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With language classes arranged, my next step was contacting my Tibetan connections. My Buddhist teacher, Bardor Tulku Rinpoche, had given the contact information of a lama in Nangchen while my Phd advisor told me to contact his colleague at SWUN. My advisor’s colleague, Professor Osel, could introduce me to language partners to practice spoken Tibetan. This was critical as studying Kham dialect had proven to be surprisingly difficult. Contacting the lama in Nangchen recommended by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche was significantly easier. I reached him through Wechat. The only challenge was his level of english was about the same as my Tibetan. As a result, I never quite caught his name so I shall henceforth refer to him as Lama Dawa (or Lama Moon).

My plans for travelling to Tibet took shape quickly. My advisor had warned against travelling after November. Despite the gleaming new black-top highways criss-crossing the plateau and linking it to the Chinese mainland, winter travel in Tibet remains treacherous. Luckily, China celebrates a national holiday at the start of October and this gave me the chance to travel before the weather turned grim. October 1st is China National Day, a holiday celebrating the founding of the People’s Republic. From the first of October to the seventh, people take a week to celebrate the Chinese equivalent of Canada Day and the Fourth of July. Apart from lunar new year, this is the most popular time for people in China to travel.

After some discussion with Lama Dawa, arrangements for my visit were finalized. This involved a series of comical phone calls and voice messages where he and I desperately tried to figure out what the other was saying. Lama Dawa was directing the construction of a new monastic college, or shedra, and the shedra had a dorm where I could stay. Lama Dawa was managing the project with the help of another lama. I also failed to catch this lama’s name so I shall henceforth refer to him as Lama Nyima (or Lama Sun). If I flew to Yushu, one of the main transit points in Tibet, Lama Nyima had a relative who could give me a lift from Yushu to the shedra.