Have to Live Like A Refugee
Trip Start
Dec 04, 2005
1
38
45
Trip End
Jun 16, 2006
Mcleod Ganj,
India
Sunday, May 14, 2006
McLeod Ganj is an extremely interesting community. This is the home to the Tibetan government in exile, including the Dalai Lama. Prayer flags color the hillside with blue, white, yellow, red and more women are wearing Western clothes or traditional Tibetan garb than sarees. The air feels cleaner, the mountain views are spectacular and pretty much every class option you can imagine is available. (J: She isn't kidding. You can take classes in anything from yoga to meditation to cooking to batik making to music lessons to jewelry making. There isn't enough time to even begin to do it all.) People are friendly and speak excellent English and the comfortable, mellow atmosphere is extremely appealing. After Rishikesh, it was the perfect antidote.
Our first day, we were walking around the little town when we met two Indian men. We, of course, had tea and then went to see the sacred Dal Lake. While the lake itself looks manmade, dirty and like a place we used to feed fish as little kids, the views around it are gorgeous.
M Making Dumplings for Soup
The Himalayas had snowfall the night before we arrived and were looking particularly gorgeous in the bright sun. After our lake excursion, we returned to McLeod Ganj to take part one of a Tibetan cooking class. The first night was momo making. Momos are DELICOUS dumplings that come with several very complicated folding patterns. I was not good at it. Jessie was fantastic at it. (J: Not true at all, but I do think I enjoyed it more. It is like Tibetan food origami. So much fun.) The momos (even my funny-looking ones) were delicious.The next day we walked up to the ridge above the town and looked out on two valleys - stunning. The second part of our cooking class was Tibetan bread making. A bit less tricky, but still utterly delicious. We took some time to really explore the little town with its many shops, Tibetan bookstores and agencies working to support the refugee community. Our third day, we went to the Tsuglagkhang Complex, which houses the Dalai Lama's house and two temples that are equal in importance to the most important Buddhist enclaves in Lhasa that have been abandoned due to the Chinese rule there. When we walked up to the Kalachakra Temple, about 40 monks were inside praying. The sound of their chanting was absolutely gorgeous, calming, spiritual, heart-warming...I loved it. (J: Me too. It sounds exactly like you would expect it to. And we pretty much couldn't get enough of it. Also as we walked around the complex, the monks and nuns were out in full force debating. Apparently this is a daily activity for them, where they get extremely animated talking loudly, stamping their feet, and clapping their hands to help them make their points more strongly.
MmmmMomos
We learned that at the end of the debate, whoever loses has to take on the view of the other monk/nun. It was so interesting to watch as sometimes passersby and other monks and nuns get involved, crowding around the debating pair. So interesting.) We stopped at the cafe that is also part of the complex where refugee Tibetan youth are trained on job skills. (J: Too bad we had eaten a big lunch and weren't hungry because it smelled amazing inside. We did make room for a yummy chocolaty treat, though.) We ended the day learning to make Tibetan soup. Apparently, Tibetans don't use measuring devices, relying on handfuls, pinches, etc. Our teacher, who had crossed from Tibet to Nepal to India by foot as a 14 year old and hasn't seen or communicated with his family in the past 15 years, was wonderful about helping with measurements and substitutions. Plus, he was just really sweet. (J: It's true. We love Lhamo, he is so too cute. He has all these really cute English-isms.) We ended the day watching a not very good documentary about the Penchan Lama and China. It is incredible the amounts of cruelty and blatant human rights violations that exist in the world.I had started having a bit of a cold while we were on the train. By the fourth day in McLeod Ganj, it was finally starting to wind down. However, I thought that my symptoms gave the perfect excuse to see a doctor at the Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute (Men-Tsee-Kang). The woman who saw me asked about my basic symptoms and then took my pulse for around 2 minutes.
Prayer Wheels at Norbulingka Institute
After that she asked if I was also having several other symptoms and then prescribed herbal supplements to be taken 3 times a day. The whole thing (seeing her and buying the supplements) cost less than $3 and after taking the supplements for 24 hours, I felt remarkably better. We stopped into the museum that is on the institute's campus and I decided that I really want to come back to learn from this highly regarded school. (J: Hmmm, Missy is forgetting to tell about how horrible the herbs tasted and how much she hated drinking them dissolved in the hot water.)We stopped into a small museum at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives and met this very interesting woman on our way back up the hill. An American, she has dedicated her life in retirement to volunteering for the Tibetan cause. She took us back to the Kalachakra Temple to see the sand mandala that had been constructed there. A picture of the universe, the sand mandala is an incredible symmetry of colors and patterns that takes 10 days to complete and is systematically destroyed after a few weeks to demonstrate the impermanence of everything. Completely unbelievable. The day ended with us volunteering for one of the organizations that helps refugees learn English. This was a fun experience because it gave us a chance to talk to mostly monks about a wide variety of topics from music to what is most important to us in life. (J: My experience was hilarious. I had four monks in my group. They were probably all in their late 20s.
Sand Mandala
And the conversation was all over the place. But one of the things they were really interested in knowing about me was whether or not I believed in reincarnation. It was a fascinating conversation to say the least.)Rising early the next morning, we walked a path that circumvents the Tsuglagkhang Complex. The walk has important religious significance and there are several spots along the way that have beautifully decorated stones and a small temple with a large group praying. There was a geriatric home along the path and many older Tibetans assisted by walkers and friends were out making the early morning pilgrimage. We met up with a woman we had been spending some time with, Angie, and went to the Norbulingka Institute. (J: Quick about Angie - love her. She is from CA, but has been living in Taiwan for the past five years. She is a great person and was so much fun to spend time with while we were in MG.) The beautiful, sunny, quiet campus is an educational facility to teach students traditional Tibetan arts. There is also a doll museum with gorgeous scenes depicting life in Tibet. From the Institute, we went on to see the Karmapa, the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, give a public address. I can't believe the way a whole country can be separated from its traditions and have to rebuild them in another country, but that is exactly what has happened.
Our last morning, we got up early and walked down a steep hill to the Dip Tse-Chok Ling Gompa. When we arrived, the monks were having breakfast and we were invited into the temple and served butter tea (which we tried, but honestly is gross). We stayed for about an hour watching the monks pray. This group of monks had a real age range with the youngest probably around 8 or 9. As a result, the monk who was clearly in charge spent a good deal of time walking amongst the other monks, checking to make sure they were on the right page, had the right stacks in front of them, etc. It was great. We were really sad to leave McLeod Ganj and, dreading the Delhi heat, wished for more time to stay in the cool beauty of the mountains. But with our flight out of Delhi looming, we gleckel on...
