white clouds dance
inside, around, with
mother mountains
singing
om mani padmi om
rain voices
consider ethereal
neurotic human concerns
hard steady tears
wash feathers
lake mirror stars
breathe clouds
stillness
Namaste,
A man waits with a weight scale. A bag of potatoes. Cool shade. Dawn the down against red bricks.
He shines his black dress shoes with a newspaper.
A woman in a turquoise shawl decorates stone with her whisk broom.
A woman unfolds green stalk onions on a white plastic bag.
Boys slap Tantric wooden masks removing yesterday.
A light rain falls.
Sparrow wings flutter in your face. Directly.
Their air currents support six prop jets as curious enthralled tourists press their faces against plastic glimpsing Himalayan mystery and beauty.
Metta.
Greetings,
Four new image galleries are in Northern Laos. Live, immediate and direct. A visual river. They transmit sand, waves, tides, fresh air, mountains, communities, dancing light and humans.
For example:
This boy said, Before dawn follow the woman on the one red dust road to the market. It is small, near a school. Women spread their produce all green and fresh on blue tarps, natural fibers weaving their muted voices inside cool mist mountain air and baskets of chillies wearing happy leather faces.
Across the bridge children climb mountains to harvest wood for home fires.
Somewhere in Laos a child is carrying the world on their back.
Metta.
Greetings,
I take a long slow boat north tomorrow to Nong Khiaw and overnight.
The next day another slow boat north floats to Muang Khua. Then a five hour bus to Pongsaly. In this area are diverse ethnic people. I will trek, explore villages and meet the Lao Sung people before returning south by river in early December.
I imagine there are similar yet distinct ethnic qualities and traditions with the Hmong people I met in Sapa, Vietnam last year. Nomads are nomads.
Live Forever!
Laos...read more>
Metta.
Greetings,
It feels wonderful to be in Luang Prabang with new language, music and energies. Very refreshing cool temps.
It is high season. Luang is on the tour circuit for backpackers, lots of French and the odd super anxious German. Lots of elderly folks exploring their planet using canes. Tribes of noisy young white people walk down streets drinking beer and ride bikes without shirts and many foreign women think they're on a beach.
Camera happy snappers. Similar to all those crazy folks at Angkor feeling the experience with their digital.
Hoards of snapping tourists focus on orange rows of meditative monks at dawn receiving alms from locals and the extensive golden and red hued wats or pagodas. Architecture. Soaring wings. Lines of small alleys and wooden homes. Plentiful gardens.
Mix in the reserved Japanese and super rude pushy and arrogant Chinese and everyone's happy. Babble tongues.
It is a small world heritage city surrounded by mountains and bisected with two rivers. The Mekong flows strong. I move like a river.
Initial impressions: the Lao are more laid back than the Cambodians. They don't speak loud or yell. No whining and crying children. They don't hassle visitors. They smile. They are gentle people with a deep spiritual life. Serene.
Population density: Lao 6 million, Cambodia 14, Vietnam 85.
The night market rolls with lights, merchandise, food, and souvenirs. People watching.
Textiles are huge in Laos; lovely silks with animistic and natural designs - peacocks, birds, fish, rivers, protector dieties, ancestor worship, woven Buddhist prayer flags. Traditional values and motifs. Visual woven stories.
Hand made paper is an integral part of their life. The art of paper, making paper, using paper, honoring paper, community and family paper, painting and writing. Burning paper, making offerings.
All the Lao girls and women wear a sarong. Delightful and soft. Art, culture and life.
Metta.
Traditional Arts & Ethnology Center, Luang Prabang, Laos. http://www.taeclaos.org/
Share Article