Category Archives: Himalayas

Leh, Ladakh Flood and Land slide Appeal Funds

Posted on August 18, 2010 by ihavetravellust| Leave a comment

Not many people know of my beloved places, Ladakh, India was deeply affected by the flash floods and landslides  early August 2010. This  has affected many villages in Leh, the major city of Ladakh. This area is not widely reported in world news compare to Pakistan and China. Please help these beautiful peaceful buddhist people who have been so kind to me while I was there.

Winter is coming soon, and here in Ladakh, winter comes harsh and punishingly cruel. The affected villagers need shelter, clothes and many basic equipment for winter. Please send cash directly, collecting clothes and others would be a logistical nightmare. So who should you send your donations to?

There are plenty of places are seeking your funds, but always make sure your donations really get to the people who needs it rather than filtered through various levels of the organisation. Needless to say it is your responsibility to ensure where your donations get received and what organisation really calls to you.

Please donate to :

Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre, Leh, Ladakh

Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre
Devachan, P.O. Box # 22, Leh – Ladakh 194101, INDIA
Ph: +91-1982-264372 Mobile: +91-9906902025, +91-9419178667
www.mahabodhi-ladakh.org

Name of the Bank: Citibank,NA,
Account No: 0-412501-004
Name: Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre,
Bank address: Jeevan Bharti Building, 124, Connought Circus,
New Delhi- 110 001.
Swift Code – CITIINBX
F.C.R.A. # 152710017

Donations within India
Name of account: Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre
Account No. 10942164077
Name of the bank: State Bank Of India
Bank address: State Bank of India,
P.O. Leh, Ladakh (J&K) 194 101
Branch code: 1365
RTGS Code: SBIN0001365
Swift code# : SBININBBA280

IN EUROPE
Buddha Haus Meditations-und Studienzentrum e.V.
Contact Person:
Helga Weinmann-Adam, Gerhard Adam
Ottacker 18 ,  D-87488 Sulzberg ,  GERMANY
Tel.: 08376-8498, Fax: 08376-976431, E-mail: AdamGerhard@t-online.de

http://www.buddha-haus.de

IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Mahabodhi Metta Charitable Fund
Contact Persons: Ms. Carla Montagno & Dr. Tim Moore
31147 Blue Jay Court, Coarsegold, California 93614 USA
Tel: 001-559 683 2512, Fax:001-559 229 8642 , Email: drpins@sti.net

http://www.mahabodhimettausa.org

Dr. Noor V.Gillani, President
The PYAR Fondation
466 Sussex Drive, Huntsville, AL 35824, USA
(256) 658-1101, (256) 961-7755 (Fax), Email: gillani9999@gmail.com

http://pyarfoundation.org

IN MALAYSIA
Mahabodhi Desk Ladakh, Malaysia
Contact Persons:
Sis. Siew Hua
ngshua@hotmail.com
Tel: 012 260 8190

Bro. Charlie Chia
chialuimeng@gmail.com
Tel: 0122893887
email: mimc.malaysiadesk@gmail.com

http://www.mahabodhi-ladakh.blogspot.com

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More photos of the devasated Ladakh can be seen first hand here

Nagasena Thupstan Lundup’s album for Mahabohi Center

Drupa.org

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Posted in 1. Countries, Himalayas, India, Ladakh

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Some Images of the Himalayas at tumblr

Posted on May 3, 2010 by ihavetravellust| Leave a comment

Created a photo album via tumblr for some of my images of Ladakh, Himalayan India.

After going through about 8gb of images, managed to edit it down to a few. I love tumblr for its micro-blogging platform and its rather creative editable html type. It does help me to present these lovely images without going through the painstaking coding design like most other platforms

Here’s a short collection from my 1tb worth of travel images yet to be edited!

http://travellust.tumblr.com/

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Posted in 2. Getting to Ladakh, 4. Random Photography, Himalayas, Ladakh

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Dressing up for the High Lama, Korzok Village Ladakh

Posted on April 19, 2010 by ihavetravellust| Leave a comment

Korzok Village, Ladakh, Himalayan India.

The lady of my guesthouse was dressing up for the High Lama’s visit to Korzok Village.

When I was just about to leave the house in the morning for a walkabout. I spotted her from the half open room while she was just about to finish dressing up.   Had unbashingly invited myself into her bedroom and she welcomed me quite openly although she was a little amused on how excited I was seeing her dressing up.

I photographed her dressing and helped her with her coat and jewellery. Her head gear lined with precious turquoise was incredibly heavy and it was amazing how she could wear that for the whole day. The whole setup was heavy and it probably  took quite awhile to dress.

You could tell how precious every gear and every jewellery were to her as she unwrapped them after taking them out from a wooden chest. Obviously these were her only possessions from her dowry as often females were only given these, passed down from their mothers as their only financial property.

We couldn’t really communicate as I couldn’t speak Ladakhi and know only little Hindi, and she, spoke only little Hindi and no English and all Ladakhi.

In between my hand signals and non-existent hindi, I came to know that she was one of the village representatives to receive the High Lama who was coming for the blessings and she motioned that she was also going to dance for the festival.

Really did wish I could speak Ladakhi, I could have communicated with her and perhaps asked her more about her life in this remote little village.

Korzok Village Ladakh

Korzok Village Ladakh

Korzok Village Ladakh

Korzok Village Ladakh

Korzok Village Ladakh

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Posted in 3. Stories & Adventures, Festivals of India, Ladakh

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Lakdahi Toilet

Posted on March 30, 2010 by ihavetravellust| Leave a comment

Ladahi toilets are one of the cleanest toilets I have ever been to, even though its just a hole in a shack. There is no water, just mud and soil. The odour is bearable, there isn’t any really horrid smell compared to those water sewage septic toilets.

In other places in the Himalayas, instead of mud, they use millet husk or wheat husk to cover up your daily soils. and the pigs will feast under the shack. Just in case you are wondering, yes people do eat those pigs during festival times.

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Posted in Himalayas, India, Ladakh

Enroute to Tsokar, I saw these horses

Posted on March 26, 2010 by ihavetravellust| Leave a comment

Enroute to Tsokar, Changthang District, Ladakh, Himalayan India

Tourist treks and horses

These horses were returning to Leh after a week’s trek guiding tourists around, popular trekking routes consist of treks around Changthang plateau doing the popular Tsokar to Tsomoriri route.

Not many travellers know that their trekking horses usually come from around Leh instead of around Changthang plateau. The horsemen would bring their horses to Tsokar, meeting the tourists who usually commute there with the jeeps.  There are not enough trekking horses around Tsokar or Tsomoriri to cater for the large number of tourist treks during the peak season. Horses are expensive and not many villages around the Changthang plateau can afford to have that many horses living in their property. Only those around Leh would be able to possess four or more horses especially if they are connected to the tourist trade.

They usually take 5 days to reach their trekking destination before embarking on the  trek. A typical tourist trek takes a further 7 days from Tsokar to Tsomoriri Lake. After which the horses return to Leh 5 days later.

Arduous work for these horses and for their owners, still better compared to the people around the much poorer region of Changthang plateau who live on subsistence farming and breeding pashmina goats. In my previous post, I did mention that Pashmina goats are usually bred around Changthang region and not in Kashimir.

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Posted in Himalayas, India, Ladakh

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