Torri Superiore

After Damanhur, we spent a few days at Torri Superiore, a small ecovillage near Turino in NW Italy where members have worked for years to restore a medieval village built into the mountainside.  We visited with some old (and new) friends and also used Torri as a base to explore the surrounding region and particularly the towns of Dolceaqua and Apricale.

Our friends, Massimo and Lucilla.

The girls really enjoyed playing out front.

Just one example of their rennovation work.

Open air eating!

On a walk near Torri.

Simone makes friends with Shaun the sheep.

A river near Torri.  It was beautiful, but COLD!

Pema in the streets of Dolceaqua.

Exploring Apricale.



















Eating Torte in Apricale

Damanhur

When we arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on May 6, we picked up our rental car and made a beeline down to Damanhur, a community in NW Italy so Monique could participate in a World Midwifery Summit that was taking place there.  Founded in 1975, Damanhur is a large spiritual ecovillage with over 650 members and many more in the "wider community".  They are perhaps best known for their "Temples of Humanity" which they built into a mountain - in secret! - for years before they went public.  We couldn't take pictures of the temple itself, but if you're interested, check out their website at: http://www.damanhur.org.

The video below is of one of Damanhur's Nucleo (sub-communities) called the Treehouses where Macaco, one of our hosts and guides showed us some of their work with using biofeedback machines to communicate with plants.  Macaco used to be a jazz singer and you can see her singing to a small tree - and the tree singing back!

Where we stayed (in the small bungalow below)

Macaco, one of our main hosts and guides

The main building in Magilla, the nucleo we stayed at.  Check out all the solar energy!

In front of the Open Temple, a space created to connect with Divine Energies.

Some of the community artwork near the Open Temple.

More artwork.  Notice the baby dragon in the egg!

A Sacred Grove left to nature.

Just one example of artwork on their many buildings.

Some of their cows grazing on grasses (they are free range)

Bylakuppe

At the end of March, we stayed for 3 days at Bylakuppe, a Tibetan settlement near Mysore.  It was an amazing opportunity to learn about and experience Tibetan Buddhism and the plight of Tibetan refugees in India.  The community had a similar feel to Dharamsala, where Monique and I spent a wonderful week about 12 years ago.  The girls enjoyed watching the monks chant and visiting with students at the community's school.  We even celebrated Passover while we were there.  It was interesting to note this similarities between the Jews exodus from Egypt and the Tibetans exodus from Tibet.

Our host, Tenzin's family (and our fellow faculty Larkspur and Ethan)












Tibetan Monks outlining a sand mandala

Pema showing off the Buddha in the Golden Temple.

Celebrating Passover!

Some random photos from India

 

Thali lunch at Solitude, Auroville

In front of ruin of Moghul Fort in Gingee

Shadows of students on top of Arunachula Mountain, Tiruvannamalai

Trying on a $500 Nehru Jacket in Bangalore

Simone helping to lash a floor onto a new capsule

Dressed up for final dinner in Auroville

Our "cohort" (co-heart) of eight students at our final dinner

Our typical mode of transportation around Auroville (we were "trend-setters" by actually wearing helmets).

Mysore Palace

When we visited the Mysore Palace, where the Maharajah used to live, we had the opportunity to ride a camel.  It was a fun, but bumpy ride.  I don't think I'd want to cross a desert on one of these.

Technical difficulties

Oy.  It's been almost a month since my last blog post.  My ambitions for regular entries was thwarted by two major technical difficulties: (1) my external hard drive, on which I was storing video, crapped out; and (2) we lost our video camera (a bizarre occurrence I still can't figure out).  We do have a digital camera, which takes (poor) video and I will try to post photos and some video to catch up on our travels.  We appreciate your patience and interest.