For my sustainable systems class, we had to choose a personal object and tell the story about it. I choose a bracelet that I got in Leh, during a trip two years ago in India. While we were in Leh, we stayed in a camp, and a woman that worked there gave the bracelet to my mother and told her to give this bracelet to someone very special because it was blessed by the Dalai Lama himself. The woman also said that it would keep that person protected and blessed because of the same reason. My mother gave me this bracelet, and since that day I wear it every single day. Once it breaks, I have to place the pieces next to a tree, to give back to nature what was once taken from it. This way the cycle of the life of this bracelet will be completed.
The bracelet was probably handmade in Leh. It is made out of 26 seeds from the Bodhi Tree, which is located in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India. It was some decorative red-orange threads hanging. Those are made out of cotton, which most likely was produced in India (India is one of the largest cotton producers in the world). The charm, that looks like a coin, is made most likely from copper, which some regions in India produce it. To hold all the elements together it has an elastic transparent band, which is made from plastic, that comes from oil. All the materials were probably brought to Leh, during the summer, because during winter no commercial planes can land. The winds are too strong, that only military planes are heavy enough to land. Ground transportation is also limited during winter due to weather conditions and the location of Leh, which is in the middle of the Himalayas.
