When I returned to the U.S. this kind of carpet was selling for around 500 to 600 dollars. However, I was able to purchase it in Dharamshala, India for about 80 dollars at that time. I rolled it up backside out to protect it and took it with me to wherever I was staying the next 3 1/2 months because it had already been since December 11th that I had been traveling with my family and then our friend the Tibetan Lama who was a Geshe called Geshe Lobsang Gyatso which means "Spiritual Friend Kind and Strong Ocean of Wisdom".
Eventually Geshela came back to the U.S. and lived with us for a awhile along with his translator from Darjeeling, India then in 1986. We returned to the U.S. on the Northern California Coast late in April of that year I believe. We met Geshela in Bodhgaya India and my whole family then received the "Kalachakra Initiation" which takes one into the mandala of Shambala and the King of Shambala. I later wrote about my own experiences of the King of Shambala as:
This was my experience of who the "King of Shambala was and is". Other people are going to have their own perspective of this depending upon what they remember from this lifetime and all the others of each being and soul. Since many people don't believe in multiple lifetimes for millions and billions of years this also might change people's perceptions as well. However, I can only write of my experiences and hope my sharing will be helpful to as many people as possible.
When I first bought my dragon carpet and slept on it a lot while in Dharamsala with my North Face Sleeping bag because heating wasn't something one found in rooms rented there at that time. My family and I finally bought a kerosene stove of the type one found then in that area of India which was primarily for making tea and cooking food which was of a portable type but effective. However, this stove also kept our rooms above 50 degrees so we didn't freeze as people from Tibet often don't heat where they live because often in Sherpa homes the eves of the living room are open to the outside because they don't use chimneys much. So, homes often were very cold at night and hopefully above freezing. So, there would be a fire in the middle of the living room made only for cooking tea and food that everyone would huddle up close to while they cooked in the Himalayas at that time. This was while we trekked through the parts of the Himalayas without roads or electricity at that time in 1986. So, sleeping bags that were good to about Zero degrees Fahrenheit were necessary for all members of my family because often outside temperatures were below freezing without the homes we stayed in being heated in any formal way except for cooking.
At my present age of 64 I likely would no longer consider this type of physically stressful journey but at that time I was 37 in 1986 and my then wife was also 37 and our kids were 10,12, and 14 and we were both all young, healthy and very strong on all levels. So, for one weeks time we trekked about 50 miles from about 5000 feet in altitude to 10,000 or 11,000 feet in altitude away from Electricity and any roads at all. This was before Heliports and small airstrips were put into the back country for rich tourists and rich locals in different locations in the Himalayas.
I remember one morning while I was in Dharamshala, India. The sun hadn't come up yet so it was early like about 5 or 6 am in the morning and we walked by a woman washing her son in a tin wash basin who was about 4 years old in cold water. And I thought to myself as we walked by this boy in ice cold water being washed by his mother without complaint at 5 am how soft we in the U.S. and Europe are compared to these incredibly strong and hearty people. So, even if most of them die before 40 or 50 they are amazingly strong until they are gone in all ways.
Most Tibetans because they live at such high altitudes have relatively short lives. Another problem
that they deal with is to live above 8000 feet in altitude like most Tibetans do (Dharamshala in India is at about 5500 to 7000 feet in altitude) when they try to live in more tropical climates like most of India they often get ill and die from tropical diseases because they are used to a much richer diet of a lot of greasy meat and Yak Butter tea and Tsampa which is roasted Barley Flour that they use for walking long distances a lot like hikers in the U.S. would use Granola, Muesli, or Protein Bars. It is mixed with Yak Butter or water or other things and turns into a lump of food usually. Thinking about just how different everything was when I visited in 1985 and 1986 to Nepal and India was just so entirely different than anything here in the U.S. that at times I don't know where to even begin to start to share the differences at that time. The best way to put this is that it was like going to another planet being especially in India to begin with, but then to go to Dharamshala with all the Tibetans then in Native Dress with men from Kham and other Tibetan provinces with long braids tied up with Red Ribbon and incredibly macho attitudes was sort of like being in a movie from a completely different time. I loved it. But it was nice to come home to a place that was warm after spending January 1986 in Dharamshala, India which as I said before is an average of over 6000 feet in elevation so there often would be temperatures below 30 degrees Fahrenheit day or night and Snow either there or nearby in the mountains that locally there go to 15,000 feet or 20,000 feet in elevation. Most of the Himalayas is above 15,000 to 20,000 feet or more in elevation.
A friend of mine rode in a Bus from Kathmandu to Lhasa around that time and they came upon a bus load of dead Tibetans, Nepalis and Western Tourists around 22,000 feet at the pass into Tibet from Nepal. It seems the Bus had died and at that altitude so had everyone on board from the exposure and the altitude before help could come. Also at that altitude they might just be left like that for a variety of reasons because it is basically almost impossible to accomplish much at 22,000 feet unless you are wearing an oxygen mask and those were not common then in the Himalayas. And anyone at that altitude would be frozen solid most of the year even inside a bus.
So, hopefully you are getting just how austere and difficult the Himalayas actually were at that time for anyone traveling in a vehicle. And I'm not sure just how much that has changed to now. Another lady I knew from my Church in California had wanted to go to Tibet all her life. However, when she got off the plane in Lhasa, Tibet she died from the altitude at 12,000 feet within about 15 minutes time because she was 70 at the time. I find at 64 I have to be careful spending the night above 5000 feet in altitude because it is quite an adjustment now at this age. That seems to be what you have to watch out for. You might just get a headache being at 7100 feet say at a place like Santa Fe, New Mexico. However, if you are older you might just pass on in the night if you don't take some time to let your body slowly adjust to being in a higher altitude. However, the one good thing about living at a higher altitude is you don't tend to gain as much weight because you are having to breathe so much faster to get enough oxygen into your blood stream to stay oxygenated. But still, one must adjust to this slowly especially if you live at sea level which I have now since about 1992. I find I like living near the ocean. I really like living in the mountains too. But, I find I really start longing for the ocean after a while. So, this is why I have migrated back to the ocean these last 20 years or so.
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