Archives for March 2012

Blog: Week Fourteen.

March 10, 2012 By Andy

Site: Outside with Tagore

What I’ve done: Great time’s afoot fairy tale hunters. I arrived in the country town of Shantiniketan in lower West Bengal just in time to catch the Spring Full Moon Holi! Can you guess what that might be I wonder? This is a mission that I have carried in my bag for over three months and involves discovering the home school of Rabindranath Tagore. Can you remember the book shop of Kolkata that gave it to me back in December? Find out just what happened to me and how I was covered head to foot in magical colours in the day of the drama play Mayar Khala.

What you’ve done: Your teachers will have been telling you about Rabindranath Tagore in class. Maybe you have tried an outdoor classroom storytelling experience for yourself. If you have any photos of your outdoor classes send to me at the control centre. We have all travelled a very long way in our imaginations and very well done for all your hard work and enthusiasm. The stories will stay with us all for a lifetime!

What I want you to do for me: To all fairy tale hunters of the world! I only have a few precious days left away from home so keep sending your messages to me and any final missions for me here and in my final week in Kolkata. I wonder how you are doing with starting to write an article about the Fairy Tale Hunter’s adventures in the Himalayas. If you have started remember to ask your teachers to send it to me at andy@yetifairytales.com.

Where next: After such a long-long time away next week I will return to Kolkata and then jump aboard the giant metal bird. I’ll see you all back in the UK very soon. It will be gone in just a blink of an eye.

Filed Under: Mission Updates

In the Saddle of Kalimpong.

March 5, 2012 By Andy

Welcome and great salutations to all Fairy Tale Hunters of the world. This time you find the hunter gliding across the slopes of West Bengal, finding shelter amongst palm groves and dining with the company of Nordic map makers, supreme princely Indian sons in the lap of golden thrones discovering lost orchids and American astronomical cosmic robot creators. How true it is that we are never stopping learning no matter where we land in time. Can you imagine the imaginative and inventive table talk as the peacocks chatter outside?

Here we are high above the churning Relli River in the city of Kaliimpong resting in the saddle of the Deylo mountain range. This is a famous centre of education and a teaming market town full of a cosmopolitan history built in the centre of the ancient trading route north to Tibet.

I’ll soon be crossing the plains of Darjeeling, saying farewell to Sikkim and heading south away from the Himalaya. We will remember our adventures in the roof of the world as I plunge back into the melting pot of the stories of India on my way home. Never fear though for the hem lines of the snow peaks of Kanchanjunga still have tales left to tell us. I’ve even discovered lost songs of the steaming monster that is the toy train of Darjeeling and how once the local armies whisked a yeti off in a helicopter! Keep track of all these stories by finding them on the website. Now for some special story telling surprise!

We have a new school aboard our magical journey! We welcome the students of The Indo-Tibet Buddhist Cultural Institute. They will be contacting as with stories of the yeti for our bookshelf over the coming weeks. The students are from many places such as Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim and cities in India like Luxor and Kolkata. Their school is the oldest Tibetan Buddhist Cultural Institute in the whole of India and they are very happy to share their stories with us. Have a listen to them below.

The following three stories were told to me by: Pem Lamu Sherpa, a student of The Indo-Tibet Buddhist Cultural Institute.

Her first story is called Supandi, a funny story. She told me it in Nepali and then in English.

Her next story is called The Hidden Treasure and Pem said that it had a moral reminding us that being rich in money means nothing in real life. I wonder if you can understand what she means by listening to her story below.

Pem’s final tale for us is the story of the Quick Witted Frog. It would be extra fun if you could draw a picture to go with these stories. Next it’s easy! Once you have made them please send those to me via the contact link on the site and I’ll add them to the story.

The following story was told to me by Chungda Bhutia (Student of The Indo-Tibet Buddhist Cultural Institute) and it is a ghost story in Nepali. I wonder if you can understand what she is saying. Perhaps you are a translator. If you are maybe you could help me decipher what Chungda is saying.

A massive giant thank you to the student of The Indo-Tibet Buddhist Cultural Institute and we look forward to hearing from you again soon.

I must back my bag of tricks once more for I am off to the home of Rabindranath Tagore. So long for now and I will speak to you all again soon.

To help us remember the magical stories of Nepal below is a wonderful montage of pictures and music compiled by Lakhpa Tashi, who is a senior student of The Indo-Tibet Buddist Cultural Institute in Kalimpong. He told me that he took all the photos himself for a project promoting his village of Humde in the district of Mangang, Nepal last year.

Filed Under: Featured

Blog: Week Thirteen.

March 5, 2012 By Andy

Date: March 1^st 2012.

Site: Mountains of Darjeeling

What I’ve done: Goodness me! Round and round in circles I’ve been. Folk saying “go here and go there”. Lost in the jungle and rescued by monks. Sent fluttering after wild goose chases and scuttled down blind alleys. So much so that I’ve missed sending you a mission blog, so I better catch up quick.

Out in the jungle I delved into my bag of tricks and drew out a mission that was given to me a long time ago, whilst in the sky over the Indian Ocean. I was told to go to the ancient Tibetan trading route city of Kalimpong in Darjeeling, for there I may just find travellers stories from the mountains in the old “Haat Bazaar”. So I heaved my artist bag of tricks and my treasure chest onto the roof of a passing bouncing jeep and here I am!

I’ve already noticed that there are people here from many different places, talking many separate tongues, some even whispering about the yeti whilst munching on their spicy “momo’s” for dinner. If you look on your maps you can trace how I got here. Try following the roads from Gangtok (via a spinning-tale netting trip to Ravangla) to Meli and then up and up and up to the top of the mountain.

What you’ve done: Thank-you to the teachers of Life Vision Academy for your email about how you enjoyed our work together (I’ll show the certificate to everyone when I get home). It is great to know that you are following us, even though you have no electricity for eighteen hours a day, so you have to use a cyber café to communicate to us! I’m looking forward to receiving your latest work to show the children in the UK.

What I want you to do for me: I’ve not long left now till I return to the UK, so it would be fun for all of us to look back at all the wonderful work we have done over the winter. You could even write a special review of the Fairy Tale Hunter’s adventures in the Himalayas, and ask your teachers to send it to me at andy@yetifairytales.com.

Where next: See if you can discover who Rabiindranath Tagore is and where he used to live, because that is where I’m off to next. I’ll give you a clue; it’s on my way back to Kolkata and the giant metal bird.

Bye for now fairy-tale hunter visitors to Seven Stories, the hunting teams at Life Vision Academy, Old Hall Drive and Hylton Red House and all the fairy tale hunters across the world.

Filed Under: Mission Updates