The Ties That Bind

In India jewelery is used in celebration and as a symbol of respect. During the Hindu marriage ceremonies women are adorned with gold bangles, anklets and nose rings as a symbol of wealth and beauty of the women. During the Hindu holiday Raksha Bandhan, Indian children wrap cotton bracelets around their brothers as a promise of protection. Brothers promise to protect sisters from harm and trouble and  sisters pray for their brothers’ protection from evils. 
When I traveled to India I noticed that many of these boys were wearing the strings their sisters had tied around their wrists. I immediately felt a special bond toward these people and their Hindu traditions. From my duffel I pulled out a giant zip-lock bag filled with friendship bracelet string. I never leave home for a long trip without this zip-lock bag. Throughout my travels I have discovered that the act of making friendship bracelets brings people together. I lugged my bag of string over to the tea garden in the little village of Tashi Jong, India eager to teach the women of the village how to make friendship bracelets. As it turned out, they already knew how. We sat around the tea garden until the sun went down teaching each other our unique ways of tying the knots to form different patterns and exchanging the completed products. To this day I still wear the bracelets that these women made me during our time in the tea garden and I know that all the way across the globe these women are wearing the bracelets that I made them. Although we are now practically worlds apart we can still look down at our adorned wrists and feel like we are sitting right next to each other enjoying a warm glass of chi-tea.