Western pop is rooted in mass entertainment (Victorian music hall, folk, the blues etc), and generally provides people with a way to express their frustrations at the limitations of their ordinary working and romantic lives. It is essentially a ‘release’ mechanism, that bonds communities in shared suffering. Gospel and church music, while overtly ‘spiritual’ expressions of popular music, in fact share this ‘secular’ nature; their lyrics refer to a future that will be brighter, either on this earthly plane, or in the hereafter. (Western classical, like jazz, while addressing a much smaller ‘mass’ audience, functions in the same way as an emotional release, but adds an intellectual component).

The approach to ‘spirituality’ in the East is totally different. The authors of the Upanishads, Buddha and the dhyan/chan/zen tradition have no ‘beliefs’ or gods. Theirs is a scientific exploration of inner space. Indian classical music has its origins in these explorations and addresses both issues and an audience that are uniquely Eastern. Superficially there are obvious parallels with Western church music in the longing and devotion expressed in the lyrics. But unlike church music the lyrics used by Indian classical vocalists are actually incidental to the true spiritual content of the music. This spiritual basis is the mysterious ‘raga. Those of us who play ragas mostly experience them as a discovery rather than a creation. It is as if they pre-existed and await our explorations.

Hindu mythology has explained this pre-eminence of sound as the primordial ‘Om’, a sound that brought the universe into existence. Thousands of years of meditation and exploration of the Om by mystics, and the building of accoustically suitable temples for these experiments, resulted in the discovery of patterns of vibrations that have direct effects on the human body, mind and soul. These are the ragas.

Old-Saw-Herself with a tiny portrait of the Fire Man

DRAGONY

by Chinmaya Dunster

Being a fable that came to me in 1991 during Mystic Rose silent sitting in Lao Tsu Walkway, Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune, India

Illustrations by Chinmaya Dunster

Frontispiece: ‘Old-Saw-Herself’, together with a tiny portrait of the Fire Man.

Endpiece: In the Land of the Monkeys.

Contents:

1 Long ago and far away

2 The dragons’ second great talent

3 The monkey tells his horrifying tale

4 First confrontation with the Man

5 Some forgotten barbs and a suggestion

6 The most desperate struggle in the history of Dragony

7 An understanding and its consequences

8 Old-Saw-Herself

1

Long ago and far away, in a forgotten land called Dragony, there lived the dragons. They were a peaceful folk and serene, not much given to travel, passing the time of their long lives in the practice of their two great passions.

The first of these, and the dragons’ highest delight, was in the making of mirrors, a secret unknown in other lands in those days. Here is how they made their mirrors:

On the inside of their great dragon eggshells, a mirrored surface naturally formed. The art of fashioning these into the most perfect and reflective mirrors required the dragon parents to sit brooding, as a hen does with her egg. The longer and more tranquilly they sat, the more shiny the mirror became. Once a baby dragon had hatched, the mirrored shards of shell were admired and treasured or exchanged as gifts. However dragon folk could often be heard praising the peaceful joy they felt while brooding even higher than the mirrors themselves. As many a dragon mother, at the end of her patience with a badly-behaved youngster, would exclaim:
”You rascal. there was more pleasure in the getting than what I got!”

2

And this was the second of the dragons’ great talents, and one for which their fame spread far beyond Dragony: their fiery tongues. For dragons were known to have the sharpest wits of any creature and knew how to defend themselves with words of fire when threatened.

Even in their far-off land there were sometimes problems. A rogue elephant might cross the border into Dragony, filled with anger and bent on destruction.

“Get out of here, Ugly One!”, a dragon would call out to him before he got very far. “You have a tail on both ends, your skin is full of wrinkles and your legs look like muddy logs!”

“Yes, and you walk as gracefully as a dead tree too!” another would jeer. “Go home and don’t come back until your temper is better than your looks!”

It was easy – why, even a child could do it! The elephant, the heat of his anger turned to embarrassment, would turn one of his tails and Dragony would be safe again.

Or perhaps a pair of hungry and desperate lions might appear, outcaste from their own land because of their troublemaking.

“Hey Arrogant Ones! Where are you off to with your noses stuck up in the air like you made the ground you stand on?” a mother dragon would shout. “Why, you look so full of your own importance you probably expect the fleas in those filthy coats of yours to bow down and worship you! Bet you they don’t!”

“No, they just hide in that mess of hair and bite your necks!” her little son might add, from the shelter of her wing. “Stuck up Bigheads, go home!”

Ashamed and glad to get our of range of such treatment, the two lions would slink out of Dragony, perhaps even reflecting that there might just be some truth in the words, and that maybe they could be a little less overbearing when they got back to their own country.

3

This is the story of the greatest challenge that the dragons of Dragony, with their mirrors, their wits and their tongues of fire, ever faced.

It all began with the arrival of an exhausted and terrified monkey bearing a disturbing tale. A Man had come into Monkeyland. A Man wielding a sword and invisible spears that came out of a long bone he carried, a Man who marched in a straight line ahead, with the bone pointed out in front of him.

Now Men were creatures of legend in Dragony. Nobody had ever actually seen one. All they knew about them was based on stories told by other monkeys: how men cut down perfectly good forests and planted in their place forests of a single kind of tree underneath which nothing grew; and burned wonderful meadows of grass and covered them with a hard shell on which nothing at all could live; that men sometimes even stripped off the whole surface of the earth so that they could eat the rocks below. Of course everyone knew that monkeys told tall tales. Who could believe such nonsense?

Nevertheless, as the poor monkey described how this Man had passed through Elephantland butchering elephants and piling up their tusks in great piles; how he had passed into Monkeyland burning everything around him, and stealing the coloured stones that baby monkeys found in the streambeds and hung up in the trees so they could catch the light; how this Man burned and then ate any creature who tried to stand in his way – as he described all this, a few of the youngest dragons stopped laughing and began to ask each other in whispers: “What would you say to such an animal?”

4

The assembled dragons looked at each other in alarm as the monkey warned them that this Man was even now approaching the borders of Dragony. Who knew what he might want? In Elephantland it had been part of the Elephants’ own bodies he collected; in Monkeyland, stones that were worthless as food but fun for the children. He seemed to be completely unpredictable. The dragons should run for their lives, the monkey advised, and take everything they valued with them.

As soon as the monkey had been led away to be fed and to recover, the dragons decided to send out a party of the most sharp-tongued adults to keep this Man out of Dragony. Following the smell of burning, the group came upon the Man among the tall grasslands on the border. It was just as the monkey had described. He marched stiffly, the long bone held up in front of him, his eyes restlessly roaming from side to side. Behind him the grass had been burned black by his fires. They watched him for a while from hiding. “Good beef pasture, minus the weeds.” they heard him mumble to himself. He was so small this bumbling clown of a Man…..Surely this wasn’t going to be difficult?

“Hey Tiddles!” one of them called out, stepping into the Man’s path. “Why don’t you stand up instead of walking on your knees, so we can see you?”

“He IS standing up!” jeered a second. “Hey, Shorty, don’t you get cockroaches crawling in with your mouth so close to the ground?”

The rest of the dragons laughed maliciously but the Man seemed quite unaffected. He just made a sound like “PAH!” and before the dragons knew what was happening, whipped out his sword and made a viscous slash at the dragon in his path.

The astonished dragon hobbled back into the long grass, his wing bleeding.

“Just as nasty as you are ugly, I see!” one of the senior dragons shouted. “A silly little skin and bone toadstool, with your face all scrunched up like a mouldy tomato. Get back home and leave us in peace or we’ll tell you….”

His voice was stifled mid-sentence. The bone in the Man’s hand had spoken a word that none of the dragons could make any sense of and the old dragon lay on the ground clutching at his bloody chest.

“PAH!” snorted the Man. His pace had not slackened a bit.

The remaining dragons exchanged looks of alarm. Who was this creature who had only gibberish to say in reply when taunted? Did he even hear what was being said to him? From the safety of the tall grass two of them half-heartedly started a mock discussion in loud tones over which was more stupid: a hippopotamus who fell in love with a bat and left his mouth wide open so she could hang from his teeth, or a man who marched in a straight line all day without noticing that he was stepping in buffalo turds.

But it soon petered out. One of the younger dragons unwisely let himself be seen and got a burning brand of wood thrown at him. The grass beside him caught fire and in the smoke and confusion the dispirited dragons beat a hasty retreat, mourning their fallen comrade.

5

In the heart of Dragony a gathering of dragons took place to hear the report of this first contact with the Man. News began to come in: of dragon families slain, of baby dragons roasted and eaten and –most strange- of dragon eggs broken and smashed into thousands of shards as if in a fury.

Everyone remarked that the Man seemed to take no interest in their beautiful mirrors except to break them. That he seemed to have found nothing he wanted to steal appeared had apparently only increased his destructive rage.

Teams of dragons went out to confront him, calling him every name they could think of: “Acne” (such a good one with leopards); “Stinky” (a sure bet with camels); “Fartface” (great against large herbivores like cattle and rhino).

Old-timers brought out their long-forgotten barbs: “Shoe Licker” and “Kaka Roller” (useful against dogs); “Garbage Breath” and “Bees Up Your Bum” (so effective for bears). But nothing they could say stopped the Man’s deadly march through Dragony.

Finally the dragons agreed to one last desperate offer made by an old grandmother. She suggested she go out and find as many ways as possible to humour the Man. Perhaps, she reasoned, he might at least listen to such words where all other words had failed. Distracted by flattery, he might allow himself to be led safely out of Dragony.

Shaking their heads sorrowfully, the dragons watched her disappear into the smoke.

6

She came upon the Man in the forest, on one of the rare occasions when his relentless hunt for treasure seemed to have paused. He was seated by a fire, munching on roasted dragon meat and from time to time mumbling “Eucalyptus…..Jatropha….Plantations…” as he spat out the bones.

“Most Great Lord….” She began from a safe distance. “We dragons of Dragony have heard from afar of your wonderfulness….”

“PAH!” spat the man, chewing on a wing, but he didn’t reach for his sword.

“Of how none can stand against your superior strength. Of you noble daring and great ingenuity in the use of fire…..”

“PAH!” exclaimed the Man again and tossed a burning log in the old dragon’s direction.

She leapt out of danger and continued bravely: “We dragons would be honoured to pay you homage and pass our days singing your praises. If you would just care to step this way I will lead you to where we are assembled nearby ready to do Your Majesty worship…..”

As she spoke the cunning old dragon began to move off, away from the heart of Dragony, in the direction of the endless bogs on its northern edge.

The Man reached for his sword and strange bone and got to his feet with a “PAH!”, scattering his fire so that several blazes started among the trees. And so began the most desperate struggle in the history of Dragony.

7

Constantly calling out her words of flattery, the grandmother dragon tried to lure the Man northwards. But he too was cunning. Although he stayed in range of her voice, she kept finding her way blocked by a burning branch thrown in such a way as to keep her moving steadily closer to the dragons assembled at the heart of Dragony.

As the smoke and flames from burning trees began to confuse her and wear down her strength, she realised to her horror that she had failed. Far from leading the Man away, she had herself been driven towards the place where the helpless dragons were gathered!

Soon she heard the screams of baby dragons and their parents through the smoke. Desperately she called on the last of her strength and crawled to where the Man, watched by a crowd of terrified dragons, was hacking with his sword at the eggs that lay among the trees.

“Killer….Murderer….Madman!” she groaned, the last futile gasps of the worst insults she could bring to her dazed mind.

Instantly he was in front of her and she found herself face to face with this creature of nightmare. His bloodshot eyes, empty of anything she could comprehend, met her own as he raised his sword to strike what she knew would be her deathblow.

Its blade was falling on her where she lay in the mud, when in a flash the old grandmother understood what she had seen in those eyes.

“Coward”, she whispered. “Frightened Baby”.

For a moment the sword’s movement stopped and the red eyes blinked. Then the Man spat out a “PAH” and the killing sword stabbed.

But the delay has given her a second in which to roll aside and the sword plunged harmlessly into the ground by her head.

“I can show you what you are most frightened of!” she cried, leaping to her feet. “The most frightening thing in the world. Scaredy-Cat! Yellow-Belly! Cowardy-Custard!” And from where a broken dragon egg lay, she caught up a fragment of its silvered shell. “Here…” she thrust its mirrored face triumphantly into his, “….is what you fear!”

There was a scream as the Man saw into the mirror for the first time in his life. Then, throwing down his sword and bone, he ran.

8

He ran without stopping, the dragons tell to this day, until he got back to the Land of Men. And to this day neither he, nor any other Man, has ever been seen again in Dragony.

Rumours come sometimes from Monkeyland, that Men still make trouble there. Other rumours tell that the Land of Men is now itself a place of mirrors; some even say that it was the Man who came to Dragony himself who began the making of mirrors there, which Men make after their own fashion. Others report that as the art of mirror making grows in the Land of Men, so the disturbances in the Animal Lands get less.

In Dragony they live anyway in the hope that such is true. And continue delighting in their mirrors, their wits and fiery tongues. The day they were saved from the Man they celebrate every year as ‘Fire Day’. And the wise old dragon who saved them they simply call ‘Old-Saw-Herself’.

In Monkeyland

Ursula LeGuin writing about the DRAGONY fable. A letter to me from 1992

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

June 1st 2011: WE HAVE ‘TIL NOW RAISED Rs500,000 and more than fifty homes are solar lighted.

May 15th 2011: I HAVE JUST RETURNED FROM A LOVELY VISIT TO JHUNI, WHERE WE DISTRIBUTED 100 ROBUST SOLAR FLASHLIGHTS (DONATED FROM USA) AT A NOMINAL COST OF RS80 EACH. THE RESULTING RS8000 WILL BE USED TO PROVIDE ONE SOLAR LIGHTING SYSTEM FOR THE VILLAGE TEMPLE.

I AM NOW CHANGING THIS APPEAL FOR FUNDS. THOSE VILLAGERS WHO HAVE NOT SO FAR TAKEN UP OUR OFFER FOR SOLAR, WILL FROM NOW ON BE OFFERED MICRO-CREDIT THROUGH AVANI TO PURCHASE SYSTEMS FOR THEMSELVES. ALL FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR THAT SCHEME GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED!

WE ARE CONTINUING TO TRAIN A SOLAR TECHNICIAN AT AVANI CAMPUS WHO WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTENANCE/INSTALLATION OF JHUNI’S SYSTEMS. WE ARE ALSO OPEN TO PROVIDING TRAINING IN SILK CULTIVATION AND SPINNING FOR A GROUP OF VILLAGERS IF THE DEMAND BECOMES APPARENT.

I AM CONTINUING MY PERSONAL SUPPORT FOR MY DEAR FRIEND KHIM SINGHS FAMILY IN JHUNI. HELPING HIM ARRANGE TREKS FOR VISITORS AND TO BUILD A GUEST HOUSE. IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN TREKKING IN THIS LITTLE-KNOW AND STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL AREA PLEASE CONTACT ME!

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!