Rumbak, Rellay, and Rinchen

Y'all?

Apologies for the delay in writing. Since the last post, much has happened and seeing as I have a little time in the internet "cafe" in Leh at the moment, I'll try to recap things on the spot instead of on my laptop back at Tashi's.

Tashi Angchuk is our guide here. He's helped VIS in years past and is now an official employee. Tashi knows almost everyone in Ladakh. For instance, I came here with one name--the name of a friend from Baltimore's professor's friend. Tashi knew who I was talking about. Jansyn had a picture of someone she needed to deliver ice skates to, on behalf of a relative or friend from home. Tashi knew him by his picture. He knew another student's contact and where to find him. Tashi is a good man, and an excellent guide.

This week us teachers are based at the home of Tashi and his wife Dolkar as our students have left the SECMOL campus in order to research for their independent exhibitions. Each of our eleven Vermonters/Massachusites have chosen a topic and are staying with different families in order to get hands-on experience. In the next few days we'll be checking in on them. Lately I've taken to editing my short film clips and setting them to music and there should be a lot of good opportunities for footage during these visits:

Jansyn is staying in Choglamsar, a Tibetan refugee community. As you've seen in the news, this should be a particularly interesting time to study the Tibetan issue. Tess is staying with nuns, focusing on women's roles in Buddhism. I'm fascinated in this topic as well, and gave Tess a poem by Milarepa, a great Boddhisatva and one of the most important figures in Buddhism, called Women in the Dharma. In it, a woman acknowledges having been born into an "inferior body." (Many Buddhist sects maintain that in order to become enlightened, one must first be born as a male.) Duncan is studying with a Ladakhi drummer. Musicians are traditionally of lower caste, and that will be part of his focus, though he is putting a lot of energy into the musical aspect with two hour lessons each day. I'll be visiting Jansyn, Tess, and Duncan this week since they are my three advisees on this project. Also, in order to have a male perspective, I'm joining Ashleen in the classroom of a private and public school Thursday as she speaks to students about sexuality. Today, on Ashleen's first day in the classroom of the private school, students wrote down many questions and placed and folded them up anonymously for her to look over and bring back another day. It's a great way to learn about what Ladakhis are taught, how open they are, how generations vary from one to another, and local myths. I think it's a brave topic for a student to pursue, and we were a bit surprised at how open the Lamdon school's principal was to having her talk with the students. We're excited about her day-one success. Every student has an interesting topic and hopefully there will be some aspect of their research posted on the VIS blog later on.

Since the last post, I've taken a few days off to trek to Rumbak, through a narrow canyon in snow leopard country. (Keep up with the VIS blog for a student article about these elusive cats). We also had our second group trek, which included two nights in Rellay, probably the most beautiful place I've seen so far in Ladakh. One student called it a "Lord of the Rings shire." My group of three was lucky to have stayed with family of Kunzes Dolma, a college student who stays at SECMOL. It was comfortable and her family is most friendly. It was also nice to have meat for a change, of the local variety (though my meat appetite has waned a good bit). Rellay is a yak and goat herding village, and during a day hike we passed nomadic tents tended by Kunzes' brother and a companion about an hour up the valley. They were tending yak and goats, letting them graze away from the village. Two of Kunzes' other brothers are lamas, and one is married. This type of situation is typical in Ladakhi families, and is part of the reason the population doesn't increase faster. (Polyandry had been another, but is now illegal and rare except, I'm told, in some of the more remote villages).

Earlier in the trek I stayed in the home of another SECMOL friend Gyaltson, though he was back at the campus. We abandoned the second part of our trek due to high snows on the pass into the Nubra valley. There was another unfortunate experience: one of the Ladakhi students who had been trekking with us was possessed for a few minutes in the car ride, by the ama-le (mother) from her homestay. This combined with some car sickness of other students and waiting at a 17,000 ft. pass for other vehicles to get "unstuck" made for an interesting journey.

Next week we're heading to the western, and predominantly Muslim part of Ladakh, to the village where Tashi comes from, and to Kargil, the main town out there. From Kargil, I'm breaking off from the group to explore Srinagar with Bennet, a volunteer with VIS. We will return to SECMOL a couple days after the rest of the group, at which point exhibitions will be coming to a close and presentations will happen. (Then we will try a mini-trek maybe, head to Delhi for a few days, and I will fly home.)

Since we're staying with Tashi in Leh now, this is a good week to do some shopping when I'm not catching up on student research. I dropped off some material to have some pants tailored this afternoon, to a guy named Rinchen who has been making stuff for Daniela and some of our students. He is said to be one of the better tailors around.

I've also continued teaching another Rinchen (from SECMOL) about music, and giving piano lessons from his small keyboard. If I return next year I absolutely must bring a nice set of keys out to SECMOL...maybe I should start a fund drive for this. One thing that's very absent from SECMOL is musical instruments.

Instead of saving this I think I'm going to just stop writing and post this blog to get something up. It's been too long. Later!