Maurice Daubard
Tibet in 2006
Text by Maurice Daubard for Yoga Info magazine
Madame Zanoletti Graziella has been a regular visitor to my workshops for several years now. We have become friends. She reigns over a luxury car rental empire (www.eliterent.com) and was elected the first businesswoman in Geneva. She founded an international charity that brings together an association for the defence of women’s rights in Afghanistan, children’s rights in Indochina and environmental protection in South America.
A few years ago, Mrs Zanoletti invited me to accompany her to Tibet to visit a monastery of nuns practising toumo. Naturally, I started dreaming about the expedition she wanted to organise with Carroll Dunham, an American who specialises in Ayurvedic medicine (traditional Tibetan medicine) and lives in Kathmandu, Nepal and the United States. It was a difficult expedition to organise, given the large number of personalities involved in the trip. But then the miracle happened. For my part, I wasn’t really ready to leave so suddenly, as the decision was finally taken fairly quickly. But I was still able to take the plunge at the last minute.
Here is the composition of our group: Graziella Zanoletti, Carroll Dunham, Marcia Schmidt (USA, practises Tibetan medicine, lives in Nepal), Frances Howland (USA, nurse, lives in Nepal), Ani Tenzin Chozon (Canada, translator, nun, lives in India), Aximino (Tibetan lama, translator and guide), Jennifer Schwerin (United Kingdom, film-maker), Dr Kelsang (Tibet, doctor, translator and expedition guide), and Scylia Achèche (France, Public Relation in this adventure) and myself.
Buddha
The two objectives of this mission were medical work (providing medicines, training in care, opening a care unit (clinic) for all the sick people in the region and establishing a link between the Tibetan toumo and the western toumo, which I represent.
On 2 September 2006, I took a train to join Graziella at her home in Geneva, to rest because I’d just finished a week of teaching in Zinal in Switzerland (European Yoga Union) for a group of 75 people, after having previously completed 4 weeks of summer courses at my Yoga and Toumo centre in Saint-Aubin le Monial (03).
Scylia joins us to fly to Zurich. A stopover in Doha, then Beijing, before landing in Xining, China, where our off-road vehicles and drivers were waiting for us. After a few days visiting monasteries, our expedition headed north-east to reach the two monasteries of Dechen Ling and Gebchak, completely isolated at an altitude of nearly 5,000 m, and very difficult to access.
They are home to several hundred nuns who practise toumo. To get there, you have to walk along broken tracks on the edge of a precipice. Very few Westerners have visited these wildly beautiful places since Alexandra David-Neel’s arrival.
This ancient region of high plateaux has long been annexed by the Chinese. We are therefore in China, even though most of the inhabitants are Tibetan. It’s only later that we cross the Tibetan border, annexed in the 1950s, where Chinese pressure is strong.
The nuns live in conditions of extreme poverty. In spite of this, they have managed to retain a zest for life and a compassionate dedication that is exemplary. They sleep in a small wooden box 1 metre square, where it is impossible to lie down. In the morning, before dawn, they climb onto the roof of their cell to practise toumo. These techniques are absolutely secret. We are not allowed to take part.
These monasteries are scattered and cling to the sheer rock faces, giving the impression of collapsing at any moment. These are vertiginous places.
At some point, we have to leave our off-road vehicles behind, as the track no longer exists. There were two ways to continue: on foot or on horseback. We choose the horses, some of which carry our luggage. It’s an impressive journey along the edge of a precipice in a rugged mountain where everyone has to master the fear of heights, even if the little Tibetan horses have mountain feet.
I have to admit that I’m very honoured to be part of this expedition. My role is to make the link between my Western toumo practices and Tibetan toumo. There is a huge difference between Tibetan toumo, a secret discipline of a spiritual nature, and Western toumo, which for the moment is limited to a search for harmony and healthy living.
Potala
The link I was hoping to find here is far from unfavourable, on the contrary. It’s not possible for us to do what we do in Europe about the cold, to see what the reactions are, because the nuns who practise toumo wouldn’t accept it.
However, I had some great moments of discussion and friendship with Dr Kelsang on all these subjects. He was very interested in the work I was doing in Europe. In fact, I asked him to join our research team. He had no idea that there was already work being done in Europe on cold research in relation to health.
In addition, at six of the monasteries we visited, I had the privilege of being received by five Rinpoches and the dean of one of the monasteries. During very moving ceremonies and after the presentation of sacred scarves, they all told me the same thing: it was written that we had to meet, not by chance, but because there was a very strong link between them and myself, connected by previous lives. They would continue to inspire me and pray for me. In this way, they confirmed the influence and responsibility of my work in Europe. All these exchanges were recorded, filmed and photographed. Scylia Achèche acted as my interpreter during the trip, and many of the notes she took personally will serve as a basis for the book she wants to write about me.
With our mission over, we set off for Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, after a 4-day drive along the same hellish tracks. Lhasa is nothing like it used to be, and has now been given a Chinese makeover. Despite the relentless pressure, the Tibetans calmly continue to recite the mantras and turn their prayer wheels.
After 3 days in Lhasa, we said goodbye to Dr Kelsang and the rest of the team and headed, Graziella, Scylia, Carroll and myself, to Kathmandu in Nepal. There, we visited two monasteries where we met two rinpoches for personal and moving talks.
On our last evening, before taking the plane back to France, I listened from our hotel to the sounds of Kathmandu in the distance, night having taken over from day in the same swirl of crowded streets, with the concert of horns and traffic chaos. A dog nearby is howling in pain! Maybe from being hit by a car? Tomorrow I’ll be relieved, happy to go home, to leave all this misfortune, so many difficulties to survive… To return to France, our beautiful country, where we are (unfortunately) not so happy in our comfortable privileges… And them over there, happy in their poverty…
Maurice Daubard
MAURICE DAUBARD
Voluntary exposure to cold and Tummo
Sand marathon
Ice immersion
Mountain biking in the Himalayas
High-flying diving
Tummo
Yoga Asanas
Tibet September 2006
Tummo in Pirolin January 2007
Expedition to Finland March 2007
