Blogs from Arunachal Pradesh, India, Asia - page 2

Hello my gorgeous friends!!! The orphanage is so amazing!!! The monks and the children totally run the school and you could imagine what a beautiful atmosphere and vibe this place has. They look after me so well and you can contribute is what ever way you want. I have been teaching Maths, English, Art and 2 Yoga classes everyday. My favourite thing that I have just started doing is reading a bedtime story to all the girls (big and small) in the dorm each night. (There are 50 little eyes popping out from their bunk beds watching and listening to me in complete silence). I just love it!!! The children here soak up everything you say and you only have to tell them things once. It is really fun teaching them. I really do feel apart ... read more

Hey everyone, I just arrived in Tawang... It has been an amazing testing time for me and I really impressed myself with my patience. I took a flight from Delhi to Guwahati and then was picked up from the airport by LobSang (secretary from the orphanage). We drove for 7 hours to a town called Tazpur. Stayed the night and got some supplies for our journey the next day. We took a jeep to Tawang the next day on a bumpy dirt road. It took us 18 hours. We had a few flat tyres and snow covered roads that added the length of the journey. I will blog again tomorrow to fill you in with all the funny details of this trip. I'm sure you will enjoy reading about as much as I enjoyed experiencing it. ... read more

Having visited Sikkim in 2008, which had mesmerized us with its natural beauty and grandeur, we decided to visit the land of Seven Sisters, as the seven North eastern states of India a collectively called. So in May, 2009 we embarked upon our journey to Arunachal Pradesh, the easternmost state of India and aptly named as the 'land to dawn lit mountains'. We started from New Delhi and took a flight to Guwahati, the capital of Assam and reached their late in the afternoon. We took a pre-paid taxi from the Airport itself (we were charged Rs.2200/- for the journey) and embarked upon the next phase of our journey to Tezpur. We reached Tezpur late in the evening and booked into a Hotel for overnight stay. From Tezpur one can embark for onward journey to Arunachal ... read more

It was drizzling at Tawang lamasery as in Bomdila. The 400-year-old gompa, surpassed in antiquity only by the temple of Llasa, the heartland of Tibetan Buddhism, is still in slumber. The monks are yet to gather for prayers. The sonorous tune from the gyaling pervades the lamasery. Two young monks shrouded in morning mist blow the short trumpets from a small temple atop an unfinished building in the compound. Neighbourhood Monpa women help monks with their daily chores. The monastic musicians enter the gompa past ferocious chimandas who guard the pantheon of Vajrayana deities. They stow away their gyalings inside a box between the rows of cushions. Presiding over the pantheon of deities and fairies is a mammoth idol of the Buddha in a yellow robe. The gompa is huge compared to the one in Bomdila. ... read more

A Colorful Beginning We left Varanasi during Holi, the “Festival of Colors,” an fertility celebration glorifying the Hindu god Krishna. The festivities began the evening prior with huge bonfires on the street burning effigies of the demoness Holika. On the second day of Holi - the day that we left - the streets were lined with people of all ages throwing pink and blue paint on every passerby. No car, bicycle or pedestrian was safe from the colorful ammunition, so our driver strategically maneuvered us through a less crowded route to the train station from which our journey began. Arduous Journey Our 24-hour train to Guhwati was followed by a 10-hour overnight bus to Itanagard, the capital of the state of Arunachel. Arunachel is one of the last restricted areas in India so we had to ... read more