We went to Nepal just a few months before the earthquake in May 2015. We sent funds to different agencies and also direct to our trekking guide who’s been buying building materials for his home village.
Spiti is small area of northern India close to the Tibetan border with a old Tibetan Buddhist culture. A few miles south of Kaza, the main town in Spiti, a side track leads to the village of Lantza.
Later in the afternoon two horsemen ride into the village, it seems the monk wants to buy barley from them. An hour later they return to camp with two bottles of Godfather beer, for us!
Worn and faded prayer flags, tall lhatos of willows and juniper tied with white scarves, piles of bleached blue sheep and yak horns, some carved with On Mani Padme Hum.
Many Indian Statues are made by the lost wax process in which a wax sculpture of an image is covered in clay which is then baked. The wax melts leaving a negative image. Molten metal is then poured into the mould.