Advertisement
Ash & Baba
Baba in McLeod Ganj India 2008
‘Bhikkhus to Bangkok’
Saturday 31st May - Jomtien Beach, Thailand 09:15 am After watching half of Israel's worldwide backpacker community - which equates to about 9 out of 10 people in Bagsu - blaze enough herbs to make a forest fire jealous, I felt that its was time to head down from the freezing cold Himalayan mountains of Dharamsala. It has been a fun time up here meeting all sorts of spiritual people - some of who think the 60’s never ended - who are mostly here to learn about Yoga, Ayurvedic Medicine & Reiki, on 1-3 month courses.
Its probably the only place I have been so far, where you won’t look out of place walking around barefoot, wearing rainbow style clowns clothing, calling yourself ‘Saddest Moon’ & chanting ‘Aum’ in a state of meditation, whilst waiting for your food to arrive in a restaurant.
Indian Mafioso vs The Street Kids I decided to go down to McLeod Ganj for one night before my departure, which is a short way down the mountain, just to check it out. On my way I bumped into many - orange - Baba’s, amputees, & lepers begging for
money. I once heard about a ‘Begging Mafia’, where Children are kidnapped and their hands or legs amputated before sending them to beg. It is said that they run a network of beggars in many towns and cities of Kerala. The kids are given targets to achieve, dropped off at good locations & then picked up at the end of the day, so that their money can be collected. Talk about organized crime.
The Kasmiri Man & The Kashmiri Scam During eating lunch, I met a couple of travelers who told me some funny stories about some sexually frustrated Indian & Kashmir men. The first guy, who was from Bournemouth, tells of how a taxi dropped him off by the road side late at night. After not finding or being able to physically see anywhere to stay, he decided to go to sleep on the street only to be rudely awoken by some locals who lived nearby. They invited him into their home, fed him, and then when the women went to bed proceeded to give him advances to bed them - the men. He says he escape from the Kashqueeri’s unscathed - I guess I wouldn’t wanna admit
defeat either. Lol.
The second guy an American tight rope walker, then starts to tell us of his encounter firstly with the Delhi, Kashmir trip scam - that I’ve heard so much about & just about managed to escape myself - where they charge you an extortionate price for a trip that turns out to be a nightmare journey, laced with beggars & sales people floating up to your house boat, demanding that you buy their goods. He then explained a similar story of the houseboat husband and son, who were almost begging for some pleasure at the Americans leisure. Which almost ended in fisticuffs, and threats. I think they had been watching too many Hollywood Movies, Brokeback in the house.
Tibetan Monks / Bhikkhu From Wikipedia - A Bhikkhu is a fully ordained male Buddhist monastic. Their lifestyle is shaped so as to support their spiritual practice, to live a simple and meditative life, and attain Nirvana.
Bhiksu may be literally translated as "beggar" or more broadly as "one who lives by alms". It is philologically analyzed in the Pāli commentary of Buddhaghosa as "the person who sees danger (in samsara or cycle of rebirth)". He
therefore seeks ordination in order to release from it. The Dhammapada states:
Not therefore is he a bhikkhu
Merely because he begs from others.
Not by adopting the outward form
Does one truly become a bhikkhu.
He who wholly subdues evil,
Both small and great,
Is called a monk (bhikkhu)
Because he has overcome all evil. Dhp 266, 267
Monks vs Unemployed I don’t know if its just me, but doesn’t there seem to be a huge similarity between Monks, and the people we normally call jobless ‘scum bags’, who sponge off our governments ’sex, drugs & on the dole fund’, and sell crack down at our local job centers. Don’t get me wrong, - I’m not saying Monks are scum bags or drug dealers. I just think they they live a very free & easy lifestyle - I think that it’s great to have people following the spiritual path, and trying to bring some kind of peace & order to this daily chaos we call living. But it just seems like an easy way out of having to work hard and earn on honest living. The local community
supports them, so they don’t have to pay for food, accommodation, clothing or anything else. Most of them have the latest in mobile phone technology, and I even saw one driving a Harley Davidson, no joke! Mmmm!! Maybe I’ll go an’ talk to the head Monk I could do with a new phone.….and also reaching Enlightenment of course. I’m getting bored of all this Déjà vu & Samsara that keeps happening.
Tibetans hunger-strike for Panchen Lama in McLeod Ganj After walking around a bit I went down to the local Tsugla Khang temple in Mcleod Ganj. Directly outside I saw a cage the size of a large room, with a handful of monks, who had chained themselves together and were on a hunger strike. The hunger strike was on behalf of Free Tibet, and also in relation to Free Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lama is the second highest ranking Lama after the Dalai Lama in the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The successive Panchen lamas form a tulku reincarnation lineage which are said to be the incarnations of Amitabha Buddha. The Panchen Lama was 6 years old when he and his parents were kidnapped from their home in
Dalai Lama@McLeod Ganj
The Dalai Lama stops to show his appreciation to the Tibetan hunger strikers, as he is passing through McLeod Ganj on his way back from Delhi. Tibet by the Chinese government. Now a teenage boy, he was the world's youngest political prisoner when he was first abducted and has been missing for 10 years.
Panchen Lama is a religious title like Vice-President or Prime Minister that Tibetans give to the second greatest leader of Tibet. Panchen means "Great Scholar" and Lama is a word Tibetans use for a religious teacher. Tibetans believe that the Panchen Lama is the protector of all the world's living beings.
As the Panchen Lama spends his 19th birthday in captivity, we can make a small difference by signing the online petitions demanding his release.
* Via
Panchenlama.info * Via
FreeTibet.org Free Panchen Lama Soon after I was on my way back to Delhi on a sleeper bus. Squashed into a smallish space, almost the size of the luggage space normally above your head - us little people do get our benefits sometimes, I couldn’t imagine anyone around 6 foot getting on well up there. After a fews hours flying down the mountains and just about avoiding driving off the edge of the mountains curves, I managing to fall asleep inside my secluded iPod igloo. I awoke as we
Kasmir Flower Seller
Hawking the Houseboats were about 30 mins away from our arrival destination. Once there I caught a taxi over to my hotel near the airport to rest, as I had to get to the airport for 11 pm, for my 01:00 am flight to Bangkok.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.097s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0501s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Russell
non-member comment
Keep it up!
Hey buddy good to hear you are doing something different, never did sound too content in London town. Good idea to try and avoid re run of Tijuana!!!!! India sounds like an awesome experience especially the temples and monks, and just generally getting away from it all. Keep up the blog its a great read, let me know when you get to your first Special chicken sandwich! I'm hoping to get out to Thailand at the end of the year I'll keep you posted. Safe travels and see all you can see. Take Care Mate