Tibetan Night Club

Craig was studying mandarin in Taiwan and would be going back to Canada to do a PhD in chinese history. Full of information he talked of the different sects of tibetan buddhism and answered the enthusiastic questions we had. After the slow amble and sitting on the grass for a while, musing how it would be nice to have a joint, we went to see a horse riding show. Hard and colourful men were pushing their horses to run fast past the stand and crowd. When the pace was up the riders would lean back, lessening the jolt of the horse into their rears. It was very different from the western style of riding I knew in which jokeys lean forwards. I knew from my ride of similar horses in inner mongolia that it's a jolty and painful ride at anything faster than an amble. The crowd would shriek and yell for the impressive riders, almost performing something of a war cry. But they laughed at an old man, perhaps on an old horse, being shaken up and down by the quick steps of his animal. The old mans best years were gone.

In the evening our canadian translator said he'd show us a tibetan club in this elevated town. Seven of us met and on the street we bumped into a local friend of Craig's and we together entered a cosy room, with a counter for serving drinks and several men and women doing line type dancing in a circle. A screen showed videos of tibetan karaoke. In the corner was a door to another little room for sitting. We took the one table in the main dance room and sat around it. We drank beer and chatted, looking at the young men in their cowboy hats and the few women that would jump in the circle now and again for a dance. Knives hung from the belts of every male tibetan but we felt very comfortable and welcomed. The hospitable women at the counter found a tape of a mix involving Eminem and Madonna. We thought it great to hear those familiar sounds and soon got up to dance. The young men watched from the side or joined in with us. It was fun. They wanted to share friendly words and said how good we danced. I must admit we all danced a little differently than their set and rehearsed moves.