Jessica's India Trip 2008 - jessicasindiatrip2008

These are my pictures from India this summer that I want to share with you. The section below has all of the pictures on it. If you click on them, they'll get bigger and you can view them as a slide show.

Don't forget to look at my captions on the right side of the screen during the slide show! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Also, a note: I am working on fundraising for the nuns to be able to move their cow shed away from their kitchen. Right now in order to walk from the toilets to the kitchen, you have to walk through the cow shed- which requires a lot of steps in manure. This also has a great effect on how bad the flies are in their kitchen, so the move will create an immeasurable increase in their quality of life (health and comfort-wise).

I need to raise $5,330 and I will be doing this until late Spring next year. Let me know if you'd like to make a donation and feel free to call me/e mail me if you want to hear more details on the project!

Pictures

2008-08-24

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These are the complimentary flip flops that I got in my hotel when I arrived in Delhi. Needless to say, I never used them.

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In this bathroom, I had the choice between a bucket bath (you fill the big bucket with water, and use the smaller one to dump water on yourself) or a shower.

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This is one of the many piles of garbage I saw. I was sitting in my bus in Delhi, and even from far away the smell was unbearable and I have no idea how he could be so close to that.

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A sad looking dog in the Delhi bus station.

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View from the Volvo bus on my way to Shimla.

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View from the Volvo bus on my way to Shimla.

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View from the Volvo bus on my way to Shimla.

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View from the Volvo bus on my way to Shimla.

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This is the view from my room at the YMCA in Shimla.

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This is the view from my room at the YMCA in Shimla.

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This is the view from my room at the YMCA in Shimla.

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This is the view from my room at the YMCA in Shimla.

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This is the view from my room at the YMCA in Shimla.

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Here's a bird I found.

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Monkeys! There are bars on the windows at the YMCA so that the monkeys don't come in the rooms and steal your things.

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Monkeys!

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YMCA.

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This is the toilet, which to be perfectly honest smelled pretty ungodly.

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Another bucket bath/shower combo.

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There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE. These ones happen to be sleeping in the town square.

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Close-up of one of the sleeping dogs.

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Mountain view.

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I don't remember exactly how fit I was, but I will tell you that walking up to Jakoo temple was quite the chore. The air is a lot thinner up there. Jakoo Temple is a temple for the Hindu god Hanuman, who has the head of a monkey. So there are monkeys everywhere up there!

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This is someone's house

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A pause to breathe on the way to Jakoo

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Another pause for some beautiful scenery.

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Pre-temple monkeys!

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Mom and baby.

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Although they may look cute, they're pretty gross really.

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View

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View

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Sad monkey with a huge pile of garbage

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Sad monkey with a huge pile of garbage 2

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One of my favorite pictures... Shimla continues far into the background.

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They use the stones to keep the corrugated metal on their house as a roof. The sad thing is, this is where they stay in the winter too... and in the mountains it gets ridiculously cold.

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This is the path up to Jakoo

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Huge trees!

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A cute little slug that I crossed paths with.

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Perspective shot helps you understand just how big those trees are.

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Monkey butt!

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Monkey.

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Entrance to Jakoo Temple.

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This is a porter. I felt bad taking pictures, so this was kind of a sneak shot, but it's amazing the loads these people carry on there backs. The work is so grueling, I was out of breath and I wasn't even carrying anything!

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Photo taken for obvious reasons.

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First monkey I saw at the actual temple.

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The temple!

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The temple from a distance.

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Monkey view.

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I like the natural framing.

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Beautiful framing part 2

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Butterfly!

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A baby monkey!

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This is Hanuman, the monkey god.

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More monkeyness.

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Even more monkeyness.

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Mom and baby in an awkward position.

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The monkeys hung out on the window of the temple and tried to grab in at the people who were praying. It was a really funny sight to see.

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Another butterfly... keep a lookout for my random wildlife shots.

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These are a handful of kids that came up to me and just began asking me a bunch of questions, and if they could take a picture with me.

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The outside of the temple.

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The other side.

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This is the top.

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Here is the ceiling inside the temple.

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I gave a rock to this monkey, and he thought it was food.

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Still thinking about the rock.

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Looking a bit more pensive here.

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A nice monkey view.

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Another shot taken for obvious reasons.

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These are varying rupee bills. Different sizes and colors!

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The upper right hand corner is the Church of Christ, which is right near where the YMCA is located. A nice view.

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This was one of my lunches in Shimla, a vegetarian cutlet and a milkshake.

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There were random inspirational quotes handwritten all over the walls of the restaurant.

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Zoom out.

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On the bus ride to the nunnery. Pictures could never do these mountains justice.

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Another bus shot.

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Another bus shot.

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A little girl who spent 45 minutes staring at me from the roof of a house in Choling. Choling is the village at the bottom of the mountain that the nunnery is located on, it took 9 hours to get there by a local bus from Shimla which was pretty miserable.

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Little girl again. They keep their hair short because it's easier to keep clean. Once the little girls learn better hygiene, they start growing their hair out.

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This picture is of a special moment for me. Two of the nuns had just come down the mountain to greet me, and I was sitting down and they brought me some sweet tea and cookies and started eating them with me. I looked to my left, and this was my view from my chair. All I could do was sit and think about how wonderful the moment was, sitting at the base of a Himalayan mountain, drinking tea with two Buddhist nuns I was about to teach for a month and a half. Beautiful.

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This is the view from my bedroom window. I l-o-v-e this mountain.

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One corner of my bedroom at the nunnery.

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The other side of my room. Unfortunately, those mattresses were infested with fleas.

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The white fabric around my neck is a Tibetan custom, they hang the fabric around the neck of respected visitors and guests.

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My bedroom view again.

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Here's the view from my door.

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Slightly in the distance is the toilets.

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This is the puja (prayer) hall. The nuns live on the bottom two floors, there are four rooms and they sleep 5 people to a room. The top floor is where they pray two hours a day, and sometimes where I ended up teaching 6 hours a day.

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It's a fun walk up those rocks to get to the top floor.

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This is the name of the nunnery. Jampa Choling Nunnery. Meeru is the village surrounding the nunnery.

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Here's where I started out teaching, I used the chalkboard and sat on the blue carpet.

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The nuns sat on all of the carpets around the room.

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Here's some pictures the nuns drew with a previous teacher. So cute!

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Sign on the door to the classroom! (Jomo is Kinnauri for nun)

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The outdoor kitchen! Which is unfortunately located right next to the cow shed.

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The cow! They use this cow for milk.

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This is the steer. Note the flies all over his nose.

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Close up of the pretty heifer.

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This is the beautiful squat toilet! You put your feet on the foot pads, and do the obvious squatting. After you're done, the red barrel you see in the corner is full of water, and you scoop some out and pour it down the toilet. It serves to flush it, and the toilets don't smell at all!

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There's wild marijuana growing everywhere around the mountain... this came as quite the surprise! The nuns told me that apparently there are people who smoke it in the village.

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This calf was born the day I landed in India! She's sooo cute and wobbly :)

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Calf and mountain backdrop.

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Tongue.

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Me and the calf.

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Mwah!

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Wrinkly nose.

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Yummy tail.

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Left: Lobsang Dolma Right: Rinchen Dolma Lap: Cow

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Me and the cow again.

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A cat who liked to frequent the gompa. (Gompa is a term they use for the entire nunnery complex)

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Zoomed out view of the toilets.

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These are apparently walnuts. I never knew they looked like that!

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A ridiculous spider I found in my room one day.

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An unfocused but very ugly bug.

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More marijuana at the gompa.

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View from the roof outside my room.

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Api is Kinnauri for grandmother, and that's what all of the younger nuns called Tenzin Utpel here. The little girl on her lap is named Ish-ee-tall (I only know how to spell it phonetically)

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Pull-wee and Ish-ee-tall, sisters.

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Pull-wee

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I love this picture, even though it's unfocused.

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Pull-wee, Tenzin Lamo, and Ish-ee-tall

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These little girls come down to the nunnery to get milk from the nuns' cow. Apparently their father gave milk to the nuns before they had a cow, and now they're returning the favor.

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In Kinnauri this is called mehong, but apparently it's a firefly larva... which is sooo ugly and apparently bites.

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This is Tenzin Chodon and the calf in the classroom.

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She looks so much nicer when she smiles.

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Tenzin Palmo and her favorite plant.

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Kesang Lamo liked the plant too.

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She also liked the apple tree.

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This is Tenzin Matoc in front of the same mountain I can see outside my window.

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Tenzin Norzum in the same place.

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Here is Rinchen Dolma on a big pile of rocks.

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Close up of Rinchen Dolma.

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Yangchen Lamo and some pretty flowers.

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Kesang Lamo.

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Me and Kesang Lamo.

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Me and Jangchup Dolma.

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Tenzin Dettin and the calf.

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A shiny green junebug.

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A really big pincher beetle I found in my room.

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A huge beetle I found on my towel before I was about to take a bucket bath.

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This is the Buddha in the temple in the village (not at the gompa)

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Kesang Lamo and Buddha

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Buddha and myself

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This is the entire village of Meeru, it's so small!

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Front: Tenzin Samten Back row, L-R: Tenzin Norgyun, myself, and Rinchen Dolma

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L-R: Tenzin Rinchen, Tenzin Norgyun, Kesang Lamo Front: Tenzin Samten

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L-R: Tenzin Rinchen, Tenzin Norgyun, Kesang Lamo Front: Tenzin Samten

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The nuns lighting candles for the Dalai Lama's birthday on July 6th. We had a big party, ate cake and candy, and on this day the nuns are allowed to celebrate and sing. Normally they can't sing, so they put me on the spot to teach them songs, so I ended up singing some songs I learned at Girl Scout camp when I was younger!

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Norgyun and myself.

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Lobsang and Samten playing with candles.

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More fun with candles. (Yangchen and Norgyun)

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The nuns loved these fake flowers, and have many pictures with them. (Samten and Lobsang)

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The camerawoman who nauseates anyone who watches anything she records.-- she was horrible at keeping the camera still. (Yangchen and Norzum)

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I love this picture so much because it's a candid shot. (Rinchen and Lobsang)

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I don't think Rinchen was ready. (Lobsang and Rinchen)

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Rinchen holding some of the little sweets we ate that night. (Lobsang and Rinchen)

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My mountain again. I took many pictures of it hoping to at least get one good one.

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Tenzin Dettin and my mountain.

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Me and my mountain

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Norgyun, Dettin, and my mountain.

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I think I look silly, but people tend to like this picture.

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Me getting ready to jump.

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Me mid-jump. My friend Lance requested a picture of me midair with a mountain backdrop. Voila.

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Dettin and me.

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This is one of the local buses. They drive to fast and whip around the windy roads a little too fast for comfort. Comfort is just altogether lacking in the Himachal Pradesh bus experience.

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Goats!

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This is the big Buddha in Reckong Peo. Reckong Peo is the capital of Kinnaur, and it takes a day trip to get there from the nunnery. I took the nuns there three times to get medical care.

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The cook, the nuns and I in front of the big Buddha.

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Again.

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Cicadas were singing all the time around the gompa.

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Close up.

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These are flies in the kitchen...ew.

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Me teaching typing class

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Typing.

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Typing.

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Typing.

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Yangzom and I

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Yangzum and I

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A cockroach that was trying to get in my room one night.

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Cockroach.

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Cockroach.

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Perspective shot of the cockroach.

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Rinchen had a horrible chipped tooth so we got it pulled. Right now she's about to get a new fake tooth to replace it.

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This is the dentists office. No, for real. This is the whole office.

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Rinchen with her new tooth!! She looks so happy :)

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Dettin had this tooth in her mouth. Anything that is black is a cavity. I have no idea how she lived with that in her mouth.

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Another close up of her tooth.

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This is my bathroom in my hotel in Dharamsala. Conveniently placed about 10 feet from my bed.

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A view into my room at the Loseling Guesthouse in Dharamsala.

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My things in my hotel room.

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The most comfortable beds I slept in my whole trip, the 18 hour bus ride might have made me appreciate them more... but they really were soo comfortable.

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One of my nuns, Lobsang Dolma, wants to be a doctor. I found this in Dharamsala, and thought "she needs a picture of this".

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A cow eating garbage on the street.

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One of the main streets in Dharamsala.

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Cow eating garbage from a different angle.

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Free Tibet.

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Protesting the Olympics, for obvious reasons. If the reasons aren't obvious, feel free to ask me about them.

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Me spinning prayer wheels in the Dalai Lama's temple.

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The big Buddha in the Dalai Lama's temple.

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Emaciated Buddha. He looks scary, but it's really not if you know anything about the life of the Buddha. He spent 6 years in the forest as an ascetic before he realized that the path of extremism was not the best way to follow the spiritual path. Many of the statues of the Buddha are not just of him attaining enlightenment, but are of various points in his life.

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This is blurry, because I feel bad using my flash in temples... but this is a monk chanting Tibetan books in the Dalai Lama's temple.

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This is a wheel of the Dharma. I really liked it, so I took a picture of it.

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Me looking particularly blue-eyed in front of the Dalai Lama's temple.

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Some nuns entered the temple after I was done looking around and started chanting and doing prostrations.

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The spots on her arm are flea bites. I'm sure she feels horrible.

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Me and the random nun who liked my camera.

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Another little nun with a leaky nose issue.

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This is Dechen. I went into this shop just to look around, and I ended up spending about 2 hours there just talking to this woman over tea. I wanted to buy gifts for my nuns, and she told me exactly how I could bless whatever I bought them in the temples.

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Dechen and I again.

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I took a Tibetan cooking class, and these are little dumpling type things for one of the kinds of soup.

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This is the start of a series of pictures of the beautiful Tse Chok Ling Monastery.

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Beauty!

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Beauty!

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Beauty!

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BIG prayer wheel!

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These are beautifully intricate butter sculptures.

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Close up of the butter sculptures. This particular monastery is well know for their skill in these sculptures.

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Statues of some important Lamas.

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Not so great picture of the Buddha.

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Conch shells that are blown before special pujas.

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Drums, also used for special pujas.

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This is a sand mandala. They colored the sand themselves, and this picture can't do justice to the intricacy of the design. They can only make one a year, and they have a special puja where they sweep all the sand up.

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This is Neema!! He is so cute, he's a little monk who came up to me as I was exploring the monastery to show me around. He liked my name about as much as I liked his.

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I bought three jars of peanut butter while I was in Dharamsala, and these are the nuns eating them the morning after I got back.

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Peanut butter sharing.

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FLIES.

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One of the nuns gave me their shawls, so this is me looking nun-esque.

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I don't know why, but this is me in my room.

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One of the apis

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Api!

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Jomo flower group 1 From top, to the right: Tenzin Matoc, Tenzin Choezom, Tenzin Norzum, Tenzin Chodon, Tenzin Palmo, Tenzin Dechen

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help me up!

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floor time

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This was just a silly pose that had to be done.

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Candid

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Palmo and Dechen

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Palmo and Dechen

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First in a series of pictures of a group of most of us. Two men sitting next to me are Gen-La's, which means they teach Tibetan philosophy to the nuns. The one on the left walked over the Himalayas into India from Tibet when he was only 10 years old.

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One of my favorite shots of my mountain and a half moon.

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These two pictures of the moon/mountain combo were the only ones of about 30 that came out ok.

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Jomo flower group 2 Top to right: Tenzin Yangzom, Tenzin Samten, Tenzin Yangki, Tenzin Dettin, Rinchen Dolma, Tenzin Yangchen They're so silly and happy :)

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Yeah, I know I'm white.

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Kesang ate apples pretty much all day long. She would get up in the trees, pick a bunch of them, and would always have the inner pocket of her top bulging with apples.

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This was the heading of my chalkboard for about 3 weeks. I taught the nuns world religions (about each one represented by a symbol on the board) L to R: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism.

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The cook and I, she knitted me some Kinnauri socks which have your big toe separated from the rest so you can wear flip flops with them if you want.

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Myself, Tenzin Dolma (the head nun), and the cook (named Soon-der Gyani)

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The two apis and me... and the cook tried to hop in the picture but all we see here is the top of her hat.

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Me and the two apis again

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The cook decided to go grab the cup that she normally gives me sweet tea and and have a picture like she was giving it to me. She's such a jokester, it's funny

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Jomo flower group 3 Top to left: Tenzin Norgyun, Jangchup Dolma, Lobsang Dolma, Tenzin Sangmo, Tenzin Lamo, Kesang Lamo

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This starts all of the pictures the nuns and I took in the puja hall the night before I left. This is me and Tenzin Lamo

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Jangchup and I

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Me and Kesang

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Norzum and I being so taken away by eachother that we had to lift one of our legs.

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Me and Samten

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Rinchen is one of the two nuns that has the least amount of English, and in class for the last week and a half I taught them verbs. This was the action we did for "I am planting the seeds".

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Yangzom and I

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Norgyun hug

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Yangki, the nun who never talked to me. Ever.

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Oh Yangchen

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Sangmo kisses!

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Matoc made me feel tall

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And this is where the poses started getting crazy. I'm definitely cropping myself out and sending her a picture of herself with a cute blonde bob. Lobsang and me.

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Lobsang and me.

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I'm taller than Jangchup

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My hair was never looked at the same. Norgyun and Kesang.

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Jomo train! Kesang, Jangchup, Rinchen, me, Yangchen, Yangzom

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Lamo, me, Rinchen, Yangchen, Yangzom. Hair, hair, hair.

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Lamo, me and Yangchen

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Lamo, me and Rinchen

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Teacher sandwich! Lamo, me, Lobsang

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Kesang, myself, Matoc

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Yangzom, me and Rinchen

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Silly poses... Yangzom and Rinchen

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Lamo and Rinchen

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Kesang and Matoc

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Silly group picture.

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Interesting pose with Lamo and I

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Choezem and I looking cute

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She's so tiny! She also has rheumatism, so she's tired and hurts a lot.

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Choezem, myself and Lamo

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Candid of Norgyun being silly.

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Jomo pyramid!! Bottom row: Lamo, myself, Rinchen Middle row: Yangchen, Choezem Top: Kesang

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Again with the hair

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They're so funny!

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Floor love.

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And then we got pictures of us talking.

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The open book you see under Choezem's arm is my travel journal. I had them all write little notes to me in the back of it.

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The love these fake flowers, and taking pictures with them.

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I decided to jump in to the flower pictures

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Rinchen and I

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Yangchen and I

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Rinchen and I thinking. I have a picture of Lance and I doing this pose, and the nuns loved it. Hence why we're doing it here.

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Yangchen and I on the thinking train too.

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Bowl of flower water in the puja hall

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Samten and I

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Rinchen, myself and Samten

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Yangchen, myself and Samten

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Me and Norzum being all pinky

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This is the hay that the nuns put all up in the trees so it doesn't get wet when it rains. I'm helping them raise money to move their cow shed from right next to their kitchen to right next to their garden... and the cow shed that we got an estimate for would include an entire floor for a hay loft. That will make things a lot easier.

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Hay in the trees again.

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This is EVERYONE, the day that I left the gompa. They gave me a Kinnauri hat and put more white cloths around my neck, so I look a bit silly... but this is everyone I'm missing right now.

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On the walk down the mountain, these jomos helped me carry my things. Dechen, me, Jangchup and Sangmo. They're eating apples, which were delicious by the way.

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Samten jumped into this picture because she took the last one.

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Me and Jangchup down in Choling waiting for my bus to Shimla

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Me and Samten

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Me and Sangmo

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Me and some woman who wanted to take a picture with me.

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Me and one of the nuns' friends.

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Dechen, my favorite nun, and I

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This is the view from Choling. Beautiful.

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This is the view from my balcony at the Hotel Tara Palace. Not the courtyards I'm used to seeing.

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Hotel courtyard part 2.

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I've now arrived in Bodh Gaya, and this is me with my favorite statue of the Buddha that I found in India. He's so peaceful!

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He's like 80 feet tall.

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Me and my homie.

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Me and big Buddha again

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I felt bad taking pictures in the temples, so I never used my flash when I should have. In any event, this is the Thai monastery

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Thai monastery

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My bed at the Burmese Vihar in Bodh Gaya

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The other corner of my room

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My beautifully thick and comfortable mattress

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Perspective shot of how my mattress is only about an inch thick.

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I just thought the Burmese writing looked cool

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Apparently I woke up or something and decided I needed a picture of myself.

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Twice.

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This is what the land surrounding Bodh Gaya looks like. It's all farm land.

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The inside of the Karma temple, the Tibetan monastery.

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Another shot of a Buddha and I

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Me in the temple

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Again

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These are the nuns' accommodations in Bodh Gaya. A bit of a stark contrast to what my nuns are used to.

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This is Raj! I spent some time hanging out at a Public Calling Office (a shop my tour guide owned) and there were six boys that worked/hung out there on a regular basis. Raj was one of them. In this picture he's showing off the bracelets he got for a Hindu brother-sister holiday. Sisters give their brothers bracelets, and brothers give their sisters money. Raj doesn't have any sisters, but apparently he was adopted by 4 girls.

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Raj has long hair because apparently in Hindu culture if you are having trouble having another baby, you stop cutting the hair of the child you already have and pray to them for another child. Raj thinks he'll have a brother or sister soon, but unfortunately he doesn't know that his mother has been pregnant twice since they stopped cutting his hair, and she's miscarried both times because Raj's father beats both of them. It's not a good situation.

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He's such a happy little boy. I worked with him on his ABC's and counting.

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He wants the camera.

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Like, really bad.

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I gave him a guava and he really liked it. So much that he couldn't put it down for the picture.

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And there he is again.

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In the distance you can see Prince and his snazzy yellow shirt.

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Rahul, Raj and I. Rahul is 20 years old and he goes to university too. The money he makes at this shop is how his family can afford to eat. All of the boys that work here are painfully poor. I took them all out to lunch before I left.

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Prince, Raj and I.

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The astounding Mahabodhi Temple

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Mahabodhi Temple

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Inside the temple, a golden Buddha

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Golden Buddha again

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One of the statues outside the temple

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One of the statues outside the temple

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First in a series of shots with the Bodhi tree in the foreground and the Mahabodhi Temple in the background

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And here's where I start trying to take a picture of myself with the Bodhi tree and the Mahabodhi temple in the background

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I think this one is my favorite.

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Mahabodhi Temple

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I love these ants. They are literally marching one by one. What I loved the most though, was that when you walk around Buddhist temples, you're supposed to circumambulate counter clockwise... and these ants were walking the right way.

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Mahabodhi Temple

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This is a picture of the altar at the Vietnamese Buddhist temple that my tour guide was in the process of helping build.

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Altar again

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This is the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

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A bell that is used in puja.

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I like this shot.

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Me and a 4 ton bell.

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The dragons around the columns were carved into wet cement I have no idea how.

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Aman and Raj

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Vikash, Prince's little brother.

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Raj, Vikash, Aman

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Aman, Raj and I

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Aman, Raj and I

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Vikash and I

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Aman and I

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Aman and I again

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Aman is not the best photographer. 1/2 me and Raj

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Aman and I

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Raj looking silly

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This is a hybrid toilet. It has footpads on the sides so you can squat if you want, but you can also put the seat down and it serves as a sit down toilet too. While I was there I always opted to squat because it was a bit more sanitary. Nothing had to touch the pot but my feet.