Yak Adventure offers tales and trinkets from Tibet

Author: Andrea Glaessner

I recently heard through the grapevine about a shop near the Middlebury Co-op called Yak Adventure. The "grapevine" claimed is was owned by a Tibetan refugee named Tenzin Chophel. A Tibetan in Middlebury, VT? That was enough intrigue to get me to stop by the shop.

I entered Yak Adventure expecting an outdoors store, since the title of the shop seems to hint in that direction, and left with incense in hand and ideas in my head of how to acquire my own Tibetan singing bowl. The first moment of awe occurred when I got past the door and, instead of kayaks and ski jackets, I found Buddha. Tens of miniature Buddhas made from metal, wood and other materials sat comfortably on shelves on one side of the store, staring blankly ahead, focused on something I could not even begin to understand in my short visit.

I stopped, mesmerized by all these figurines, and perhaps also recovering from the surprise of discovering something entirely different from what I had envisioned. I turned to face the front of the store and saw a man standing behind the cash register. Dressed in a black leather jacket and corduroys, this man could have been any Middlebury shop owner.

He looked up, and I realized now was a good time to talk, before another customer walked in, so I walked over and introduced myself. The man standing at the front of the store was Tenzin Chophel, store owner of Yak Adventure. Chophel's introduction revealed that he is husband to co-owner Nancy Lindberg, the father of two children and the son of Tibetan refugees who fled to Dharamsala in Northern India.

My first post-introduction question was pretty obvious - why and how did he come to Middlebury? Chophel explained this, saying his wife, Nancy, is a native Vermonter who had visited Dharamsala as part of a student travel program and returned to the States in 1992 with more than a little piece of Tibetan culture. She also toted home her husband, Tenzin.

The couple settled in Burlington where they met the roughly 100 other Tibetan refugees who settled in Vermont's most cosmopolitan city. According to Chophel, the Tibetans living in Burlington came from countries including India, Europe and Tibet.

Chophel handed me a brochure of one of his Burlington Tibetan friends who owns the motel in South Burlington called G.G.T. Tibet Inn on Route 7. Flipping through the brochure offers just one example of the amazing endurance displayed by the exiled Tibetan community in the battle for Tibetan freedom.

According to the hotel's brochure, G.G.T. stands from Gangjong Gesar Tsang, the name for the Tibetan homeland followed by the name of a heroic Tibetan historical figure and topped off with the Tibetan word for family and home. As the brochure explains, "together these words are an expression of the best in Tibetan culture and of hope for the future of Tibet."

Even a South Burlington hotel brochure contains Tibetan political propaganda, proving that Tibetans are so intertwined with their land that they will use every venue to promote the autonomy of Tibet and its leader, the Dalai Lama. Even after they fled or were exiled from their own homes when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to force Tibetans to recognize the Chinese government and to assimilate to the mainland Chinese way of life, Tibetans continue to fight for autonomy and the return of the Dalai Lama no matter whether they end up in Dharamsala, India or South Burlington, Vermont.

Chophel never physically experienced living in his homeland under CCP rule. His parents fled to Darhamsala, to where the Dalai Lama had been exiled, before Chophel was born. But some of his other family members were not so fortunate. Chophel explained, "My uncle was killed by the Chinese because he worked for the Tibetan government."

Chophel's uncle worked for the government in Tibet before 1950 when the CCP entered the Tibetan area of Chamdo and began efforts to push out the Dalai Lama and replace him with their own CCP cadres. His aunt was killed when she was admitted into a hospital for treatment of a minor illness and had her kidneys stolen.

Fortunately, Chophel's life in Darhamsala was less tragic. Chophel said that although Indian and Tibetan Buddhism have some differences, particularly in terms of religious practices, Tibetans were able to assimilate quite peacefully into life in Northern India. As a child, Chophel said he went to school and learned both Tibetan and Hindi, and he and his family were free to practice their religion and Tibetan way of life without any interference.

Chophel made it clear that it was not necessarily an ethnic conflict that was so disturbing to his family living under CCP occupation. Chophel explained, "The problem in Tibet is not with the Chinese people, but with the Chinese government. The government should tell the truth to the world. The Dalai Lama tells the truth. I always say tell the truth. The truth is all we need."

Today, Chophel loves to share the rich Tibetan culture he experienced during his time in Darhamsala.

As we walked around the shop, Chophel led me to a table covered with Tibetan singing bowls of all different sizes and adorned with intricate designs. He first gave me a demonstration of how to use a singing bowl, and then waited patiently as I tried to copy him, showing me how to concentrate my energy in my wrist and to put pressure on the silver bowl's wide rim. As I moved the cylindrical instrument around the bowl's rim, I built a huge, beautiful sound that sent vibrations shooting up my arm and filling my ears, totally drowning out the lull of outside traffic and the hum of the air conditioner in the shop.

Yak Adventure is stocked with all kinds of Indian and Tibetan objects, all of which were purchased in India on Chophel's annual trips. The store is stocked with incense, Tibetan prayer flags, stunning jewelry and rich Kashmir scarves. Chophel explained that he likes to go to India to support local artists.

Even when he shops in Vermont, Chophel stays true to his desire to support local businesses. Chophel said, "I never go to Wal-mart first because I don't support it, since a lot of things are made for a very low price in China because they pay the workers a very low price, and second because it really gives me a headache with all those cars and shopping carts. It's just too much."

From time to time, Chophel travels to nearby schools and educates students about his culture. Many students from Middlebury who have visited Tibet or Darhamsala come by the shop and visit with the owner, telling their own stories of Chophel's homeland which he has still never seen for political reasons. But even if you have never been to Tibet or "Poeh," which is the best way I can describe the sound Chophel made when I asked how to say Tibet in Tibetan, visiting Yak Adventure is a must.