Thanguan 4

Here are a few remaining photos from Tangaun, beginning with a couple of shots of the lama, the 85 year old village priest. The portrait was done one sunny day when nothing much seemed to be happening at the temple. Jiwan was taking some photos for him, but I'm not sure what for.

The other shot of the lama was taken during a puja offered the day after we arrived. My bag of bananas and oranges, that I had brought into the temple for Jiwan and myself, was presumed to be an offering and was afterwards distributed to all the locals that were hanging around the temple.





This woman is carrying firewood. It seems the villagers spend quite a lot of time scavenging for, cutting, and collecting fire wood. Sometimes you'll walk through a stand of trees and notice that all the branches below three meters have been removed. As I mentioned in a previous post, almost all cooking is done on wood stoves.



The village celebrated Losar, the lunar new year, at the school ground. A stage and tent were erected and a lengthy talent show was preceded by interminable speechifying by representatives from a number of political parties, each one of which tried to talk louder and longer than the one preceding him. This photo shows mostly women and children. The mean showed up after dark. So did the cold. I don't think I've been so cold since I lived in Wisconsin.


As soon as kids see your camera, they start posing.



Finally, on our last morning we made a few offerings of our own. Dechen and Phuntsuk made a small puja to dedicate the work we had done and afterwards Jiwan and Phuntsok hung fresh prayer flags.

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