Mt Everest from the main street of Tingri
Our schedule called for an overnight trip to the Chinese Everest Base Camp. (Everest is on the border, so there is also a Nepalese Everest Base Camp.) Though it was less than 30 miles away, the trip required a several-hour drive over very rough roads. The main attraction was a closer look at Mt. Everest. Half of us decided we had enough car time and would rather stay in Tingri.
Local transport on market day in Tingri (Timothy photo)
Fortuitous circumstances then came together. Patrick works as a volunteer at Machik, a Tibetan development organization based in Washington, D.C. (My daughter, Juliana, also worked there as an intern, and one of the founders spoke a year ago at the Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center.) Machik is named after Machik Labdron, a beloved 12th century Tibetan woman teacher, known especially for teaching laypeople practices that helped them reduce self-centeredness and attain Emptiness. Our guide grew up near Tingri and mentioned to Patrick that there was a cave/shrine near Tingri where Machik had lived and taught for several years. Though our guide went with the group to Everest Base Camp, his brother was a monk at a nearby temple and could show our driver the way.
Off we went, away from the main road towards the mountains. We traveled on tracks through the sand, pass several villages, and seemingly backwards in time. We passed people on horseback, herds of goats and sheep, and patches of barley growing in what looked like irrigated rice paddies. We parked the Land Cruiser and hiked up a valley to a set of adobe buildings on a hillside. The nearby hilltops had very old ruins, perhaps of fortresses or monasteries. (Like Tsaparang, this was an area where irrigation was possible, and thus a year-round settlement could thrive.)
The outside of the Machik cave/shrine
A young man had come from the nearby village with a key and opened the shrine building for us. Inside were lit butter lamps, thankas, and a variety of ritual objects. Nothing elaborate. Nothing official. It was simply a shrine the local people had maintained in memory of Machik Labdron for perhaps 800 years. 
- Inside the cave/shrine (Timothy photo)
As I looked out from the shrine/cave at the enormous vista, I felt nourished by the view that had nourished Machik Labdron so many years ago.
The view from the cave/shrine (Timothy photo)
