The Mandatory Self-Portrait
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

Maybe you’re getting sick of it, but whenever I’m in an interesting

new place, I feel I need to show it was indeed I who was there taking

all the pictures.

Painter at Work
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

As you’ve seen in many of these shots, Kongtong Shan is V-E-R-Y steep.

There are many major buildings that have no access other than via

steep stone stairways of many steps, and yet somehow large and

beautiful buildings have made it up there, and are still being

steadily rebuilt and renewed, or newly built. In the next set of shots

you’ll see piles of slate tile…which were either flown in by

helicopter (very unlikely) or carried up by muscle power. You’ll also

see a woman taking a break from her digging work next to some lovely

yellow flowers, and various other shots of vendors, buildings and

vistas from high up in the clouds.

Lions with…Headdresses?
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

These lions were at the backside of one of the Buddhist temples being

reconstructed or newly built. If you look closely, you’ll notice that

what looks like a head-dress on one of them is just a used rag draped

over his head, and you’ll see sawdust and other construction debris

littering the floor. You’ll also see a little tea kettle set on a

brazier to the left…these proud temple guardian lions, surrounded by

workaday reality, rather captured the imagination of this Leo.

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.

National Geopark
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

I shot this sign mainly because it indicates this is Kongtong Shan

National Geopark: an interesting way to make sure such an interesting

piece of history is preserved and valued, without resorting to making

a national park of a Daoist sacred mountain as such. :-0