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Name: loco
Interests: "I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going. I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."
Expertise: Employing bee sting to deplete.
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10/26/2004
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| Two songs in one post title, I'm on fire. I was gonna include a third ("This is why I'm hot") but that was too much. Since I'm now back in the States so I'm gonna have to record my Indian impressions before they go away. At least before going there, India represented to me a final frontier of travel. Having traveled through Russia, China, Europe, the Mideast; close to 50 countries, I always upheld India as the quintessential travel destination because I'd not been there but it was so important. Extreme food, diverse culture, very hard travel, extreme poverty, influential history, origin of many religions (only Israel and Iran are even close) and the most intense mountains in the world. India was going to be a difficult and exotic. But India was not how I expected it.
 
Shots of the Holy City Varanasi, on the Ganges
 
The Indus river, mother of civilization and a 2000 year old Buddah in Ladakh.
To be sure India is one of the hardest destinations I've ever traveled to. Actually I think the hardest. The heat alone got to me more than most anything else (I will tell you why I was hot below). The logistics were not easy and required tons of planning and time due to the size and congestion of everything. Not to mention the huge cultural gaps (a lot of which is expressed through religion, especially Hinduism, as mentioned in my last post). One thing I couldn't quite get over was the staring. I have definitely been stared at before (most memorably by a 2-year old child, nonstop in Bethlehem in '03 who kept reaching his arm out to me while his mother kept telling him to stop) but I don't think the stares have ever been this unapologetic. Even given my height and complexion difference (most people are probably 5 feet here at maximum), the stares were frequent and unyielding. I got into the habit of staring directly back into the eyes of people. This literally became a staring contest, which I did not always win. Groups also gathered around me in public places, especially tourist places where Indians from other parts of the country (that were presumably less touristed) were seeing Americans for the first time. I probably posed for more photos with locals (for their cameras) than I took of locals candidly. The touts were also annoying, but not all that terrible. Scams abounded but my travels had run into most of them before. One new one was writing "government office" or some other reputable words on one's tourist office to draw people in. EVERY place was the "government office." The real government office was basically empty, probably because touts had siphoned off tourists to other government offices" by the time they could get to the real one.
 
Monkey Temple in Varanasi; Jain man explaining about the spiritual practices of his guru (the naked man in the photo at the right)
India is both more innocent than I anticipated. The innocence can probably be seen in strong sexual and modesty mores. Additionally, it is a very religious society, with God being a common theme even in Bollywood movies. Probably adding to this perception is the 1950's style of car that is popular here, and is the required model for all taxis. Perhaps this is also due to the relatively conservative culture of the occupying British. There could be a lot written on this topic but since I know nothing I'm just going to stick to what I observed. The Brits built some nice buildings.
  
Monastery shots: the Karakoram range from the roof of Thicksay, a Buddah inside Hemis, and a very graphic statue of a god inside another gompa (monastery).
Especially given this innocence, India is more violent that I ever imagined. Seeing that Buddhism and Gandhi come from India, and all the hippies who gravitate to the place, its almost shocking. Maybe the peace was borne out of the extreme injustice and violence all around? Talk of war with Pakistan (nuclear war) and China was often on the lips of people I spoke with, even when I didn't bring it up. Mostly these positions were of confidence in the Indian army and willingness to sacrifice for a military victory. I didn't really get a read on the Muslim opinion on this (India has almost as many Muslims as the population of Pakistan). Kashmir and Ladakh are a bit different- being culturally much more separate, and Kashmiris are generally looking for independence- which is of course fueled by Pakistan. Read the earlier post on that trip.
Shot from the old Town of Srinagar, Kashmir. This mosque has a relic of Mohammed.
The Karakoram Range- those peaks are 6400m. We saw some Himalayan peaks over 7000m.
Super nice vendors in Srinagar.
Rajasthani tourist to the Mogul gardens in Kashmir. They took so many pics of us I had to return the favor.
A national museum is often a good place to get a pulse on the nation. Despite overwhelming Hindu population, the national museum does great justice to India's strongly Buddhist past. It also sets India's Muslims in a light that paint them as culturally Indian- a special Indian brand of Islam. This was probably the most interesting slant of the museum. The overall message seemed to not emphasize religion, but rather Indian-ness. This of course implicitly being set up agains Pakistan and China. Otherwise, the museum was a mixed bag- an excellent exhibit on the Indus valley civilizations (which concentrated on the ones in India; most of the important ones are in Pakistan but were not emphasized, naturally) but very empty and unfinished exhibits elsewhere in the museum. A half step up from the Egyptian museum though- at least things were labeled. One funny thing about sights in India was the price differential. Most sites were 10 rupees (20 cents) for Indians but 500 rupees for foreigners. However some, including the National museum, included a student price of 1 rupee- and they accepted my ID card!
 
Sunrise over the Ganges
The Taj Mahal is indeed well touted as the most beautiful building in the world. I really can't think of a worthy runner up. No picture can do the building justice. Even though it is overrun with tourists (local and foreign) and the "highway", i.e 2 lane traffic jammed from Delhi to Agra is terrible, this is like a beautiful woman or a gorgeous mountain peak. From every angle, you can't take your eyes off of it. It's number 1!
The Bahai lotus temple is also a beautiful sight, though it was inexplicably closed when we tried to enter. India's second wonder, the 900 year old Qutab Minaret and adjacent sandstone Temple censored into mosque is another awesome legacy of Muslim dynasties.
 
The Taj Mahal is #1
Qutab minaret is #2. But 500 years older than the Taj
Juxtaposition in India is bizarre, even for a developing country. One of the oddest was the wedding complex, a luxurious garden with all the amenities, was located (along with several others) in a village outside of Delhi, an hour from the center, down a dirt/ poorly paved road. The location at arrival was amazing, but we were more in place in our motorized tuk-tuk while were were driving through the neighborhoods. India has many options to slum it in sleeping and with food. My friends generally weren't as slumdog as I am but even so, things were not terribly nice. A first class train still has mice and is worse than 2nd class in Russia. 3rd class is called the "cattle car" and features literal fistfights in order to get on board the crammed trains. India has enough foreign investment that while there are cheap options, moderately priced options really aren't gonna give you luxury. So in some ways, not a steal of a country to travel in (at least in the relatively touristed places we went).
This is how we roll. Our favorite driver dropping us at the wedding in Delhi.
The wedding was very accessible to westerners- much more so than the temples and other hindu sites. This of course had to do with the groom Paolo, being Italian. some 25 or so Italians (and a few of us americans) were guests so the rituals even included purified water (for the drinkng)! The hindu priest translated several parts. Most notably he lectured PAolo that he can only have 1 woman. Perhaps he was familiar with the Italian customs? The priest tried to translate several of the parts of the ceremony into english to make things accessible. However I think there may have been some theologixal slippage. At one point he translates Brahmin into "God Amighty Jesus Christ". Sean and I both loked at each other and asked "is this really happening?" Otherwise the ceremony was quite confusing (it is conducted in sanskrit) and has many rituals with fire, smoke, and the like. However, the basic ideas of joining two people till death do them art had several nice sympolis, such as sying their costumes together. The families actively participate, but not many other guests even paid attention to the rituals. They mostly ate the food, readily available in teh reception tents below. Most of the audience for the ceremony was us westerners while 300 indians milled around behind us.
  
Shots of the wedding ceremony.
But back to issues- the poverty? Yes, it's there. If you have a shelter or box, you're not that poor. Many people sleep in the medians or sidewalks. In many places its hard to walk down the street at night because of bodies everywhere. I didn't see as much disease as I thought I would, but a lot more than I've ever seen, probably. Open sewers don't help. But traffic is mostly the worst element. Perhaps due to high populations meeting ridiculously undeveloped infrastructure, but cars bikes motorcycles and animals jam the streets in most areas. It is possibly the most unpleasant traffic I have encountered. Certainly it is the craziest traffic, if not also the slowest. (Egypt and Lebanon may be slower. Possibly, but I think not).
 
Holy cows and holy bathing in front of the (dry) holy lake in Pushkar. Ashes over the years have built up the water level so they're quixotically digging it out...
Rajasthan brought some respite from overpricing, and had tons of cool history and castles. Also elephants of burden. And the heat there was dry (unlike the flood plain or by the Ganges and other rivers, where the humidity was unbearable. I took to dousing myself with water at the beginning of the day to pre-empt the sweat that would make me just as wet eventually).
 
Shots from Jaipur, Rajasthan
Sadly, we never got to see a Gujrati celebration of Navratri. We saw the rituals in Varanasi, but those are religious. Powerful, but not celebrations (the holiday is, after al, at root religious). The other parts of the country treat the holiday as a 9-might fashion show and consecutative al night parties to the point that the pregnance and abortion rates spike right after the holiday (!)
 
Navratri in Varanasi; me accidentally getting my fingers wet in the holy Ganges water as I drop a banana leaf candle.
The Sikh culture was also a welcome respite from the chaos in the rest of the country. Its monotheistic nature and gender integration means that services were something of a mix between a liberal mosque and a church service with incredible music and nice incense. I felt completely comfortable in the Sikh temples (Gurdwaras) I went to and improved on the very basic knowledge of the Sikh faith that I was crammed with by PJ before I left for the trip. I really appreciated the cleanliness of the Gurdwaras (India is otherwise very dirty, even come mosques and basically all Hindu and some Jain sites). And the community element was very strong with meals every evening free of charge and a service every day (no holy day of the week) meant a very inviting collegial environment. I was surprised that at least half of the Sikhs attending cut their hair (this is one of the key practices of Sikhism, to never cut any hairs). The language of the Sikhs is Punjabi and since they are from a different part of the country- Punjab (between India and Pakistan), the ethnic stock is a bit sturdier than the average Indian. So all told, I prefer to Sikh rather than Destroy. (The Destroyer is Shiva- see last post)
Gotta love the sweet taste of veggie McDonald's. It's hot!
Oh and lastly the food. Yes, it is as good as hyped. Actually better, including the sweets. Especially good in small local cafes (where it is also cheap, of course). Too many good foods to even learn. I started with Sag paneer every time but eventually I'd just order a random veggie dish and it was always good. (Since Hinduism is veggie in its orthodox practice, as is Sikhism and Jainism, its very easy to eat veggie here. In fact, they call it "veg" and the main option for a restaurant or meal is "veg or non-veg").
I didn't pay too much concern to the food safety guidelines and had a decent amount of street foods and water infused things. I never got sick, at least not any more than I might in the USA from Indian food. The shakes and Lassis were ridiculously good, especially a peanut flavored one Sean and I had in Sarnath. Delhi Belly graciously avoided me. It's a lifetime of training manifested...
Sag Paneer is tasty!
Hole in the wall cafes always cook it up hot!
Sikh symbol- here a car decal.
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| Very few times in my life have I ever felt very alien during travel. Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Israel/ Palestine are some places that I have not fully understood and felt perplexed, uncomfortable or confused, but never alien. India's holiest city of Hinduism, Varanasi, is probably the strangest I have ever felt. The rituals and practices are so foreign to me that I could not make sense of it, nor the lives that people live in its holy city. While its doubtlessly just a matter of understanding and exposure to different ideas,
Varanasi is a extremely old city, and is sacred because Hinduism's holiest river, the Ganges (or, as it's known, Great mother- it's actually a goddess) changes course for a short while and flows back towards the mountains for a small bit. It's a practice of Hinduism to bathe ritually in the Ganges, and to have your body or ashes scattered in it when you die. The stairways leading down to the river are called ghats, and are especially crowded at daybreak and sunset. You could say the ghats are packed, even.
Hinduism is not a religion the way Christianity, Islam, or even Buddhism is a religion (caveat here: I am just barely understanding things so this is my best shot). Older than old, with its original scriptures, the Vedas being something like 4500-6500 years old, Hinduism is essentially an amalgamation of tribal religions into a form that commands the social structure- the caste system. The highest caste are the priests, or brahamin. So far, not too strange, but the remarkable thing to me is that the religion has in almost no sense modernized, nor is there any central authority, nor is there a unified theology. Is there 1 god? or three? or 365 million? (these are all positions held by Hindus I spoke with, and in fact there are many more opinions in between). The problem is perhaps that I am striving to understand Hinduism from a western perspective- it simply is confounding. Either people do not understand their own religion- including one guy who is a graduate of Benares Hindu University, the top Hindu school in the world, or I am not approaching my questions correctly.
Regardless, the practices of Hinduism here really are head scratching.Considering modern health awareness, a few things should at least be noted. The Ganges runs brown with all kinds of bizarre things bloating in it, and is one of the most polluted rivers I have ever seen. Filled with the sewage of countless Indian towns, as well as industrial waste, bathing there is not only unsafe, it is toxic. Imbibing the water is still ritually done, however, and is in fact picturesque though gut wrenching to ponder. It must have been nice hundreds of years ago before as much sewage and chemicals were dumped in. Not to mention millions of dead bodies and ashes. Now, I was very glad to be riding in the boat, not in the water on the 2 trips we took to the river.
The Ganges at night is a wonderful experience, mostly because you cannot see the pollution of the place, and everything is lit by candlelight and fires. The morning is also interesting, because the activity at the ghats is more visible and the light beautiful, but seeing things also is nauseating- floating bodies not only stink but when birds are picking the carcasses and they are in a backwater, not floating down, its not so fun. Burning bodies are also not the best sight.
The town Varanasi is similarly a health concern. It runs with open sewers; cow feces and urine are sacred and let lie where they fall; in fact they are necessary to purify an altar and actively sought out. Of course public urination of people is also acceptable (as in much of the country) and in any case it might usually be into a sewer that flows right down the side of the street. Additionally Varanasi has the most snarled and chaotic traffic (not only because of the cows) so the noise pollution and air pollution are also terrible, confounded by the stench and humidity of the place, Varanasi is downright vile. I was happy to escape the town, even though every minute there is an eye popping cultural site. Yes I could never be comfortable thee, even though its interesting.
Varanasi's temples are no less intense and confusing (though perhaps they are normal for Hindu temples? I need more observations). We visited during Navratri which is a festival to 9 different goddesses (or perhaps all the goddesses or 1 goddess and her different manifestations) so certain temples were particularly packed and ceremonial, like the Navratri rituals taking place on the Ganges at night- we were especially lucky to witness there. In most of the country, Navratri is a dance festival with colorful costumes, costume shows, al-night partying and an increased teen pregnancy rate. In Varanasi, the holy atmosphere "celebrates" in a much more ritualistic way.
The Benares Hindu University temple was nice , with a holy cow idol and the standard Shiva (the destroyer) altar, dripping with milk, water and flowers, where a small ritual with sugar is performed by each pilgrim. Much more bizarre was another Disneyland like temple where scenes from the Vedas were enacted by mechanized Disneyland-style (think "it's a small world") animated figures who were reading, dancing, or getting chased by various god-beasts. This one cost 3 rupees (including for locals) to witness the show.
While odd, those two temples didn't hold a candle to the other two I visited in Varanasi-The monkey temple, also a durga (the goddess) temple, was probably the most foreign experience I have had in my life, with all of the chanting, to a monkey faced god as well as various others. Orange paint (to put on the forehead, as is the custom, as a 3rd eye) was everywhere, across the prayer books, walls, etc, and the place was filled with incense and chanting, as well as accordion music and cymbals from groups of praying people who are all doing their own rituals. Monkeys also scampered, rolled and fought all around. Right outside the temple (still inside the complex), there were vendors selling not only flowers and other sacrificial things, but toys and all kinds of junk. The place was filthy, and the require removing of the shoes didn't seem to make any sense. My socks quickly became disgusting and I became so overwhelmed with the atmosphere that it was best to leave after a few minutes. No photography was allowed though I did snap some monkey shots, far from the temple, on my way out.
A probably even more bizarre experience (had I not already experienced the monkey temple, I would certainly have been more shocked), was an almost red Durga temple where the rituals and filth were even more extreme. Though mandated no entry for non-Hindus the door keeper (who you tip) encouraged me to go in and I almost as quickly left after a quick circuit of the temple and several people offering me to participate in their rituals. Rituals with that intensity I had not witnessed...flowers, coconuts, smoke and everything.
Yet life in the temple is also casual, even at the altar, priests and citizens are very casual while alternately displaying intense forms of worship, in between throwing garbage on the ground or shouting to friends across the temple.
Similarly, Pushkar, another holy Hindu site we visited (on the other side of the country), is equally mesmerizing yet confusing, yet in a more mellow way. Much smaller than Varanasi, it can keep its tight hold on practices like no meat alcohol and eggs- signs against which were everywhere. Hugging and "smooching" were also prohibited. Yet a hue number of pigs and other animals freely roamed through the piles of rubbish- because violence to animals is not allowed, no one bothers them. Pushkar is the site of the world's only (ostensibly) temple to Brahma, the creator God, because Brahma's wife because upset when Brahma took a second wife. Both wives have temples on picturesque jagged hills around the lake; Brahma's large temple is in the center on the shore.
But the strangest thing about Pushkar is its lake, currently, as the lake does not exist. Years of ashes (and dirt from washing) in this small lake have raised the water level so there is currently a dredging process. However, in head-scratching fashion, the Indians have decided to do this by draining the lake. So now a lake that you cannot even approach with shoes on is filled with all kinds of heay machinery and workers with boots, digging up millions of people worth of ashes and carting them off to the desert (once the ashes touch the water, the spirit is no longer in them). The entire lake, save one corner saved for the ritually, is completely dry. Still, regular people cannot even approach the dry basin in shoes. Perhaps more noise was needed, like at other places in the country and adding CAT vehicles was the only way...
One accessible Hindu ritual we witnessed was the wedding (Kirti and Paolo's wedding is the reason we're over here). This took place at an elegant club, albeit an hour outside of the enter of Delhi, in a village down a bumpy unpaved road in the midst of villagers all around... Paolo is Italian and the Hindu priest definitely made the ceremony accessible to the 20-some westerners there. Lots of English explanations and translations of the prayers (which are offered in Sanskrit), and In one case, this was even translated "God Amighty, Jesus Christ" by the priest. Purified water was even used so Paolo wouldn't get sick when drinking! Ganesh, the God of fortune was the main god who was prayed to. Despite the pageantry, at its base the symbolism made lots of sense, with the couple's garments being tied together and the departing of Kirti from her family, joining Paolo is good fortune and bad. The priest even lectured Paolo that one woman was all he was to have- it was no longer the old times...how much this is representative of Hinduism and how much this was the upper class- meets western version of Hinduism is not obvious. Still lots of Oms and 2 hours plus, in addition to the arrival on horseback and all sorts of other non-religious rituals made 3 hours of wedding, and then the main food started. Most Indian attendees didn't care at all about the rituals and just ate the appetizers and drinks during the ceremony, which was mostly just some of Kirti's family and all Westerners watching the priest and the couple circling the Sacred Fire.
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Twelve truly glorious hours of picturesque and quite decent mountain road led us from Kashmir's Capital, Srinigar to Ladakh, one of the only ancient Buddhist communities still extant in India. Though Buddhism started in India (Gautama received enlightenment, first taught, and died in India), virtually all ethnic Indians again practice Jainism, Sikhism or predominantly Hinduism. Though ethnically more"asian" looking, the Ladakh people are citizens of India, and quite happy with that (especially when they look across the border and see Tibet's oppressed plight), Ladakh is a mountain community that is 3500m+ in the East Karakoram mountains. Peaks in Ladakh top out about 6000+m, so it's not the highest karakoram area but the higher western areas (around K2 and the Gasherbrums) are actually uninhabited.
The Karakorams are the origin of the Indus river! The mother of civilization in South asia, and one of the most important rivers in history! Our route paralleled the Indus river for about 100km, many miles upstream and far above the indus river valley of he Mhenjo-Daro/ Harappan civilizations of so long ago. That famous part of the indus is below the karakorams, where the indus exits the mountains and flows below Nanga Parbat into a lush green valley. Here up high, there is no green, just rocks and dust and crystal clean air.
We actually ended up taking the road twice- there and back- due to difficulty getting money from ATM. All 3 in the capital (and the entire region) were empty/ dysfunctional and cash is the only functional way to purchase here. So by the time we got cash, airline tickets were sold out days in advance-and so expensive after that- that going back by road was the best option. Still, the road was some of the most enjoyable part. Built by BRO- the Indian Border Roads organization using oodles of south indian labor (we saw probably thousands of those poor guys who were working hard in the sweltering sun to try to pave the whole thing), its actually highly trafficked by vans, jeeps and Cargo trucks. The trucks all have tons of personality- like those elsewhere in South asia, bearing messages such as "smile is tax free" ," never give up (popular buddhist slogan) and others. The BRO signs have punchy messages such as "If you are married, divorce speed" and "be Mr. Late, not Mr. Never" at every kilometer marker. The border road runs almost exactly along the India-Pakistan like of control- the same line that a few miles farther north is the site of the world's highest war at 21000' over the Siachen glacier.
So, because of the security situation (there was in incident with 4 indian soldiers dying right after we left), there are lots of checkpoints, which if not times correctly, make the 12-hour road trip on the way in into an 18-hour trip on the way out... since we travelled out at night. Due to the fact that I didn't plan to come to the mountains, I was stuck with a thin cotton shirt was we overnighted (more like paused for a few hours at 1am) at a checkpoint in Drass, the self billed "second coldest town on earth". However, having mastered the mind, I was able to convince myself I was not cold and actually get a decent night's sleep. 8 bodies in the jeep helped keep things warm, as did a local tea house but the Ladakhi girls in the back seat who insisted on keeping th window open did not help much. Still, once they moved both damielken and I out of the passenger seat (replacing me with a teenage ladakhi girl), the road was probably better at night. Without sitting in the front seat I was not able to see the road and not as concerned. I could get a half-decent rest and without the horns (passing required lights, not horns, at night) and though the views were obscured by the dark, the stars were great and reemerging into the Kashmir valley, along the Sindh river, at daybreak was like a scene out of the Gammage Cup with busy valley farmers bustling about.
The reward for the tough logistics is an isolated and very lovely region of 300k- strong mountain people who still practice Tantric Buddhism with a vengeance. I don't think we met single a rude or pushy person in the entire region. Our main activity (besides looking for cash) was visiting the famous monastaries (called gompas) of the region. We saw Hemis monastary, which is the largest and most famous, and well concealed up a narrow side valley. And the equally revered Thiksey monastery, which allights itself on a hilltop in the middle of the valley for amazing views (all the gompas seem to be built like this). We also same a few more minor ones, all in decent, hough not extravagant condition and populated by red robed, shaven head celibate monks. All of the monastaries are about 4000m; the capital Leh is more than 3500m. Even after a week in colorado, the air still felt thin here, maybe because it is so dry. Compared to Kashmir, Ladakh place is a desert- not like Kashmir's lush hills or craggy peaks, Leh is like Tibet- high and dry with dusty broad mountains. Very easy to summit high elevation peaks in this region is that's the goal...the peaks are broad and approachable.
Also similar to Tibet, prayer flags flutter profusely, and the script and language are almost identical to the Tibetan Language. The Dalai Lama has a monastery here for when he visits and the gompas are packed with monks- a very lively religious area. Workers chant "Om" (like our breakfast chef who had a particularly gutteral voice) and prayer wheels -which the locals definitely use often as they pass by- abound. This religion came from India but it seems very foreign to it as much as the Ladakh culture is from the mainland Indian culture. The order, coherence and theological cohesiveness of Buddhism - especially as practiced in pristine Ladakh- are in marked contrast to the loud, dirty streets of the subcontinent and the seemingly haphazard practices of the various temples of Hinduism (more on that later). Ladakh even bans plastic bags; the subcontinent seems to collect them along its streets. It's hard to even compare ladakh to india as there are few true similarities despite the proximity.
Once down in India proper and probably a thousand miles away, we also visited Sarnath, which is the second holiest site in Buddhism, where the Buddha first preached. Oddly, it was only "rediscovered" barely a hundred hears ago by western researchers, and most everything has been rebuilt since then; the area remains staunchly Hindu (Varanasi- where the Ganges runs back north and west, and Hinduism's holiest site, is only 10km away). Still, a number of internationals and monks inhabit Sarnath as well, and a huge and awe-inspiring stupa (monument) containing the buddha's relics still stands more-or-less intact; much of the ancient city hs also been archaeologically unearthed.We learned a lot from our buddhist guide, who was considerable less interested in money than in genuinely teaching and showing us around. Dalia and Sean joined us for this along with Varanasi.
Tantric Budhism has some elements of Hinduism; the tantric Buddhism as practiced in Ladakh and tibet indeed has multiple gods, statues, offerings to idols and paintings like appear in a hindu temple. I am not yet exactly clear on the theology here. But the version of Buddhism in Sarnath, the original Hinyana Buddhism with the 4 noble truths (escape from desire to escape suffering) is more austere, with less influence from the gods and practices of Hinduism. In fact our Hinayana buddhist guide kept emphasizing that buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion. Cerebral indeed.
I never saw the 2 versions of buddhism collide but contrasting the 2 forms is a goal for the future...my background and philosophy of reducing desire, increasing knowledge and holding oneself accountable is more comparable with hinayana buddhism though of course emptiness as a goal seems very foreign to me. Still, the organizaton and clear theology of buddhism in either version, though different, is at least structurally more familiar to me than the vast and primal theology of Hinduism- the topic of my next post...
Our visit to Sarnath also included a stop at its Jain tample. We met an eager local temple attendee who wanted to tell us all about his guru, who, in that form of Jainism go naked, pluch, not cut, their hair, and do not eat anything except what has fallen from the trees. Jainism diverged from Hinduism at the Same time Buddhims did (6th c. BC), and was likewise a reaction to the rigid caste system supported by hinduism. However, It is more similar to Hinduism in that is retains many gods and temples in a religion that is more easily recognizable as being part of the Indian culture.
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| Sometimes the plans need to get thrown out the window- for instance when you have the perfectly planned tourist itinerary in a new country but then, while on the airplane, you realize you're too close to the world's highest peaks to stick to it. So I diverted my plans for a lowland tour of India's tourist sights for a foray into Kashmir and my first trip into the Himalaya and the Karakoram. Those were the last of the 6 great (7000m) ranges I have been to, meaning my circuit is in some sense complete- though I've only climbed peaks in 2 of them (the Tien Shan in Kyrgyzstan and the Pamir in Tajikistan; the other 2 I've seen but not climbed are the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan and the Kunlun Shan in China). I've seen 7000m peaks in all of them now, except the Karakoram, after signting 7000m twins Nun and Kun in the Himalaya.
Kashmir is one of the most beautiful places on earth, Himalayan mountain valleys heavily forested and terraced with plots of farmland. It's a superlative of all similar landscapes I've seen, a real paragon of culture amidst a rugged terrain. Large houses build in local architecture and truly unique wooden mosques backed by green farmland tilled by hardworking mountain men and their bucket-on-head and bundle-of-sticks-on back-wives. And a scarecrow and grass basketball court in the backyard.
Kashmir is also the epicenter of the Hindu/ Muslim tensions that cause the world's highest war (21,000') and will eventually cause a war between India and Pakistan. However, on arriving in Srinagar, Kashmir's busy summer capital, I was actually comforted by the hundreds of armed military patrolling the place. Maybe because of spending so much time in Israel, but the kind of thing started to feel like home. Though the conflict has reached a calm in the last several years, there is still sporadic political violence (including a bombing outside the capital last week) as the majority Muslims seek greater autonomy, independence, or in some cases alliance with Pakistan. I don't deliberately seek out the world's most famous conflicts but I try to go where is most interesting, with mountains and religion, and those happen to often end up there. At least I haven't been to Chechnya. But I have quite a few of the big ones covered...
The Moguls, an Afghan empire, founded Srinagar and built a beautiful series of botanical gardens which are maintained today, hundreds of years later. Now, Kashmir is some of the most accessible Muslim culture due to its Sufism and India's national language of English.We (roommate Danielken and I) stayed on a houseboat in the middle of Dal lake, right outside of Srinagar. The houseboats there are relics of the British Raj when the Brits were not allowed to own property in Kashmir and consequently build on the water. Not in the best shape not due to overuse (and flushing the toilets into the lake water), Dal lake is nonetheless a mirror-like gem that channels the broad Kashmir Valley's Himalayan foothills into the steeper and more rugged Himalayan valleys above.
Kashmiri culture is neither Indian nor Pakistani, though it is divided (quite well for a British partition) between them. The language is Kashmiri, which is in Urdu script but not nearly the same. The religion is predominantly Muslim, of a Sunni Sufi type. This Sufi influence means more women in the mosques and a generally more approachable populace, including our host who answered his cell phone from the prayer rug. There is also, shockingly, a huge diversity of religion, in addition to Hinduism and the occasional Christian, substantial numbers of Shi'a Muslims (even saw a roadside Khomeini portrait), Buddhists, Sikhs and Hindus. Some believe Jesus Christ is actually buried in Srinagar (neo gnostic theory), having traveled to India after his Crucifixion and the mausoleum of a man with pierced feet is indeed in the city.
The most interesting religious quirk is that we happened to arrive on the eve of the last Friday of Ramadan. This entails an all night prayer and chanting vigil, which echoed through the mosque speakers from mosques around the valley, naturally amplified by the mountains surrounding t\and carried by the lakes. It was the most beautiful all-night serenading I have ever experienced, a mantra of call and response songs of a faith filled and inspired community.
After Srinagar, we set off to drive the 425 km Kashmir Mountain highway, a rugged road pressing even further into the mountains from Kashmir to Ladakh- the corner of India that backs to Tibet. Here you can see the transforming from the lush Himalaya to the moonscape of the Karakoram, also switches culturally and ethnically to one of the purest communities of Tantric Buddhism on earth. The report on that journey is coming next.
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| Having been to Israel less than 6 months before, I had an urging this time to explore more of the West Bank, a place to where I'd only made 3 total trips in my previous 2 visits to Israel. So now that the wall is currently in full effect, I readied my patience and opened my eyes for some really compelling trips across the new divide. Palestine is a very friendly place- and very calm right now, though with a repeatedly shocking and nauseating set of circumstances and conditions that anyone advocating for human rights would have a hard time digesting.
 
From the Palestinian side of the wall. Boys were climbing the wall, even at 27', so barbed wire had to be put up in urban areas, like here in Abu Dis (suburb of East Jerusalem), to actually make the wall an effective barrier.
 
By Bethlehem checkpoint. Put the first on the Christmas cards. No caption needed for the second
So I made a total of 12 visits to Palestinian towns/ villages on this trip-not counting the old city. A few were quite long visits, including several religious pilgrimages, a media foray with journalists, an Arab wedding and a particularly jarring personal tour of Hebron, the center of the conflict in the West Bank. All of the Palestinian cities (except East Jerusalem) require the crossing of the Wall, or "security fence" as its called. This Wall is one of the more controversial elements of Israeli policy. Partially US funded, the Israeli government claims it was built for security reasons and its construction has stopped suicide attacks. This argument is actually fairly clearly just rhetorical, but the result is the economic crippling of an already suffering Palestinian populace.
 
Graffiti on the Palestinian side of the Ramallah check point (that's a young Arafat, who is buried here). Slightly shorter wall here, farther from very populated areas.
Despite true recent improvements in the economic situation as well as a relative mellowness and calm that currently embraces the land, the Israeli- Palestinian situation keeps getting worse. Worse in the sense that a long term 2- state solution (like the one Obama proposes or the one the UN originally proposed in 1947) is harder and harder to envision as events unfold. There are three basic views: first, that the status quo will continue, with Israel occupying a majority of the West bank and Palestinian lands. This view is strong with Palestinians in Hebron, for instance, where the conflict is at its worst. The most optimistic places, like Ramallah, which is the seat of the Palestinian Authority, believe strongly in an imminent 2-state solution and believe they are laying the foundation of Palestinian culture. And finally, the third view is a unified, multicultural state solution, which was 10 years ago only a pipe dream to the leftmost of leftists, if actually becoming a more and more likely scenario as Israel takes actions that render a 2-state solution unworkable. The one-state solution is advocated by left Israelis, moderate academics, and a number of other varied individuals, including Libya's President Qadaffi in a recent New York Times piece. Of course there are those that advocate an all Jewish "Greater Israel", such as settlers in Hebron, or a unitary state "Greater Palestine", like the extreme wing of Hamas, but clearly those two positions are not possibilities.
 
Apparently the artist of this first mural believes the solution is a unitary, multicultural state...Five fingers of the same hand. Want to buy an apple?
Three things in specific that Israel is doing that cuts of the viability of the Palestinian state are:
1) Disallowing the building of Palestinian homes outside of a very few select neighborhoods in the West Bank
2) Continuing to settle the West Bank at astronomical speed
3) Continuing to support the existence of the Wall and its strategic and disruptive path that generally does not coincide at all with the UN green line (internationally recognized borders of Israel and the West Bank)
It is impossible to divide the issues exactly-they are all part of a grand, very clever, campaign. 5 years ago the wall was 6' in the urban areas. We jumped across it. Sections were moved at night. In some places it was still barbed wire, easy for Liora and I- and thousands of Palestinians- to climb through and to have some type of movement. Now the wall is as high as 27' through most Palestinian neighborhoods and East Jerusalem has been cut off from the rest of Palestine- like Berlin from West Germany. East Jerusalem, the Palestinians' ancient but still thriving cultural and economic juggernaut has been rendered irrelevant by the wall.
 
This first vandal in Bethlehem apparently knows Luke 19:41. The second is surely some genuine Palestinian-made wall graffiti on the Israeli side. Though on the Israeli side, it's still Abu Dis, and is still pro-Palestinian (Palestinians live on both sides as the wall goes through neighborhoods). Generally these lower-fi works are locally done; many of the beautiful murals on the other side are the work of international artists.
This Iconic cartoon character- seen all around- is a depiction made popular by Palestinian artist Naji al-Ali. At age 10, he had to leave his home in Palestine in 1948 and became a refugee in Lebanon. This is his classic depiction of himself as a boy, looking back at his home to which he is longing to return. Al-Ali died in 1987, assasinated after years of activism.
This fence is not yet completed (only 70 % or so done, and construction has in fact halted), and the arguments seem weak that this is solely a security measure. The PA called off suicide attacks around the time the fence was in its prime construction state, so undoubtedly this has something to do with their srop about that time.
Israel also claims that the wall is to fence them from Palestinians, which are a threat to their state. This is not so credible when there are more than one million Palestinians on the Israeli side of the wall, many of whom could easily have been walled off by putting the walls more near pre-1967 boundaries.
If Palestinians are so dangerous, why does Israel keep settling its citizens in the West Bank? Why does Maala Duumim, possibly the biggest settlement strategically placed to the east of Jerusalem- cutting a big swath through the center of Palestine- keep growing at 200% annually? Israeli PM Netanyahu recently claimed this was to keep up with Israeli populations natural growth. Really? What about the Palestinian's growth rate, which is 3 times that of Israel's? How come they cannot build anywhere in the West Bank (much less Israel) outside of the few towns where they have autonomy. These few towns are all overcrowded and slum-like.
Despite being 8 meters tall in residential areas, the wall is regularly scaled by 10 year old boys using a lever method of sticking holds in the cracks. The prevention of crossing then requires the addition of barbed wire to the top of the fence in some places, which looks hilarious because even such a huge and expensive barrier needs additional help (see pic above). To argue that a strategically land-grabbing, partially completed and completely scalable wall with a million of the enemy on your side of it is eliminating suicide attacks seems , at the very least, transparently flawed.
Taken from my van, we actually drove through this section of incomplete wall, not a mile from, and in the shadow of the backside of the mount of olives. No security around...the wall is not exactly stopping enemies of the Israeli state. Holes and incompletions of the wall are numerous, and construction has largely stopped.
 
The first statement seems odd. Looks like a tiger but is more likely a Palestinian donkey or camel. The second is a very true statement that based on his Cairo speech even Obama doesn't quite believe.
 
Barbed wire at the top here (near Ramallah) of this political graffiti (referencing Apartheid). But with barbed wire, kids can't get over anymore. At least people have a sense of humor.
The pre 1967 borders (which are still the internationally recognized borders) actually run through the middle of Jerusalem- meaning half of Jerusalem is internationally recognized as Palestinian. Still, there are many Jewish neighborhoods built to the east of thie line (technically making them settlements by international law), but more troubling is the strategic way in which the wall was built" to include as much land around Jerusalem and as few Palestinians as possible.
Even more troubling is the Israeli practice of demolishing palestinian homes, which we were thoroughly educated about through the Israeli Committee against Housing Demolition. It is easy enough to obtain a permit to build if you are Jewish, but if you are Palestinian, it is essiantially impossible to build either up or out. This means that as the Palestinian population expands, they must build illegally to accomodate their growth. Otherwise, they must go to the other side of the wall to find housing and lose their status to be able to even come to East Jerusalem (expatriation of Palestianian Israelis is very common and easy. Patriation for anyone with a Jewish background (i.e. making Aliyah) is quite simple. I have been troubled by this fact, more than any other, since I first began studying the situation more than 7 years ago).
The strategy of trying to get Jerusalem land but not Palestinians is the motivation for such policies. It is too easy to lose the very valuable Israeli citizenship to those Palestinians in East Jerusalem live in terrible conditions. I talked to a guy who rented a tiny place in the Old City but didnt live there...just so he could keep his Israeli citizenship. If they lose their citizenship, they lose their ability to cross the wall, which means no working in Israel and no more reasonable salary. One guy in Bethelehem I talked to said it was hard but occasionally possible to get a permit to go to Israel proper for religious reasons (e.g the Holy Sepulchre-he is Christian). He then works illegally in Israel as long as he can as a roofer, etc and hopes he is not caught. There is no decent economy in Palestine (see future post), and it does not seem that Israel really is promoting this, although it would be to their benefit.
 
Gotta recognize the US role in the project...
Israel builds settlements in the west bank to accommodate their "Natural growth." This is perhaps the most hypocritical position ever- even recognized by many Israelis. Palestinians are not even allowed to build an annex on their homes, much less build on new land- even West Bank land. The settlements in East Jerusalem are especially contentious. While new Palestinian homes are torn down (because they are always illegally built- as legal permits are always denied), there are plenty of new Jewish buildings- settlements- in Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. Obama recently told Israel that such actions were unacceptable as they cut apart Palestinian communities and undermined East Jerusalem as a capital for a future Palestinian state. The response:
"We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and buy (homes) anywhere in Jerusalem," Netanyahu said, calling the city Israel's united capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally. "I can only imagine what would happen if someone would suggest Jews could not live in certain neighborhoods of New York, London, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a great international outcry," he told reporters at the weekly cabinet meeting. "We cannot accept this edict in Jerusalem."
The apparent strategy- and it's a clever one- is to give even Eastern Jerusalem a Jewish enough flavor that demographically all of Jerusalem can be argued to be part of an Israeli state- not a future Palestinian state. Israel has not annexed the lands it occupies in the West bank and Gaza, but it has annexed the entire greater Jerusalem- including vast swaths of empty land- right up to Palestinian suburbs. Then the wall was built along this municipal line (the UN, and the USA, do not legitimize the line nor the annexation but once Jewish people live on the land, it's hard to argue that they should leave...). Israel has declared an undivided Jerusalem to be its permanent capital and this is the mechanism through which that may indeed happen.
The wall is quite obviously a land grab and an instrument of control, something that is obvious to see when looking at east Jerusalem from one of many beautiful Jerusalem vantage points. The nice building in the right hand corner is a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem (Nof Zion). You can see the wall and the sprawling suburbs of Abu Dis in the distance, hemmed up against the wall-the gray band. Yet the fields in front are annexed by Israel as belonging to Jerusalem. There are already a number of Jewish buildings being built there- with permission- while Palestinian Israelis cannot legally build.
The argument that the Wall is a security barrier able to stop a well motivated suicide bomber seems ludicrous. Even the 8 meter wall was regularly scaled by children. In 30% of places no barrier whatsoever exists. And the Wall here- this is technically Jerusalem these people are standing in- only a few kilometers from the old city. The Wall ends (that's a checkpoint, that tower) and then the barrier continues as a wanky fence- without even barbed wire. You could highjump into palestine here. If this girl (our ICAHD guide) lost her footing, she might almost accidentally tumble backward into Palestine.
 
For the sake of humanity. I do believe that at some point dominoes will fall, and quickly. If complete US support for Israel ever wavers-that would be one way that might happen.
The sad thing is the many references to the Holocaust that try to justify any actions to defend Israel. Of course the Holocaust first began with first putting Jews in ghettoes. It is very offensive to make this parallel, yet it is abundantly obvious that the Palestinian situation and the 1930's Jewish situation are strikingly similar.
Another famous, and also offensive, metaphor is to south Africa. Regarding the "separation wall," as our friend (an Israeli Jew) quipped "How do you say separation in Afrikans?" Total arab population in Israel and Israeli controlled areas is ~5million. Total Jews about 5.5 million. Soon enough the population growth will see the equalization. If you count the refugees in Lebanon alone numbers are equal. Add in refugees in Syria and Jordan, and Palestinians vastly outnumber Jews in the holy land.
 
Palestine was safe enough for the Pope earlier this year...and it seems it would be also for the RZA and crew. Everywhere you go- New York, Russia, Palestine. Can't stop, won't stop.
This is a kickin block party, with traditional Palestinian dancing, right next to Palestinan homes on the other side of the fence. What justification is there for this community to be cut in two?
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