Week 48

7 July

These brightly colored prayer wheels belong to the “old-people temple” in McLeod Ganj because this temple is easier for older people to get to than the large temple at the end of Temple Road near the Dalai Lama’s residence. A Buddhist worshipper walks clockwise (in a pradakshina direction) around the temple and spins each prayer wheel as she passes. The words are a six-syllable Sanskrit mantra borrowed into Tibetan.

8 July

This is the second time we have seen a car with a tire over the edge of the narrow, steep-sided concrete roads in McLeod Ganj. The drivers of the cars behind who want to continue up the road are most interested in helping the car get back on the road.

9 July

Stephen’s Hindi teacher Rita, whose husband teaches yoga classes, went with me and several of the BYU students down to Dharamsala to pick out fabric and order ourselves an Indian salwar kameez. My selection is the gold and turquoise on top. The fabrics come in sets of three that are designed to make a pleasing combination for the top, the pyjama bottoms, and the scarf. We each paid just over $13 for the fabric and just under $3 for the labor at the neighboring shop.

10 July

The mother cow reigns supreme in India. Cows and bulls are protected (and never eaten). They always have the right of way in traffic and are not goaded or disturbed. They are buried with a ceremony when they die.

11 July

Here is the line at the local ATM—this is by far the best way to get foreign currency when traveling (when it works). We get charged $1 at the credit union for each transaction. We can withdraw 10,000 Rupees at a time, about $225. One typically pays for everything with cash here.

12 July

These mudras, or hand gestures, at the Delhi airport have specific meanings. We see them when we pass the transit security in going from one domestic flight to another.

13 July

Stephen and I spent the morning on a train from Bhubaneshwar to Tilaru Junction in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. We were met by a driver (as we had anticipated), but somehow he was not clear on how he was going to get paid (we had prepaid through a travel agency), so it took two hours and an occasional phone call before he was willing to take us to our next destination, the temple at Mukhalingam. This street was our view while we waited in the fairly oppressive heat.