Category: India
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Lavishly adorned
Lavishly adorned After having met the school children of last week’s post one would not have imagined their mothers and grandmothers to look like this. But in the villages of the Brokpa (or Drokpa or Dards) along the Indus River in Ladakh just before it flows into Pakistan, these elaborately dressed up women are not…
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Comparing eyes
Comparing eyes It’s festival day. All school children have got new pencils. Even though we are in Dah, a remote Ladakhi village at the end of the road before the Pakistan border, we immediately recognize the inquisitive glance with which the one girl looks at the pencils of the other. Are hers bigger, more beautiful,…
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A convivial chat
A convivial chat Two Balti women chatting. They sit at the side of the water tank in their village. It’s an immediately recognizable scene that happens every day anywhere in the world. The places may be different, the people may be different, but we can easily relate to them as fellow human beings. All belonging to…
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Plaything of history
Plaything of history At the end of the Shyok River Valley, Turtuk is the last major village in the northwest corner of Ladakh, close to the – contested – border with Pakistan. It’s a little enclave of predominantly Balti people. Since the 1971 war it is cut off from the larger Baltistan region which is…
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Hunder
Hunder Bright white sand dunes, a dark biker, halted. Sand waves gently rippling behind a mirror of still water. Photo of the week: Hunder, Ladakh, India 2019
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Peacekeeping Buddha
Peacekeeping Buddha At Diskit, a village near the confluence of the Shyok and Nubra rivers, a large Buddha peeps over the mountains. His gaze follows the course of the Shyok River westwards towards Pakistan. It is a Maitreya or Future Buddha; the people hope he can prevent another war with Pakistan and protect the village.…
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From LAC to LOAC
From LAC to LOAC Admire the silvergrey course of the Shyok River, close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) which forms the contested border between India and China. Not far from this valley soldiers of the two countries recently bashed each others brains in with spiked clubs, like two hostile, primitive mountain tribes. Now…
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Mani stones
Mani stones You find them near temples and monasteries, along paths and mountain passes, in the middle of nowhere. Piled up by pilgrims they form mounts or long walls that mark the landscape of the Tibetan cultural region. Texts are skillfully cut in relief on the stones. Often it’s the mantra « om mani padme…
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Little Tibet
Little Tibet The robust architecture is in harmony with the severe landscape. We imagine ourselves to be in Tibet but we are in Ladakh, the western corner of the Tibetan cultural region that became part of India in the 19th century. Neighbouring Tibet is now, much to its chagrin, part of China. A ‘Line of…
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Moonscape
Moonscape Hiking in the rarified atmosphere of the deserted mountain scenery of Ladakh, a sporadic cairn may remind you that you are not walking on the moon but on earth. Or else the mirage of a distant buddhist monastery can enlighten you. Photo of the week: Temisgam, seen from Meptak La, 3845m, Trek from Himis…
καιρός remembered 