The vibrant and large sites of prayer flags are overwhelming to the senses. The specific colors of the prayer flags represent the Five Pure Lights. To the Tibetans, it promotes peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom; and they believe the prayers will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion to all beings. 

The Tibetans perform an ancient ritual when passing through a sacred site, and toss amulets of Tibetan mantra in the air and chanting a low-pitched prayer for protection and blessings.

In our month-stay at the conservation(with the Kekexili Mountain Patrol), we always perform the ritual to ask the Goddess of Kunlun to gift us the luck of finding water and safety against predators.

The Kumbum Monastery has four monastic faculties (dratsang). The largest is the Debate College or Faculty for Logic. Here the young buddhist pupils were exercising a debate in Philosophy, Scriptures and Logic, while their teachers meditated and supervised on the elevated steps.

Akhe was a Buddhist pilgrim who was traveling to the sacred mountains of Lhasa. He had already travelled on foot for 1500 km from his hometown in the north-east of Qinghai-Tibet; and still had another 1200 km left to Lhasa.

As a solo pilgrim, Akhe would start his day by pushing his small hand-cart of essentials to an estimated arrival point of the day, which contained a ragged fold-up tent, a thin blanket and some frozen bread and dried meat. Then he would walk back to the starting point, and begin his pilgrimage rituals of full-body prostrations every three steps.

Akhe's journey to Lhasa was througha perilous avalanche-prone terrain, in the Tangula alpines and glaciers. We tossed amulets of mantra in the air and asked the Tangula mountain god to protect him on his way.

Xiangpi Mountains situates in the Nanshan region of Qinghai-TIbet, high elevation of 4451m. It translates to Mountains of Rubber/Elasticity, as the rolling mountains and hills reveal a sense of fluidity and serenity.

Fenghuo, translates to the Mountains of Wind and Fire. At a high altitude of 5010m, the landscape is barren and red, as if been burnt a thousand times. The region is known for its cold and volatile climate, and a difficult pass for the pilgrims.