Having read every book available about Tibet at the time, Lama Tsultrim travels to Nepal and India with Vicki Hitchcock in hopes of learning to paint mandalas. In Nepal, she meets many Tibetan refugees and experiences a deep sense of ‘arriving home.’

Lama Tsultrim begins each morning sitting in the Kagyu monastery next to Swayambhu stupa in Kathmandu observing the rituals.

Lama Tsultrim lives with the American yogi Bhagavan Das at this time. Dr. Richard Alpert, an eminent Harvard psychologist and psychedelic pioneer, arrives in Kathmandu. Alpert and Bhagavan Das embark on their famous journey to see Neem Keroli Baba.

She leaves on an arduous journey, hitch-hiking across Northern India to see His Holiness (H.H.) the 14th Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, where she begins a life-long study of Tibetan Buddhism.