Elephant gargoyles spouting rainwater at Norbulingka. "Norbulingka" is the name of the Dalai Lama's summer palace in Tibet. In exile for 50 years, he's built a palace here in Himchal Pradesh, dedicated to the teaching and conservation of traditional crafts.

Tibetan buddhist monks strolling the streets on McLeodganj, near where we're staying.

We're in Dharmsala now, near India's border with Tibet, home to a large population of Tibetan refugees. It's dramatically different here from everywhere else we've been in India. For one we're at about 6000', in the foothills of the Himalayas. The air is cool and clean, the topography spectacular, and for the first time we're in a small town.

Tonight at my cousin Beth's house, I looked through a book of Galen Rowell's landscape photographs. Wow! What could be more inspiring?

His photos of Tibet were especially captivating. Here are a couple:
http://www.mountainlight.com/posters.html

Of course, he writes about the difficult conditions there as well; I expect that if we could get in, travelling in Tibet would be challenging. The l