Three Cups of Tea

I found Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin incredibly inspiring. Here are a smattering of quotes and citations from the book that begin to explain why:

The book cites another book entitled, Ancient Futures, by Helena Norberg-Hodge, about her time spent living for 17 years in a region cut off from Pakistan - "[P]reserving a traditional way of life in Ladakh-extended families living in harmony with the land-would bring about more happiness than "improving" Ladakhis' standard of living with unchecked development." "In Ladakh I have learned that there is more than one path into the future and I have had the privilege to witness another, saner, way of life-a pattern of existence based on the coevolution between human beings and the earth." pgs. 111-112

Page 120- "Norberg-Hodge admiringly quotes the king of another Himalayan country, Bhutan, who says the true measure of a nation's success is not gross national product, but "gross national happiness." On their warm, dry roofs, among the fruits of their successful harvest, eating, smoking, and gossiping with the same sense of leisure as Parisians on the terrace of a sidewalk cafe, Mortensen felt sure that, despite all that they lacked, the Balti still held the key to a kind of uncomplicated happiness that was disappearing in the developing world as fast as old-growth forests."

Mortensen attends a dinner for the American Himalayan foundation at which Sir Edmund Hillary spoke. Hillary says, “I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest. But my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics. That has given me more satisfaction than a footprint on a mountain.”

Page 136 – “It may seem absurd to believe that a “primitive” culture in the Himalaya has anything to teach our industrialized society. But our search for a future that works keeps spiraling back to an ancient connection between ourselves and the earth, an interconnectedness that ancient cultures have never abandoned.” – Helena Norberg-Hodge

About the title of the book, pg. 150 –
Haji Ali - “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die…” “You must make time to share three cups of tea.”
Mortensen – “Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them.”

“No human, nor any living thing, survives long under the eternal sky. The most beautiful women, the most learned men, even Mohammed, who heard Allah’s own voice, all did wither and die. All is temporary. The sky outlives everything. Even suffering.” – Bowa Johar, Balti poet, pg. 198

Page 209, on educating women – “Once you educate the boys, they tend to leave the villages and go search for work in the cities,” Mortensen explains. “But the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they’ve learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls.”

Mortensen attends the viewing of Mother Teresa’s body after her death.
“Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.” – Mother Teresa, page 225

And page 227, as Mortensen paraphrased from Mother Teresa – “What we are trying to do may be just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

In February 1999, in the Oregonian, outdoor writer Terry Richard concluded about Mortensen, “It’s something to think about the next time you ask: What difference can one person make?”