Our Journal

Kangtsa Medical College

Kangtsa is a small monastery situated on the border between Zorge and Karkya. Along with Shakyong and Takster, it is among the oldest Gelukpa mo...

The Tibetan Poncho

As in the case of its South American cousin, on the Tibetan Plateau the poncho is worn for riding, for walking in the rain and braving the ever...

First Snow

The first snow is a soft reminder that winter is coming. After a string of sunny, crisp days, it soothes the grassland in moisture, coaxing the...

Fog

At an altitude of 3,200 meters, the clouds are never very far. One often wakes to an obliterated horizon, concluding that the fog will lift and...

Autumn is Here

It starts with frosty mornings and frozen flowers. Soon the bushes turn red and yellow, and the pasture goes from green to golden with all the ...

Picnic 3

The third and last day is the wildest. Around 3:00 pm the tent dismantling process begins, and along with that, the water fights, pitting men a...

Neighbors

Norlha is a member of a closely knit community where relations between people and those with animals are closely synched in the rhythm of every...

Ode to Summer

There is a magic ten days on the plateau in mid-July that marks the height of the wildflower season. Even during their busiest time of year, yo...

Picnic 2

On the second day, the games begin; traditional games like tug of war and races, party games like eating a dangling apple or feeding each other...

Celebrating the Last of Summer

Spring on the plateau is the least remarkable of seasons. It creeps in quietly, with the exhausted pasture turning from brown to a timid green....

Picnic 1

Tibetan picnics are a world unto themselves, a celebration of summer, of blue skies with billowing clouds, of green expanses; a time to enjoy n...

Autumn is coming, and so is the Norlha blanket