From fancy to
reality. I started noticing piles of dung on walls, so again I
asked why. They collect the dung, dry it, and store it to burn for
heat in the winter. I'd actually heard of this process, but had
never seen it. I mean Downingtown is country, but we're not that
country. There were nicer examples of dried dung piles, but I
wasn't going to spend all day taking pictures of
shit.
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This is an actual animal pen. There was even a
cow in the dark through the door. I didn't think they existed in
India, but they do. Most of winter the animals are kept in their
pens. They're also kept here when the farmers need to protect their
crops from the animals, but the rest of the year they're allowed to
roam.
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This is an example
of a village sidewalk. We took all kinds of little paths and
passageways between houses and structures through the
village. I could hardly tell when we were on the path or
someones property. In the end, I don't think it mattered. It
all depended on how nasty a path you were willing to take - the
livestock use the same
paths.
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Just a shot across the village with the snowy
peaks in the distance. You get a little bit of everything in
this shot. There are homemade bricks, drying dung, roof
grass, window woodwork and sticks collected to
burn.
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One
of the nicer paths with Amber leading the way. Guides are
really great. They're informative, protective and comforting in
strange
places.
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We popped out of
the village closer to town. There were a number "native" people
I really wanted to get pictures of, but it was tough. They didn't
really appreciate getting their picture taken, so you had to be
sneaky. This was a hip shot. It's the best and only shot I got
the entire
weekend.
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Here's a row of older stupas we passed with the
snowy peaks in the
distance.
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This is the temple for the Leh Palace. Between that and it was way
up on top of that hill, I didn't know much else. Amber said it would
probably take 45 minutes to climb, so I said let's
go.
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This is a shot of the actual palace. It was
destroyed years ago, but they're reconstructing it
now.
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Took us twenty minutes to get to the top. I
think I was even less winded then Amber. So these are prayer flags. Lung ta (horizontal) flags to
be exact. They contain Buddhist prayers and are meant to bless the
countryside. They're just about everywhere in Leh, but have a
significantly more dramatic appearance on ridgtops like this. An
interesting thing to point out is the the prayers and symbols on the
flags are supposed to become permanent part of the universe as they
fade and deteriorate from the flag. Old flags are not taken down.
New ones are simply strung up next to them. The
flags are hung in high places, so the wind may
carry their blessings to all of those
around.
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