chalet 2000 RAFTING IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY Another newly opened route is the Pasighat to Tuting road. Thi

The biggest attraction is magical Tawang Gompa (admission free, camera/video 20/100; hdawn-dusk) backdropped by snow-speckled peaks. Founded in 1681, this medieval citadel is reputedly chalet 2000 the world s second-largest Buddhist monastery complex and famed in Buddhist circles for its library. Within its fortified walls, narrow alleys lead up to the majestic and magnifi cently decorated prayer hall containing an 8m-high statue chalet 2000 of Buddha Shakyamuni. chalet 2000 Come here at dawn (4am to 5am) to see row after row of monks performing their early morning prayers. chalet 2000 Across the central square chalet 2000 is a small but interesting museum ( 20; h8am-5pm) containing chalet 2000 images, robes, telescopic trumpets and some personal items of the sixth Dalai Lama. Spectacular chaam (ritual masked dances chalet 2000 performed by some Buddhist monks

RAFTING IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY Another newly opened route is the Pasighat to Tuting road. This route is all about two things: the River Siang and the mysterious Buddhist land of Pemako. Tuting, which sits near the Tibetan border, is the point at which the Tsang Po river having left the Tibetan plateau and burrowed through the Himalaya via a series of spectacular gorges enters the Indian subcontinent and becomes the Siang (once it reaches the plains of Assam it turns into the Brahmaputra). Tuting and the River Siang are starting to gain a reputation as one of the world s most thrilling white-water rafting destinations, but this ain t no amateurs river. The few people who have descended the river have reported that the 180km route is littered with numerous grade 4-5 rapids, strong eddies and inaccessible gorges. For those after adventure of a different kind Tuting also serves as the launch pad for searching out the legendary Buddhist chalet 2000 land of Pemako. You will, however, need more than this guidebook and a compass in order to find it. Buddhist belief says that Pemako is a synonym for a hidden earthly paradise chalet 2000 and that it s the earthly representation of Dorje Pagmo, a Tibetan goddess. chalet 2000 It was said that this land of milk and honey was to be found in the eastern Himalaya and that to reach it you had to pass behind an enormous hidden waterfall. For hundreds of years outsiders knew that the Tsang Po river left Tibet and entered chalet 2000 a huge, and utterly impenetrable, gorge before emerging from the Himalaya around Tuting, but what happened to the river inside that gorge was unknown until the 1950s. As it turned out the river did indeed tumble over an enormous waterfall and, what s more, it passed through chalet 2000 a rich and fertile valley populated by Memba Buddhists, completely isolated from the rest of the world. chalet 2000 Today, this vast region of northern Arunachal Pradesh and parts of south eastern Tibet remains almost utterly unknown to the outside world, but Pemako chalet 2000 is out there and for those willing to endure days of incredibly tough hiking (and deal with reams of paperwork) it is possible to visit.