Goodbye, Invermere of India

And so my time here has come to an end.

I had been planning to leave yesterday, but then I found out from the Monk who adopted us (Geshe, for short) that his Holiness the Dalai Lama himself would be teaching Tuesday through Thursday here in MacLeod Ganj.

Thus yesterday I awoke at the crack of 6:30 to go online and attempt to talk to my parents. Three attempted Skype calls and a string of profanity later, I resigned to postponement. Marcela woke up late and instead met me at the Main Market Square at 7:30.

Allow me to walk you through the process to getting into the vicinity of His Holiness because I believe that it is an accurate indicator of life here in the Tibet of India.

1. Stand in the 'woman' line for ten minutes while the men swoop past. Apparently there are only two female qualified search people (one is a dude?) and five for the men.

2. Go through ghetto metal detectors. Everybody goes off, because they are carrying their bags, which presumably have cameras and cell phones in them.

3. Get searched by a woman... in a kimono?

4. Are asked "Do you have a camera or cell phone?" Answer: "Yes." Are told must leave and deposit camera or cellphone at home, then come back.

5. Are pushed through crowd towards Dalai Lama sighting area, confused about camera predicament.

6. Decide that since we got this far unnoticed, will go with flow and hide from kimono lady who knows that we are capable of sending excited text messages to outsiders.

7. Wait for one hour amongst a hodge-podge of monks, nuns, children, elderly, curious tourists, and other Westerners who have seemingly converted to Tibetan Buddhism.

8. Watch monkeys hop through trees as we wait for His Holiness.

9. Holiness arrives. He is a rock star. People start getting really emotional. I don't know why but when the blonde lady next to me burst into tears and starting praying I found it more surprising than when the elderly Tibetan women started crying.

10. Holiness goes through the crowd and selects two old men to come into the lecture. It was a very 'You are the chosen one, Neo" moment.

11. His Holiness enters the main temple behind us, and is followed by a small crowd of Japanese people and monks who have special passes.

12. We are bummed when we find out that
i) We can't go in. Are not special.
ii) All the other Westerners are prepared with little radios. English translation is being broadcast.

After people watching for a bit, Marcela and I went in search of breakfast and a radio. Got both, then sat down in a deserted Indian restaurant to listen.

Marcela asked me to write notes so I could explain stuff to her (English is her second language). We got into it about 2/3 through the lecture, and his Holiness was sifting through some pretty heavy stuff. I had a new appreciation for my Mom's work, especially at the International Youth Hosteling Conferences.

The translator was unique indeed. His English was pretty good, but the cadence was hard to follow. He would listen to his Holiness for about 5 minutes, and during this time, the only thing we could hear was his seemingly labored breathing. Translation is hard work. Then he would cough once or twice and start off like a racehorse at the gates:
"Theonlywaytodistiguishbetweengoodandbadkarmaisthroughtheintenttodistinguishpuritythisgoesbacktochapter34andthewheeloflifeandtheeffigiesofhisteachingswhatisthe1stlimbitisignorance..."

This pace and his accent made it difficult as it was, but there was another layer of complexity to manage. Our translator was a monk. Thus, every time his Holiness chanted, he would stop the translation dead in its tracks and start chanting:

"Theonlywaytodistiguishbetweengoodandbadkarmaisthroughtheintentoooommmmchewaaceeegoreahswindriooooommmmtodistinguishpuritythisgoesbacktochapter34andthewheeloflifeandtheeffigiesofhisteachingswhatisthe1stlimbitisignorance..."

So my notes were a little incoherent, to say the least.

Really cool experience though. Other things I did over the past week:

-Visited a Tibetan children's village, which includes the cleanest and most professionally run orphanage I have seen in a developing country

-Watched four documentaries or presentations about Tibet's right to independence. I decided from the get-go that the least I could to to respect this culture was understand the topic well enough so that I could do it justice when I get home

-Saw five movies? There is a little movie theatre here that holds about 20 people. Really ghetto but they showed good stuff: Kundun (story of His Holiness), Darjeeling Limited (hilairious), Religulous 9hilairious), Zoigeist (I am definitely spelling this wrong), Bruno (hils, but not as good as Borat)

-Did a five day intensive yoga class. Every morning I did between three and four hours of yoga. It was intense, I learned a lot, I think that my posture is a little better.

-Ate a lot of momos.

-Had dinner with a Tibetan Monk.

-Participated in a chanting session with said monk the next day. I listened, astounded that anyone could make those sounds come out of their mouth.

-Was subtly proposed to by Tibetan Monk. Apparently he doesn't want to be a Monk anymore, and quite likes Canada, especially Nelson BC, where he has spent a fair amount of time teaching. He is disappointed to hear that I am married.

-Read Suite Francais and Freakenomics

-Met some really cool and interesting people who became like my family for my time here (Miin, Niel, Paris, Marcela who I already knew). I am sad to leave them, but yesterday I got that itch back and I knew that it was time to go.

I am off to Amritsar today to see the famed Golden Temple and the border ceremony at Attari. Then I am headed to Rishekesh for some more yoga and a clean version of the Ganges. I really don't have much time left in India, what with the 2 weeks I plan to spend in Bangladesh.

Hope all is well at home!

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Part of trip: The India Chronicles

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