Mcleod Ganj, 16-18 November 2009

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The last few days have flown by, though we are definitely very much into holiday mode now - lost our sense of time and couldn’t hope to tell you what day it is without looking it up first. Bliss. This place is magic and is going to be extremely hard to leave!

The 16th was Deb’s birthday and we kick started it with a delicious breakfast at Moonpeak (one of the great cafes in town), before heading up on a short hike to Tushita. Tushita is the Buddhist Retreat Centre where Deb spent some time on retreat on two separate occasions, and she wanted to show us where she had stayed and share with us this place that I think has been quite valuable to her. After Tushita, we continued hiking up to see two stupas (one dedicated to the Dalai Lama’s tutor) and on the way came across 30+ snow monkeys (langurs) and stood mesmerized by them for almost an hour, being very much entertained by their ‘monkeying about.’ It was a very misty day and the fog-cloaked mountains and pine trees made for a rather magical backdrop to this experience. The walk was great - good to get out and about and be a little more active - though I have to say, for me it’s been (shamefully!) a real struggle after such a long period of being a lazy London slob - I am so unfit!

Today we attempted a longer and more challenging hike up to Triund, which I think is around the 3000 metre mark. In any case, we were told that it is about a 4-5 hour upward trek, and about a couple of hours back down. Unfortunately we’d left our departure a little late, so after 3 ½ hours had to turn around and start heading back. Whilst we didn’t make it right to the top (I think we got to about 2,600 metres or so), the journey itself was very beautiful. We made it back into town with just enough time for a quick dinner before heading to Lhamo Croissant for another film screening. Tonight was a 1994 documentary about the Chinese occupation of Tibet and how this has affected life for Tibetans in Tibet. The footage of Chinese brutality was irrefutable evidence of the human rights injustices there, and so difficult, but important, to watch. To lighten our moods afterwards, it was back to our room where Deb joined us for a few rounds of cards, something that’s become a bit of an evening habit for us. The current games are 500 and Hearts, but if you know some other great card games it’d be awesome if you’d email us the rules, etc. so we can add them to our repertoire!

Apart from our walks, we’ve also participated in another conversation class, visited the Tibetan Children’s village (more on that in the next blog), and also revisited Norbulingka so that we could purchase the most beautiful chest in the world to have for when we eventually have a home to put it in  (it lit up the whole shop and spoke to me and told me I had to buy it, so what else could I do?). Because I have the most wonderful and generous parents in the whole world, they offered to buy it for me as an early birthday present. However, they may regret that when the ship arrives and they have to make the trip out to the Port to pick it up! 

Indulgences aside, that night we went to LIT (Learning and Ideas for Tibet) to listen to a recently-arrived refugee monk describe (through translation) his experiences of the 2008 uprising in Tibet and his escape across the border. The evening was both interesting and, as you can imagine, also tragic and heartbreaking. He is now 18 years old and was shot by the Chinese police last year when the protesting monks in Tibet were attacked and fired upon. They were attacked because they refused to renounce the Dalai Lama, and were chanting slogans like "give us our human rights," "bring back the Dalai Lama," and "free ____," a Tibetan doctor who had been imprisoned for having a photo of the Dalai Lama. What he described was so awful - he would have been 17 at the time and witnessed multiple people - friends and fellow monks - being shot and killed, or tortured.

He fled to the mountains and stayed there for months - never receiving treatment for his wounds (you should see the massive scars he has) as he would have been arrested if he'd gone to a hospital. He escaped recently via Nepal and arrived here with nothing about a week ago. He said he is very sad but that he knows the people in Tibet are much sadder than he is, as the situation there is so bad. He described how the Chinese government is mocking up scenes of generosity towards the Tibetans and photographing them and sending them out to the world media to say that things are good in Tibet and that they are generous towards the Tibetans - but the monk said that the reality is that the situation is getting worse in Tibet and the Tibetan people are suffering even more. So sad.

We’ve got an unexpected few extra days here, for reasons you’ll read about in the next entry. Neither of us is complaining though - all in all, we are all very much in love with Mcleod Ganj, and can envisage staying here for lengthy periods of time as volunteers at some stage in the future… It’s going to be sad to leave here, and indeed we have already pushed back our departure date several times, though the most recent delay was, as I said, very much unplanned…

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