Brent Olson’s Journal

Greetings! I’ve been back in the states now for about 3 weeks and have finally “resettled” back into my life and work routines after a wonderful month in Asia. The first two weeks of November were spent co-leading a trip with Dr. Robert Thurman for Tibet House and we had one of the most amazingly kindhearted groups I have ever traveled with. As usual (with our wonderful Bhutanese partners), everything ran like clockwork and we had many serindipitous events that added to an already brimming itinerary. One of my fondest memories was having the chance to meet with my long time friend and mentor, Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche, the head of Gangteng Gompa. We had a wonderful audience with Rinpoche, toured the reconstruction of Gangteng Gompa and received bessings for ourselves and our loved ones. While at the gompa, we also attended the annual Crane Festival and we throughly enjoy watching the masked dances performed by the Gangteng monks as well as the dances performed by the local school children — especially the Crane Dance, where they dressed in homemade Crane costumes and imitated the black necked cranes which arrive in the valley, right around this time of the year and spent the winter months.

Another highlight was our wonderful tented camp on the Mo Chu (river) upstream from the ancient capital at Punakha. It is such a beautiful setting in the pine forest on the banks of the rushing river and it made a great “base camp” from which to explore the surrounding region.

As always, Bob Thurman’s meditations and talks on Tibetan Buddhism added tremendously to the trip and offered all of us a deeper understanding of Buddhism and the Bhutanese culture. I recorded a number of the meditations and will be posting them on this site and will send them to Bob’s podcasting site as well. Having Dechen Thurman join us as our in-house yoga instructor was a wonderful addition along with Skip Parson’s Qi Gong classes. I’d travel with this group ANYWHERE!
Bob and I are busy planning future trips so be sure to sign up for my travel newsletter so I can keep you posted on the latest developments! I’ll be adding photos and text about our Cambodia and Myanmar trip soon. In the meantime, enjoy the photos I have uploaded from the Tibet House Bhutan trip by clicking on the My Photos link in the right hand column.
Until then, Happy Holidays!