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| Welcome to My Search for
The Heart of Asia
I have lived
in Asia now some 21 years, arriving here in the early 1970's as a young American
sailor stationed in the Philippines and South Korea. First impressions are
strong things -- my exposure to both southeast and northeast Asia left me with a
hunger for more experience of this world so different from the so-called civilization of the West.
 I missed the Vietnam War, had
a peaceful experience of the East, and returned home to the drug culture I had
temporarily escaped from. It took another long stretch of ten years before I
could manage to revisit the East and escape the illusory reality where I was
born. I had grown out of trying to escape it through the use of drugs and
turned to an Eastern teacher. My life changed after accepting the teachings of a
typical Indian guru. This time, I arrived in southwest Asia as a more mature
individual, though yet a student -- and at a 'hippie' college as well. I
began what I now realize is a life-long pilgrimage to discover the 'Heart of
Asia'. Does such a thing -- this feeling -- exist? Others have tried to
identify it with a place, a culture, a specific geography or climate (mountain,
beach, or island), or an ethnic identity. Some have even labeled it --
Shangrila, for example. I finally put a name to it through my own studies when
I wrote my Master's thesis on 'Developing
Appropriate Tourism for the Central Himalaya'. In the writing of such a
scholarly treatise, comparing Indian domestic tourism -- the religious
pilgrimage -- to the eco-tourism of Nepal, I discovered where that mysterious
feeling resides. Of course, it can only be in the 'heart' of the pilgrim -- the
traveler who leaves a 'polluted' social reality behind to reside within a space
that can be labelled 'sacred nature'. The beginning of my journey as a sailor
-- one destined to travel the earth and its seas of emotion -- was a good
symbolic start.
 The first part of this journey involved studies of Indian philosophy
and religion to validate what my guru wanted me to accept. This took until 1987
when I 'graduated' and 'took to the hills' of Garhwal in the north Indian state
of Uttar Pradesh. I retraced the steps my guru had made to grow out of his
culture and into another -- in reverse. Mirror images (self-reflections) are reversed yet the 'trip' leads one on to the
next destination -- the next projection of something experienced inwardly. Why
do we need the search? Is it to validate what we intuitively know? Or, do we
create another 'sacred space' to reside within and look for it externally? This
is the crux of the issue for a religious pilgrim. My search led me into the
mountains and an isolated ashram where I was befriended by a swami and taken in
to help herd cows. Here, I worked hard for six months developing a plan for
further studies. What I finally learned was a hard lesson. Ending up in an
Indian jail for seven weeks was not exactly on my pilgrim's list of desired
destinations. That is another story for this website. We can all be fooled
into looking for something in the wrong places!
By the time I had
completed my Master's degree in 1991 I had come to live half of the time in
India and half of the time in Nepal. I finally chose Nepal to live in from 1991
to 1998. I came to realize that what western tourists would identify as
eco-tourism was just their form of religious pilgrimage. I became a teacher and
had many journeys up into the mountains with my young students. I have written
about the most memorable one of these on the Nepal home page. Probably the most
torturous journey I undertook was the one with my Nepalese wife back to the
U.S.A. I was able to survive this one for three years until the events of 9-11
happened and served as another 'wakeup' call. I was no longer home in America.
I had only just recovered from the 'culture shock' of returning stateside after
a 14-year hiatus. I didn't need what this country was selling anymore. Again,
in 2002, I left the U.S.A. and a wife behind, returning once more to
Asia.
Since
2002, I have begun yet another pilgrimage. This one is more focused and
not such a literal wandering over the earth's surface. I have
rediscovered the mountains, rejected the sea of sick emotion of the
world's masses after the Asian tsunami of 1984, and explored other
countries in addition to Nepal and India. I have worked for the
past six years in South Korea, Mongolia, China, Taiwan, and Thailand.
I recently discovered a third Korea in northeastern China. For
some reason, I am attracted to the places that can be described as
'along the edges of civilization'. I am not fond of 'the masses'
and want to live a more isolated existence. So, my paths of
travel seem to demarcate the boundary lines between contrasting
cultures. I am interested in the spaces where they meet and
mingle. Life is more interesting with people used to dealing with
cultural differences and an 'independent' lifestyle. This hasn't
been an easy journey. Living in Thailand and dealing with
Burmese-Thai issues was a challenge. I have gained many insights
into local issues slowly over time. I can certainly identify what
ethnic cleansing is and what governments will do to stay in power --
including the American one. I feel drawn to the ethnicities
struggling to find a safe space in a world that tends toward increasing
levels of chaos.
 Perhaps my journey will never
end. My Shangri-la might not exist. It probably never has -- except as a
'sacred space' only experienced inwardly by each individual traveler through
life. That is what this web-site is about. It relates the stories of other
travelers and mine. We are all seeking the same thing though we might not realize it or
identify it as such. I welcome others to contribute something of their life
experience here. We need all the teachers we can get. I do believe there is a
'Heart of Asia' and I will devote some more time to rediscovering it before I
come to rest wherever my travels find me from moment to moment. I am like the
Buddhist counting the beads on that necklace around my neck. Each bead is yet
another experience to learn from and encode into memory so it can be recalled
and reinforced until all the space I travel through becomes sacred. I will
endeavor to project that space until it includes all of Asia and becomes my
home. That is a goal I feel might be worth the effort of reaching. Please join
me. My latest trip was
across China in search of this mysterious 'heart' and I rediscovered it in the
smile of a child where it always has been and remains today.
Dhane Blue,
March 28, 2008
More to read here
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