Hoop Dreams, Tibet
Tibetan monks, high altitude monasteries and a basketball league that will limber your mind and lungs.
To get to the Zha Xi Monastery takes a 16-hour bus ride from the provincial capital of Xining to the town of Yushu, and another four hours along cliff-hugging, bone-jolting, nausea-inducing, breath-taking roads. The ratio of yaks to humans along the way is about twenty to one.
For Tibetan disciples and monks in the frontier province of Qinghai, basketball is the sport of choice.
The remote location of many of the monasteries in this area, and the high altitude — Zha Xi Monastery lies at 12,000 ft — can give its players an edge over those visiting from more sea-level inclined locales.
The monastery league meets regularly during the summer months. Travelling to play other monastery teams can easily take a day. Land slides along the mountain tracks are frequent, and weather conditions at this altitude can change rapidly.
Disciples join the monastery between the ages of three through to pre-teen, with a rigorous schedule of study and meditation. Life is, as you would expect, basic. To attain monk status, disciples need to pass a number of tests, including a retreat of three years, three months, three weeks and three days of solitary meditation. (When I visited Zha Xi, one disciple has been on a solitary retreat of five years, three others were mid-three years of solitude).
As with many rural communities, days revolve around the cycle of the sun, with basketball practice time in the afternoons. Electricity is derived from solar . Water is tapped from a nearby mountain stream. A slither of cellular connectivity arrived at Zha Xi in 2009. There is no TV.
The area was devastated by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in 2010, and minor quakes are frequent in Qinghai, and, but these have yet to crack the court‘s surface.
The streetwear brand savviness of these disciples is pragmatic. Decent basketball shoes are available from Yushu, which has stores for local brands LiNing, Anta and Erke. There is also one (most likely fake) Nike concession. The preferred footwear for the basketball loving monks at the monastery are fake Adidas followed by fake Nikes. Real Apple is everywhere. At one meeting in this (admittedly wealthy) monastery, each of the six disciples had an iPhone, some had two.
Want to get your high-altitude game on? Fly to Chengdu or Xining, and take a sleeper bus to Yushu. From there hitch a motorbike or a shared taxi.
Jan is the Founder of Studio D Radiodurans, the author of Kabul, A Walking Tour. Want more? Sign up to the Borderlands Mailing List and follow on Instagram.
