Yogin's Quest

May all beings have happiness and its causes. May all beings be spared suffering and its causes. May all beings abide in the state of joy that knows no sorrow. May all beings trascend attachment to friends and aversion to enemies. And live beleiving in the equality of all that lives.

Friday, November 17, 2006

THE JOBS OF THE HIMALAYAS
There is no doubt that the jobs here are very difficult, not only to obtain but to perform, in many cases they are done without any technological know how, so basically is the old “elbow grease method”, that prevails in most of the industries.
So they are very labor intensive, sometimes in very high altitudes and with heavy loads, once while trekking I bumped into about 6 workers going up a mountain transporting on their shoulders very heavy pipes about 5 meters each, I try to lift one and my guess is that they weighted about 40 kilos and we were about 11,000ft altitude to this day I don’t know how the job was done, and the porters were, young and old, a truly remarkable job that perhaps pay them 200 rupees a day (4US dlls).


CLOTHS WASHING THE OLD WAY BY HAND

Another very interesting aspect of the nasty jobs around here, is that they are performed by woman, yes woman, very physically demanding Jobs are made by women, in all type of situations, in construction liften very heavy loads of cement, bricks, rock etc, they are transported mostly on their heads, many times you can barely see two legs underneath this heavy load of plant cuttings.


VERY HEAVY CONSTRUCTIONS JOBS DONE FOR UP TO 12 HOURS BY WOMEN


You also seem them falling trees, making cement, selling goodies on the stree/market, and in many cases they have to bring their children to work, so the kids are laying around the job site while their mothers are working hard for 8 to 10 hours.
In the mornings you can see them going up or downhill, going to work on their very colorful Sari’s, and their lunch in those famous metal containers called “ Tipan (steel type) “, and sometimes a pick or a shovel or other working tool.
Children also work, even that is prohibited for anyone to work in any industry if you are under 14 years old, you seem them in stores restaurants and other types of work trying to make a living, I had the chance of talking to some incense makers, young guys about 17 years old and they told me that they make about 1500 rupees a month, which is about 30US dollars.


TIBETAN LADY SELLING TIBETAN BREAD


As you can see its not easy to make a living around here, but what is very noticeable is that they are so happy going to work or performing their job, that many of them are singing away, something that you don’t see back at home, and of course they are sometimes praying.



GAS DELIVERY SYSTEM, VERY SAFE JOB???


Artist of a very high caliber also perform their job in precarious circumstances, butchers, hiding from most as they perform a necessary job for some people and a sin for others.


ARTISTS WORK IS VERY HIGH QUALITY HERE


Monks, nuns, yes they also have to perform their jobs other than their religious obligations they have to clean and do all sort of things around nunneries and monasteries, as well as washing their clothes sometimes by the river.


MONKS WASHING THEIR CLOTHS IN THE RIVER


NUN DUSTING WINDOWS IN THE NUNNERY


Some jobs are very hilarious, like the electricians/phone workers, going up a pole trying to make sense in a medusa like wire mayhem, to all these people that work so hard to survive (as here is no welfare here), I dedicate this Blogg, may we learn something of this people and be thankful for what we have.


PHONE MAN MAKING SENSE OF THIS MEDUSA


IS THIS JOB UP TO A CANADIAN CODE??

Monday, November 06, 2006

THE CRITTERS OF THE HIMALAYAS

There are many critters around here but the most, creative elusive, and smart, no no, not the tourist………… I mean the monkeys, those vivacious guys that inhabit these hills, have learned how to live side by side with humans as well as survive in their environment.


UPS THIS IS NOT THE ONE, OR IS IT???


They come in all sizes from little tinny babies to waist high ones, and they have developed many techniques to survive, like stealing food from vendors as well as tourist, because if you have food in your hands or in a bag you better be careful, as with the speed of lightning, they will take your food and run up the nearest tree.


BETTER MUCH BETTER, THIS IS THE ONE


Another trick that they have mastered is to tantalize the dogs and as soon as they start chasing them they will go up a tree and start throwing things back at the dogs, of course making them jump up and down trying to reach the critters. They are also masters of the high wire act, putting a shame the flying Wallendas ha ha ha, downtown they cross the streets aerially, walking/using the phone wires, to safely cross the streets, they know which cables are power lines and they wont use those, only the phone wire, so it is very funny to see them at any time of the day, doing the high wire act, I have not been able to get a picture of this act, but I hope to do it one day.


HOPE YOU LIKE THE HAIRY BEASTY


ANY SIMILARITY??


Humans don’t escape their abilities, depending in where one lives, you have to be alert to leave doors and windows closed as they will enter your room and create major havoc with your belongings, some friends of mine left one day the window open while going for dinner, and when they got back a copule of hours later, all their cloths were scattered all over the room, as they were females, they were a bit afraid, in case that the monkey was still inside, the funny part of the story, no the monkey did not steal their brassieres or try them on, ha ha ha, the clever monkey got into their medicinal supplies and opened all their small bags of vitamin C that they had, leaving a trail of vitamin C dust, ans some kind of foam, probably the cause of this powder hitting their saliva, the end of the story was that apparently the monkey got hooked on Vitamin C, and came back after that looking for more, so if you see a monkey hooked on vitamin C is probably this one.


GREAT HAIR DO


HE IS VERY STRONG


One serious aspect to these animals, is that they are wild and although people think that they are friendly and a pet, they are not, they can attack if provoked, specially if they have young ones with them, all they are trying to do is protect their little ones, but they can inflict serious bites and give you a good scared as they are extremely strong.


THERE ARE MANY OF THIS GUYS AROUND


BUT THIS IS THE NEIGHBORHOOD ONE

I discovered that one day, walking up one of the hills in a rainy day going to Tushita meditation center, I had my small backpack and umbrella, all of a sudden a band of about 5 monkeys came out of the bush and attacked me, I had to use my umbrella as a sword at the same time that I was trying to walk as fast as I could, without running to get out of the danger, which I did, the problem was that I had to go back the same way to get back to town, but that is another story, enjoy the pictures of one of these funny, clever animals that lives around my place, he actually lives in a nunnery across from me, I am sure that the nuns keep him well fed, he is waist high and very smart, when he is around, he always get the dogs of the neighborhood all excited, and they start chasing him up the trees, as any respectable monkey should have a name?? what do you guys think that we should name him???, please e mail me your suggestions, what should we call him??, and in the future I will let you know who won the name monkeys contest and the price.


ANY CLEVER NAMES FOR THIS GUY??