Prayer Wheels at Drepung Monastery
There were hundreds of prayer wheels at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet. Tibetans, visiting the monastery, hurried from prayer wheel to prayer wheel spinning each one with a practiced hand, then running up the path to the next one. Some of the people carried a thermos filled with ghee which they poured into the flickering butter lamps set before statues of the Buddha.
I tried many times to get a good shot of someone spinning the prayer wheels. I had to rely on luck: being in the right position at the right time. That is how it goes on a tour. You’ve got a limited amount of time to see a certain place and you want to see it. You also want to get some photos. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but maybe I should have turned a few prayer wheels myself.
Altitude sickness was a problem for me in Tibet. I seemed to be the only sufferer in my group…my head splitting open with pain, nauseated, overcome by a deep sleep whenever I was in a sitting position. A woman on the trip felt sorry for me or else wanted to practice her ‘laying on of hands’. I let her do it. I was desperate and also grateful that someone wanted to help me. Although she said she was a nurse, she told me that my symptoms were due to anxiety. Right away I didn’t have any faith in her abilities. My brain was swollen…that’ll give you symptoms that you can’t ignore.
She passed her hands over my body for five minutes or so as I lay on my bed. I told her I felt better, but I didn’t really. I thought at least one of us should feel good and it was easier to make her feel better than it was to feel better myself.