Mugecuo means "Wild Man" or Yeti in Tibetan. None were to be seen when I visited. It is at an elevation of 3200m on a magical snowy day. There is a bus up a long and very windy road from a car park to the lake and then a walking track following a river through forests back down.
Last Saturday I left the Khampa Eco-Lodge at Tagong and drove back to Kangding and then onto Chengdu. The drive over the plateau on winding roads with snow covered mountains on the horizon was spectacular.
At Mugecuo Lake near Kangding, water was used to move the prayer wheels in these small sheds/buildings. It was cold but gorgeous.
Whilst on holiday I became more obsessed with Tibetan prayer wheels. These are outside Nanwu Temple, in Kangding, a Tibetan temple with parts of three different sects ( nyima, gelug (yellow hat sect), sakya). Its called Lhamo Tse in tibetan.
For centuries Kangding , (Dartsendo in Tibetan) at about 2600mhas been the meeting place of many cultures and was on the Tea Horse Road. It has been a trading centre between the Han Chinese and Tibetans. Today the population is approx 40% Han, 40% Tibetan and 20% other minority groups.
Peonies and Ginkgos are two of my favourite plants, so I was very happy to spend time in this courtyard at Wenshu Temple in Chengdu. Good photos for my 1000th blog post - WOW.
The monks at Wenshu Temple wore golden yellow robes. When I visited close to dusk they were inside chanting mantras and walking around. Later they filed out of the temple and walked in line to the residential buildings.
Wenshu Temple was a calm, historic space in the bustle of Chengdu. With a history dating back 1300 years it some how survived the cultural revolution, with many temples, towers and other buildings spread throughout the extensive and exquisite gardens.
They were soooooo cute
I am back from my 10 day Pii Mai holiday in Sichuan province in China. First item on the itinerary was a visit to the Giant Panda Research Base in Chengdu. It is a large park, but essentially a zoo. There were adult and adult and young pandas and red pandas and 1000s of school children and tourists.
Blue tea and blue textiles. We were served blue tea at the Laos Textile Museum.It is Butterfly pea, a herbal tea made from a Southeast Asian flower (Clitoria ternatea) and seems to be very trendy as an additivie in food and drinks in Vientiane cafes, which follow the trends set in Bangkok. When I added a squeeze of lime it transformed into an elegant lilac/violet colour. As a chemist I loved it!!
The gardens at the Laos textile museum were lush and beautiful with many spectacular Heliconia.
The Laos Textile Museum consists of a series of tradtional wooden buildings set in a lush, green traditional Lao compound. The carvings were gorgeous and the structure were open and spacious. One building was 120 years old.
A wonderful discovery in Vientiane has been the Laos Textile Museum. It showcases a unique collection of antique textiles. The privately-owned museum is the first of its kind, established by the Sisane family to preserve and promote Lao textiles, weaving artifacts and traditions, not only from their own family collection but also from varying ethnic groups throughout Laos.
We were excited to find these sombreros for sale at a road side stall on our weekend away. They were perfect for the swim gala - except it was a bit small for my big, falang head. The kids were enthusiastic sales people. We bought every red hat they had.
Here we are the Nagas (the red house) in our Pii Mai shirts and special red sombreros ready for last weeks Pii Mai swim gala and water games.
The Grade 6 girls wore beautiful pink sinhs for their traditional Pii Mai dance performance, and moved with grace and style.
You can buy a Pii Mai pool at the Honda shop!!!
Pii Mai, Laos New Year has arrived. It is marked at school with a swim gala, water games and a morning assembly/concert, focussed on Laos culture. The grade 11 Laos girls dressed in a variety of tribal clothing to perform a traditional dance. A gorgeous group, smiling and enjoying their dancing.
This young boy was engrossed watching and waiting for the rocket to launch.
Pii Mai - Laos New Year is approaching and the shops and street vendors are displaying their newest Pii Mai shirts - inspired by Hawaiian shirts. Why are all the mannequins headless?
The rockets were paraded along the main street with inebriated revellers. This was one of our favourites with the Beer Laos bottle on the roof of the ute. The rocket was long and shaped like a naga .
The process of making the rockets was complex and involved packing the prepared PVC rockets with gunpowder. Traditionally they were made from bamboo, but today more modern materials are used. The tradition of firing rockets into the air is a ceremony believed to bring the rains so that rice planting can begin. Beer Laos is the traditional accompaniment for the festival!
A relaxing weekend away at "The Laos Lake House" turned into an opportunity to join in local festivities. Boun Bang Fai is the rocket festival.
Yesterday preparations were being made for the rocket festival. The village was a hive of activity and maybe just a little
bit of mayhem. The front garden of every house was filled with a karaoke
machine and partiers steadily drinking Beer Lao, occasionally
punctuated by a toast of (Lao Lao) rice whiskey.
This afternoon with a party atmosphere, the rockets were launched from this wood and bamboo scaffold.
Victoria Jones, the art teacher at VIS has an exhibition of her work, together with her colleague Jamie Lowe, at iCat gallery for the next month. It has been a joy visiting Victoria in the art room as she teaches, creates and inspires the students. Her series of drawings of monks capture their spirituality and the spirit of Laos.
The Friday night local - Naga views - well that's what I call it. Essentially a shack over hanging the banks of the Mekong, it is a great place for a Beer Lao at the end of the working week as the sun sets over Thailand.
An obstacle on my ride home. This lorry with a load of water bottles was jacked up with blocks in the middle of the round about. Two men were tinkering in the wheel hub. It was gone this morning so I assume some progress was made.
A typical Laos scene - motorcyle (an old one with a side cart), farmers (working hard), greenery (salad greens and herbs) a temple and of course a palm tree.
I liked the decorative structures on the wall of a temple, shaded by a Bodhi tree.
Marigolds are a sacred flower in Buddhism. On our Saturday morning bicycle ride we stopped to admire this small barbed-wire enclosed field of marigolds in front of the village temple. A man was walking through the field collecting a bucket full of marigold blooms ready to prepare temple offerings.
Golden Buddhas -all one colour - in a temple in a small village downstream from Vientiane.
One colour is the theme for the City Daily Photo community for April. Click here to see other photos.
This morning I attended Easter Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. I arrived early - not a Harrington trait- as the Vientnamese service was finishing. The community gathering was very Laos -beers at 10am, ladies wearing their best sinh - selling blue Virgin Mary statues. Is it the same gender split as at home - men chatting and women tidying, sharing food and raising funds- The Catholic Church!!!
There was also a priest- maybe bishop with his red hat- sprinkling water on motorbikes and scooters. Many of the scooters and cars had yellow flowers on them as they do when getting blessed with water by Buddhist monks.
On my bike ride this morning, exploring downstream along the Mekong, with my colleague Sheryl, we stopped to explore these tobacco kilns. They obviously haven't been used for a while as huge trees were growing in the centre of them. The rusty remains of metal heaters and tubes inside as well. We also met a young man collecting insects (maybe cicadas) to eat!!
