We couldn't believe the size of the Buddhist stupa we went to see. When your legs are as short as ours our, it takes quite a while to walk round (clockwise of course in Buddhist fashion).
The bit you're looking at was just the top-most portion, there was plenty more that wouldn't fit in the camera, and we ourselves were too small to show up.
Very close to this stupa was a tanka painting school. Our guide took us in to have a look round and to find out all about tanka painting from the proprietor. Tankas are very intricate paintings, on fabric, of aspects of Buddhism. The Buddha and the wheel of life feature quite predominantly.
We were able to look over the shoulders of several of the students who were hard at work. The detail they were first drawing, and later painting, was incredibly fine. The brushes they were using couldn't have contained more than a couple of hairs to achieve that level of detail. We could tell they hadn't been sinking some Everest beers the night before, otherwise they would never have had a steady enough hand.
We had the opportunity to look at some of the completed paintings for sale, and here we are doing just that. They were amazing, and given all the labour that goes into them, not unreasonably priced. Two of our party did in fact buy one.
The proprietor was very proud of an article that had appeared in a major English newspaper about his school, and he had a copy prominently displayed on his counter (we're sitting by it). We were able to assure him that still greater fame would be coming his way, as he would soon be featuring in our blog!
Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx
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