Rice in a life bowl

On the way back from Leh to Manali

 

posted by Linda Jakob @ 4:50 PM 0 comments

Leh- Manli

 

posted by Linda Jakob @ 4:39 PM 0 comments

On the way back: Leh to Manali

 

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Typical views in Ladak

 

posted by Linda Jakob @ 4:33 PM 0 comments

Typical views in Ladak

 

posted by Linda Jakob @ 4:28 PM 0 comments

on our way back from the festival- the local people were walking back for many km, while we were driving the bikes, yaron gave this kid a lift back to his village... 

posted by Linda Jakob @ 4:11 PM 0 comments

 

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posted by Linda Jakob @ 3:52 PM 0 comments

Dancing monks festival

 

posted by Linda Jakob @ 3:45 PM 0 comments

Dancing monks festival 4-5/8, Ladak

On our last day with the bikes- we went to a near by, but remote, village, where a religious festival occurred. For me- the festival was literally incredible. Dancing monks preformed rituals that they perform every year at the same time- for reasons too complicated to explain here. Basically they tried to expel the evil spirits that lie within each of the presents, the temple, and the entire world, while also celebrating the birthday of one high Lama- a great spiritual leader from the past.
Some danced, some played musical instruments, some got into trans, and much of the time they preformed a play in which different monks dressed in costumes presented characters from the Tibetan mythology.
The village and the temple was crowded with both local devotees and many tourists. The tourists stuck out with their cameras and noise, but to be honest- for me it was a very sincere and amazing occasion, where I had the honor to be able to observe a truly ancient and deep act of belief. I was very excited….
Ofir and Yaron did not feel the same… they were very bored watching the rituals for more than an hour, and decided to come back to Leh the next day. I came back with them, but since it was a 2 days festival, I returned to that same place the next day by a local bus, and actually enjoyed it much more on my own- having the time to myself to think about what I saw and to analyze it, meeting interesting tourists and talking for a long time to 2 monks who explained about the ceremony.


 

posted by Linda Jakob @ 3:26 PM 0 comments