Greater
China

Jun 28, 2008

By Khody Akhavi

For China these days it seems that nothing - not rising energy
prices; not sanctions aimed at its more unsavory business partners, Myanmar and
Sudan; not even the prospect of a nuclear Iran - can curb its thirst for oil.

As China's energy needs grow at a rate higher than any other country's, so too
have its economic relationships with the oil-producing nations of the Gulf.

Like the US more than 60 years ago, China today is seen as a new and
commercially refreshing player, happily unsentimental and - crucially -
disinterested in the internal affairs of the region.

With the US mired in its "war on terror", tied up in knots of its own making,
needing desperately to extricate itself from Iraq while preserving its eroding
influence, China appears poised to challenge US interests in the region.

But if that has Washington worried, it shouldn't, says Jon B Alterman of the
Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, who has
co-authored a new study with John Garver on China's interests in the region
entitled "The Vital Triangle: China, the United States, and the Middle East."

"The tendency in the US is to see China as a threat or counter to US
interests," he said during a panel on Wednesday, adding that China's
involvement in the region exposes its own national security vulnerability.

"The Chinese lose sleep at night thinking that their energy dependence relies
on the Middle East," he said.

Beijing, which imports half its oil from the Middle East, views political
instability in the region as its greatest threat.

Often, it is Washington's
policies that precipitate that insecurity, and which Beijing - with no
political or military footprint of its own - has been unable to curb.

According to ambassador Chaz Freeman, a career US diplomat and chief
interpreter during president Richard Nixon's path-breaking visit to China in
1972, the Chinese "don't see themselves as rivaling the US" in the region, yet
they are unlikely to "subordinate themselves to us, or underwrite our
dominance".

The status quo presumably makes a strategic relationship between the US and
China all the more appealing.

While opportunities exist to create a
multilateral security framework to reduce tensions and keep the oil flowing,
China has been generally reluctant to take on the role of "responsible
stakeholder" on the international stage, a term coined by former deputy
secretary of state Robert Zoellick.

It is even more cautious in dealing with the issue of immediate concern to the
US: Iran's nuclear program and Beijing's cordial relations with Tehran.

As Alterman and Garver contend, "China recognizes Iran as a durable and
like-minded major regional power with which cooperation has and will serve
China's interest in many areas."

Iran exports 340,000 barrels of oil per day to China, making it Beijing's
third-largest supplier, behind Angola and Saudi Arabia

China's investments in
Iranian oil infrastructure include a recent deal estimated at US$100 billion to
develop the Yadavaran oil field, and the construction of a 386-kilometer oil
pipeline running through neighboring Kazakhstan.

From Washington's perspective, it is Beijing's technical cooperation on Iran's
civilian nuclear program and China's continued attempts to deflect pressure on
Iran over its nuclear dossier that are most troubling.

China's sale of what
Washington considers dual-use chemicals, capable of being diverted to military
use, has led the US to sanction some of China's state-owned companies.

"Nuclear Iran is going to be a game changer in the Middle East," said Nicholas
Burns, former US under secretary of state for policy .

As the Europeans have decreased their economic trade with Iran in response to
US-led calls for isolation, Burns said that Beijing has only stepped in to fill
the void.

On Monday, the European Union tightened its own sanctions on Iran, freezing
assets of the Iranian Bank Melli and imposing travel bans on high-level experts
involved in Iran's nuclear program.

"The Chinese need to understand the primacy of the Middle East for the United
States," he said.

"Will China realize it's on the virtual governing board of
the world? There's a question of whether China sees that role for themselves."

While Washington awaits the improbable, it seems that Beijing will continue to
hedge its bets.

It has slowly been persuaded to act on Iran, joining the other
four permanent members of the UN Security Council - Britain, France, Russia and
the US - in addition to Germany, to offer Tehran a revised package of
incentives should it halt its uranium-enrichment activities.

China's official position states that sanctions will not fundamentally resolve
the nuclear issue, and are only a means to persuade Iran to negotiate under
conditions agreed on by the United Nations Security Council.

Like Russia, the
Chinese oppose any move that would lead to an escalation in tensions at the
expense of their economic interests in Iran.

But China also wants to avoid a confrontation over Tehran's program and
balances against whichever side - the US or Iran - leans towards it, said
Alterman.

"The more the US tips towards war, the more [China] sides with Iran; if Iran is
being confrontational, the more they tip to the US," said Alterman. "It's a
subtle policy, not what they do, but how they do."

For Freeman, the erosion of US influence in the region means that Washington
won't be able to set the agenda, or control events as it once did. But that is
not necessarily a bad thing.

"What we are witnessing is part of a broad dilution of US dominance," he said.

"If you can't tell people what to do, then you must persuade them, and that is
what diplomats supposedly know how to do."

(Inter Press Service)

AS
WINTER APPROACHES

by
J. R. Nyquist

Weekly
Column - 03.30.2007

If the seasons are metaphors, one might say that the Americans have enjoyed a great summer. But summer has drawn to an end, and the days are growing shorter. It is a case of impending winter.

The U.S. economy is encumbered by debt. The U.S. military is bogged down and diverted in Iraq. The U.S. intelligence community doesn’t seem to know what it’s doing.

And the President of the United States is engaged in a hopeless utopian venture to bring democracy to people who don’t care about democracy. 

Winter is coming. But who is preparing?

The Americans do not want to prepare. Each has his political fantasy or hobbyhorse. Each imagines that summer will last indefinitely.

Americans do not allow themselves to contemplate actual vulnerabilities.

Peace and prosperity are now entrenched, and those pesky little enemies of mankind (the terrorists) will be hunted down one by one, even if it takes a million years.

The business elite doesn’t want to hear that a storm is coming, that the plentiful harvest of days past is drawing to an end. Since preparations are expensive and inconvenient, it’s better to ignore existing threats. 

Despite what you may have heard, history is not a tale of progress, with each generation improving on the next. It is a tale of rise and fall.

There are ages of progress and ages of decline. Human beings are not destined to advance in one direction, upward and onward. Life has its ups and downs.

There will be a highpoint, a pinnacle, and there will be a decline or a downward spiral. Every civilization rises, then it declines. It succumbs to internal decay, civil strife, foreign invasion and eventual destruction.

People living a hundred years from now will be puzzled by today’s America. The signs of impending destructive war are everywhere. We do not see the signs because we do not want to see them.

This is true in the White House, at the CIA, in the major newspapers and within major corporations.

Russia and China are maneuvering against the United States on all fronts. Russia and China are supporting Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, Syria, etc. All the worst regimes, led by criminals and butchers, are supported by Moscow and Beijing.

The objective is to arm as many rogue states as possible. And the reason for doing so is transparent. 

A researcher and former news editor wrote the following note to me last week: “Russia has been conducting war in Chechnya for years, slaughtering, raping, imprisoning and displacing Muslims. Russia slaughtered Muslims for ten years in Afghanistan. Russia is ‘right next door’ [to the terrorists]. Yet bin Laden, allegedly tired of what has been done to Muslim peoples, chose to attack … the United States.

Bin Laden ignores the enemy who has been slaughtering Muslims in his backyard for two decades and instead targets a nation thousands of miles away….” 

I am also reminded of what KGB/FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko pointed out in his book on the subject
(Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB
Terror). He described how Russia’s special services organized abductions, assassinations and terrorist acts on Russian soil attributed to the Chechens. In other words, the Russian special services tried the following experiment: to see if they could organize terror against the Russian people while blaming the terrorism on others

After his book was published, Litvinenko told an interviewer that Putin was behind al Qaeda’s terrorism, that leading members of al Qaeda were longtime KGB agents. And for his trouble, Mr. Litvinenko was poisoned with a rare radioactive substance, on orders from the Kremlin.

His mouth was stopped shut. Did the Western media take a closer look at his actual message? Or did they ignore his repeated warnings about a KGB-inspired false flag terror campaign against the West? 

I am reminded of a book by a Soviet defector writing under the pen name Viktor Suvorov. The book, which was titled
Spetsnaz, was about Russian commando operations, with a special chapter on pre-war sabotage and diversionary terrorism.

Before the outbreak of open hostilities, Suvorov explained, “a series of large and small operations [would be used] to weaken the enemy’s morale, create an atmosphere of suspicion, fear and uncertainty, and divert the attention of the enemy’s armies and police forces to a huge number of different targets, each of which may be the object of the next attack.”

He further stated: “[The terror] is carried out by … mercenaries recruited by intermediaries. The principal method employed at this stage is ‘gray terror,’ that is, a kind of terror which is not conducted in the name of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet secret services do not at this stage leave their visiting cards, or leave other people’s cards. The terror is carried out in the name of already existing extremist groups not connected in any way with the Soviet Union, or in the name of fictitious organizations.”

Winter is coming. It is almost here.

The Chinese have joined the Russians and are making open preparations for war.

Washington wants China to explain these preparations. China points to Taiwan, but let us not be naïve.

China seeks a greater prize. Why should China think small? Entire regions of the earth will soon be defenseless because America is disintegrating from a combination of permissiveness, distraction and false principles.

One day soon America’s financial structures won’t be able to support the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force. And when that happens, the balance of power will shift dramatically from West to East. 

There is a relevant news item that has appeared every few years since the “collapse” of the Soviet Union. The headline reads: “Russia Spying Returns to ‘Cold War Levels.’” I have collected similar headlines from as far back as 1993.

The secret, of course, is that Russia’s Cold War levels of spying have remained throughout.

A Reuters news piece, dated 29 March 2007, tells of “Russia efforts to obtain secrets on U.S. political and military decision-making….” When engaged in a major strategic deception, it is necessary to know the internal thought-process of the enemy.

According to the Bush administration’s Counterintelligence Executive, Joel Brenner, the Russians have launched an “intensive assault” to penetrate “the upper echelon of U.S. decision-making.”

Brenner says that Moscow already has enough knowledge of the U.S. government’s internal mechanisms to “decapitate” the country’s leadership in the event of war. Brenner was careful to add, “It’s not a strike threat they’re after. I don’t want to give that impression.” 

One wonders why Mr. Brenner couldn’t let the chips fall where they may. If the Russians are gathering information helpful to a decapitation strike, then perhaps a decapitation strike is what they’re planning.

Of course, a responsible official must studiously avoid economic pessimism. He cannot suggest that war preparations have anything to do with preparing for a real war; or that intensive espionage has any military consequences.

“I don’t want to give that impression,” he protested. And yet, the information itself creates the impression nonetheless. 

Meanwhile, China’s ecosystem is
collapsing. What else can you expect with 1.3 billion people crammed into one country?

One might say that the Chinese are preparing for winter. 

But not the Americans. 

© 2007 Jeffrey
R. Nyquist

The Bush Administration revealed the world regional law that he would put forth during his reign as the "chief progenitor of the perceived New World Order".

This order listed by Bush to bring us into this new age of enlightenment was to be overseen by the world body in the United Nations, with a major role for the US.

In his plans, Bush laid out those nations, which he saw as potential enemies. Among them were North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, in which Bush said these nations constituted an "axis of evil".

States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world [Pres. George Bush, State of the Union Address, Jan 2002]

Since that comment, the United States has invaded Afghanistan, Iraq, and war with Iran is seen as highly likely by many experts.

They see this as a ‘when and not if’ situation. Add to this the conflict with China over Taiwan and you have another potential war.

Also on the horizon are the virulent comments by Putin, and the cooperation of both Russia and China to offset the threat of the New World order set in motion by Bush and others.

The vision that Bush set in motion is what many would call the ‘illuminati ideals’.

One where a New World Order, set up within the confines of a new government.

This new government would be set on certain principles and governing ideals.

These ideals, which, would bring in a one world government, one world court, one world religion, and many laws which would override national independence.

In that brief instance, we were given a glimpse, of this mission, stated in words like "Freedom and Fear" are at war. It was in those words, we truly find the Fear factor coming to a level of understanding.

It would be the pursuit of a goal, for the stated purpose of this New World Order to bring Freedom, the advancement of human freedom, which, in the confines of the Illuminati would be designated as the ‘great achievement of our time and great hope of every time’.

This goal, said Bush, depended on us, our nation, and this generation.

He goes on to state again in the confines of this speech, "Freedom and Fear are at war." Thus this goal, the moment in history when a nation is warned that both Freedom and Fear will be the paramount words of this course.

After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: ``We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?''[ President George W. Bush's Inaugural Address

January 20, 2001]

This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm. [ IBID]

In this phrase we find in the early stages, the current tempest of the young government, the current ‘whirlwind’ was to create a government in the young nation that would endure. This government, according to Page was created by God, using an angel to direct this storm. Thus we find, Bush here, signaling that he has divine guidance to pursue the righteous cause America will undertake in bringing her vengence for 9-11 to those responsible and to also bring in the New World Order, which they herald as "Freedom" to all men and nations.

But, we find that the phrase of the ‘angel in the whirlwind used by John Page of Virginia was somewhat out of context.

David Bay of the Cuttingedge gives this short synopsis of the statement. In short, it is connected with ‘biblical judgment’.

The statement of Page was taken from Nahum 1:3, and goes on to say: "The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all aquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm. Thus the Whirlwind used here, is Red Sea storm, tempest, physical storm.

Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?"

This is NOT a Biblical statement! The KJV translates "whirlwind" 27 times in 25 verses, all in the Old Testament, and nearly always in terms of God's judgment.

Let us review the specific instances where the KJV translates "whirlwind". There are five different Hebrew words translated "whirlwind".

Strongs H5590:

used in the following verses: (Hosea 13:3); ((Hab 3:14); (Zec 7:14). Meaning: to be tossed with a tempest; to be sorely troubled.

Strongs H5591:

used in the following verses: (2 Ki 2:1); (2 Ki 2:11); (Job 38:1); (Job 40:6); (Isa 40:24); (Isa 41:16); (Jer 23:19); (Jer 25:32); (Jer 30:23). Meaning: a physical storm, a hurricane , a tempest.

Strongs H5492:



used in the following verses: (Job 37:9); (Prov 1:27); (Prov 10:25); (Isa 5:28); (Isa 17:13); (Isa 66:15); (Jer 4:13); (Hosea 8:7); (Amos 1:14); (Nahum 1:3). Meaning: Red Sea storm, tempest, physical storm.

Strongs H8175:



used in the following verses: (Psa 58:9); (Dan 11:40). Meaning: To be horribly afraid, fear, be tempestuous, to come like a whirlwind

Strongs H7307: used only once: (Ezek 1:4) Meaning: wind, resembling breath or spirit from a rational, intelligence being. Anger, blast, tempest.

Apparently, John Page's statement was taken from Nahum 1:3, "The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm ..." Remember, the meaning of the word, "whirlwind" in this passage is H5492: Red Sea storm, tempest, physical storm."

Thus we have the vision of those, including some from our earliest national history, whose ties to illuminati beliefs were seen.

Bush today has taken this mantle as have many others.

To be sure, many nations want and favor someway to bring total peace and security to the world. It is in this desire, the hope for peace, which will bring Freedom that man wants. This vision, though, is not viewed by all nations and leaders as one they would pursue. It is seen as a paramount ideal of the United States.

They see this nation as powerful and arrogant, invading sovereign nations as they choose. They also see a nation, whose own appetite for excesses and sinful ways is hypocritical when that nation lists an ‘axis of evil’ of nations they oppose.

Thus today, major nations are preparing for the threat they see of an aggressive empire called the United States of America. No matter what you think, they truly see our nation as tyrannical. This brings in a fear of international preparedness against the one they see as the culprit for all the distress in the world today.

Both the Russians and the Chinese issued a Joint Statement of agreement in April 23, 1997. In part the agreement would promote the "multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order".

Although this sounds like the "New World Order we hear about in the US and Europe, it is not.

Mainly because the one by the Russians and the Chinese are at odds with the US domination, stating that "no country should seek hegemony, practice power politics, or monopolize international affairs."

Both Russia and China are opposed to military blocs, especially the one, where Bush is cooperating with to put up missiles next door to Russia. They believe that this will "pose a threat to the security of certain countries and aggravate regional and global tension."

President Putin, whose is stepping down only to put in a successor like him, has issued many statements reflecting the growing division with United State policies. In November of 2002, he said that "China is one of the key partners of his country and that coordination of the two countries serves as a very important factor in handling major international issues." [ china.org.cn/english/2002/Nov /50067.htm]

In 2005, Russia and China had their first joint exercise, militarily that is. It involved around 10,000 military people from both countries, and was called "Peace Mission 2005".

This event was heralded by Putin as:



"Today's exercises are another step towards strengthening the relations between our countries, a step towards strengthening international peace and security, and first and foremost, the security of our peoples,"[atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia /HI29Ag01.html]

Both China and Russia today are growing in military might.

Russia, because of her oil reserves has been able to spend and build up her aging fleet.

All with no major debt, as Russia has money from her considerable reserves of oil.

China, due to her export ability to the United States has money to burn, literally.

Even though, the nation has lost some due the shrinking dollar, China for many years now has worked to build up its own military. Mainly to thwart the plans of the nation who could stop her militarily, that is, of course, the United States.

China’s military might is bolstered by her own Public security police which number 1.7 million, and the Paramilitary Police which number 1.2 million.

The army of China as been reduced, which today some analysts put it at approximately 2.3 million strong according to an article by Roy Kamphausen, titled "Right sizing the People’s Liberation Army", written in September 2007. According to Kamphausen the People’s liberation army will, if a war breaks out with another nation, rely heavily on conventional missile strikes, which will be supported using special operations using small numbers of highly trained teams.

This will deny the enemy critical reconnaissance information during force flow and is a top priority. Kamphausen also reveals that Chinese Special Operation Forces will be given priority in such a conflict.

Special operations forces (SOF) and capabilities are also seen by Beijing as keys to success in targeting pivotal enemy vulnerabilities and maintaining control of the pace

SOF teams likely will be well-trained to conduct anti-reconnaissance and C2 disruption operations, involving deep-attack raids and sabotage. These teams are trained in para-drop operations, motorized airfoil parachuting, and seaborne delivery;



and they likely will be equipped with portable communications jamming equipment.

According to the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review from the U.S. Department of Defense, "China is the emerging power having the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States and field disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional U.S. military advantages absent U.S. counter strategies.[IBID]

Thus, we have the stage set today for the Fear and Freedom rhetoric to continue.

Although we have people in this country who see our goal is to bring Freedom to all nations and also see this as a God directive, thus the "angel in the whirlwind" comment, it is seen as just the opposite by many other nations.

The most powerful, of which, are Russia and China, both of whom have had joint military exercises and want to be the counterbalance to the American led strategy.

This will lead to war, which in times past may have been seen as a soldier versus soldier war. Today, though, the missiles will come flying fast and furious.

Those who will come against the United States will send all their military hardware, use all their new weapons of mass destruction, and will according to Carmel Davis, author of Fire in the East, devastate the infrastructure.

Nuclear weapons (and other WMDs) were, and are, revolutionary because they can potentially devastate the infrastructure supporting military forces or the homeland of a country without first defeating the defending military forces.

This characteristic of WMDs has ramifications beyond the obvious political ones of any capability to attack the US homeland.[Fire in the East: The Rise of Asian Military Power and the Second Nuclear Age. - Review - book review, Aerospace Power Journal, spring 2001, Carmel Davis.]

After this initial barrage of nuke’s into the fields and farmlands of America, special teams of ‘special op’s forces’ will target mainline areas that are still standing.

When all the smoke clears, then the soldiers and foreign troops would enter the lands of America.

In all this, the nations of Russia and China do not want war. For them, it is defensive or so they say and lead us to believe.

For these two nations, a ‘multipolar world’ is sought.

Where not one nation is the sole strong arm of the law and makes all the policies. This new world, according to Russian and Chinese think tanks, will bring in their own version of Freedom, where a combination of socialist Russia and communist China are brought forth to be a substitute for the American democracy which was seen as so threatening.

In the final aspect of all this nation building and social order, the Lord has the final say so. For in the ‘whirlwind’, the social and ordered chaos by those who are trying to get their final world order established, the Lord has the paramount directives here.



Psalms 9:20 Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.



Psalms 22:28 For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations.

And finally, in the frigid and dark Potala, the winter palace, a
monk led me to a dirty wall painting of the kingdom, partly hidden
by a chest of drawers that might have held the DL's socks and
undies.

Here the army of Shambhala was a huge array of horse
archers, riding out to destroy some enemy hiding behind the dresser.

The Dalai Lama is an unprecedented populariser of the Shambhala
prophecy, teaching Kalachakra doctrines to tens of thousands in mass
initiations all over the globe.

A world weary of synthetic
Shangri-La has responded, giving the ancient legend New Age life.

We
had checked into the House of Shambhala, a boutique hotel full of
red draperies and hot-stone massage therapy. The owner was a lean
American financier named Laurence Brahm, who had left behind a Hong
Kong career to write a book on Shambhala and open chic hotels.

By
his accounting, our present times will become the Age of Kalki, the
end of the world.

Waving the latest casualty counts from Iraq, he
referred me to the Mahabharata: 'Property will alone confer
rank. Wealth will be the only source of devotion. Passion will be
the sole bond of union between sexes. Falsehood will be the only
means of success in litigation.' That did sound familiar.

Brahm was part of a noble tradition of Westerners seeking
revelation in Shambhala, one that ran back to the 1620s, when Jesuit
missionaries climbed up from India, chasing reports of a powerful
kingdom they called 'Xambala'.

By 1880 the seekers had hit
New York, in the person of Madame Helena Blavatsky, a Russian
spiritualist claiming to be in secret communication with the kings
of Shambhala.

Her disciple Nicholas Roerich, an eccentric painter,
went looking for Shambhala in the 1920s and 1930s, driving up from
India, training in from Mongolia, spotting UFOs, and eventually
declaring a mountain in Kazakhstan to be Shambhala.

It didn't matter what all these seekers believed in, for they
all believed in the one thing. Everybody declared Shambhala was
somewhere just beyond the known, over a horizon that receded as we
moved towards it.

We rolled west through Shigatse, along the last paved roads we
would see until the Kunlun Shan, the range on Tibet's northern
edge, almost a month later.

Shigatse was the original source of
Prince Rinpungpa's letter.

If you understood that his flying
demons, fire chariots and million-mantra exercises were non-literal,
symbols of internal conquests, then the road instructions were
clear: 'Turn to the north and west and take the high plateau to
the sacred mountain of Kailas… From Kailas continue northwest to
Ladakh… wind north through a maze of treacherous mountains… come out
in the land of the Paksik, horsemen who wear white turbans and
quilted robes filled with cotton… a barren desert devoid of water
will stretch away before you like the desolate paths of suffering
that run through this world of illusion.'

We had a Land Cruiser and driver,
and Tibet swallowed us, day after day spent pounding west towards
Mount Kailas, over steep ridges or icy plains. It was August, and
the nomads, with their black tents and colourful costumes, had
vanished to the highest pastures. I counted fewer than 10 horses in
10 days.

Finally we entered a wider, higher plain, a naked landscape of
parched beauty, the dry, crystalline grandeur of the west.
Everywhere were endless gangs of road workers, China's new
money tearing up the plateau for roads, bridges, mines and security
posts.

In one dumpy garrison town of thin air, karaoke bars and
'beauty parlours', I stopped in a phone shop to chat with
a pretty Englishwoman, about 40, who said she was a
'healer' back home.

'It's horrible really, just
awful, it's just been a huge disappointment,' she said of
Tibet.

'The guide is terrible, all he does is sleep, or lie to
us. Everyone is trying to rip us off.' She was studying the
route to India, wondering if she could make it tonight. 'I
can't wait to get out of here.'

Tibetan tourism is undergoing a sleazy, get-rich-quick phase, the
old values unhinged by the soaring wealth of Chinese capitalism.

On
day 30 of the trip, 1,300 miles in and well behind schedule, we were
approaching the holy mountain of Kailas when we saw another victim,
a Japanese woman standing in the road, tears streaming down her
face.

Circling Kailas is supposed to bring great merit, but it
hadn't worked for the girl, named Ona. She had been dumped by
her boyfriend and then robbed at a hotel while trying to hitchhike
back to Lhasa. She had lost her passport, her money, and her faith.
Some Hindu pilgrims were feeding her.

When we drove her back to the
hotel, the housemaids denied everything, called her a whore, and
then threw fistfuls of pebbles at her.

We dropped Ona at a police station and, as we pulled away, I gave
her $200 in an envelope, with my return address. The way to
Shambhala is 'born from your store of merit', Rinpungpa says.

Our oxygen intake was at 68 per cent of normal when we finally
reached Darchen, the ugly town at 15,090ft that serves as base camp
for the traditional three-day kora, or pilgrimage, around Kailas.

(Walking the kora is an essential detour on the road to Shambhala;
Ringpungpa and other guides urged me to accumulate merit here.)

Leaving our driver and picking up a teenage porter, we hiked the
32-mile route clockwise, around the black, snow-stained mountain.

Traffic was light; our first day, we saw only a few ragged Buddhist
pilgrims, one group of orange-clad Hindus on horseback, four
Americans in tents, and a single, mute Western woman, gleefully
spinning a prayer wheel.

We slept in a monastery of the Nyingma, or
Ancient Ones, the original Buddhists of Tibet.

Like the monk on the
train, the abbot, a high re-incarnation, discouraged me from trying
to reach Shambhala in a 4x4. Meditate more, he said, feeding me
balls of yak butter mixed with tsampa, or barley flour, from his own
fingertips.

'Think only of others and you may reach Shambhala
some day.' I wanted some outright encouragement, but when I
pressed, the abbot burst into song.