Muli monastery - then and now

When I first visited Muli monastery in the mid 90s it was a very remote and unspoilt place. I had to hike over the mountains from Yongning, and it took me two very tough days to get there (I was fit enough and stupid enough to do it solo in those days). I had no proper maps other than Joseph Rock's sketches, and yet I made it in one piece. The huge monastery complex housing thousands of monks that was photographed by Rock was gone, and only a single temple hall had been rebuilt. The setting was still quite spectacular, and I enjoyed my stay there, even though it did have a bit of a tragic and abandoned air about it. I have not been back since, but the recent Google Earth images suggest that more monastery buildings have been rebuilt and there is now a flashy road to the monastery, replacing the primitive gravel track that existed in 1995. There's not much reason to go to Muli - it's a fairly unremarkable monastery in a  dead-end valley. Perhaps that's why it has remained a relatively unspoiled place. You can read about my trip here.

Yongning then and now

Here's a picture of the Zhamei Si monastery at Yongning, just north of Lugu lake. When I visited in the 1990s the monastery had been rebuilt after being destroyed. Most  of the buildings that Rock photographed were gone, but if you look carefully in the picture you can see one of the main temple halls had still survived. I took this picture from the top of a nearby hill that I had climbed out of curiosity - it was only when I later looked at my photo that I realised it had been taken from the same place as Rock's - great minds think alike! This photo was taken en route to Muli monastery, you can read about that trip here.

Konka Gompa then and now

When I went there in 1991, the monastery at Gonga Shan hadn't changed much since Joseph Rock visited it in the late 1920s. The monastery had been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution but had been rebuilt in much the same style and in the same spot. These days (2014) there has been a lot more work done on the Gompa and it looks a bit more flash.

Yading then and now #2

The photo on the left was taken by Joseph Rock in the late 1920s. It shows a Tibetan shrine in the cliffs beneath Mt Chanadorje on a very remote section of the kora (circuit) around the three sacred Konkaling mountains. We stumbled across the same shrine on about the third day of doing the kora in 2011. It is truly in a very remote location, below one of the most difficult pass crossings. It used to be a resting place for Tibetan pilgrims doing the 5-6 day circuit of the mountains. As you can see some of the shrines have been destroyed but others rebuilt in a more haphazard way.

Yading then and now

I'm trying to get a full account published of all my journeys in Rock's footsteps. I have a manuscript that is being edited with a view to online publication as an e-book and available through sources such as Amazon. It would be nice to include some then-and-now photos to compare how the Tibetan borderlands have changed since Rock's visits in 1927. Here's one example:

Ragya monastery then and now

Here are pictures taken by Joseph Rock in 1926 and my own follow-up taken in 2012, of the Ragya (Lajia) monastery in Qinghai, on the banks of the Yellow river. As you can see - not much has changed.

The Mekong, just south of Deqin

This is the view of the river on the road down from Deqin to Cizhong, taken in October 2014. There used to be a very crude and dangerous unsurfaced road cut into the hillside. This has now been replaced with a new two-lane highway, complete with bridges and tunnels. Odd, because there is very little traffic on this road, which eventually goes all the way south to Weixi. Perhaps it will get busier when the short cut to the Nujiang over the Gaoliging mountains is completed.

Kawakarpo Kora: the WiChu (Yuqu, 玉曲) valley

This photo was taken with my Rolleicord and Kodak Ektachrome transparency film on the penultimate day of my trek. This is the view of the descent in to the Yuqu valley from the "Gebu pass", en route to Laide, which is located up a side valley on the other side of the river. Kawakarpo (Meili Xueshan) can be seen at the head of this valley.

Looking back at the Sho-La pass from the Yunnan side, October 2014

Look carefully at the ridge line and you can see the prayer flags.

Gongga Shan (Minya Konka) gompa in winter

Crikey that was cold.

Picture of the week: Yading, back of Chanadorje

Just came across this old image from my Yading kora trip which I've never posted before. It was taken with my Leica M2 on the second day as we walked round the back of Chanadorje on the way up to the 2nd pass (or actually on it?) . This is looking back down at where we'd come from.  Nice, I think.

Approaching the Sila (Selalaka) Pass, near Cizhong

Kawa Karpo kora: view looking north from Gebu high camp

This is the view looking north from the hut above Gebu village on the Yuqu (wichu) river.

From the 1990s archives: Muti Konka (aka Maidi Ganga 麦地贡嘎), Sichuan

This remote mountain is located about two days hard travelling on horseback from Jiulong country, south of Kangding - near to the Yalong river canyon.

From the sublime to the noodles .... breakfast after viewing the sunrise on Meili Xueshan at Fei Lai Si

The Wichu (Qiqu) river valley

Just over the pass from Gebu, on the way to Laide, in Tibet. By Rolleicord.

Yufeng Si (temple) Camellia tree 1990s and now

 

This was taken during our ill-fated attempt to hike to Yading via Muli. Me and these kiwis got as far as Muli and halfway over to the Shouchu valley before getting bogged down and lost. And getting a logging truck back to Muli (Wachang). We visited the Yufeng Si temple near Lijiang before we set off. Keith Lyons (second right) liked the place so much he settled there and now runs his guiding agency in Lijiang.

 

Same tree, 20 years later. Autumn, so not in bloom.

Video of the earthquake in Kangding

Some 'vision' of the earthquake as captured by Kangding street cameras.

From the archives: Jambeyang

Taken at the three-way pass above the lakes next to Shenrezig, 2010?.

Pic of the day: Deqin (Atuntze)

I tried to take this photo from the same spot where Joseph Rock took his photo in 1926 of Deqin (then known as Atuntze). His photo showed a forlorn village of just a few mud houses in a sloping valley. It was only when I climbed to the top of this hill above Deqin where the monastery used to be that I realised he had taken his photo much further away, from the curve of a track at the top of the valley. By this time it was too late in the day to get there, so I did a direct descent past a chorten, back into town. This vantage point is on the hill above the town square, reached by a twisting switchback road that passes a small valley with a waterfall. There is a more direct route straight up if you can find the obscure path that leads up there. The monastery is now being rebuilt in concrete, after having being demolished during the Cultural revolution and transposed to the other side of the valley (an unlucky spot, apparently). The site of the old monastery is now occupied by a village called Gusong.