Ruchi Puri, MD

08/26/2026

"Are you really a doctor?"

Three hours. That's how long I stood in a Chinese immigration hall with my luggage between my feet, being passed between officials who didn't believe I was who my documents said I was. My medical license wasn't enough. My degrees weren't enough. What finally worked? My Stanford Health profile page.

I'd entered the country with a fake itinerary, because getting a Tibet permit requires a visa, and getting the visa requires not mentioning Tibet. A bureaucratic koan, and I was the one stuck inside it.

When I finally walked out, exhausted from being treated like an enemy of the state, I found a LEGO panda in ceremonial dress waiting inside a Chengdu Starbucks. I sat down and just breathed.

Read the whole entry into Tibet

What it actually takes to reach a Shakti Peeth — fake itineraries, a China Health QR Code, three hours of airport interrogation, and one LEGO panda in a Chengdu Starbucks , Tibet travel permit, Tibet Autonomous Region, Chengdu, sacred feminine pilgrimage.

08/20/2026

Its an odd thing when a story touches something in us that we can't put it down, can't stop thinking about it. We just can't get enough of it. That happened to me when I learned about Devi Sati. I'm not one for mythology but I guess when we don't have enough real life role models for something we want for ourselves then it is just about settling for the next best thing. Sati's story is about having such a strong sense of self respect that she would accept no less for herself from her father, family, and the universe no matter what it cost her. Sometimes the best thing any of us can do is be an inspiration for something better, walk away and wait. Wait until everyone else is ready, for the circumstances to change, for conditions to support our fruit to ripen.
Link in Bio.

And why no two people tell it the same way

08/13/2026

A foot of hair, maybe more, on the floor.

I'd kept it long because it was one of my better features. But by the time I hit Delhi, days before flying into Tibet, I was done carrying it, the products, the blow dryer, the unspoken toll of being seen a certain way. So I said the words no Indian hairdresser wants to hear from a woman with long black hair: pixie cut.

He re-checked with me a few inches at a time. I didn't waver.

That haircut was step one of becoming someone who could disappear into six countries without a plan, a permit, or even a confirmed train ticket. Read how the rest came together:

On delays, a stop in Delhi, and learning to let go of the anticipation.

08/06/2026

It feels safer to believe we have control over what's happening to us. But I'm more realistic now that I've hit middle age. Sometimes life decides for us.

It's a little mysterious, how the stars align in ways we don't want or agree with, but looking backwards, the adventures they've led me to have been the most meaningful of my life. The last course correction the universe sent me on is the most profound yet.

My house sold. My dad collapsed. The pilgrimage got placed in a drawer labeled "later," the same drawer every woman I know keeps her own needs in.

Some months later, work evaporated too. And then it was time. There was nothing left to stall behind.

Read what happened next.

On double binds, a father's illness, and the moment the decision got made for me.

07/31/2026

What if the answer to patriarchy was never just fighting it?

I sold my house, quit work, broke all the rules, and bought a one-way ticket. Thirteen months, off the beaten path, to sixty-three sacred sites across six countries where the sacred feminine is still actively worshipped. I wanted to know what that enduring presence actually knows that we don't.

This is where I started processing what I found. New essay series, arriving slowly, only when something's worth sharing.

Read the first one:

On exhaustion, the sacred feminine, and a question that wouldn't leave me alone.

07/18/2026

As you all know, I've traveled and lives in some complicated places over the years. I've navigated Israeli security, Tanzania bureaucracy, Indian population overload and two years of COVID in an American hospital.

It was all preparation for boarding a train to Lhasa.

This post is about the day I bought three tickets, lost my agency, and learned what obedience actually costs. It's also about the moment Tibet finally appeared outside a train window after 25 years of wanting to go — and the guilt that came with it.
Post 6 is up. I'd love for you to read it.

https://theshaktipeeths.substack.com/p/three-tickets-later?r=87vtef

07/09/2026

Random moments in Berlin 2023 on my way to Tibet. It seems like every place I went manages to live, survive and endure their contradictions. We have our karma but so does the land we live in. Berlin is beautiful. Amazing architecture, doesn’t shy away from from its history, showcases Mother Nature and finds balance between old and new!

06/25/2026

In 2023, before I left for Tibet, Roxy and I were doing a lot of hiking to get in shape. I’ve been going through my photos and am reminded of how beautiful that spring was and how lucky I feel to be able to walk out the front door and enjoy these open spaces.

I feel even luckier now. After thirteen months traveling through some of the most populated places on earth, sometimes unable to see the sun through the pollution — these hills feel like a different world.

dogsofinstagram

06/12/2026

Before I could get to a single Shakti Peeth, I had to get through Berlin, Delhi, Bangkok, and China — with permits that hadn't arrived and routes that didn't exist on any map.

This post is about the journey before the journey. The waiting, the uncertainty, and the moment I stopped anticipating what it would look like and just let it unfold.

Also about cutting off a foot of hair in Delhi. Which turned out to matter more than I expected.

On delays, a stop in Delhi, and learning to let go of the anticipation.

05/30/2026

Some of you knew I sold my house a few years ago and disappeared.

This is where I've been — and what I found.

I'm an OB/GYN who spent her career asking one question she couldn't let go of: have women ever actually been equal? That question led me to mythology, to Hinduism, to a goddess named Sati, and eventually to sixty-three sacred sites scattered across Tibet, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.
The Shakti Peeths. Places people have traveled to and prayed at for millennia. Places almost nothing trustworthy has been written about in English.

I went to find out for myself. My first essay is up now. I'd love for you to read it.

On exhaustion, the sacred feminine, and a question that wouldn't leave me alone.