This is Standing Red Tara. She magnitizes people to practice the dharma through love and compassion using her flowered hook, noose, and bow and arrow. She's like the equivalent to Cupid.

In Tibetan Buddhist temples, there are always a lot of paintings on the walls and ceilings. This one is of the Buddha with Shariputra and Mogdalyana, who are the two foremost disciples of the Buddha.

Here is another statue next to Padmasambhava, and I'm not sure who this one is. These statues are massive, in case the pics in the picture don't show the scale.

Another angle...

This the central statue in the temple, Guru Padmasambhava. He's a reincarnation of the Buddha that brought buddhism to Tibet, and is particularly revered by the Nyingma sect.

This is in the entryway to the temple, and the pic is of two of the four guardian kings of the four directions.

And here's the temple itself. All the rooms here are already taken, otherwise I would have possibly stayed here in order to have opportunities to speak Tibetan, and to go to morning or evening practice with the other monks.

Here is the entrance to the Nyingma templey that was just consecrated here. The Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa came for it, and they had the whole town decked out for the event. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me that day, or I would have some pictures of all the flags and arches they put up along the roads.

We get some pretty great sunsets here too.

And here's Tashi again with Gundun, who's also from Amdo. They're both massage therapist, and spend a lot of time hanging out at Nick's, as their massage space is just off the patio there.

Here's Roberto with my friend Tashi while were sitting in Nick's Italian Kitchen in McLeod. Tashi's from Amdo, which means his Tibetan accent is so strong, we have to talk in English.

Rob took this with my camera, and just loved the way the foot of the mountains disappear in the mist layer by layer.

Also took while walking through town, some women picking through some grain.

And then the cow herd lady smiled for me.

I took this while I was walking through town.

There are a lot of these butterflies around, and this one day they all seemed to be doing mating dances.

I saw this dog that looked just my dog Baby, except this one has longer curly fur. I miss my Baby!

This one of some wild roses growing by the stream is for my mom. Hey Mom! I always used to give her birthday cards with roses on them, she loves them so much.

I don't have much to say on some of these wildflower pics. They speak for themselves pretty well.

And here's a pic of the mountains from McLeod Ganj, which is further up from where I'm living, about a half an hour away by bus. You don't see the snow-capped mountains so much from McLeod because other high mountains get in the way. I'll put some more pics of McLeod up soon too.

Some of these pictures I took today just so you all could see some stuff sooner than later, and today was a rather grey day. Here is a new Nyingma monastery to the north. They're going to be opening it up on the 12th of April, and the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa are expected to attend the consecrations. I'll be putting pictures of it up soon too, and some of the Norbulinka as well.

And here's Funky Town, to the west of me. I just saw a sign for them on the way to the internet shop today saying that they have ice cream and pool tables. !!!!! The stream I cross for school that you saw in the first photo is down the road to the left. I also like the contrast of the Tibetan monk walking in front : )

The next three pics I took from the roof of my place. This one is to the south, and is a place for mentally handicapped kids. A nice space for them, like a palace.

And here's the view from my window looking east, and the sun rises in the morning just over those mountains.

And here's the outside of my building. My window is on the bottom floor to the right of the garage door looking thing. That's not actually a garage...someone actually lives behind it.

And here's my front door and my bed. I'm going to get a bed frame soon from the nunnery where my school is, and then my clothes and other stuff will go under it, but I'm pretty comfortable for the moment.

And going clockwise from the kitchen, here's my window and yoga mat. On the left is the backdoor, and to the left of that is the bathroom. What you see there on the right is some palm leaves wrapped together to make a broom. Only 15 rupees. They don't have regular brooms here, and always use some sort of grass leaves bound together to sweep floors.

Here's my kitchen, with most of what I own on the counters. You can't see them, but the countertops are green marble.

Here's a pic of some of the wildflowers I mentioned. The internet shop where I'm uploading these has pretty fast internet, so I'll be able to put up a lot more pics soon, so keep coming back to see what I've put up lately. I think I'll be able to get to all the pics from Boudha, Varanasi, Darjeeling, and Sikkim that I've been promising everyone to get on my blog.

And here is the path I take to school, just after the wheatfields, and the some of the mountains on the northern horizon. Pretty spectacular, eh?

This is another of the innumerable little streams that are all over town, this one again on my way to school. I imagine I'll be spending a lot of time reading books by some of the places with gurgling little waterfalls.

Here's one of the many wheat fields I see around here.

Here are four cows I pass every morning just after the stream. One of them is kind of bold, and will walk towards me to push me back.

The first pictures I'm putting up here are all taken on my way to school. Just after I pass Funky Town (the pic for that is coming up), I have to cross a stream by walking over some rocks. I hear that during the monsoon, it gets pretty deep, and people wade through up to their waist to get through it. Luckily, there's another place to cross when it gets like that.