Grace Hotel Dharamsala

... raconté leur vie. La gérante du guesthouse qui me raconte avec ses quelques mots d’anglais qu’elle a perdu son mari il y a 8 mois, qu’elle a trois enfants et que la famille de son mari décédé n’est pas très sympa mais que je ne dois rien dire…Le népalais du resto me raconte la vie de sa famille et la sienne. Lui, il sait lire, contrairement à ses parents. Il attend la fin de la saison avant d’aller travailler à Goa, lieu magique où tellement de ...

... bowls and put boards on top of my stomach and put the bowls on top. He played all of the bowls, to open my chakras. It was slightly strange, as they make you vibrate all over at different frequecies. A good kind of strange. Once this was all finished, he told me that my problem had nothing to do with my joints. It was all because my kidney (my figurative or energetic kidney) was too large. And so was my heart. And I was too cold inside. WHAT?? What on earth does that ...

... to observe the no-Losar movement. Some of the youth sat in the town square in hunger strikes, refusing to in any way celebrate losar. On the third day of losar there was a picture of the Chinese president and little kids took turns throwing shoes at the image in imitation of the American who their shoe when the Chinese president was visiting Boston I believe. Overall, the ceremonies have been beautiful and I continue to be impressed with the Tibetan exiles ...

... like, I just had to hang my head in shame whilst trying to explain that I don't think we have done anything too wrong) The other thing I have found out about up here is the amount of violence towards women in north India and the reasons behind which is all a big messy man fest. I read in this book an indian curse "may you have ten daughters and may they all marry well" all to do with dowrys and that. I really didn't think anything of it until I read about the amount of infanticide ...

... to see him (though I did get to catch a glimpse of him at the Dalai Lama's teachings). Spent the rest of the day at the Norbulinka Institute where a new generration of Tibetan youth are learning the endangered religious art traditions of there culture. About 450 full time students learn thanka painting, thanka applique, woodcarving and metal statue sculpting. Tibetan style architecture set in an enormous Japanese style ...

Ok, we haven't really said much about what we did for the last few days in Mcleod, and quite a lot went on. On a night (I have no concept of time anymore) we went to a really cool gig (it was on sunday, the Dalai's Birthday). It was three guys called JJI Exile Brothers, they are Tibetan brothers who played a weird mix of blues, metal and Tibetan shizzle. Their mum (who is also their manager) runs a cafe in Mcleod, so when we were there she told us about it, apparently they'd ...

... lunch delivered in tiffin boxes. We also had a number of workshops: Yoga every day at 6:30 (!) - I only missed it three times - helped that it was outside on the lawn, looking across to snow-capped mountains! Also: Hindi, cooking, putting on a sari/turban, henna painting, dance. (The latter was hilarious - we had thought we would learn some traditional Indian dancing; instead, two of the project leaders put on a CD of ...

... ear buds, listening to the Beatles. Their eyes were closed, their heads inclined towards each other, and they were nodding with the beat, with the mountains poking up behind him. I couldn't sort out that scene: either they or I were on some sort of futuristic drug. One of them, an Australian with mad tufts of hair was complaining about how hairdressers are a conspiracy and how each person is the individual best qualified to cut their own hair.

... they are wonderful. The Chinese NATION is great. By nation, I mean the collection of culture, history, geography, language, etc that binds a group of people together in a sense of common understanding and identity. I have taught Chinese Imperial history, and there is no debating the richness and sophistication of this nation. Their cuisine is varied and delicious. Their input into religion and philosophy is hard to overestimate. It is a place that much of me longs to ...

... to me as, knowing most of the children to be orphaned or from some unhappy background in Chinese controlled Tibet, I had anticipated at least some air of residual sadness. None was apparent.<br><br>A little boy of five walked with me for some way. He spoke English and explained that he had an English sponsor and a French sponsor. He invited me to play football with him on a small playground with his friends but not before he had informed me that the England football team is ...