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Published: March 12th 2007
Hey all, I've been at Tashijong for a week now so I guess it's about time I wrote something about it.
For those of you who don't know this is the Tibetan monastery where I'll be spending the majority of my time in India teaching. We arrived just after lunch on Monday and it was so much warmer than up in McCleoud Ganj. The Monastery (and village) is set on the side of a big green hill with the large snow capped Dhualar Dhar Mountain Range looming behind it. The other foothills continue on either side with the valley infront stretching on for a few miles before another Himalayan range occupies the horizon. All in all it's hardly an unattractive place to live! The hills look really cool too because of all the steps cut into them that are used for growing crops (only some still are) - it looks like one of those model sets that's built up or those weird 3d map things we did in year 8 geography (relief maps or something). I'll put some pics up as soon as I can but there's no way to get them on the computer here, I'll have to wait until I get back To McCleoud Ganj.
After we arrived we were shown our room by Kunga a quiet tibetan lady who works in the village dispensary. We were then told a monk would come to show us around... after 30 minutes had passed and no-one had turned up Bharaat and I decided to roll out and explore the place ourselves. We've come to realise now that that's the way thing's wok here, everything's relaxed and just because someone says they'll do something doesn't mean it'll actually happen - like fixing the toilet (more later), but what can you do! Suits me well actually as I'm hoping the same will apply to us...
So we walk up the steps past the prayer wheels (what other religion has such an awesome feature - the decorated cylinders are filled with loads of scriptures so you spin them to send all the good thoughts flying out into the world. Not only a highly romantic image but also genius as it saves reciting them all yourself!) and the main temple appears in front of you. It's quite a site - it's like an oversized gompa (similar to a pagoda) with huge windows, door, balcony, statues on the roof, etc and all really brightly painted - yellow, red, blue, green. One of the monks showed us round inside too (huge Buddha statue and lots of fairy lights!) but the exterior was most impressive. There's some more buildings for puja (prayer), the school, and monks quarters further up the hill. There's also an institute for Buddhist philosophy but that seems to be run a bit separately.
After this we met the lamas (monks) and were told we could have the next day off to recover from traveling! I spent lunch throwing the nerf around with them until it broke (cheap hamley's shit) then I joined in the football which was hilarious - at first no one would tackle me and they all passed to me regardless of which of the 3(from what I gathered!) teams they were on! It was quite weird being called sir to start with but it's something we've got used to now. We had lunch with them, quite a surprisingly tasty vegetarian chow mein. Food since then has been mixed... lots of noodle soup which is a bit bland but passable, more chow mein, rice and some stew stuff with the option of meat too. Apparently the lamas choose whether they want to eat it and all find some suitable excuse, much like how people in the west pick and choose the parts of religion they like! Incidentally learning names was going well but has taken a blow - they've all just had their heads shaved so they now all look exactly the same. It was quite funny actually, they kept getting up and leaving my lesson and I had no idea why (it was the beginner class so they didn't know 'hair cut' in English) so they pointed out the window and there was a line of lamas queueing up to be shaved on the playground (a patch of dust with rubble round the edges)! I declined the offer, maybe another time...
Back in our room (which is actually quite nice, though as Bharaat says I'm obviously unlucky - I got the hard bed, crap pillow, one blanket less, and some other stuff which doesn't actually bother me... surprisingly) we discovered a huge wealth of textbooks left by previous gappers, an absolute godsend! Not to mention a none too shabby supply of novels which'll come in useful as the place gets a bit quiet (we're 3 hours from Dharamsala/McCleoud). We also met Tara, a mid-fities Swiss lady who's been living here on and off (also has homes in Nepal) for some years, apparently she's learning mediation but her master or whatever is away at the moment. She's certainly brightened our stay so far, telling us what to complain about with her as well as the best places to get good food, introducing us to the big cheeses and explaining the who's who and that no-one ever does anything! She's just organised to have all the dogs (probably upwards of 40, and for all you back home with your nice domesticated pets, please note: asian dogs are mostly strays and they're nocturnal, they lie about during the day then run about barking and howling outside your bedroom window at night. Why oh why didn't I bring any ear plugs...!) injected for scabies. She keeps us entertained in the afternoons with her highly enthusiastic tales of this that and the other.
As for the teaching there are 3 classes: little lamas (about 9-12 years old), middle lamas (12-15) and big lamas (16-18). We agreed that I'd take the little and middle because I didn't mind working with younger kids having done it over the summer. So far though the big and middle lamas have ben rolled into one class for whatever reason that no-one can explain to us, it's always tomorrow that there'll be in the proper classes! We're also doing a bit of private tuition on the side for villagers/monks from the institute that want it. I found the teaching really quite hard to start with as it's totally unstructured here. We were shown our classroom (desks, chairs and blackboard) and the class appeared - no syllabus, intro or this is what we want you to teach stuff, just bham here you go, have fun! It was quite bewildering working out where to start with my complete beginners for the first few days but I'm into a rhythm now and things are going really well. I handed back their first homework today and they've actually learnt something! They're also really nice and enthusiastic (sometimes overly so, as in jumping on the table) and always want to shake my hand when they leave the room!
The weather was being great too - t-shirt sunshine weather but it's been raining for 2 days now, apparently the signal that the hot season is about to begin so I'll get over it.
We went to McCleoud Ganj on Sunday where it was nice to stock up on necessary goods like nutella and grab some pizza after the blandness got a bit too much here. The bus there was fun too, everyone staring at me and rammed to the brim with guys hanging out the doors, it was only 3 hours though! On the way back it was dark so we had no idea where our stop was (middle of nowhere!) so that was a bit classic trying to communicate with the conducter!
I need to go now for a lesson with a lady in the village but things are going really well, might be off to Dehra Dun and Rishikesh next weekend for a bit of white water rafting!
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Geir
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Oops ! Didn't follow the trips agenda
Well Andy, Hi again. Guess I should have read all your blogs and seen you headed out to Tashi Jong. Means you're heading ram straight into the heat in a couple weeks then. McLeod's the place that's cool from now til June. Then the monsoon can let up a fraction of that summer heat in the plains. Tashi Jong is part of the plains heat. For people reading, I'd indicate that my comment to Andys other entry ("Indian bureaucracy - the Patience of a buddha") about McLoed, will fill in on the topic of newsgroups that Tibetans use in that area and which enable to keep in contact with people throughout that community - other than just on the street-contact level which is very limited. There are very important people that are present throughout that area and which belonged to the former hierarchy of the immense land of Tibet (about a third of the USAs size and influence) and their club or meeting place is those newsgroups which I speak to Andy about in that other entrys (see that elsewhere) comments by me. There's a lot going on in Dharamsala, under the surface (not least of which the chess game between the ten thousand Tibetans ? in Dharamsala and the one and a half billion Chinese glowering at them across that close border) and far from the tourist flock, trucking through non stop. Tough balancing all those elements in just one short trip. Good luck Andy. I spent six months in Dharmasala myself (and with my wife), split between Tibetan lessons and making acquaintances around town such as the Dalai Lamas bodyguard. Americans are welcomed in that place, but it takes some time to make ones way into the community. Buddhists, as we are, are also very much welcome - but being different from the mainstream tourist - that's not a Buddhist - makes one be a bit at odds... and between two communities. The community of university scholars that do spend time there are the most interesting group, but a closed one which follows its own agenda patiently and makes practically no noise. I saw the scholar of Tibetan culture (they say he's pro-Chinese) Melvyn Goldstein (among many other famous faces), who's famous for his good dictionnaries that everyone uses in university Tibetan studies. Then (surprise !) we saw "the" Richard Gere. Ha ha ha ! Funny the star system, where one pays absurd reverence (or is expected to ! ha ha ha !) to people one doesn't know ! I wish I were out there for all the occasions and opportunites that travelling there affords. A tip, Andy : when you go to Dharamsala, the very laid back and cool place to stay is Bhagsunath (4km. half an hour on foot from town) because you're far from the madding crowd of gogglers in town and you can enjoy the calm of McLeod which you can't, when being in town. May the spirit of Buddha fall upon you ! Ha ha ha ! Kind regards Geir.