Tom Riddle left my home here in Totnes, Devon, England on Monday 7 October 2026 to take the flight from London to Beijing. A Dharma friend since 1982 gave me tutorials of taking studio quality photographs indoor and outdoors.
More than two million have watched Tom’s short documentary on Youtube made in 2015 on one of several visits to Mt Kailash, the sacred mountain in Tibet for Buddhists, Hindus and Jains. His short documentaries on our beloved Prajna Vihar School in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India, have become an important fundraiser in the West for decades.
Tom at the Great Wall of China this week.
Pilgrimages to Mt. Kailash go on and on century after century regardless of risks. Chinese authorities have given the go-ahead. The human spirit carrying the love of intimacy of the spiritual, religious and natural world continue. Many pilgrims remain undedeterred despite the recent tragedy of 1100 deaths and thousands missing in the breaking up of the crashing glacier into the villages and checkpoints of Nepal and Tibet high in the Hinalayas.
It’s a tough journey by train, bus and foot to walk in that mountainous region in such a high altitude. Aged in his mid-70’s, Tom plans to be among the pilgrims. Bless him. A contemporary fearless and free-spirited being.
Hello from Beijing,
This is my first trip to Beijing, so I didn't know what to expect when
the plane landed here three days ago.
Not one to take a taxi, I took the Airport Express train from far out
of town into the inner city, stepped out into the clear late-afternoon
city streets, and was immediately struck by how quiet the city was,
even though the roads were jammed with vehicles.
As far as I can tell, almost all two-wheeled vehicles are either electric or human-powered, and about half the cars are electric. So the streets are surprisingly, amazingly quiet. The air also seems perfectly clean. And this is a
city that, just a few years ago, was known for its filthy air.
Yesterday, I joined a bus tour to the Great Wall of China. The part of
the wall I visited is about a 90-minute drive from the center of the
city, in a very pretty, green area. For your amusement, I've attached
a couple of pictures.
The Chinese have made it easy to get to the wall by installing a cable car system from where the buses park to the wall. And once you're on the wall, you are up pretty high, and you wonder, again and again, how they ever built it 600 years ago. It deserves its reputation as being one of the wonders of the ancient world.
Besides that, I'm happy to tell you that my Tibet trip has been given
the go-ahead. Initially, after the recent disaster, there was some
question about whether or not the Chinese would close the Mount
Kailash area to all tourist groups. Fortunately for me, they've
decided to keep it open.
Western Tibet is an immense area, and where the disaster happened is at least an 18-hour drive from Mount Kailash.
Additionally, the road network is pretty good, so tourists going to
that area won't affect the rescue effort at all. The problem for
tourists like me is that the roads and infrastructure that were washed
away by the disaster were the most developed.
So now leaving Tibet and entering Nepal will be via less developed infrastructure. In fact, though, my tour guide hasn't yet decided whether we will brave the back roads of Tibet and Nepal to reach Kathmandu or drive, in about three days, from Western Tibet to Eastern Tibet and fly out of Lhasa
to Kathmandu. Either way, I have faith in the tour operator, having
known him for about 25 years.
I have three more full days here in Beijing. As soon as I send this
off, I'm off to Tiananmen Square. To enter the square, one needs a
reservation, and mine expires at noon today. After that, I hope to
visit the Forbidden City and other tourist sites around this clean,
well-organized capital city of 22 million people.
When I leave this city, I'll take the bullet train down to Chengdu,
the famous panda capital of China. From there, I'll fly into Lhasa,
the capital of Tibet. In Lhasa, I'll meet my tour operator and the
other people I will be traveling with to Mount Kailash.
With that, I wish you a pleasant day,
-- Tom
A 25 minute video on YouTube created by Tom of a guide to Mt. Kailash.
Prajna Vihar School website contains some of Toms’ short videos about the school.
https://www.prajnaviharschool.org
Website contains around 100 photos of the school.