Gogovivi

Damchi's Path

She is Damchi, age 64. She is a Tibetan Buddhist nun. She has lived at the Labrang monastery in Gangu province, China, for 60 years.

For Damchi, each day is similar to the one before: she wakes before dawn and, clad in crimson robes, begins her walking meditation around the monastery. From dawn until midday she walks, passing temples, stupas, and spinning 1,178 prayer wheels along the way.

She is one of about 1,200 Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns who live and study at the monastery, which is one of the most significant Tibetan Buddhist monasteries outside Tibet. Shifting her prayer beads under her thumb as she moves, whispering to herself, she walks among Tibetan pilgrims who have traveled great distances to pay their respects to the Buddha, and to walk the Kora, the 3 km circambulation path that encloses the monastery.

The pilgrims move clockwise, always clockwise. Some walk and spin prayer wheels, while others perform dramatic full-length prostrations, one after another, around the perimeter of the pilgrim's path. Most pilgrims wear the traditional clothing of Tibet, while a handful wear the typical modern garb of the Han Chinese. Those performing prostrations wear makeshift full-length protective gear, including heavy gloves, aprons, and face masks to protect them from the abrasive effects of concrete, dirt, and tarmac.

For Damchi, the process is partly meditative, partly social, and partly anthropological. She repeats her sutras, spins the prayer wheels, and reverently bows at prominent points along the path.

 

She also answers many, many questions about me from curious passersby: Where am I from, why I am with her, and what else she knows about me. We converse in my elementary Chinese and I am again simultaneously thankful that I have learned enough Chinese to have these conversations, and full of regret that I cannot speak more fluently and cannot get more out of these priceless moments.

After one full turn around the Kora, I take one last photograph and thank Damchi for her time, her patience, and her kindness. Then we part, and I watch her as she continues down the path of her life.

Life is not all simple in Labrang. You can learn more about recent events at the Labrang monastery here and here. Also here.

Vivian's Lost Year

Yesterday Vivian, at 5 1/2 years old, graduated from kindergarten. This September she will start Year 1, aka First Grade.

Now, I could be mistaken, considering that I have never raised a child in the States, but I think that if Vivian was going to school in Oregon, she wouldn't start first grade until September 2012. An entire year later (she is, like I was, a November baby, which will make her one of the oldest children in her class). The explanation for the difference is that her school in Qingdao is a British system school, which has 13 years, with Year 1 starting at age 5.

Though I rolled my eyes and said a few words to myself about the utter ridiculousness of a graduation ceremony for preschoolers, I am feeling a little bit emotional about the whole thing. About time passing too quickly, about my daughter growing up too soon, and about starting school in a foreign country when I really expected, all along, that we would be back home in time for school. Mostly, I am feeling that she is starting school too early and that we have, somehow, lost a year. She is only five. She should be starting kindergarten, not graduating from it!

I am assuming (fingers crossed) that we will be back in Portland in time for the start of Actual First Grade. That is, by fall 2012. Until then, Vivian will start Year 1, and Bruce and I will go along with it, even though, in our heart of hearts, we know that she is still, really, in kindergarten.

Travel: the news becomes personal

Despite having lived in China for more than two years, I readily admit I know little about this place that is my temporary home. What knowledge I do have, I know not from personal experience, but from the writings of others (e.g., Fox Butterfield, June Chang, Rob Gifford, and Peter Hessler). I have a general grasp of the China's 2,000 year history, as much as could be expected of a lay reader, perhaps, but as for the more recent modern history, my understanding is vague, at best.

Traveling helps. Perhaps the greatest gift of my expat life has been the chance to visit places I never knew and learn stories that I didn't know existed. My day-to-day life as an expat wife is small, but my world has grown since living and traveling overseas. Now when I hear the news about an earthquake in Yunnan, the tsunami that destroyed Sendai, riots in Kyrgyzstan, or oppression of the Tibetans, I have faces, names, and memories to help connect the stories to my own life. The news has become personal.

Yesterday I returned from a week in Qinghai province, in central China, high on the Tibetan Plateau but outside of what we think of as "Tibet." I was inspired by the beauty of the region and the Tibetan people. I collected a set of moments and memories that hint at deeper tensions and conflicts, and I came home to wonder what those hints mean and why I know so little. 

 

It's not about the blog

I once had a calculus teacher who would tell his students before every exam that the outcome of the test had no bearing whatsoever on the value of the person taking the test. The first time he said it, I thought it was sensitive and caring. The second time, I thought it sounded familiar and geeky. And the third and subsequent times, I probably rolled my eyes and thought, "enough, already." But twenty years later, I can't remember his name or how to find a derivative, but his message? Yes, I remember that.

More recently, I have been participating in a Top 25 Expat Mom Blog contest. I don't know how I was nominated, but initially, I was excited. I thought the nomination meant:

• That my blog was hand-picked as an example of a great Expat Mom blog
• That my 5+ years of committment to my blog was being recognized
• That being nominated meant that I provide something that is useful to someone out there.

Here's what I learned:

• It's not about content and its not about design.
• It's not about having something to say.
• It's not even about being a Mom.

It is, however:

• A marketing tool, a way for Circle of Moms to crank up hits, inflate stats, and generate revenue.
• A social media contest, and the rules are that whoever has the biggest Twitter following, the most Facebook friends, or the biggest mega-church behind them wins.

And that, simply put, is all it is.

I came in 5th, by the way, with 846 votes. That is, 846 times that my friends, family, and blog followers took a moment to click over and put in a vote for me. I am 846 times grateful, because those 846 votes speak to me of 846 times someone cared enough about me or my blog to vote.

And it is possible, though not certain, that I am the only blogger who was offered a job as a direct result of being included in the Top 25 Expat Mom blog contest. One of those 846 votes was followed by a phone call, which was followed by a meeting, in which I was offered a job as photographer for a very well-known Qingdao area business.

846 thank-yous to everyone who voted. Extra thanks to the friends who recruited their friends to vote for me. A special thank you to the person who recognized in my photography the look he wants for his business. And finally, one belated thank-you to a calculus teacher who cared enough to give the most memorable of lessons.

Q.E.D.

Faces of May

It hasn't taken long for the word to get out in Qingdao that I'm available for portrait photography. In May, I shot eight photo sessions: two families, three maternity sessions, one infant, and two children. Knowing that I tend to jump into new endeavors with both feet and get burned out fairly quickly, I am trying to pace myself and offer not more than one session per week and one per weekend. So eight sessions per month has been perfect.

Eight sessions per month may not sound like much to established professionals, but that's not all I have on my plate: I am now also working for two magazines, and I am in negotiations with another potential client. I suddenly have a ton of work, where before I used to work just for my own pleasure. Its an exciting change.

In between photo shoots, I have been working on my new website, Kiley Ariail Photography. About a month ago, I slipped a new link, "Portraiture," into the menu bar at the top of this page, but otherwise, I have been pretty quiet about the site. It's not exactly how I want it yet, but its getting enough content that it feels...somehow...official.

These are my favorite portrait shots from the month of May. I will be adding new shots to the galleries at Kiley Ariail Photography often so feel free to check in now and again.