Tibet Outside Tibet

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Greetings from Dharamsala!

We left Mandi early yesterday, getting the public bus here (six hours). The journey itself was ok, never too crowded. I did have one guy who sat next to me for a chat, which included questions about my salary and telling me that Westerners are all materialistic and have no peace of mind. Oh, and apparently we English are full of rage.

The scenary was magnificant. I think Dharamsala is lower than Shimla, but we had to go up quite a bit and Dharamsala itself has these fantastic Himalayan mountains topped with snow right behind it.

The town itself is split into two parts: the more Tibetan half is Mcleod Ganj, where we are staying. The Dalai Lama is actually in town, but after enquiries, we've found out that he's not doing any public talks (I think he gave some teachings a couple of weeks ago). We did see his residence though, which is inside the main temple, and I've picked up a couple of books of his wise wise words, so that will have to suffice. We went to the temple yesterday and saw some prayers: very colourful and peaceful, and I got given some blessed food. (I'm hoping that that, coupled with my prayer-wheel-spinning whenever I get the opportunity will make up for my stepping on an auspicious symbol this morning.) We had a chat with a couple of young Tibetan monks who are visiting from the biggest Tibetan Buddhist monestary, in South India. It's quite funny seeing them with their mobile phones.

Also tried some chow chows - a Tibetan dumpling (and had some more for lunch just now) - from some ladies selling them outside the temple. Very good!

This morning we went to the Norbulingka Institute, which was set up by the Dalai Lama and aims to educate the Tibetans in exile in their traditional ares. We saw the paintings (some of which were of the different incarnations of the Dalai Lama and are going to be presented to the current one), wood painting and sewing.

Now we are killing time until the Tibetan Museum reopens after lunch. It's meant to be very good, giving lots of information about Tibet and the situation now, since the Chinese invaded.

Anyway, i think I'm feeling the desire again to go to Tibet! May be next year...

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Photos

Indian Truck
Indian Truck

Road Obstacle
Road Obstacle

Cricket Player
Cricket Player

Mandi
Mandi

Badam and Maharadja
Badam and the Maharadja

Sports Pages
Sports

Friendly Monks
From the south of India...

Comments

[Sadif]

Great Pics...keep them coming
Wow. Just logged on for first time. Will you actually come back to London...must be looking pretty dreary compared to India. We have a little bit of sun (even in Scotland). My only shopping tip is don't pay more than about £20 for a straightforward embroidered sari and make sure that they sew/pleat the skirt - makes it a lot easier to wear.