietnam’s ancient culture. Nevertheless, it is the time that we had and we quickly headed to Halong Bay, the World Heritage site on the South China Sea. We made our way into the Ninh Binh region a short distance south of Halong Bay sheltered in the mountainous Karst geological formations.

The massive Bai Dinh Temple Complex sits squarely in the midst of cavernous limestone mountains draped in flourescent jungle foliage. The Buddhist religion combined with the ancient Vietnamese practice of ancestral worship blend easily with the ecology and mystical landscapes that outline the North as if the ecology and its human inhabitants were one.

My favorite microcosm of a temple hidden in the Ninh Binh landscapes, Bitchdong, is inserted into the geology, sitting inside a very large cave. Most of the temples in the Ninh Binh region are situated inside caves. The temples always mark the opening and act as shelter to the dedicated pilgrim who has come to sit in prayerful meditation on the Buddhist path through the Vietnamese countryside.

These temples and many others embedded into the landscape mark the north of Vietnam as extreme and unique. My friends returned the following week back to Suzhou. They realized that this was the perfect time for me to come visit them in China as well. And so it is that I was invited with perfect synchronicity to the forbidden land.

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Halong Bay Fishing

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Hmong Hill Tribes of North Vietnam on the Border with China

Chapter 2: China: Synchronicity

Chapter 2

China:

Synchronicity

I resigned from my teaching position in North Vietnam with the monsoon season approaching. It is a six hour sleeper-bus ride south from Ha Giang, on the Chinese border, to Hanoi where I planned to apply for my visa to China. Turned out, it was a good decision to apply at the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi as the turn around time is less then a week. I went all in for the ten year visa and waited the five days it takes to process to see if I would be accepted. Then went back to the embassy and waited.

I had met many a traveler who chose the path to enter China with the same degree of wonder and interest. Some were allowed into the realm of this forbidden land and others, for no discernible reason, were not allowed in. Obtaining my papers to enter China was fraught with roadblocks but at every turn I surmounted them. However, at one point in the days it took to apply, I gave up, briefly.

It seemed I had to keep producing documents that I didn’t have. Finally I was told that I needed a copy of my friend’s passport. My friend who was in China. I needed it pretty much immediately if I was to turn my application in during the time allotted me to apply since I had started the process. I emailed my friends in China right away and though they could have been anywhere, they happened to be online and answered by sending me a copy of my friend’s passport!

The chances of that happening were one in a million that it would happen in the time frame of zero minutes. That was it, I turned in my paperwork and had to wait through the weekend. There was one last difficulty upon returning to