Buddha Mahotsava Festival, Tawang

Straight from the monk procession down to the festival grounds. This is a picture of Dave sitting in the tourist section, a reluctant VIP.

This is the rest of the audience (Eventually someone realized no more tourists were coming, and let everyone have seats).

And Tawang just got stranger and stranger. This was a "Tribal Fashion Show" of Arunachal Pradesh tribes. Animal pelts, pumping euro-techno, flashbulbs everywhere. We decided that owning fancy cameras qualified us for the press section. We could only wonder if tomorrow night's "English Hip-Hop from Mizoram" could be more bizarre. It was.

Michael Sela, Mizoram's answer to Akon, Sean Kingston, etc.

Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh

Tawang Monastery/Tawang Valley.

Tawang Monastery, before the Buddha Mahotsava festival. The monks are preparing for a procession into Tawang Valley.

A bus in the way causes a monk pile-up.

Flashin' that cheese. CA$H MONEY TIBETAN SKULL DANCE$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Another view of Tawang Monastery. This is the second largest monastery in Asia, the Potala in Tibet being the biggest. This area of India (western Arunachal Pradesh) is claimed by both the Chinese government and the Indian government, which makes it a total bureocrazy pain in the butt to visit! But totally worth it. Between two monks with awesome drums, you can see a local Monpa woman. With the local cap made out of yak hair.

Sela Pass, Arunachal Pradesh

This is a nice place to urinate on the way to Tawang.

Bomdilla

Shillong

This is a Khasi sport that the whole city of Shillong bets on. People pick numbers and put money on them ...
Men shoot arrows at a bamboo target for five minutes.
... The arrows are gathered ...

The arrows are carefully counted and sorted. The digits of the final number determine the winners.

Cherapunjee (in Meghalaya)

Our cottage in Cherapunjee.
This is the most impressively grimy picture of a place I've slept so far.
Our French friend Cyril looking quite fatherly.
Bangladesh.
This is a living root bridge. Khasi people made these bridges by winding and stretching roots across rivers for decades.
Cherapunjee holds the record for the place with the highest rainfall in the world.
Double-decker root bridge.