partners. The camera didn’t catch a couple of Tibetans, but they were danced too.

And thus was Tibet.

The jewel of the Sparrow Quartet’s trip to China was our jaunt to Tibet, organised by the American consulate in Chengdu and the American Center for Educational Exchange, together with the Tibetan Foreign Affairs office. The Quartet was the first ever American cultural program sent into Tibet, and, as demonstrated above (at the Linzhi College of Animal Husbandry), Tibet fell in love with the banjo.

 

Tibet University, Lhasa High School, a nightclub-cum-cultural-palace called Tangula Feng, Linzhi College of Animal Husbandry and an unofficial session on All Hallow’s Eve at our great Lhasain home, the Kyichu Hotel. At each stop save the last, collaborations with locals followed, to varying degrees of fun. The common theme: Pop music. The singing collaborators, as it were, all certainly came from a Mando-/Canto-/Western-pop background. First, two of our youngest fans at Tibet University, one of whom (hatless) Casey later deputized, for his good work, Sheriff:

A packed house each night, like below at Lhasa High (somewhere north of 2500 kids saw the show); so packed was the house, and so excited was Ben that, once again, he danced

Tibet University saw another singing collaboration, this time with what can only be described as a boy band (if you’d heard the girls screaming during the boys’ solo performance, or if the pic was good enough to see the fellas’ hair, you’d concur).

Saturday night brought us to Tangula Feng. Part nightclub, part ethnic-dancing-showcase-house, all neon and 1970s Miami, the venue was where the Sparrow Quartet was paired up with “rock” act Tianchu (aka Vajra). A rare sight to see so many ‘plugged’ instruments (guitars, bass) with our banjo-centric quartet. And drums!

Again, with the erhu song; at right, the culmination of the Tangula Feng festivities

En route from Lhasa to Linzhi (aka Nyintri), Ben entertains the locals during a pit stop

Below, the crowd gathers outside the 1800-seat auditorium; only half the student body fit into the room, so only half the student body was able to see the show, which featured, yup, a trio of boys who popped up their traditional music, and, of course, a finale featuring the fancy feet of Ben (climax: Not the duo dance with Abigail, but rather, a handspringing across the stage that was too quick for even this photographer)

On the way back from Linzhi to Lhasa, our faithful steed’s wheel flattened. Not once, but twice, the second time not twenty minutes after the first. Both times Ben proved himself as handy with a jack as he is with a bow.

Faced with adversity, and the knowledge that our driver and cellist were on the case, the rest of us set to work on working the kinks out of Casey’s new game invention: Hit the Poo. Tibet, you see, is a land of yak patties. And stone-bedded rivers. And Casey was quick to see the potential therein for endless hours of fun.

Step 1: Find a pattie.

Steps 2 and 3: Find a river and hurl the pattie in.

Step 4 and 5: Wait for the splash, and hurl rocks at the feces as it flows down the river.

Finally, back in Lhasa, and the power’s out for an extra-spooky Halloween session at the Kyichu Hotel’s restaurant, where two lovely ladies serenaded us with Budweiser beer and a table full of Italians insisted that Ben knew ‘Volare’ (and they were almost right).

And a quick romp through Lhasa through the eyes of Dancing Ben, with

French...

Slovenian...

and American...