There is an endearing feeling in watching the ochre-robed little lads of Chimi Lhakhang. Despite their monk outfits, they are children and are just the way children are. You see them chasing each other or chasing a football in the open space, rolling in the grass harmlessly fighting over little things or trying to escape the chores assigned to them. But these are things that can only be done when they are not chanting continuously under the watchful eyes of the master.
Chimi Lhakhang is a small temple in the central region of Bhutan. Here is an image of one of the boys walking on the lawn, after giving up control over the football.
Also see more about Chimi Lhakhang at ‘Travelling in Bhutan. Experiences to Cherish‘
Some images of tea, which I photographed recently.
I spent a week traversing the highlands of Ladakh in last winter. When we were on the way to Pangong Lake, we stopped for a while at an ice field formed on either side of a gently flowing stream. The place looked beautiful, with a large patch of ice covering the ground and often forming curious patterns created from trapped air bubbles, flowing water or brown grass sticking out from the solid surface of ice. On either side of the stream, melting ice trickled gently into water from the ice bed, allowing icicles to form. Along with the distant mountains covered in snow, the patterns in the ice and the flowing water offered excellent photography opportunities. So, our short stop extended for more than 30 minutes.
Here is one of the many images made at the ice field. I was so delighted and so happy to see the beauty of this place, that I felt it was worth my money on the trip, even if we did not make it to Pangong. Of course, we reached Pangong Tso in the next few hours, after many photo-stops on the way.
Somewhere in the process of admiring the icicles and photographing them, I got carried away and lied down on the ice for a few minutes to get that perfect image that I had created in my mind. Our outspoken driver Angchuk and the sober cook Norbu found this very amusing. For rest of the tour, they would tease me whenever we found ice-fields along the way, asking me if we should stop the car for and let me lie down.