A Few More Bright Spots

Some of the towns we visited were cool others could have been skipped all together.  Dege was one that I enjoyed.  The library in Dege was a magnificent original building spared from the Cultural Revolution.  It is where the sutras are manually printed using a block printing methodology and stored.  Truly a treasure. 

It is also a beacon for those who do Kora every day. The majority of the practitioners are elderly often with their grandchildren.  Occasionally there were a few younger persons in the mix.  This particular woman was wearing lots of large jewelry, something I did not see much of outside of the photos from 2008 and back of the large Horse Festivals now cancelled by the government.  She wasn’t too interested in obliging me, so I had to chase her around a few laps just to grab this snap shot of her.

 
The other curious aspect of this location were the old couches and chairs that circled the building.  They served as a place for the local people to take a break and socialize between circumambulation. And then there were the pack of street dogs who also took advantage of the handy trash cans and cushy rest spots to call home. 

Here is my favorite “Rasta Dog”



Another cool spot was Guarang, home to the Chang Tibetian minority.  The village was sort of a fairy tale like setting with the hills dotted with castle like homes. 


We did a home stay for 2 nights which afforded me the opportunity to start early in the morning, catch a woman weaving fabric from sheep’s wool for her winter coat and attend a local festival.  Food was passed around to me and barley wine cooked up & shared in a communal pot.  3 weeks and no intestinal distress- I passed.

Woman drinking home made Barley wine with a straw from a communal pot
Got to dash and catch my plane to Nepal.  

More to come
Carpe Diem
Lorrie
www.LorrieDallekPhotography.com