Amazing Grace In An Ancient Land

Maigang, a small village in Tibet, is a place of captivating beauty and resilient women

- Madhuri Chowdhury

When we arrive at Lhamo Drolma’s home in the high reaches of Amdo in eastern Tibet, she is making momos. The family room is cosy with wood-panelled walls and a central stove that instantly thaws our stiff hands. We’ve driven past monks on motorbikes, across dirt paths, surrounded by jagged mountains and fields of barley, to reach this place, a 1,400-year-old Maigang village where farming life has remained unchanged for centuries.

We wash up and join our host on the wooden floor, copying her fingers as they expertly wrap sheets of flattened dough around a mixture of spiced greens. Our group of seven women, all of them different ages and nationalities, has travelled together through Tibet for a week at this point, with all logistics arranged by a local Tibetan company. We’re as different as it’s possible to be, with a shared desire to learn about Tibet through the eyes of the country’s women.