 |
| Pemayanste Monastery |
 |
| Girl Guide |
Today we visited the oldest monastery
in Sikkim. It was about 3km all uphill so we cheated and took a
local taxi (but we did walk down). Sikkimese temples are similar in
style with elaborate paint jobs on the windows and doors.
Unfortunately photography inside is not allowed. Too bad since the
walls have some great paint jobs.
This monastery was in full operation
with many young monks heading to classes. We chatted with an old
monk just outside the temple and he told us he had attended a
conference in Vancouver. After visiting and photographing the
outside we walked back down the hilltop. We stopped at a bakery shop
after just 1 km and we met again the old monk. He helps run the
bakery shop as vocational training. After chatting for 15 minutes he
offered us a free house for 1 year if Joan would teach languages and
I would do computer support. I declined because they don't get much
snow in winter.
In the afternoon we tried to walk
through the countryside. We quickly found a “village” that
didn't seem to have any streets. A local asked us where we were
going and I tried to tell her we wanted to walk through the village.
I thought she said there were too many dogs, and then she called out
her 10 year old daughter to guide us through the village. The girl
ran off but Joan and I couldn't keep up so she would run back to
encourage us and then run ahead again. Sure enough she ordered the
dogs to go away and lead us through the village and back to the main
road.
No comments:
Post a Comment