About Us
A few words from tour facilitator, Jill Persson:
My love affair with Tibet goes back many years and has not lost any of its power with time, if anything my love for the country and its people grows deeper each year.
Born in Devon, England, later moving to Westminster, London, my childhood years were spent with a loving family in the UK.
At the age of 18 years, I fell in love with a man from Zambia, his Swedish father and Irish mother proving an irresistible combination.
Swept off my feet, I married him and left for Africa.
I have been lucky enough to live in three African countries – South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia – all of which have given me great pleasure and growth.
As my children were growing up I became very interested in complimentary healing and worked in this field for a number of years. Alongside this an interest in spiritual matters became incorporated into my life.
During some spiritual studies I read about a very sacred mountain in the far Western desert of Tibet and it seemed as if every hair on my body had been electrified and stood on end. I realised then that I had to investigate further and find about more about this place and its significance in the world. This became the first place I visited in Tibet.
At that time (1993) it was extremely difficult to enter Tibet: the roads were almost non-existent, and we had to cross rivers in the landcruisers as bridges had not yet been built.
Returning to Tibet for so many years and bringing people to share the experience developed a trust with the powers that be. I am allowed to visit and even take groups with me to restricted areas, which has been a great privilege and enabled me to know and also share isolated areas of the country as well as the usual tourist routes.
The adventures in visiting Tibet still exist today but the infrastructure – better roads, better hotels and easier access to permits – make it more ‘user friendly’.
The Tibetan people have great hearts and a great spiritual understanding of the universality of life. Many of their prayers are for the world rather than for themselves. This makes Tibet a unique place to visit: its history is fascinating, with many buildings dating to the 8th century, its culture is immensely interesting, and the scenery includes some of the most spectacular landscapes in the world.
It has become a mission of mine to share Tibet with as many different people as possible. I began to take people on trips that included easy hotel type tours, trekking tours, mountain biking and pilgrimage tours.
Tibet has now become an integral part of my life and I love to take others exploring this special land with me.
The whole Himalayan region is fascinating and I include Nepal and Bhutan in the experience.
Birding has been a hobby of mine for some time. A few years ago I linked up with a birding expert from the UK based in South Africa and we began our birding tours to the Himalayas. We enjoyed this so much that it has become a regular part of the tours.
My time when not in the Himalayas is spent in my home in Africa with my family, on a ten-acre small holding, developing it and carrying on with my interest in complimentary healing.
