following the footsteps of Sakya Pandita, a revisit of the North Silk Road in connection with Tibet.
Day 01: Xining - Huzhu
We departed Xining in the late afternoon, excited to take the kids to “cross the Dola Rangmo”, as Tp put it. Well, we the adults were the more excited partners of the trip, to finally set foot on the areas we talked and read so much.
Passing the fields of wheat, beans, peas, potato, corns, vegetables along the road to Huzhu county. The ripening rape fields were reclining and ready to be harvested in a few weeks.
The over-colorful bunting hung on the gates and courtyards of the Nongjiayuan, zealously waving to the urban holiday travelers looking for a weekend of country life, local cuisines and liquor.
Driving through the mountains and valleys of Dola Rangmo, the Mt. Qilian range in the evening mist, in multiple shades of green.
The last tunnel and we entered on the flat and fertile plain of Wuwei 武威 / Liang
Zhou 凉州 / Lang Truk ལང་ཀྲིའུ་སྡེ་བཞི།. Once the center of the province, and the biggest hub of trade and cultural exchanges, it’s now a prefecture-level city. The peace talk in year 1247took place here between the Mongolian ruler Godan Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, and the great scholar of the time, the fourth of the Five Forefathers of Sakya lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetan intermediator, Sakya Pandita. It also became the base camp for the Sakya and Gelugpa lineages later on to spread the Tibetan Buddhism.