Plus d'espace sur ce blog
J'en ai crée un nouveau.
I have created a new one
http://cei-inde-perou.blogspot.in/
Amritsar during Diwali
The golden temple or Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar
It is the most sacred place for the Sikh religion in the all world. This place is absolutely amazing. We stayed there for hours and we were never bored.
India’s chaos doesn’t enter this temple even if hundreds of thousands people come in every day.
A 160 meters square made of white marble surrounds a lake, “the pool of nectar” in the center of which the golden temple stands. 4 main doors lead to the place, on each side of the temple, as to show that the temple is opened to anyone from any religion. Furthermore, it was built on the lowest part of the city so that everyone would have to go down steps to enter it.
Everyone leaves his shoes and socks outside the temple. They also cover their head. Devotees walk always in a clockwise rotation around the temple that is accessible by a unique bridge.
The bridge leading to the temple.
Inside the golden temple lies the Guru Granth Sahib, the holiest text of Sikhism. During all day, devoted music is played and sung inside the temple.
You can feel the devotion when you start walking on the marble. It is a really impressive and quite unrealistic feeling.
Inside the complex, there is also the biggest eatery in the world. More than 100 000 meals are served for free every day for everyone. Their organization is amazing.
One of the rooms where anyone can eat
Part of the kitchen
Garlic pealing
The beginning of November is very special for India. It is Diwali, the main celebration in the country that can be compared with New Year’s Eve in our countries. For that occasion, the temple was covered with lights.
Diwali means Festival of lights
During three nights, fireworks and fire crackers never stopped. Quite impressive.
Trek to Hindrahar pass
J'ai mis mon kilt pour la première fois ce weekend. C’était a 4342 mètres d'altitude au col d'Hindrahar (Indrahar pass), par -3 degrés Celsius a 7h00 du matin.
A l’arrière vous pouvez voir les chaines internes de l'Himalaya, Indrahar pass se trouvant sur la Dhauladhar range, une des chaines sud les plus externes de l'Himalaya.
De l'autre cote, au sud, c'est l'Inde et ses vallées.
J'habite en 1 (Dal Lake). Vendredi 18 octobre, a 5h00 du matin nous partons en direction de 2, Triund, et nous continuons jusqu’à 3, Snow line cafe.
'En bas a gauche, snowline café. En haut juste a gauche du plus haut sommet, le col d'Hindrahar.
A midi nous arrivons dans un grand chaos granitique, 2 kilomètres au dessus de 3, ou nous aurions du trouver la grotte de Lahesh. Nous ne l'avons jamais trouvée. Mais peu importe, nous trouvons un espace sous un gigantesque bloc. Nous y restons tout l’après midi ainsi que la nuit, pendant que la neige tombe dehors.
Justin dans notre super grotte.
Le lendemain, après une nuit bien froide, nous partons a 5h30 direction le col.
Il ne reste plus que 100 mètres.
Nous déjeunons la haut et redescendons jusqu’à notre petite maison a 1800 mètres d'altitude, fatigués mais très heureux.
My work
Most people living in Naddi have a few cows and/or a few goats. They let them graze during the summer and cut fodder during the post monsoon months (October, November, December) in the fields and in the forests to feed them. This fodder can be grass, shrub leaves or tree leaves.
An Indian goat
Besides, they use a lot of wood as fuel to cook and to heat their houses in winter. This wood comes from the forests’ trees. This wood-cutting mainly concerns lower branches and is called lopping.
As the population and living standards increase, more wood and more fodder is needed. As a consequence, a practice that used to be sustainable is becoming a danger for the forests’ health. A decrease in forests health means a decrease in the benefits they can bring:
Carbon sequestration, soil retainers, biodiversity pools (there are hundreds of medicinal plants that are still used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine in India), landscapes (which bring more and more tourists)…
The aim of our work is to reduce the pressure of lopping to protect the remaining “nearly wild “ forests.
One of the projects is basically environmental education to the communities living next to the forest; Basic things about what is a soil, what is a tree and how beneficial they can be to human beings and to the earth. Aside I am working on courses dealing with what can be improved in the way they collect wood.
The second project I am leading is a reforestation plan of about one hectare located just above one of the communities the NGO is working with. This land is very steep and is covered with just a few remaining trees and bushes. During monsoons, small landslides happen and create a threat to the community. Reforesting will retain the soil but will also provide, on the long term, more fodder (tree leaves) as we plan to leave all the shrubs which leaves are eaten by goats. There will be no fodder loss and it will reduce lopping pressure on the other forests.
In red the reforestation project above Sheynne community.
For this project, I will be helped by Himachal Forest Department which owns the land and which regularly reforest areas in the State. However we will try to diversify as much as possible the tree species we will plant (to have the maximum impact on biodiversity increase) and we will take in consideration the needs of the people living there so that they can feel and be involved in the process which won’t work without their engagement. Indeed, a lot of reforestation projects fail because cows and goats graze the trees before they are old enough to survive.
These are the two main projects I am now working on. But I am also taking part in other projects led by interns such as building relationships with the kids from the communities to have them engaged more in our work.
Abu, one of the youngest children in Sheynne community
Some children from Sheynne community : From the right to the left, Ajay, Rajat, Prya, Milan and Sunana.
The places where we work in Himachal Pradesh
Naddi and Dal Lake are villages up in the mountains.
My bedroom and Igor, my roommate on his bed in Dal Lake's interns' house.
Naddi's young kids' school
Almost all the streets of the village, apart from the main road, are like this one : small and made of concrete.
What I can see from my window : the valley
The Dhauladhars range (up to 5000 meters above sea level ) behind my house can only be seen in the morning when the sky is clear.
There are three other houses where interns work for the organization.
Maiti with its rice fields (paddy fields) :
Women carrying water next to Maiti's interns' house
Rice fields next to Maiti. It is always hot and humid so it always seems foggy.
Rajhol is a village with another interns' house a bit further down the mountain. There, the interns work in a migrant camp and try to create a garden and educate the children. The families living there own almost nothing, except a few tents.
Rachael and Miquel start playing games with the kids, teaching them numbers from one to seven in both Hindi and English languages.
The children's mothers and behind them, their tents.
The last house is in Pundjab. I haven't been there yet...