“I used to have a friend from Tibet. Yeah, he did mushrooms and I haven’t seen him since”
“Oh wow. Now I hear it’s all about LSD”
Location Overheard: Webster’s Bookstore & Café
I’d have to say, this was one of the more unusual conversations to overhear, really, in any public space. Two old men with graying beards, crouched over bowls of soups sat at Webster’s at a table adjacent to my own, enjoying a nice Sunday brunch. After hearing this one specific line I couldn’t help but continue to listen. Turns out, after listening to a bit more of their conversation, the man with the Tibetan friend served in the army, was a doctor in Japan, and was also a pimp for a brief moment in time. Interesting enough, this man seemed to have lived several lives in his one lifetime and now sat in a basement lined with used books in State College telling his story to his friend at a rather loud volume. In fact, he spoke so loudly that my eavesdropping could hardly be classified as that and should rather be considered as casual listening.
Anyway, after being fascinated by the Tibetan man who did mushrooms, I decided to do some research on Tibet and unearth his rather captivating culture. Disclaimer: this blog post will not feature any sort of analysis of the psychedelic drugs mentioned in the above dialogue. Let’s save that compelling conversation for another post.
Tibet is an autonomous region within China and is centrally located on the Asian continent, falling directly above Eastern India and Nepal. In 1913, Tibet’s spiritual and political leader, the 13th Dalai Lama, affirmed Tibet’s independence. However, by 1950 Communist regime in China had invaded Tibet, and to this day the nation remains under Chinese occupation. There are still remnants of tension between the two nations. In fact, this past year it was discovered that Google has been assisting China in creating a search engine named ‘DragonFly’ that will censor and limit Tibet’s access to certain information that is linked with words, such as “human rights,” “democracy,” “Dalai Lama,” or “Tibet.” It is set to be launched in 2019.
Tibet’s geography is unique as its Southern territory is bordered by the Himalayan Mountains. So if you are aware of where Mount Everest is located and the geography and climate that aligns with this particular region, then you probably have a good sense of what Tibet is like. Tibet actually takes home the award for the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 16,000 feet.
After a few articles in, I found that Tibet also has some interesting facts worth noting. Roughly 47% of the world’s population depends on the flow of fresh water from Tibet because of the Tibetan plateau, which is currently the third largest storage of water and ice in the world.
Also, Buddhism is essentially the foundation of Tibetan culture. You may have previously seen these colorful, rectangular pieces of cloth before. They are in fact called prayer flags and are often found strung alongside mountain ridges or suspended from the peaks of the Himalayas. Their primary use is to bless the surrounding countrysides. The flags are meant to be constantly blowing in the wind, and it is said that their movements will spread goodwill, peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom.
Color and order are essential to the layout of the prayer flags as well. From left to right, prayer flags are strung in the order of blue, white, red, green, and yellow and represent the five elements. Health and harmony are believed to be produced through the balance of all five elements.
Well, that concludes today’s brief lesson on Tibetan culture. Hopefully, the man’s friend from Tibet who took mushrooms and mysteriously vanished is doing alright. We may not know who he is or where he is, but at least we now know a bit more about his culture.