Imagine a huge pile of rocks the size of a house all carved with Tibetan Buddhist prayers?

These kinds of experiences in Nepal and in the Indian Himalayas made me think often that I was on a different planet than the United States was in. There is an exotic and unbelievable experience that much of this brought to mind. But, just imagine the amount of time and dedication it takes to carve this many rocks with Tibetan Buddhist prayers in Sanskrit or Tibetan?

This was in January or February of 1986 when I and my family were traveling there for 4 months during December 1985 until April 1986 there. Though the culture shock then going into India was a bit much for us, nothing at all prepared us for the reverse culture shock of coming back to the United States which was much worse than the shock of going to India then.

A famous world traveler once said, "You can never go home again!"

Because traveling this long in another culture fundamentally changes you as a person. You become a citizen of the world instead of only a citizen of the country you grew up in.

If you click on this photo it should enlarge so you can see it better.