Author Archives for Konchog Norbu
One Hump or Two?
Very nice. Vesna Wallace writes in to alert me and, by extension, you to a short video clip on YouTube called Los Ojos de Shambhala (helpful translation: "The Ojos of Shambhala"). Shot by Argentine travelers, it mostly depicts Danzan Ravjaa's Khamariin Khiid and sacred Shambhala site in the Eastern ...>
The Mother That Gives Birth to All Things
Several folks have written to be sure I’m aware of the atrocities being visited upon the courageous, peacefully protesting monks and nuns, and their lay Burmese compatriots, by the current criminal regime in Myanmar. I am, and I feel agonized and somewhat helpless. I’ve signed an online pe ...>
Wheel of Ecstasy
For those of you who didn’t check out the comments to the previous post, savvy readers ID’d the strange creature I photographed in the South Gobi as a species of a fascinating and ancient crustacean known as a Triops. Like, really ancient. Basically unchanged in 220 million years. And really fa ...>
Gobi Pre-History
Back a bit early from an utterly spectacular, 2000km transverse of Mongolia's South and East Gobi provinces. Newly discovering these exquisite expanses, I've returned even more deliriously in love with this desert. In fact, this morning I feel like this lovely looks, whose portrait I snapped along ...>
Singing Songs About the Southland
Beyond psyched. A vague plan that'd been floating around in the ether for a month or two suddenly coalesced -- Thursday morning I'm jumping in a Land Cruiser (I hope) and road tripping with my buddy Sukhee to Omnogov Province, or the Southern Gobi. This was a major power spot for Danzan Ravjaa, wit ...>
Helter Swelter
Last night, they switched on The Glorious People's Revolutionary Central Heating System, which marks the beginning of about two weeks, when the daytime highs are still in the 60's and 70's, that I of the nuclear fusionary metabolism will scowl in cranky sweltertude at my control knob-less radiators ...>
Word
Bipeds were also involved in Monday’s Shambhala Shindig in the Gobi, including some of my most favorite. Hovering near the top of the list is Ts. Sharavdorj, one of two Members of Parliament who represent the Dornogov province in Mongolia's Ikh Khural. Religion wasn’t much a part of Sharavdorj ...>
Special Delivery
It ain’t easy to get to Shambhala, man.
Our 6:30am departure – going by car this time – met with MIA (and cell-less) drivers, forgotten items to be retrieved from remote locations, and a vehicle switch-out that put us on the road at 9:30, instead. Along the way, a long stop to squint at a noi ...>
This: The Wind That Makes Everything Right
Just finished Dostoevsky’s Devils (published elsewhere as The Possessed, but I read the Oxford World Classic, wot?). I didn’t quite catch in The Brothers K how sharply funny D is, but it’s rife in this novel. Out of the 756 exquisitely brilliant pages, this bit was my favorite. Shatov’s wif ...>
Wrappers’ Delight
“At the end of five hundred years
My presence will be in the form of scriptures.
Consider them as identical to me
And show them due respect.”
In The Words of My Perfect Teacher, Paltrul Rinpoche uses this quotation from Shakyamuni Buddha to illustrate the Buddhist practice of ‘taking refuge ...>