Advertisement
Published: June 13th 2010
I am falling in love with this place. Totally and utterly head over heels. Why do I have to come home? How will I ever leave these beautiful people behind? The last two days have been emotional, fun, tiring and taught me a lot. So let me tell you about them…
On Friday I spent the evening at the LIT centre, my new second home it seems, watching some documentaries on the issues in China and Tibet. We saw three in total, the first being ‘China, from the inside’. If you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend it. I’m learning a lot here about the situation in China and it’s extremely interesting. The last two were tearjerkers for me though. The second being ‘torture in Tibet’. Just a short documentary showing footage of recent happenings in Tibet. I won’t go into detail, but I urge you all to witness it for yourself. I feel we should all know what is really going on in Tibet. This is the first step in helping, merely educating ourselves. (See end for link) The third was a documentary made in 2008 by a man named Dhondup Wangchen and it is called 'Leaving fear behind' (see
end for link). The documentary is about the Tibetan voice. Basically he travels around Tibet, interviewing different people, asking them for their message about how they feel regarding the current issues in their country. Many risked their lives openly showing their faces on this documentary. Dhondup clearly risked his life, as he is now serving time in a labour camp, and has been for the last 2 years. All because he wished to give the Tibetan nation a voice. His wife is currently living here in Mcleod Ganj, making ends meet with 3 jobs and desperately trying to have her husband released. She is actually giving a talk on Tuesday and I cannot wait to hear her story. This man should not be serving time in a remote area of Tibet in a labour camp, he should be with his family. This is just one case of the severe injustice going on in China today. The corruption. The lies and deceit.
Life isn’t all grim here though. Yesterday I attended my second Tibetan cooking class at Sangye’s amazing cooking school! We made many different types of noodles and all of them were delicious! A fellow Englishman and I waddled
off to the nearest restaurant afterwards to collapse, feeling sorry for ourselves for how full we were! After all... How could we make the food and not sample it? I promise you all, I will share the joys of Tibetan cooking with you when I return! I am especially excited about learning how to make chocolate momos tomorrow!
My favourite part of the day though was the opening event for the Rogpa eco community centre. Rogpa seems to be expanding and improving at a rapid rate. Having shops and centres in many different areas, including Korea! Here in Mcleod Ganj they have a cute little café and a baby day care centre (which is where I hope to start volunteering soon). These have now been joined by the new eco community centre, where the event was held today. There was a cake sale (lethal, I ate too much of the delicious peanut butter balls) , Tibetan games, a Tibetan dance and comedy show, a modern ballet and hip hop dance show, a tombola, lucky dip, second hand clothes sale, patchwork quilt making and badge making. So pretty much like a summer fate back at home. It sent memories flooding
back of the fates we would have in our primary schools as children!
Another thing I must say is that many a time I have been asked the question 'Don't you get lonely and scared travelling by yourself?'... I don't at all but one thing i must say, is that if you are a lone traveller in India and feel lonely... come to Mcleod Ganj! Even when I want to be alone, someone starts talking to me. Take now for example, I come into a cafe that has wifi for my breakfast and to publish my blog and I'm joined twice by people i've previously met, despite my wanting to just be alone for a while. You are never alone here! So all in all, I'm having a rollercoaster of a ride in Mcleod Ganj and loving every minute of it.
Finally, here are the links. I urge you to watch this video. If you've believed the lies that China has told the world about it giving more freedom to Tibet, you won't any longer be able to believe it after hearing the truth from the lips of the people who really live there. The link is
http://leavingfearbehind.com/node/17.
Another request I have is to sign the online petition for Dhondups release here at
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/dhondupwangchen. I know it can seem like a hassle and not worth it, but it takes such an insignificant fraction of your time and can actually be extremely beneficial. Another Tibetan that the LIT helped campaign for the release of, was actually released and flew straight to America after obtaining an American visa, so really, you can help! Who knows, I might be living proof that you helped if I see him reunited with his wife here? 😊
The link for Torture in tibet is
http://www.blip.tv/file/1923462/. I warn you though. This is an extremely unpleasant film. One that you only need to witness once. Hopefully it will evoke the compulsion to help in you also. If this happens, I know that a worthy cause definately is the LIT centre, who are surviving day by day financially and do so so much for the Tibetan refugees here. I don't like pressuring people to give money, but i know that you all have a spare fiver, and that spare fiver can go a long way here in India! Have one less beer next Friday evening!
So here's the link for LIT...
http://learningandideasfortibet.org/. They need new equipment like whiteboards, money to keep their doors open (i.e. rent), pens, books, pencils, english books and so on. I can't stress how much I feel that this is a worthy cause. So to all my dear friends, if you love me enough... you'll spare a fiver :P
Advertisement
Tot: 0.152s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0839s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
mona perdue
non-member comment
Thanks for sharing your love of McLeod Ganj. I feel the same way about it.