Nalanda Journey: Exploration 4 of 10

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Exploration 4 of 10 - A Spectacular Find

One of the great highlights of my journey so far has been the opportunity to travel with Deepak and Yves as they explored several local villages. Their intent is to document Buddhist areas, using kite photography when possible, and to educate the villagers regarding the importance of keeping the heritage.

On this day, 24 March 2011, we traveled to many villages near the Phalgu River. Unfortunately, my Hindi isn’t strong enough to remember all of the names of the different villages, so they will have to remain unnamed until I can get clarification from the experts! As I took nearly 400 photos---thanks to my little digital camera---I have decided to narrow down the selection for my blog. What follows are many blogs (Exploration) of the same day, with pictures and events from the many different villages.

I hope that I have more opportunities to explore further.

We left these small villages and wound our way around the countryside, periodically stopping to ask for directions. At one stop, while Deepak looked over the map with some locals, Yves and I viewed men harvesting sugar cane. We were offered some sugar cane juice, but our exploration took precedence and off we went. The next village proved to have some interesting history. We stopped in front of a Hindu shrine with a rocky, mountainous background. After speaking to the local villagers, Deepak found that there was a lot more to see in the area.

Two walls inside the village clearly showed Buddhist pillars embedded in the wall. Then walking through a field to the base of the rocky mountain, we discovered a wonderful Buddhist sculpture hidden among the grasses. Questions arose as to how this statue got here – whether or not there was any evidence that this was a quarry site and where the actual stone cutting and carving were done. There was no evidence on this side of the mountain that we could observe.