As a child Stablein became interested in Asian culture from visits to Chinatown, San Francisco and the Asian Art Museum. After reading about the India travels of beat generation writers Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg she traveled to India as a teenager and studied Tibetan culture. She wrote about the Boudhanath Tibetan Losar celebration, published an illustrated article on Tibetan pilgrimage. and published books about the six-years she lived in the Himalayas from 1966-1972.