Wooden Maitreya Buddha
The next morning we walked for a short while to the village of Sumdo Chinmu where we saw amazing statues of the Maitreya Buddha carved out of wood, arbitarily placed in an overgrown enclosure.
Wooden Maitreya Buddha
We had only one real river crossing that day, but it was a serious one, with the water quite fast and deep (not to mention cold!). At this point our cook (who had simply jumped across) offered to carry us piggy-back across the stream. David and Minette immediately agreed, but Matt was obstinately attempting to cross on his own. Perhaps a vision of skull meeting rock made him change his mind, and soon we were all safely across, minus a little self-worth. We then proceeded over a small pass to our campsite at the base of Dung Dung La (4400m). It was a short day, with only around 5 hours of trekking.
Our crew on the path
From the small pass
Minette at the small pass. We learned from our French geologist
friends that the mineral that gives the mountains their purple
color is hematite, with the color coming from iron oxide. (Scroll right to see the whole thing.)
A mountain overlooking our campsite
Sunset
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