The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight Read Online Free Page B

hoping to get a renewed sense of its
     geography. Lying between China to the north and India and Nepal to the south, Tibet is basically a large plateau with few
     areas lower than six thousand feet. At its southern border are the towering Himalayas, including Mount Everest, and on the
     northern border just inside China are the vast Kunlun Mountains. In between are deep gorges, wild rivers, and hundreds of
     square miles of rocky tundra. From the map, eastern Tibet seemed to be the most fertile and populated, while the north and
     west looked sparse and mountainous, with few roads, all of them gravel.
    Apparently there are only two major routes into western Tibet—the northern road, used mostly by truckers, and the southern
     road, which skirts the Himalayas and is used by pilgrims from all over the region to reach the sacred sites of Everest, Lake
     Manasarovar, and Mount Kailash, and farther on to the mysterious Kunluns.
    I looked up from my reading. As we flew along at thirty-five thousand feet, I began to sense a distinct shift in temperature
     and energy outside. Below me, the Himalayas rose in frozen, rocky spires, framed by a clear blue sky. We practically flew
     right over the top of Mount Everest as we passed into the airspace of Tibet—the land of snows, the rooftop of the world. It
     was a nation of seekers, inward travelers, and as I looked down at the green valleys and rocky plains surrounded by mountains,
     I couldn’t help being awed by its mystery. Too bad it was now being brutally administered by a totalitarian government. What,
     I wondered, was I doing here?
    I looked back at Yin seated four rows behind me. It bothered me that he was being so secretive. I made up my mind, again,
     to be very cautious. I would not go any farther than Lhasa without a full explanation.
    When we arrived at the airport, Yin resisted all my inquiries about Shambhala, repeating his assertion that soon we would
     be met by Wil, at which point I would learn everything. We caught a taxi and headed toward a small hotel near the center of
     town, where Wil would be waiting.
    I caught Yin staring at me.
    “What?” I asked.
    “I was just checking to see how you are adjusting to the altitude,” Yin said. “Lhasa is twelve thousand feet above sea level.
     You must take it easy for a while.”
    I nodded, appreciating his concern, but in the past I had always adapted easily to high altitudes. I was about to mention
     this to Yin when I caught sight of a huge, fortress-like structure in the distance.
    “This is the Potala Palace,” Yin said. “I wanted you to see it. It was the Dalai Lama’s winter home before he was exiled.
     It now symbolizes the struggle of the Tibetan people against the Chinese occupation.”
    He looked away and remained silent until the car stopped not in front of the hotel, but down the street a hundred feet.
    “Wil should be here already,” Yin said as he opened the door. “Wait in the taxi. I’ll go in and check.”
    But instead of getting out, he stopped and stared at the entrance. I saw his look and gazed in that direction myself. The
     street was busy with Tibetan pedestrians and a few tourists, but all seemed normal. Then my eyes fell on a short, Chinese
     man near the corner of the building. He held a paper of some kind, but his eyes were carefully surveying the area.
    Yin looked toward the cars parked on the curb across the street from the man. His eyes stopped on an old brown sedan containing
     several men in suits.
    Yin said something to the taxi driver, who looked nervously at us in the rearview mirror and drove toward the next intersection.
     As we drove on, Yin bent over so as not to be seen by the men in the car.
    “What’s going on?” I asked.
    Yin ignored me, telling the driver to turn left and head farther into the center of the city.
    I grabbed his arm. “Yin, tell me what’s going on. Who were those men?”
    “I don’t know,” he said. “But Wil would not be there. There is one