My eyes light up every time I walk through the narrow lanes adjoining the rock-cut temples of Badami. Out there, I see the everyday life unfolding in various ways from morning to evening. I see children laughing and running behind each other, little boys making their way to school, women gathering water from the street-side tap, more women cleaning the grains sitting on the veranda, cows wandering aimlessly and goats leashed to prevent them from wandering aimlessly, men busy at work or lazing with a pack of cards… The small area that can crisscrossed in less than 10 minutes has so much life in it, that I don’t tire of walking back and forth a million times. Here is an image, made on one such long walk through the small alleys.
An elderly woman turns a prayer wheel at Kyichu Lhakhang in Paro, Bhutan.
In Bhutan, it is a tradition to retire from everyday life after a certain age and spend rest of the life wearing a monk’s robe in a spiritual quest. A small group of elderly men and women usually congregate in Paro’s Kichu Lahkhang every day, spending their time turning the prayer wheels.
Kichu Lhakhang (lhakhang = temple in dzongkha) is one of the oldest living temples in Bhutan, and played an instrumental role in spreading Bhuddhism to Bhutan.
A chorten or stupa and prayer flags in the middle of a field in Punakha district, rural Bhutan.
You will find vertical prayer flags fluttering in every house and every free space in Bhutan. They are meant to spread the holy mantras in the air. Chortens, also found frequently, are either memorials for the dead or meant to ward off evil. These structures are ubiquitous in Bhutan and are an essential part of the country’s rural and urban landscape.
