For a while my brother and I have tried to meet up to travel but with monthly access to the internet, it wasn’t easy.
When we finally talked I had a month before I had to take my R&R. My brother suggested Ladakh, India which to me
meant nothing – some place in Kashmir. I was like great India…..Kashmir….ahhh one war zone to the next. I was thinking
India with mosques no temples, veils no saris, hills. When I finally googled Ladakh a week before I left I realized how
wrong my visions were. Ladakh is Tibet……in India…..but Tibetian through and through. Mosques were monasteries,
imams were saffron and maroon cloaked monks, the minuret call to prayer was replaced by ommmmm and the squawk
of brass horns and the tap of drums reverberating off of the high cliffs of the Himalayas.
monks in the street, Padum
|
monestary students playing
|
lighting prayer candles at Lingest monestaery
|
sorting roasted barley in Padum
|
monestery students playing at Tiske
|
Buddha at Tikse Monastery
|
painting of Buddha at Tikse Monastery
|
ancient buddha near Kargil
|
wading through bsrley, Lingset
|
get back to work kid!, Humamil
|