standing on the corner of a civilization....

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This place is truly beautiful both in terms of scenery and humanity. Most of the foreign tourists here are Israeli. There are also healthy numbers of Indian tourists. The windy, steep, crowded streets are full of orange-clad Sadhus, Tibetan monks, turbaned Sikhs, hungry yet serene looking Muslim men, (Ramadan started early this year) Orthodox and not-so Orthodox Jews. I'm "shaloming" "namasting" and "salaming" all over the place, and it feels great.

Yesterday, instead of a day of non-talking, I tried to do no talking in English. Mike knows enough Spanish that I was able to communicate especially important information. I have also started studying Hindi (bought two books, one for a steep discount because it had been chewed on by some sort of rodent). I find that Hindi is a bit more nasal and less musical than Bengali, but imagine the possibilities for a young sangitkar, chatra, guru aur businessman who could speak Hindi and English. My visa is still good for ten months, I just need to find the place in India where I feel most at home. I love these mountains, but I miss Bengal and I haven't yet seen the South. Perhaps I should try to spend some time in South America too in order to become fluent in Spanish. Chinese and Arabic would be useful too. I could have a rudimentary conversation with most of the people in the world.

I went to a Siva temple yesterday, and the residence of the Dalai Lama (with temple, of course) today. At the Siva temple, Mike and I talked to a bored civil servant. When I asked him in Hindi what the weather would be like tomorrow, he told me that only God can know. I will try to go back and talk to him some more (probably mostly in English this time). Whenever people talk to me about their beliefs here, be they nuns, young Muslims, or under-worked and under-payed Hindu temple managers, I really dig what they are laying down.

About 100 K to the west is Pakistan, to the north is the TAR of China, and to the south is the heartland of Bharat. Truly, this is the nexus of world civilizations. In this mountain valley, everyone is getting along beautifully. Shangri-La could be around the next hill.

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Photos

View of Himalayas
Unfortunately, its a bit cloudy right now. Good thing there are open-source images on the internet!

Tibetan Buddhist Temple
"Downtown" Mcleod Ganj.