Heading to Ladakh

Hi from Dharmasala, well actually just North in Mcloud Gange which is where the Dalai Lama lives. I spent this morning sitting in meditation with the Dalai Lama in his temple along with a room full of Tibetan refugees. What an amazing space in which to sit. The energy was pretty incredible.

The Dalai Lama was sitting beneath a Buddha statue, one of the few possessions he brought with him when he fled Tibet in the 50’s. I was able to get a nice shot of the statue after the sitting. I had to shoot it through a locked gate but was able to get a good composition, which should turn into a nice print. Unfortunately they didn’t allow photographs of the Dalai Lama to be taken.

During the sitting I sat beside two old Tibetan men with weathered faces and shaved heads except for the grey stubble. As little kids went by they would grab them and pull them toward them, then diffuse their fear with a kind smile and gentle poking. To my right were four old Tibetan women. When one of the women fell asleep during her chanting another filled her water bottle cap and splashed it in her face with a mischievous smile, a lot of personality in these sweet people.

My time trekking in the Himalayas in Nepal was great, I trekked for six days and got really lucky with the weather. I had met many people who said they so couldn’t see the mountains at all during their treks. I had crystal clear skies and beautiful views of the Himalaya. I would love to come back and do the complete Annapurna circuit.

I headed back into India following my trek and had a second but too short of visit with Aparna in Haridware (near Rishikesh) and the hill station in Musouri. The highlight of our time together for me was taking a “bath” together in the Ganges and seeing the Aarti (fire) ceremony on the river. My Dad also came to visit and he and I headed into the Western Himalaya together. We went on an 11 day trip to Char Dham of Garwhal. This refers to four ancient temples at the sources of the 4 sacred rivers in India: The Yamuna River (Yamunotri temple), the Ganges (Gangotri temple), the Mandakini (Kedarnath temple), and the Alaknanda River (Badrinath temple). My Dad and I went to 3 of the sites together that were accessible by car or horse. It was an extreme trip, even to the sites that were accessible by car. They required eight or more hours of driving on the worst roads I have ever traveled. These roads were often single lane dirt roads which wound around the mountains with sheer drops of several thousand feet on their edge.

They had two interesting alternative ways to get up the mountains to the sources of these different rivers. One was riding in a cart carried on the shoulders of 4 people, the other was sitting in a basket that was then carried on the back of a porter. A lot of people went up the mountains in one of these two ways, pretty unusual sight. However you got there all the temples were really beautiful, and all were surrounded by the snow capped peaks of the Himalaya. Some of the rivers started with hotsprings, others with glacier melt, so bathing in the holly waters was a mixed experience.

The final temple was an eighteen mile hike at elevation (the temple was at 12000 ft), so I went to this temple by myself and my Dad went on to Nepal for a couple weeks before heading back to the States.

Well I head off today to Ladakh in the hope of getting there by the 1st for a three day festival. It’s a long trip from here, three full days of bus and share taxi through the mountains. The pass is just starting to open up so no guarantees that I’ll make it by the festival but I’m hopeful. I considered flying but there weren’t any flights available before the festival. I had planned to fly in and drive out but I think I’ll do the opposite.
Some bad news/good news, my portable hard drive crashed losing my photos, but I had them backed up on a drive that went back to the USA. So good news is they were backed up, bad news is that I don’t have the shots for posting. I’ll try and get some shots current shots up when I am in Ladakh. For the others you’ll have to check out my upcoming website or come to an exhibition :)