The book mentioned is Stephen Alter’s “Elephas Maximus,” a thorough account of the Indian elephant, in all its scientific, historical, mythical, and symbolic facets.
Amber Fort, just outside Jaipur, is best reached by elephant, and the ride is included in standard tourist packages. So off we went. It takes about 20 minutes altogether, but I edited it to 4:31 min, 28 MB
After Amber Fort, we visited some touristy handicraft shops. They’re very well organized with demos and explanations, and, of course, opportunities to buy!
After arriving in Delhi at 11 pm and getting up again for a 6 am train, when we arrived at the Samode Haveli hotel at mid-day, we were ready for a nap. We spent the afternoon resting. Later, we sat out by the pool and absorbed the sights and sounds of the evening.
Filmed at the Tibetan Homes Foundation.
Tibetan Buddhism seems to traditionally favor mechanically-aided prayer. Each of these wheels has a core wrapped with paper inscribed thousands of times with om mani padme hum (“the jewel is in the lotus”). Spinning the wheel sends the prayers up to heaven.
Tenzing Nima, Woodstock alum, actor, and proprietor of Momotours, came over for dinner at Sharon & Steve’s, and regaled us with monkey stories.
There are two types of monkeys in Mussoorie, langurs and rhesus. Langurs are beautiful, graceful, and fairly shy of people. Rhesus are very aggressive and can be dangerous. So langurs are hard to get pictures of, while rhesus may attack if photographed.
These are sometimes called Hanuman langurs, because the monkey god Hanuman is often depicted as having silver or white fur and a black face (although he’s also often portrayed as hairless or human flesh-colored).
