88 / high

On the first afternoon, 

looking towards Mount Everest,

a beguiling light

next day dawned cold & clear.

Wishing all a high, clear year.

87 / higher

Near the 1922 Everest Base Camp, 

the snowy mountains are further on

I had to stop frequently.. 

to..

..breathe

86 / blue sheep

A blue sheep at one monastery, it must have been raised there,

mostly we saw wild ones, in the distance

these two shots were on the internal memory of my Nikon, 

just learnt how to copy them to the card

it's a very large shaggy dog from Tibet, maybe a sheep dog.

85 / peace

Having some problems due to a virus, changing passwords etc;

just want to say happy holidays. 

Happy all your days. 

84 / what's real?

Yaks seem to take it all in: to me they feel very different to cattle, 

such eloquent gazes, I would not have been surprised to hear one speak

the newer buildings look quite unreal,

especially compared to the monolithic old ones

I liked the tableaux in some stores

checkpoints quite often,

& sometimes it wasn't, really

83 / surprises

This hotel had a few surprises

I liked this landing..

where am I again?

one wall has windows against a brick wall..

oops, changed our minds..

& out the real windows, a view of the fort,

which an English force under Colonel Younghusband

tried to capture, for whatever misguided purpose, without success.

Long ago.

82 / Lhasa

With strange juxtapositions like the Potala behind the bainmarie,

Lhasa seemed to be several different time zones:

yesteryear

now & future times within a few steps

a lot of the old city was being torn up, but the end

result will probably look traditional again.

81 / another world

Some Tibetan monasteries are small, others as big as a town;

visiting as a tourist I've no clear idea of how it all works now

for either monks or lay people. While in Tibet I often wished 

I could talk again with my old friends who were monks

& refugees in India. In the '70's. 

They were thangka painters. 

The vessels in the kitchen of this monastery were

massive,

the light medieval ..

In case you are wondering, this is a thangka,
(my guess is of Tara).
Traditionally they are painted on sized cloth, with
a brocade surround, & can be rolled for travels.
The monks gave me one for  my 30th birthday,
way back then.

80 / what we build

Angkor Wat

Nepal

Kathmandu

Varanasi..

amazing the varieties of expression, isn't it?

There would have been master craftsmen, sculptors,

builders, & so on, though rarely a town planner.

79 / landscapes

Extroverts, supposedly, 

find crowds of people to be energising.

For the other kind, like me, landscape is the

essential nurturing experience

Halong Bay top, on the Mekong above

Tibet

near the 1922 Everest Base camp ~

 the ambrosia of drinking in the landscape!

78 / mountain time

Hesitate to post paintings that are not completed,

but .. here they are anyway.

The canvases are 121cm wide.

Mountains are leaning against my walls.

so far, what happens is 

I get them to a certain stage,

then something pops out that I didn't 

intentionally place there, so I add to that, 

& then perhaps take it back a little.

I don't want to make puzzles, yet we all seek patterns

in the apparent visual field

this one started as a daylight scene, then became a

moonlight night.. & I didn't change the snow,

could see where the moon would be to get these highlights,

& the viewer makes up the rest

while this latest one could go several different directions.

They all need to sit around for longer until its clear.

Its really pleasing to have no schedule to meet,

no client, gallery etc.. 

77/ appearances

one woman was working in a market in Laos, the other

on a movie in Nepal

mannequins looking a little the worse for wear,

 interesting contrast with the jackets

hair salons intrigue me, so individual..

this one in Thailand

& in Pokhara, Nepal

76/ nomadic genes

Am using some of my photos selected for another project, 

a cross section from various Asian countries,

above: reliefs at Angkor Wat.

a young girl aligning pots in Bhaktapur

part of the astonishing horizon in Pokhara

& a small vivid area of the ghats in Varanasi. Stayed several months,

years ago, in the days when I really felt the pull of strong nomadic genes: 

still love to visit new places, though now I also 

enjoy returning to my place here.

75/ around asia

One of the reasons I enjoy travelling in Asia is the

underlying Buddhist culture of much of it.

It adds a dimension to all spheres of life, & has been crucial 

in the arts for millennia.

Actually most religions had a tradition of beautifying

the architecture & objects connected with their worship,

didn't they?

Some join a monastery for life, for others it's an opportunity

to be educated

these (probably well-known monks) were small

& un-nervingly realistic

A beautifully painted monastery on the outskirts of Kathmandu,

 in the Tibetan tradition.