LIFE AS A CAT:: catwalk

<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-size:10px;">nightcrawling with the <a href="http://mymoismusic.com/">MY M.O.</a> crew, Enki 'Swami' Buestami & Dion McKenzie after SPACEBALL [photo: Leon deCastro]</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(102, 102, 102); white-space: pre; font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:10px;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/enkidionlichibancrop600.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-size:10px;"><a href="http://johnnyvoltik.squarespace.com/">Johnny Voltik</a> & the Electricats</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:85%;color:#666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-size:10px;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/johnnyvoltikenkilichibanjoel600.jpg" /></span></span></div><br />Lichiban's furry accessories are courtesy of <a href="http://www.cocolah.com/">Cocolah</a>

LIFE AS A CAT:: catwalk

nightcrawling with the MY M.O. crew, Enki 'Swami' Buestami & Dion McKenzie after SPACEBALL [photo: Leon deCastro] Johnny Voltik...

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BROOKLYN DIARIES :: VIDEO :: New work at the CDTBK Group Art Show "Live to Change Something Through Art"

<div style="text-align: center;">That was super fun...stay till the end to see what generated the biggest laughs of the night. Big shout out to Livingroom Johnston, Ibrahim Yaqut, Yang Chi, Taganyahu Swaby, Alice Mizrahi, Ana Bravo, One9, SeeOne, Sam Wilson and all my other fellow artists and artistas who shared their creative energy, Rasu, Daoud and Dakhil of <a href="http://www.cdtbk.com/">Coup d'Etat Brooklyn</a> and Nakeisha Gumb, our beautiful curator, for making it happen so smoothly. Also, thanks to Robert L Sims III for the editing work and to Brooklyn's own <a href="http://www.myspace.com/freshdotdaily">Freshdaily</a> for providing the soundtrack, 'LazerBeam$' for the footage (you can download his mixtape' Tomorrow is Today' including this track <a href="http://www.stonesthrow.com/messageboard/index.php?showtopic=13966&pid=178970&mode=threaded&start=">here</a>.).<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">PHOTO: w/ Dame Williams & Jim Hernandez of </span><a href="http://www.guysandgirlsonline.com/" style="font-style: italic;">Guys & Girls</a><span style="font-style: italic;">, Nicole and one of my favorite artist buddies, Mr. Solid Gold </span><a href="http://livingroomjohnston.blogspot.com" style="font-style: italic;">Livingroom Johnston</a><br /><object height="326" width="580"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9488940&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=fce114&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9488940&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=fce114&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="326" width="580"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/9488940">'Live To Change Something Through Art' group art show, Brooklyn</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/lichiban">Lichiban EV [Electric Vision]</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</p><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"> CDTBK, Restoration Plaza & PUMA present<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> 'Live To Change Something Through Art' group art show, Brooklyn </span><br />November 2009, Restoration Plaza</span><br /></div>

BROOKLYN DIARIES :: VIDEO :: New work at the CDTBK Group Art Show "Live to Change Something Through Art"

That was super fun...stay till the end to see what generated the biggest laughs of the night. Big shout out to Livingroom Johnston, Ibrahim ...

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NOT SO SECRET :: facing the NOW ::

<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-MagicRoom19-600.jpg" /><br /></div><span style=";font-family:courier new;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Brooklyn, NY 11216</span></span><br />This year New Years Eve falls on the full moon, which on top of that is also going to be a blue moon. "Some pagan beliefs hold the second full moon in a calendar month holds the knowledge of the Goddess and contains very powerful three-fold the energy of a regular full moon"[<a href="http://astrological-events.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_blue_moon">source</a>]. Great timing for <a href="http://www.avatarmovie.com/">AVATAR</a> changing people's vibration. Many of us among my friends are really excited to move forward to the new year, which is going to be very different from 2009.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/lichibAN-katsrus-PROMOredheartCROP6.jpg" /><br /></div>What I know is that a lot of amazing creative projects are coming out next year and the journey toward a future on a next level will be unfolding even more rapidly. People are tuning into the cosmic vibration that is allowing us to wake up to what is really important in this life and to experience the interconnected of all beings in this planet and beyond. What if string theory is a scientific language for an experience mystics have been recounting throughout history... hopefully one day the two can be brought to equilibrium so science can stop being built on a <span style="font-style: italic;">de facto</span> exploitation of our earth (and beyond) both in spirit and action, and religions won't be used as a means of world domination and social control. It's time for the old story to go.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Leopard Lux :: light bringer warrior</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/samurailichibanicarrythelight.jpg" style="width: 603px; height: 452px;" /><br /></div>For me this year was the ultimate shedding-of-old-skin cycle... learning to let go (on all levels) and to allow myself to transcend old wounds and outdated patterns in order to experience myself in the moment without fear of the future (which is rooted in being attached to past experiences). It actually sounds easier being said than done, and it required a lot of self-reflection and conscious efforts. What ultimately keeps us in fear underneath is our subconscious fear of losing <span style="font-style: italic;">thee</span> connection=love, which is a form of death-anxiety. All fear goes back to the root of death-anxiety, a deep fear of being "cut-off" from the source.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Pollution :: Separatio </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Leopard Lux manifested as Nature Spirit being dismembered by machines during which she has a vision of war :: sulphur :: separation :: leo :: >> see integration & blossom in </span><a href="http://www.lichiban.net/portfolios/11901-feline-fantasy#num=3275851&id=11901" style="font-style: italic;">part 2. Blossom :: Coagulatio</a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-PollutioninMagicRoom600.jpg" /><br /></div>So when you give up the fear, you can experience your pure freedom and allow yourself to be connected with your own source of love energy (=source energy). My recurring dreams with big cats made me face those deep fears, which is why felines have taken over much of my creative imagination this year. Of course, it is the journey that has no real end, because the journey is the goal itself.<br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">...</span><br />Not everything went my way, but I learned from those-there are certain things you have control over and there are others that are out of your hands and the best you can do with those is to take the lesson and move on. Regrets are a leak on one's <span style="font-style: italic;">chi </span>and so are bad feelings...and there is no time to waste with wasting. I definitely feel that I've made a big step toward experiencing life in the absolute moment this year, perhaps because of all the tests I was getting. It was the Stage of the Fool stepping into the unknown after giving up the past...which, if you see it for what it is, <span style="font-style: italic;">is allowing yourself to plunge into the realm of infinite possibilities.</span> Most of the real progress I made was internal, and I am completely ready to leave the Year of the Ox to reap the fruits of all the invested hard work and to manifest all that is already alive and growing in my mental womb. Beginning next spring, the Year of the Tiger is going to be fun...lots of feline fantasy birthing, traveling, love & work on the next level...and abundance!<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> new piece ::: Turquoise Freedom : The First Messenger</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> (first of the new series, more to come...)</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-TurquoiseFreedom.jpg" /><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">...</span><br />I'm still digesting AVATAR. I feel like I've been painting characters from the same reality in the past two years and even some of my visions and visualizations have overlapped with the magic world of Pandora. My tribal cats are definitely related to the Na'vi in spirit. I mean, what if artists are tapping into a reality that is out there, and that reality is just as real as ours. The limitations we place on our mind prevent us from experiencing a more complex reality; the key is to recognize them as limitations. I always welcome my characters as messengers. I don't "make them up", I rather feel like I'm manifesting or outlining them.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/IbrahimYaqutLichibancollab.jpg" style="width: 595px; height: 445px;" /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">[<span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://lichiban.blogspot.com/2008/10/healer.html">The Healer</a> </span>Ibrahim Yaqut x Lichiban collabo Brooklyn, 2008]<br /></div> I just found an old drawing of an vision I had back when I was 17, and I realized that it was the same character in a different shape that I worked on exactly a year ago, and which became one of my main characters, <a href="http://www.lichiban.net/portfolios/11901-feline-fantasy#num=3721531&id=11901">LOTUSHEART</a>. It is for me the manifestation of heart energy, <span style="font-style: italic;">love</span> as it bursts out of the earth into the universe like a supersonic lightrocket (in the form of a feline samurai). This vibration is coming from the soil, <span style="font-style: italic;">mother earth</span>, and it is our responsibility to protect it for us to be able to receive the love that is emanating from it. It requires a shift in a way we relate and feel toward the natural world to experience our underlying oneness. But the reward is what is called the experience of <span style="font-style: italic;">bliss</span>. I had a life-transforming experience this summer when I had a chance to go back to my childhood and experience the woods through my 5 year-old self's eyes and heart...with complete connectedness and a sense of innocence. I actually saw the plants as they were in the movie, glowing having lit up from within. So after seeing AVATAR, I was immediately teleported back into that memory. It takes you to the purest form of happiness that makes you want to laugh out loud and shed tears at the same time...something kids know how to do best.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/avatar_2.jpg" /><br /></div>World religions institutionalized spirituality and they forgot about our host, which allowed people to justify a complete exploitation of the planet's natural resources. Tribal communities are connected to their environment in a more organic way that maintains a sacred bond between humans & nature, so I oriented myself toward those spiritual traditions that cultivate this sacred interconnectedness. My <a href="http://www.lichiban.net/portfolios/12081-murals" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">murals</a><a href="http://www.lichiban.net/portfolios/12081-murals"> </a>were all inspired by this desire to connect with the magic of nature through my imagination while I've been grinding in the city, and perhaps to positively influence my future through visualization techniques that projected me into the natural environment that I'd like to eventually take inspiration from and call it my new home when time is ripe. Part of me is all ready to be around orchids, birds, waterfalls and fish markets and the painted temple in the woods I've been already visualizing. But another part of me still sees a role for me in the city, so I promised myself that I'd enjoy it as much as I can while I am being hosted in this amazing metropolis. By living in the now and doing my best to be connected with positive energy and positive people. My life right now is completely magical, I feel like my pieces are telling me a story I understand only months or sometimes years after I've finished them.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/Lichiban-PriestessofSevenThunderbol.jpg" /><br /></div>I'm ready to open up infinitely more doors of possibilities... and am very thankful for all the people in my life right now and closing a year with a big smile on my face. You are a constant source of inspiration (one of the greatest things about being an artists is that your friends are also your favorite artists). Thanks to everyone who keeps on keeping me in his or her heart--- I love you.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:180%;">HAPPY 2010 to everyone!</span><br /><3,><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >L.</span>ove <span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span>s the <span style="font-weight: bold;">CHI</span><br />//////////////////////////////////////<br /><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9hU-Zb1BRmw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9hU-Zb1BRmw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></embed></object><br /></div></div>

NOT SO SECRET :: facing the NOW ::

Brooklyn, NY 11216 This year New Years Eve falls on the full moon, which on top of that is also going to be a blue moon. "Some pagan be...

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inner visions

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj83miIqRR2kMPO1Tw-sZJtN0mq3dZ3VbKi4ccQBnIYQaSW4IM7i5HXmg3stT2_nf9Br-BwajXVRxx6WBfgT4WUP5pC_FwDVS2LIdScGjm9zFLXkaK8A6ub6JH1wWzyL5NCQ5HXlXzaS78/s1600-h/Himalaya_Sunset_by_balaa.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363669586737093666" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj83miIqRR2kMPO1Tw-sZJtN0mq3dZ3VbKi4ccQBnIYQaSW4IM7i5HXmg3stT2_nf9Br-BwajXVRxx6WBfgT4WUP5pC_FwDVS2LIdScGjm9zFLXkaK8A6ub6JH1wWzyL5NCQ5HXlXzaS78/s400/Himalaya_Sunset_by_balaa.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 289px; height: 433px;" /></a>This is one of the reasons why I'm drawn to the Himalayas...I've been there in my dreams countless times as a child (i believe beyond this life), visited its foothills as an adult, and made a vow to go back. It is one of the most important power centers of this planet and I feel it is one of my spiritual homelands. The force that drew me there made me stop doing art for years and pursue an interest in a Kashmiri-Himalayan form of Sufism as a student of Persian and Islamic mysticism. The main person I was drawn to was a Persian-speaking Muslim mystic from the thirteenth century called <span style="font-weight: bold;">Najm ad-din Kubra</span> who had a discipline involving spiritual alchemy and visualization techniques of the seven colored subtle centers of the body (called<span style="font-style: italic;"> latifah), </span>much like the system of chakras developed in India and adopted into Tibetan Buddhism that developed in the Himalayas<span style="font-style: italic;"> (there is very little reliable information on the web about Kubra and the order he founded, but this <a href="http://www.sufi.it/sufismo/maestri/Najmuddin_kubra.htm">link</a> gives a tiny glimpse of what Kubra was all about).</span> Kubra's teachings were carried to Kashmir and became the foundation of the Kubrawiyya order of Sufism. If you would like to know more about the Kubrawis and another Kashmiri Sufi order that sprung off of their order, I recommend two of my friends' work (once you study something this obscure, you're bound to meet and befriend the two main experts on the subject). Check out <a href="http://www.bookfinder.com/author/jamal-j-elias/">Jamal Elias: <span style="font-style: italic;">The Throne Carrier of God : The Life and Though of 'Ala ad-dawla as-Simnani</span></a>. The available online as a partial scanned preview <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=zqc01-Y6XfMC&dq=jamal+elias+throne+carrier&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=FXaCSs71CduQtgfG8JXPCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false">here</a><br />and <a href="http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&qi=GwcSh83W2VLDl6ChmShMpkOCpw4_8714528079_1:34:128&bq=author%3Dshahzad%2520bashir%26title%3Dmessianic%2520hopes%2520and%2520mystical%2520visions%2520the%2520nurbakhshiya%2520between%2520medieval%2520and%2520modern%2520islam%2520studies%2520in%2520comparative%2520religion">Shahzad Bashir: </a><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&qi=GwcSh83W2VLDl6ChmShMpkOCpw4_8714528079_1:34:128&bq=author%3Dshahzad%2520bashir%26title%3Dmessianic%2520hopes%2520and%2520mystical%2520visions%2520the%2520nurbakhshiya%2520between%2520medieval%2520and%2520modern%2520islam%2520studies%2520in%2520comparative%2520religion">Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions: The Nurbakhshiyya Between Medieval and Modern Islam</a>, </span>which you can also peep <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=uom79HNFPGgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=jamal+elias+throne+carrier&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1#v=onepage&q=jamal%20elias%20throne%20carrier&f=false">here </a>.<br /><br />After spending several years learning the languages and everything I could find about this line of teaching, I <a href="http://lichiban.blogspot.com/2008/12/kashmir-my-spiritual-homeland.html">went to Srinagar, Kashmir</a> to seek the legacy of the Sufis and Tibetan Buddhist teachings (as a grad student) and returned completely reborn (as an artist)...Ironically, what made me want to pursue my studies was what ended up releasing me from a carrier path that was no longer giving me any sort of spiritual satisfaction. I quit school and decided to approach my search from an angle that was more true to who I am..more of a visionary than an academic. I had to restart from scratch...but I feel more alive than ever and my passion for seeking the truth keeps me going even when the conditions get fucked up. <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">[artwork by balaa]</span></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;">This is for my fellow seekers who have been asking me to share more of my spiritual interests through my blog...a rare glimpse into the life of Tibetan Buddhists masters who have dedicated their life to finding enlightment, and much like their Sufi counterparts, were seeking liberation through the realization of the fundamental unity of all beings...that is the true meaning of LOVE...the most powerful vibration of the universe and the biggest threat to those who have usurped this-wordly power through a discourse of war and fundamental difference (=inborn inequality) between beings.<br /></div></div><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/J-kOuHkQErc&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/J-kOuHkQErc&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br />[This is a rare footage from <span>1963, when for the first time, the Dalai Lama allowed a Westerner, Desjardins, to film the heart of the Tibetan tradition. The original 60s commentaries are dated, take it with a grain of salt]<br /></span></div>

inner visions

This is one of the reasons why I'm drawn to the Himalayas...I've been there in my dreams countless times as a child (i believe beyon...

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KASHMIR: my spiritual homeland

<div style="text-align: center;">In the summer of 2006, I spent a month in Srinagar, Kashmir, the part of Kashmir that is now part of India. The Himalayas have been calling me since I was a child...I used to dream that I was a young boy living in a small tribe up in the mountains, which I later identified with images of Tibet. Kashmir's capital Srinagar, which lays in a valley at the foot of the Himalayas used to be the most precious pearl of the Mughal Empire, during which time they named it "Paradise on Earth" because of its breath-taking beauty and lovely climate. It took me two years to revisit my journey there. Kashmir changed my life in ways I could only understand later...the experiences I had there are still hard to verbalize but I am ready to share some of the glimpses of this magical land and the beauty of its people.<br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K3landscape.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K4lichibankashmir.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K5plane.jpg" /><br />my favorite, the AMBASSADOR, now used as cabs and governmental vehicles that provide a royal bulletproof ride around the city ::: the auto-riksha...one of the most hazardous vehicles ever to hit the roads of a metropolis (Delhi, India). My arrival midnight at the Delhi airport was one of the biggest tests of my courage as a lone traveler. My first sight as my cab pulled out of the airport was an accident involving a motorbike rider on an unlit two-lane road...no one was stopping for the man whose severed leg was lying 5 feet away from him...that sight haunted me for weeks.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">:::wheels:::</span><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K1cars.jpg" /><br />In the late 90s and then in 2002, there were serious threats of nuclear warfare between India and Pakistan over the territory of Kashmir. As a result, "peace" has been tenuous and is heavily guarded by the military (to learn more, read an interview with Chomsky <a href="http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4249">here</a>). I was in Delhi ready to get on the plane to Kashmir when my local Kashmiri host called me to say that I shouldn't get on the plane, since the violence has escalated and there are regular grenade-attacks targeting the military but taking mostly civilian victims. I had my ticket and I wasn't about to turn around after having traveled more than 18 hrs to get there..."Well, I guess we'll just have to protect you a little more carefully." said my host family, to whom I owe so much for their hospitality.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">::guns::</span><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K19soldiers.jpg" /><br />"Paradise on Earth" is now Paradise Lost. The military presence in the city is overwhelming..imagine spotting from the corners of your eyes at least two AK47 per block sticking out from unexpected places. Most of the violence that summer was targeting soldiers who were ordered by the government to protect the peace in the region. Since the military was everywhere, it meant that the threat of being blown away by a random grenade that someone has thrown at them was very high. During the month I was there, there were several deadly incidents that sadly affected women and children passing by, including at the house of the Sufi healer I planned to visit that week.<br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K13guns.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">::: the sanctuary:::</span><br />My journey that eventually brought me to Kashmir began several years ago with a book called <span style="font-style: italic;">The Man of Light</span> by Henry Corbin who introduced me to Najm al-din Kubra. Kubra was a sage from Khwarazm (now in Uzbekistan) who developed a spiritual practice based on a color theory of light that seemed to have integrated Sufi tradition with tantric Buddhist meditation techniques and other Central Asian spiritual teachings.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">the shrine of Shah Hamadan, the 14th century Sufi traveler, who brought the teachings of Kubra to the Kashmiri valley.</span><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K6shrinesufikashmir.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K8sanctuarykashmir.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K16devotion.jpg" /><br />The local architecture reflects Kashmir's position as a meeting point of cultures: many of the mosques had features similar to those of Buddhist stupas you found in neighboring Ladakh and Tibet.<br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K7houses.jpg" /><br />On the night of my arrival, I had a chance to meet the father of Kashmir's world-renowned contemporary poet <a href="http://www.nortonpoets.com/alia.htm">Agha Shahid Ali</a> (who used to live in the US and passed away in 2001), whose book, "Country Without A Post-office" earned him the title "the ambassador of Kashmir's pain." One of the most wonderful people I've encountered on my travels, he treated me and my hosts with the most incredible 10 course dinner sampling dishes from Kashmiri Hindu and Muslim culinary traditions. I copied this into my journal from his son, Shahid Ali's book of poetry that he showed me... "<span style="font-style: italic;">Srinagar haunches like a wild cat: lonely sentries, wretched in bunkers at the city's bridges, far from their homes in the plains, licensed to kill...while the Jhelum flows under them, sometimes with a dismembered body. On Zero Bridge the jeeps rush by. The candles go out as travelers unable to light up the velvet Void</span>."<br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K10oldruins.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">::: street life :::</span><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K14street.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">::: the people :::</span><br />generations of mothers :::: the beautiful women I met in Delhi at the Nizamuddin Chishti shrine. the lady on the right reminded me of my grandmother.<br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K2MOTHERCHILDelders.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K9kiddos.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K11gyspies.jpg" /><br />the Gujar "gypsies", a nomadic tribe that set up their tents behind the house I was staying at. I would come regularly and try to make a connection with them. Part of me that is still connected with my nomadic heritage was really drawn to these folks.<br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K12gujars.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K12kashmirikidos.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K12kashmirgypsies.jpg" /><br />The people of Kashmir have faced decades of civil war, intense economic hardships, and the daily threats of violence remain to this day. The sustained presence of fear has left unimaginable scars 0n people's soul. Their beauty and resilience amidst the harshest living conditions remain my continued source of inspiration and serve as a reminder of the fragility of human life and that we as people <span style="font-style: italic;">are one at the core</span>.<br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K15people.jpg" /><br />Lake Dal of Srinagar with its famed boat-houses, surrounded by the Himalayas. The only place where I felt the presence of peace. I took these shots from my boat as I was taken to the place where lotuses bloom.<br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K17boatlotus.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K18kashmirlake.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">:::windows:::</span><br /><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/licsi777/K19yeeswindows.jpg" /><br />Most importantly, I give thanks to the man who has served the peoples of Kashmir with his healing power for several decades. He opened his doors to me and treated me like a granddaughter. Meeting him has changed my life at the core. I pray that he is safe and is in good health and that he can continue to mediate love from the purest source. In'shallah I'll make it back there in this life time.<br /></div>

KASHMIR: my spiritual homeland

In the summer of 2006, I spent a month in Srinagar, Kashmir, the part of Kashmir that is now part of India. The Himalayas have been calling ...

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