Gerald Fry, From Luxembourg to Tibet

Gerald Fry

“From Luxembourg to Tibet: Reflections on Life and Living”

“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.”  – The Dalai Lama

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.…”  – Mark Twain

“You can’t cross the sea by standing and staring at the water.”  – Rabindranath Tagore, first Asian Nobel laureate 

Last year I learned that the Dalai Lama had recommended the idea of each year traveling to a new place where we have never been before, and how this would bring many benefits in terms of health and happiness.  Such travel is often mentally and physically challenging and provides opportunities to encounter new friends, perspectives, and ways of life.

Despite being over 83 and still recovering from terrible foot surgery (unrelated to age) in 2023, I decided to follow the Dalai Lama’s advice and traveled in 2025 to three new places:  1) the majestic Ban Gioc waterfalls in remote northeast

Vietnam on the border with China; 2) Luxembourg in Europe; and 3) most recently Tibet.  These were all challenging destinations, especially Tibet with its high altitude and being “the roof of the world.”  Just a few weeks ago, I was about 5,000 meters above the sea in Tibet.

In retrospect, despite many challenges and difficulties, I am glad that I did these trips.  I learned so much and met so many fascinating people, one of the many benefits of travel.  As we all know, the U.S. is an automobile country and Bangkok is an automobile city. 

Luxembourg

The famous philosopher Ivan Illich was quite anti-car.  He would be so pleased with what Luxembourg is doing.  The area near my hotel was only for pedestrians and Luxembourg is the only country in the world to offer free public transportation, even long bus or train trips as a way to discourage the use of cars.

Two other extremely impressive aspects of Luxembourg were its inexpensive higher education and its being truly a multilingual society. They certainly realize that multilingual minds matter.  Tuition for international students at the University of Luxembourg is about 400 Euros a term (about 15,000 baht or $462). The university is quite age-friendly.  For $50 a semester, adults may enroll as guest students.  In the future, I may want to study a term or two there with my grandkids.

To graduate from high school, students  must show proficiency in English, French, German, and their own language, Luxembourgish.

Tibet

My gateway to Tibet, was the city of Chengdu, China, the capital of Sichuan province.  It is a huge city of 22 million people, but I was amazed that nearly all vehicles in the city are electric.  Gas stations were almost non-existent.  This greatly reduces both costs and pollution.  On the train to Tibet, China’s commitment to solar energy was highly visible.  Last year China invested more in solar power, electrical vehicles, and robots, than the rest of the world combined.  These investments lead to reduced costs and improved productivity.  Already China is the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy technologies.  So domestically it is committed to soft energy paths and internationally to soft power.  The Tibet plateau with many moonscapes and its high altitude and nearly constant sunshine is ideal for the placement of solar panels. So Tibet is an excellent source of free renewable energy for China.  AI is highly energy-demanding and China also has a monopoly on precious metals needed for AI. 

China is deeply committed to the use of hi-speed trains as an alternative to highly polluting planes.  My trip to Tibet was via hi-speed train with majestic and varied landscapes. 

Like Luxembourg, Tibet is a multilingual society.  At the National Library of Tibet, there are about two million volumes in the Tibetan language, and at the university courses are taught in both Chinese and Tibetan and most Tibetan K-12 schools are bilingual.  In the future, I would have interest in studying Tibetan and/or teaching English at the university there, while training for my next World Senior Games competition.  Training at such a high altitude would give me a real advantage in preparing for the games. 

Also while in Tibet I learned about sowa rigpa, the traditional Tibetan health system, which UNESCO recognizes as a great world treasure.  Dr. Nida Chenagtsang from northeastern Tibet has written a valuable, insightful introduction to sowa rigpa and its fundamental principles.

As part of tantric Tibetan Buddhism, there are 21 taras who are different forms of the Tara Bodhisattva, an important female deity.  The White Tara represents compassion, purity, healing, and longevity and the ability to transcend all limitations.  Gaining more knowledge of both sowa rigpa and the White Tara are highly relevant to my current research on aging and life-long vitality.

In my current research on longevity and health span, I have developed the concept of livology, meaning the art and science of living happily and healthily.  In Thai, I have coined the term, chiwit witaya to mean livology.  The kind of travel just described is an integral part of living an active, vigorous life. 

Actually, the concept of livology was introduced by Australian psychologists who define it as a deliberate, intentional life, with an emphasis on lived experiences such as travel.  There is a website, livolgy.com and an e-book titled Livology: A Globa Guide to a Deliberate Life.   I have obviously broadened their concept considerably to introduce a whole new field of study and research related to being happy and healthy.

These three trips described here have convinced me that the Dalai Lama is wise indeed in recommending travel to a new place every year.  So in the years to come I would like to visit Mongolia, Tonga, Pitcairn Islands, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Uruguay, Zanzibar, and the Kerala state of India.   Intelligent contrary travel of the type described here is an integral part of my quest for continual life-long learning and living happily and healthily.

 

Figure 1: The White Tara of Tibet

 

Source: The Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Museum, London (I was there in September)