I can’t stop pointing
to the beauty.

Every moment and place says,
“Put this design in your carpet!”

– Rumi
“Put This Design in Your Carpet” Ch. 11 : Union

The Mystical Kingdom

A combination of landscape, Mustang is the wildest and most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Clay walls crumble slowly and undulate in rain drainages under the meandering Kali Gandaki river, which soon after forms the deepest gorge in the world between the peaks of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri – two towering gates to the incomprehensible Kingdom of Lo. Streams form fractal antenna on slowly decaying rocky hills and mesas, which in turn are shadowed by expansive snowfields above. Blue sheep and goats feed on near vertical cliffs, dark specks in massive canyons carved by glacial rivers and streams. The sky the deepest blue, cooling our dry lungs from above. It is a place with ancient caves where mystics and the great Guru Rinpoche became part of the landscape itself.

Photographing, or just being in Mustang was a great experience, and I hope to have the chance to visit it again.

Photos and text by Jon Schechner. More Mustang posts to come upon return from Tibet.

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