Kids & Statues

Kids & Statues
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

These next are really my people shots from the mountain. We start,

unsurprisingly, with kids – they’re usually so much more interested in

being photographed. Then we’ll have some young monks walking the

mountain path, in which one of the them steps aside to relieve himself

behind a tree (no, I didn’t photograph that – but it’s why you only

see two people in one shot). His behavior when he saw me behind them

on the trail was adorably embarrassed, which I have to contrast with

the behavior of the very many people I saw in and around Labrang

stepping into ditches or creekbeds or off to the side of the road to

relieve themselves in pretty much full view – seems the attitude there

is closer to what I understand the attitude has been in India –

relieving yourself is the most natural thing in the world, why be

embarrassed about it?! For a Westerner, especially an American, this

can be jarring, of course.