Their Press Release reads: “The festival will screen some of the most recent and exciting films about mountains, mountain environment, mountain cultures and communities from various corners of the world. KIMFF is dedicated to exploring the diverse and complex ways in which human beings relate to mountains; the festival seeks to foster a better understanding of human experiences as well as of the social and cultural realities in the highlands of the world.”

Well, that’s exactly what I wanted to show with my film - but I hope that also my awe at the villagers’ innocence and humour will come through.

To see the film go to my website: Smiles from off the Road

DONATE AT LEAST $50 (EU40 or £35) before Friday 17th September, AND RECEIVE THE FULL FIVE-MINUTE VERSION OF THE SONG “JOY” (featured on the appeal video) FREE AS AN MP3!

SOLAR LIGHTS FOR ANOTHER FIFTY HOMES
We have already installed over 50 solar systems, (and one villager is now completing his technical training at Avani). We would like urgently to provide light to the remaining 50 or so homes in Jhuni village before winter sets in.
The cost is Rs8,500 ($200 or £140) per family.

HOW TO DONATE:

Donations outside India will be handled and transferred to Avani (the local NGO implementing the scheme) by my sister Nichola Harrison, and she will account to Avani for all donations received.

Please email her at nharrison@freenetname.co.uk to confirm details of the donation you are making.
Via Paypal: nharrison@freenetname.co.uk
By cheque/bank transfer email Nichola Harrison at nharrison@freenetname.co.uk

Donations within India
Beneficiary : AVANI, Acct.No. 11560362960
Branch: SBI Berinag, District Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand 262531 Branch Code: 2523 IFSC – SBIN0002523

For more details of the appeal please read on.

—————————————————————————————————————

They give us their smiles – will you help give them light?
AN APPEAL FOR THE SMILING PEOPLE OF JHUNI
1. WHY WE CARE
2. AN APPEAL FOR THE SAKE OF THE PEOPLE OF JHUNI
3. AN APPEAL FOR THE SAKE OF THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE HIMALAYAS
4. WHAT JHUNI NEEDS
5. OUR PROPOSAL FOR JHUNI
6. HOW YOU CAN HELP
7. BACKGROUND: WHERE IS JHUNI? WHO ARE JHUNI’S PEOPLE? etc

1. WHY WE CARE

“Jhuni’s people found a place in my heart after I met villager Khim Singh Danu and
accepted an invitation to come to his little-visited village.

“What I found, as anyone who has seen “Smiles from Off The Road” and “Smiles 3 –
Travels With a Hat” will know, was such spontaneous joy, smiles, laughter, song and
dance, that I simply fell in love!
“But I found great need there too, and I made up my mind to try and give something back
to the smiling people of Jhuni.”

Chinmaya Dunster, May 2009

2. AN APPEAL FOR THE SAKE OF THE PEOPLE OF JHUNI

A tough life, but still they have time to smile…….
Jhuni is at the end of the path. It is three to four hours walk down to the nearest vehicle access
point; from there an hour by jeep to reach the nearest doctor. During the long winter the
village is cut off by deep snow, and during monsoon it is frequently cut off by landslides
and swollen rivers.

Jhuni’s younger children have a one-hour walk up a steep path to the bare 2-room
primary school every day; those older children lucky enough to go to school undertake a
treacherous two-hour walk each way to a neighbouring village.
Once night comes in Jhuni, the people live in near darkness, as there is no reliable electricity supply.
Children must do their homework by candle light. Activities that might earn people a few
extra rupees must stop until daylight returns.

Jhuni’s homes are full of smoke from cooking on wood-burning open fireplaces, creating
unpleasant and dangerous conditions. It is not possible to escape the smoke: kitchen,
living and sleeping area are a single room. In the harsh cold and snows of winter, when
schools are closed and the fields idle, no-one goes outside at all except for the call of
nature, or to fetch more wood for the fire. (The World Health Organisation estimates that
1.5 million people die every year from the pollution caused by indoor cooking stoves).

Jhuni’s women and girls are at the hard end of a cultural practice that will only be
changed by education. They are expected to do more than their share of the work, and
are fed less than their share of the best food. They are often run-down and anaemic and
their children’s health is weakened as a result.

3. AN APPEAL FOR THE SAKE OF THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE HIMALAYAS

One of the last true wildernesses left on Earth………

Jhuni lies at the edge of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, a UN-recognised biodiversity
hotspot of international importance. While the villagers have traditionally used the forests
and pastures of this high Himalayan range in sustainable ways, the past two decades
have seen their increasing involvement with the cash economy of the plains. The benefits
– schooling and medical care – cost them money, and cash is hard to come by. The first
result of this, twenty years ago, was the virtual extinction of the protected musk deer (its
musk pod used by the European perfume industry) by poaching.
In the last ten years, local people have pursued an intensive hunt for Cordyseps sinensis
(a strange caterpillar/fungus co-species) that occurs below ground in the high pastures
and is valued by the Chinese for its supposedly aphrodisiac properties. The villagers’
presence in this fragile ecological zone, disturbing the thin soils and burning whatever
bushes can be found to cook and keep warm with, has had serious environmental
consequences. Needless to say over-harvesting has resulted in ever-diminishing returns,
until today most Jhuni villagers say that it is no longer worth the effort.
This leaves them with a final option to raise cash locally: growing cannabis. While this
native plant has traditionally been used by them as a minor part of their diet and
medicine, it is of course illegal, and brings them into contact with some of the least
desirable elements of the plains economy. Every field planted with cannabis is a field less
for food growing, and this inevitably increases the villages demand for edible wild species
from the Reserve.

4. WHAT JHUNI NEEDS
• solar electric light. The children’s schoolwork will benefit most from it, but
everybody enjoys being able to see each other in the evening, don’t they?
• smoke free stoves. Many health issues will be solved overnight from their
introduction, plus who wants to cough the whole night?
• alternative livelihoods. The legal ways to earn cash from harvesting wild animals
and plants are now basically exhausted. No one in Jhuni actually likes the illegal ways - they’ll
give them up at the drop of a hat if given the chance!
• two solar panels to run 2 laptop computers (the latter already donated), one at the
school, the other in a room within the village. Although these computers will mainly be
used for off-line learning through CD-ROM and videos, there are one or two places near
the village where a weak mobile phone connection sometimes allows a slow connection
to the internet. These computers will literally be an opening into a wider world.

5. OUR PROPOSAL FOR JHUNI

PHASE 1
• Provide 105 families each with a system of 15 W solar power and 20 AH tubular
batteries with all accessories and two lights
Cost per family 8,500 Rupees;
Cost 892,500 Rupees
• Transportation up to the road-head at Song (three trips)
(Families to be responsible for transporting the equipment from Song to Jhuni).
Cost 20,000 Rupees
• Installation of solar lighting
Cost per family 500 Rupees
Cost 52,500 Rupees
• Maintenance Training for two Jhuni villagers at Avani: three months including
boarding and lodging.
Cost 40,000 Rupees

• Set up bank account with villagers elected/nominated by village as signatories. (To
safeguard against misappropriation, one representative from Avani will also be a
signatory, so that money is never withdrawn without our knowledge). This bank will
provide micro-finance so that each family can contribute 2000 Rupees (banked now
or via micro-credit) towards battery replacement after 7 years, plus 30 Rupees per
head per month towards a maintenance fund to pay the technicians’ honorarium and
other expenses.
This aspect of the project is important to make sure that there is money available
after the batteries start to loose their storage capacity, so that the entire investment
does not go waste after a couple of years. There will be a differential payment
system, depending on the financial situation of each family, but their contributions are
essential for the long term sustainability of the project.
Cost covered by Avani
Phase 1 Total Cost: 1,052,000 Rupees (approx £13,500)

PHASE 2

• Two 100 W solar systems for charging two laptop computers – purchase,
transportation and installation.
Cost per system 50,000 Rupees
Cost 100,000 Rupees

• Provide steel piping for cooking stove chimneys. (Families will construct stoves
from local clay, after training).
Cost per family 500 Rupees
Cost 52,500 Rupees

• Training program in alternative livelihhods at AVANI. Six young people from Juhuni to spend 6 months on the Avani campus, learning the basics of sericulture, spinning, weaving and dieing, solar, accounting, computing etc.
Cost 120,000 Rupees including transport.
This element of the project will be managed under a formal contract so that Jhuni’s
people are committed to a programme that creates self-sufficiency rather than
dependence on outside funds. Sericulture involves rearing silk moth cocoons on the
leaves of oak trees in the forests. Eventually villagers will be trained in spinning and
weaving of silk. Initial return per family involved in the rearing programme is expected
to be 5,000 – 10,000 Rupees per annum.
Phase 2 Total Cost: 272,500 Rupees (£8,500)

6. HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please make a donation now
The cost of Phase 1 is around $200 (£140) per family

How to donate:
Donations outside India will be handled and transferred to Avani by my sister Nichola Harrison,
She will account to Avani for all donations received.

Please email her at nharrison@freenetname.co.uk to confirm your details and
details of the donation you are making.
Via Paypal: nharrison@freenetname.co.uk
By cheque/bank transfer email Nichola Harrison at nharrison@freenetname.co.uk

Donations within India
Beneficiary : AVANI,
Acct.No. 11560362960
Branch: SBI Berinag, District Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand 262531
Branch Code: 2523 IFSC – SBIN0002523

7. BACKGROUND
Where is Jhuni?

Jhuni lies at an altitude of around 2,500m (9000ft) in the valley of the Sarayu river, in
Bageshwar district, State of Uttarakhand. The Sarayu is a tributary of the Kali River,
which forms the border between India and Western Nepal. Just north of Jhuni the Great
Himalaya range rises to the height of 7,800m (25,500ft) at Nanda Devi peak. Beyond is
the Tibetan border.

The nearest vehicle access has now (2010) been pushed further up the valley from Song (900m – 3000ft), leaving a three-hour walk to Jhuni. The
closest railway at Kathgodon is a ten-hour drive from Song and connects to Delhi in
seven hours.
Who lives in Jhuni?
Jhuni’s people depend on subsistence agriculture, growing a wide range of food crops
naturally without chemicals or pesticides. They keep cows, and sheep, which they
pasture in the high mountains in summer. They harvest the surrounding forest for leaves
for animal fodder. The main product from their animals is manure, their sole fertilizer for
the poor soils of their fields.

The villagers are Hindus, who retain strong local traditions outside the Hindu mainstream,
including worship of the goddess Nanda Devi and local village deities associated with
springs, notable trees and rocks etc. They are hard working, friendly and great lovers of
music and dance, with a store of folk songs and dances. They have no habit of alcohol or
drug use, are mainly vegetarian by force of circumstance, and have maintained
themselves since pre-history in a harmonious balance with their natural environment. The
dense forests around them, the pristine wilderness of the mountains above them, the
incredible diversity of bird and animal life amongst which they live, are witness to the
depths of their respect for Nature on which they depend so totally.

Sericulture for Jhuni

The remaining tracts of Kharsu Oak (Querquis semicarpofolia) unique to the
Greater Himalayas are fighting their battle for survival and it may not be
long before we lose these rich forests to climate change, over-exploitation and
sheer neglect.
We are proposing to initiate a conservation-oriented livelihood program where
people can harvest part of the foliage to rear a rare wild silk worm called
Tussar (Oak), which feeds only on this species. People can make some income
by rearing these silk worms; the unique wild silk, will then be
fashioned into hand spun, naturally dyed, hand woven textiles by the artisans
in the neighboring Himalayan region Avani is working in.

As the silk cultivation gains momentum, further training of Jhuni’s people in spinning and
weaving will ensure production of high quality textiles in this remote and
inaccessible villages, thus providing livelihoods to the villagers.
A person (family) can earn Rs. 10,000 ­ - 20,000 in a season (by working for 11
weeks) by rearing silk worms. Other families involved in spinning and
weaving will, after training, make a similar amount of money. They will be able to continue
their traditional livelihood practices as farmers. This income will allow them to pay for technology
such as solar lights, health care, education and, above all, will keep them in their village instead
of migrating to an urban slum in search of some cash income.

Who are we?
Avani is a fifteen-year old non-governmental organisation (NGO) specializing in bringing
solar power to and developing textile production in remote villages of Uttarakhand.
You can see my film about Avani and read more at http://www.avani-kumaon.org. /

(Oct 2009) First twenty-five families receiving their solar lights next week!

Feb 2010. Our Smiling People Benefit concert in Pune on 13th Feb raised Rs76,000 ($1,650). In addition Rs35,000 ($800) of Avani’s textile products were sold. THANK YOU to all who came and supported!!!

May 2010. I visited Jhuni on 6th and 7th May. The first twenty four families are enjoying their solar lights. Dhunga Singh Danu, a nineteen year old, is two months into his solar technician training at Avani. Avani has set up a micro-credit scheme for the villagers to pay their contributions into. Fifteen more solar installations will go up to the village at end of the month. A personal tragedy occurred on 9th, when my friend Khim Singh lost his 17-year old son Ramesh in an accident. The boy was collecting ‘kira gaz’ (Cordyseps sinensis) above 4000 meters when he slipped on icy snow and fell.

August 2010. I  launch my ‘Smiles Are Appealing’ video, to try to raise money for solar lights the remaining 50 or so families of Jhuni.

The film to go with it I shot all over India (colourful birds from my porch in Goa, wild tribal dances from Central India, smiling children, full moon night in the high Himalayas……..) If you enjoy this film, and the music, please buy the CD!

Land of the Buddhas

It will soon be my 20th anniversary with New Earth Records and, as they are releasing my first ever compilation CD ‘Land of the Buddhas’, I feel it is time to have a glance backwards.

It all began in 1990 (when NER was Tao Music and based in Munich), when Bhikkhu invited a group of friends to record Tao’s first music CD. The six of us assembled in a large room in the country outside the city, and knowing nothing at all about recording and having only the most primitive equipment, proceeded to play each track ‘live’. This involved hiding ourselves behind piles of mattresses (so that sound wouldn’t ‘spill’ from one microphone to another), and recording endless takes until at last no-one had made an obvious mistake. ‘Terra Incognita –No Goal But the Path’ was released the following year, and while no longer available commercially, its innocent vibe and live feel still comes through today for those lucky enough to have a copy.

The following year the Terra Incognita team met up again in Italy to record the follow up “Tribal Gathering’. Prem Joshua, Ravi and I played a couple of concerts arranged by Tao Music in Munich’s ‘Gasteig’ (including as an opening act for Hariprasad Chaurasia, where I managed to lose half a toe in a stage accident clearing up afterwards!) imbetween sessions, and earned enough to pay for a few additional hours in a real studio, so the record has a more professional feel. It was a hit and miss affair – we were still learning! – but there are a couple of tracks we can still be proud of.

It was over five years before I could offer NER a CD I could feel proud of; five years that I spent exploring, for minor labels in Germany, the East-West combination that would become my trademark. ‘Celtic Ragas’ came out in 1998, NER riding the Celtic ‘wave’. Recorded in a professional studio in Hamburg, Vidroha Jamie and I were able to take advantage of the first computer software to be able to edit without physically cutting tape –albeit with the help of our sound engineer! (This CD was picked up by Paul McCartney a couple of years later, which led, thanks to Waduda quickly assuming the role of my agent, to our playing his 2002 wedding in Ireland. Another story, as they say.)

In 1998 in Hawai’i I finally bit the bullet and got my own studio, a dedicated Roland hard disc recorder with all of eight tracks! I used it to make ‘Feng Shui – The Eightfold Path’ (2000), struggling with the technicals (SCASI, Midi sync, a screen the size of a large postage stamp), and with a range of new instruments –harp, santoor, bass – as well as my usual sarod and guitar. Bhikkhu and Waduda encouraged me to create a special Feng Shui meditation for the CD, and went town on cover artwork in support. The result was my best selling release ever.

‘Yoga on Sacred Ground’ (2001) was my first chance to experiment with a bit of electronica and drum loops, thanks to a tiny mini sequencer (the Yamaha QY70) which had just come out. The CD set a pattern which my next two CDs, ‘Sacred Temples of India’ (2002) and ‘Karma Circles’ (2003), would follow: exotic instruments - harmonium, accordion, sitar, bamboo flute etc - recorded in Pune, India; the whole thing put together in a garden in Hawai’i, where our outdoor kitchen doubled up as a recording studio.

In 2004 I got my first Mac and Logic software, moved to New Zealand, and a whole new world of possibilities opened up. I was able to use video for the first time on ‘Fragrance of the East , including clips showing the live ‘Concert for India’s Environment’ in Pune at which the live CD was recorded. (NER took a risk on this, their first live CD, especially as half the tracks had already featured as studio recordings on ‘Karma Circles’. It shows their strong support for environmental causes that they released it at all, and sad to say, it has not been much of a commercial success.)

Without Logic I doubt if I could have made ‘Yoga Lounge’ (2005) or ‘Buddha Moon’ (2007), both CDs being based on essentially live recordings from top Hindustani Classical artists. The Macs role on the former was to enable tight editing of the hip-hop grooves, electronics etc that provide the background to Niladri Kumars outstanding sitar playing; and for Buddha Moon to allow me to see on screen the variable tempo of the instrumentalists as I added my guitar and effects. (Guitarists might spot that all the guitar playing on the whole CD is done with harmonics, and will be able to imagine the tuning and retuning and broken strings involved!)

So this brings us up to the present, with Bhikkhu and Waduda continuing their 19 years of support by releasing ‘Land of the Buddhas’, a collection they chose that turns out to include all my favourite pieces. They’ve done their usual amazing job on the cover, and hopefully by the time our 20th anniversary comes around next summer there will be thousands of people all over the world enjoying it!

This is how it worked: he sent me the vocal line and I created the score.

I invited musicians* from all over the world to play their parts and they contributed to the final product on-line. It just took 10 days to make it!

It will be the title song for a film called Neela Thamara (Blue Lotus), to be released this summer.

I am now going on a well-deserved holiday!

*Anahata (UK): concertina
Prabodh  (UK): bass
Sangit Om (Greece): penny whistle
Gal Shahar (Israel): violin

Update 17.11.09: The CD of the film music has been released. Here is the cover:

My film “Smiles From Off The Road 3 -Travels With A Hat” was shot in Juni village in the Kumaon Himalayas, India in May 2009. Juni sits on the edge of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve; due North there is nothing but thick forest and a jumble of 22,000 ft peaks up to the Tibetan border.

The village is three hours steep walk from the nearest rough road, and a further three hours drive from the nearest main town and hospital. Juni is bypassed by any tourist/trekking traffic, and seemingly by any ‘development’ projects. The people live by farming and gathering from the forests; by sending their young men to work as low-paid waiters on the plains; and by the totally unsustainable and environmentally damaging harvest of ‘kiragaz‘ (Cordyceps sinesis) from the high mountain pastures in the month of May. (This strange species, a combination of fungus and caterpillar, has gained a reputation in the last ten years as an aphrodisiac and is in heavy demand in the Far East and China). Villagers camp up above 3,500 meters, dig the herb up by its roots, damaging the fragile soil, and cut down bushes to build fires to keep warm. They earn, if they are lucky, about $3 per day each.

Khim Singh, a Juni resident I met on a trek last year, took me to stay in his village and he, his family and the rest of the village welcomed me with joy. They speak the pahari language, but several of them can understand my rough Hindi. We shot and watched videos on my camera, sang, danced and laughed. A stranger amongst them was cause for a party!

And my heart was touched. People in Juni have a hard life and a day to day aquaintence with poverty, hunger, ill-health and untimely death. They (especially the women who do the bulk of the physical labor in the fields) are thin and undernourished, and keep warm in winter by huddling around a tiny fireplace in a smoke-filled kitchen. Their children walk a rough uphill track 45 minutes each way to reach primary school, and two hours to reach secondary. Most girls are removed from education at age 12 and can only write their own names. No-one from the village has ever gone on to Higher Education. There are no health care practitioners for miles around; a trip to the nearest pharmacy is four hours each way. Complications in pregnancy, childbirth or post-natally usually result in death of mother or baby.

I feel to do what I can for them, and I’m beginning by sending vitamin/mineral/omega fatty acid supplements up there. Perhaps I can find a way to develop the market for their handicrafts in bamboo (mats and baskets mainly). And I’ve got Khim Singh to promise to re-admit his fourteen-year old daughter Pushpa to school. She and I have a bargain: whatever it takes, she’ll finish to 12th Grade or higher. I’ll pay.