Chab Cha Herbal Retreat

Hi all! Our latest group expedition took us to an area known as Chab Cha. The main purpose of our trip was to meet up with roughly 40 Tibetan medical students and join them on an herb picking expedition. The plan was to go camping in the region, but due to a mixed blessing of heavy rain, we stayed overnight in a monastery town instead.

The town we stayed in was amazing. The majority of people in residence were Tibetan monks, and over 300 of them lived there in total. The town was located in a valley situated between green hills filled with sheep and goat herds and larger mountains further behind. The night we arrived we were able to hike up to a monastery and were rewarded with spectacular views of the valley.









We then went to the only restaurant in the town for some authentic Tibetan cooking.










After dinner we explored the town and came upon a very friendly monk named Lo Sang Xiang Qi. He spoke Chinese in addition to his native Tibetan, so Stephanie was able to communicate a little with him. He invited us to join him in his house for some tea and we gratefully accepted. In the courtyard of his home, young monks were performing ritualistic chants and we learned that Lo Sang Xiang Qi was a teacher and disciplinarian for the town. We sat with him for awhile drinking tea, eating tsamba and looking through his Tibetan/English dictionary in our attempts to communicate. As we left, he gave us each white scarves that have special significance in Tibetan Buddhism.










The place where we stayed in the town belonged to a relative of our group leader, Renchen Dhondrup. We were cared for during our stay there by some young monks who helped make our stay very enjoyable.










The next morning we set our alarm so we could wake up early and explore the hills surrounding the town. Some of the sights during the hike included beautiful views of the valley below, a flock of sheep, and a herd of goats being led to pasture by a Tibetan herder.










At 8:30 that morning we headed out to join up with the Tibetan medical students to learn about herbs frequently used in Tibetan medicine. We walked through the fields and forests, and Renchen taught us about the medicinal properties of several herbs.










At the end of our journey we came to the area we where were meant to camp the night before. We decided it might be fun to take this opportunity to throw around the football. After just a few tosses all the Tibetan students became very excited and wanted to join us. My guess is that many of them had never seen or held an actual football, not to mention seen a football game. What happened next was great!The Tibetan students proceeded to create their own version of tackle football, which was hilarious to watch. It evolved into a hybrid of football, soccer and rugby. They were very athletic and very physical, unafraid of sacrificing their bodies to score a goal. They had a great time and we had a great time watching them.










As we left them at the end of the day, they sang to us and said several goodbyes. It was a wonderful experience.



On our drive home we stopped by the home of some Tibetan nomads who were currently dwelling high in the hills. As we approached, about seven of them emerged from the black tent they lived in. We offered them some fruit and were allowed to check out their tent and joined them in eating watermelon.















This was the last extended group field trip we had as part of our program, and a great one to end on. Many thanks to Renchen for making it all possible. He has been a tremendous leader and has given us the opportunity to see many aspects of Tibetan medicine and culture that would otherwise be impossible to see. We really appreciate everything he has done for us.

View more pictures of Chab Cha here