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| This is the top of the house/shrine, up in the caves...the mountains are visible in the background, and Rewalsar town lies about 1000m below. | Me in the main cave. This shrine is to an Indian princess associated with Guru Padmasambhava. | Ani Bumchun, one of the nuns/meditators, making torma for Losar (Tibetan New Year). | The ten-year-old girl I was hanging around with, up in the caves. |
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| A beggar-woman, selling offerings to a Hindu god, and spinning cashmere/goat hair on a tahkli. | A shopkeeper invited me to stay with his family for one night...here he is, churning curd in the morning. (The family had three cows--that was the best and sweetest milk I've ever tasted.) | Me and some meditators/pilgrims, outside their caves... | ...me with some pilgrims and nuns, up on the roof of one of the shrines. |
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| Some colorfully dressed Indian women at market. | A beggar-woman who climbed inside the bus to beg. I have no idea what god's shrine she was carrying, but I gave her a few rupees anyway. | A knife-sharpener plying his trade, in Rewalsar... | Man in a parade in Mandi. India has a lot of religious festivals, so on most days there's *some* sort of religious procession going on. |
| Fantastic Scenery | |||
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You must go to Tso Pema to really appreciate it. Words will not do it, and neither will photos. You have to be there, looking down on the world, looking up at the massive slopes of the Himalayan mountains, to really appreciate it. Nonetheless these are pretty photos... |
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| Mist rising in a valley over Rewalsar... | We passed a river, driving to Dharamsala... | ||
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| Terrace farming. Each "field" is 5-10 feet across... | ...they follow the curves of the slopes. | This is a farm a few minutes' walk from the caves...very pretty. | |
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| A gully running halfway down the mountain...I took most of these photos while walking down one day. | It takes three hours to walk from the caves to town if you follow the main road... | ....but the views are spectacular. | If you think I've gone overboard with the photos, it's just because you haven't been there... |
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| ...it's too damn cold to be "heaven on earth", | ...but it sure is pretty. | Ani Bumchun tells me it's even more beautiful in the rainy season... | ...wildflowers everywhere. Unfortnately, this is winter. |
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| Rewalsar/Tso Pema is in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains... | ...even the "short" Himalayas are big. They have more presence than anything I've seen in the U.S. | More photos from the road to Dharamsala... | |
| Animals | |||
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| A sambhar, in the Rewalsar zoo. | Cows grazing off a trash-heap outside my hotel. They eat all the green stuff, serving as natural composters... | Monkey picking through a trash-pile in Dharamsala. Monkeys are quite common. | Sheep and goats grazing on a hillside in Rewalsar, the afternoon I walked down... |
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| Monkeys begging from pilgrims. On the right side (out of the frame) is a shallow area where pilgrims feed some very fat carp. I assume they're holy, as they look awfully tasty... |
Monkey sitting on a post by the lake. The lake is tiny, maybe fifteen minutes around. |
Pack ponies (burros?) grazing by the side of the road outside Rewalsar. They're used for transporting all sorts of baggage, to areas the main road doesn't reach. | Asiatic black bear, in Rewalsar Zoo. |
| Around the Mountain | |||
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| A collection of pilgrims, in town for Losar. | The ten-year-old girl who was translating for me... | ...and me with the origami animals I folded for her. | She took a photo of me with one of the three dogs.... |
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| ...and one of me in the kitchen where I was staying... |
...and one of me in the main shrine to Guru Padmasambhava. (A photo of the Dalai Lama is to my left.) If you get the impression she was fascinated by my digital camera, you are right. ;-) |
Rewalsar Lake, behind the cows grazing in the trashbin. (I really must suggest this to the Palo Alto City Council when I get back...why, just think of the reduction in solid waste management...) | The construction site for a giant statue of Guru Padmasambhava. |
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| A heap of stones at the construction site. Look closely: every stone is hand-carved, with hammer and chisel! | The interior of the kitchen where I slept. Take a closer look at the pots hanging on the wall: they're handmade! and the pots are hand-hammered, too. | A shrine next to the kitchen. I still don't know who it's to... | A wind-powered prayer wheel. Pretty neat, eh? |
| Photos from Around India | |||
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| A religious parade in Mandi. I think this was the start of the ten-day festival to Shiva's wife, but I'm not sure... | ...the same parade, but ten days later, at the end of the festival. | A random shrine, somewhere in India. I don't know why this tree is holy, but apparently it is...spontaneous shrines are very common all over Delhi. | An AIDS prevention message in McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan government-in-exile. |
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| A saddhu (holy man), at a rest stop on the way to Dharamsala. I *think* that's his real hair! | A weaver in a tiny, tiny weaving studio in Mandi. He and another weaver squeeze into a tiny 10'x6' brick room--there's barely enough room to sit behind the loom! | Another festival parade in Mandi. I think that's the wedding procession for Shiva's wife, but I honestly don't know... | This, on the other hand, is not a parade. This is the bus station/main square in McLeod Ganj. It usually looks pretty much like this. |
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| And, the inevitable textile photos...this is my travel shawl, which is now about 30" across. | This is the funniest bobbin winder I've seen in my travels. It's a small electric fan, with a rubber band around the propeller thing, driving a bobbin-winder to the left. | Another charkha. Indian charkhas, unlike Thai/Lao/etc. charkhas, tend to be of solid wood, like this round wheel. | A better shot of the beggar-woman spinning on her tahkli. She and I traded spindles for awhile, and I showed her how to spin on my silver spindle! |
