Sacred Bridge Retreat at Menla

Long before the internet, we were profoundly connected to each other and to every other facet of the natural world—an awareness that’s only growing in importance as global well-being faces a wide range of threats, and as we learn more about the mechanics of mycorrhiza (the symbiotic relationship between fungi and plant roots), the quirks of quantum physics, and the annals of the ancients. An October event at the Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa in Phoenicia brings this truth home at an unprecedented level, allowing visitors a glimpse of the all-that-is-and-ever-was in the company of Amazonian spiritual leaders and Tibetan teachers.

“Sacred Bridge: Uniting the Heart of the Amazon and the Peaks of the Himalayas” will bring together nine Yawanawa spiritual leaders from the Brazilian Amazon and respected Tibetan elders and teachers for a rare and powerful cultural convergence of prayer, music, ritual, and ancestral wisdom from October 2 to October 5. They’ll be sharing traditional music and dance, sacred singing, fire ceremonies, ancestral stories, prayers, rituals, and more—customs that were long known only within the heart of the jungle or on the isolated mountain peaks of the onetime Hermit Kingdom.

“Mukavaini, a prophecy of the Yawanawa people, speaks of this time—when people of different traditions come together not to become the same, but to learn from one another. These alliances are more than symbolic—they are a healing force for the Earth. Each of us is a part of this prophecy,” says Jordao Souza, who began his journey with the Yawanawa people in 2009, studying ancestral plant medicine and Indigenous wisdom under revered healer Paje Tata. Souza cofounded the Nipeihu Sanctuary in Bahia, Brazil, a healing and research center of ancestral plant medicine. At the Menla event, he’ll be collaborating with nine Yawanawa leaders and their Tibetan counterparts to bring their cultures together to share direct experience of a way of life rooted in spirit. Participants will get to join in sweat lodge purification ceremonies and experience the art, body art and face painting that Tibetans and Yawanawa use to help themselves transcend ordinary level-one reality, and gain insight into medicinal plants and healing traditions. 

“I’ve been working with the Yanawana in the Amazon for almost 20 years and with Tibetans for longer than that,” says Lynn Schauwecker, Menla’s managing director, “and there are so many similarities between these people, which has always fascinated me. Both have this lineage of the dream life. In the Amazon, they dream about a specific plant; it comes in their dreams, and then they go out and find it. And the next day, someone gets bitten by a rare snake, or they get some weird skin disease, and the plant actually treats it. Both cultures have very sophisticated healing arts and science—I’ve seen people healed from not just physical ailments, but spiritual and emotional ones using plant medicine.” 

Despite the pressures of modernity and, in the case of the Tibetans, exile, both cultures are preserving core traditions. “The Tibetans were exiled, and part of the effect was that their traditional wisdom spread all over the world,” says Schauwecker. “In the Amazon, oral traditions that had almost died out are actually strengthening through the next generations, which is pretty amazing that that’s happening. These are cultures developed over thousands of years, in very challenging settings, and this is the first time these nine people have journeyed from the Amazon to come together with Tibetans and share that here in North America.”

Tibetans have been sharing their healing arts and folkways at Menla since 2002, when the property at the foot Panther Mountain—believed by some geologists to be the site of a long-ago meteor strike—was donated to Tibet House US, which had been founded in 1987 by Robert Thurman as part of the 14th Dalai Lama’s plan for preserving Tibetan culture worldwide. Guests at individual and group retreats experience a variety of classes, yoga, meditation, wellness and fitness programs, nature experiences, and Buddhist teachings on a wide range of subjects. There’s also an unstructured “create your own getaway” option in which guests can book an eco-friendly guest room (choices range from a remodeled 200-year-old barn with a fireplace and pool table to luxury king suites in Kathmandu House), enjoy the vegan/vegetarian cuisine and artesian spring water, and explore the property’s 300-acre wilderness and educational offerings at will. The Dewa Spa specializes in rare Tibetan therapies, as well as offering a full menu of Eastern and Western massage therapies and services, Ayurvedic treatments, herbal baths, saunas, and steam rooms; day guests are welcome to book treatments on an a la carte basis or come by to take a look around after stopping at the front desk to say hello.

The Yawanawa, about 1,200 of whom live along the Rio Gregorio in the Brazilian state of Acre, were first contacted by non-Indigenous folk in the 19th century and struggled to fend off rubber barons and missionaries, becoming the first Indigenous group to win formal recognition of their territory from the Brazilian government. Their ways of eating, singing, and healing stretch far back beyond recorded history; recent prophecies have led them both to form alliances with other peoples and to welcome women into shamanic practice as full participants, while staying true to the principles that have served them through the centuries.

Schauwecker emphasizes that the cultural wisdom that will be shared through evocative, accessible music, dance, storytelling, discussion, and ritual is not intended for a select group of esoteric experts or practitioners but for all of us “who feel called to walk in harmony, open their hearts, and help weave a living tapestry of remembrance, joy, and connection. I really want this to be like a family gathering,” she says. “There’s such richness in this dialogue, in sharing their culture and their healing arts and their medicines with each other,” Schauwecker says. “That’s why it’s called the Sacred Bridge; it’s like this invisible cord that links these two cultures, which I believe is strengthening things across the world, weaving a healing. This will be a gathering of hope, bringing light to the reality that even though all this other stuff is going on, there are actually very positive things happening for the coming generations. Just as hate and fear can spread, joy and hope have a ripple effect.”

The family-friendly event will be held October 2 to October 5 at the Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa in Phoenicia. For more information and reservations: Menla.org.  

This article appears in September 2025.