Country Folk

Ok, so on the day we were supposed to visit Mt. Everest, our guide took us to see his brother and sister-in-law instead. We walked across an open plain, with no houses in sight. No houses in sight, because this is what they look like up close (you can see his brother to the right):

And from far away you can't see them, since they're made out of the same dirt the covers the fields. The above house is their summer house, where they tend sheep and yaks all summer and make the winter's supply of butter and cheese. Here's our guide and my friend walking across the plain toward the house:

Once we got there, we were welcomed inside by his sister-in-law:
What you see is basically their whole house: one room containing two little beds, a wood stove, a pile of old blankets, and a pile of sheep manure beside the stove for burning. The ceiling was low, and attached to this house was a corral for the sheep at nighttime. These people live off the land, and do not make money. Occasionally they will sell some crops to buy a few things, but other than that, they do everything for themselves. Their lives are so hard, but they are so happy, generous, and kind.

So, in the above picture, notice the round thingy she is pulling on. It's filled with home-made yak yogurt. She's rocking it back and forth to make butter. Once it started hardening, she poured it out into this basin and scooped the fresh butter off the top:
Eventually our guide's older brother showed up from tending sheep:
While we were there, we treated so kindly by these beautiful people. She gave us fresh yogurt, cheese, yak butter tea, and made us dumplings, which are a lot of work and they only eat on special occasions. I loved all the food, except the yak butter tea. So I made my friend drink that since she couldn't really stomach the goopy yogurt. heh heh.
Then these two adorable kids showed up:
They were so respectful and sweet! We had a ball playing with them all afternoon:

I'd like to say a word about the Tibetan wives. So it's still a widely-practiced custom in Tibet (especially in the countryside) that all brothers in a family share the same wife.

Yep, you heard me.

The marriage is usually arranged by the parents of the brothers and the girl. The girl is told she is going to some special occasion, so she dresses up, and is led to the house of the brothers. Only when she steps through the door and monks start throwing barley at her does she realize she is being married off, and then she usually starts to cry. Then she lives with the family so the brothers can keep tending to the family farm. The children call all the brothers, "Dad."

So, after bombarding my guide with a million questions, many of them the same question, re-worded to ensure I was really understanding this, I said,

"So...you have 2 brothers right? And they both have the same wife?"
"Yes."
"So, isn't she your wife too???"
"No. I decided I didn't like that idea. I want my own wife."

I laughed and laughed. He's great.

In the cities this custom is not really practiced anymore. There's an interesting dichotomy in Tibet: the city dwellers are very westernized (or Chinese-ized as the case may be), while the country folk are still very National Geographic.