30 July 2006 * Memories of Dege: Circumambulation

Circumambulating the Dege Printing Academy is my favorite thing to do in Dege. There is always an interesting mix of people doing “kora” around the printing academy, as it is one of the main pilgrimage destinations in Eastern Tibet. I found myself doing circuits with elderly men and women hobbling around the academy on canes as well as young children toddling around after their parents, uncles, and grandparents.

I circled for a while with one black-hatted man who had come from Chamdo to do over 1000 circumambulations at last count.

I also circled with a 12-year old boy from Sershul County, who amused me greatly with his sharp, bright, bubbly personality. He kept plying me with question after question on everything from the price of a computer in Canada to my opinions on many more NBA players and teams than I could identify. I felt strongly that he was a very special boy, and wonder if I might meet him again one day.

30 July 2006 * Memories of Dege: Tibetan Doctor

While in Dege, we met a renowned Tibetan doctor at the Dege Tibetan Medical Institute (I’ve forgotten his name).

The doctor sat at his desk like a king upon his throne, a broad smile on his face as he felt the right and left wrists of his patients, carefully analyzing their pulses and asking several diagnostic questions. Then he would get out a prescription form booklet, interleave triplicate carbons, and write out a series of prescriptions.



Tara received prescriptions for her neck, back, and sciatica pains; a mélange of 3 or 4 Tibetan medicines to be taken in different combinations morning, noon, and night. To get them filled, we went to the dispensary, where the clerk used an abacus to total our bill.