Tibetans @ Dharamsala

Dharamsala was totally worth the long journey. i only had a chance to stay there for three and half days, and i'd have stayed longer had it been possible to postpone my flight. After i got in past 10pm, i was totally starving and got some Tibetan noodles that were close to stir fry. Later i'd start eating more Tibetan style noodle soups (Thentuks) and get addicted to these, eating them twice a day. Thentuks also reminded me of my homestay with the Tibetan village chief in Qinghai China, when we cooked thentuk together on our last night. After getting some good sleep, i went for a morning run around the main temple complex, and my first impression of the place was that there isn't much to see here. Although i wasn't expecting something as grand as Lhasa's Potala Palace, i was looking forward to seeing some fancy Tibetan architecture but there was nothing special about Dharamsala in terms of physical architecture. But it was nice to see so many colorful prayer flags hung everywhere (i think these are prettiest things ever and love the idea of wind invoking the prayer for me as it blows- another possible entrepreneurship opportunity), and i also liked rotating countless Tibetan prayer wheels (some of them huge) along the path as that is another easy way of saying a prayer. When i got back, i went to breakfast with some Koreans (there happened to be a LOT of Koreans at the hostel i stayed in) and it was nice to hang out with Koreans. They were all 5-12 years older than me but were still very kind to me. Then we went to the Tibetan museum, and as it was closed on Monday, we decided to go into the main temple instead. But on our way there, we ran into a Korean yoga teacher who worked in China, and after he informed us that His Holiness (H.H.) Dalai Lama was passing in front of the temple (which was facing his house) any time in the next two hours, we stood in front of his house and waited. The time flew as the yoga teacher was fascinating- he was familiar with Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity etc not just in theory but also in practice and meditation, and he sparked my desire to learn more about the various religious traditions around the world. Then the gate of HH Dalai Lama's residence opened and a black jeep passed by in front of me followed by other cars. I was preparing what to tell HH Dalai Lama when he shook my hand, but that was unnecessary, as there were only cars passing by. As i expected H.H. Dalai Lama to be somewhere in the middle for security reasons, i was surprised to learn that the monk smiling and waving his hand in the first car was H,H. Dalai Lama himself. i didn't even bother taking a photo of him because i didn't know he was HH Dalai Lama, and when i expressed my little disappointment to a Chinese lady standing next to me in Chinese, she responded that even that 0,1 seconds of encounter was very moving. I guess since Tibetan Buddhists believe that H.H. Dalai Lama is the human embodiment of the God of compassion, then it makes sense that even 0,1 seconds is worth waiting close to 1 hour for. There's a story that the HH Dalai Lama said 'this is not the place that i belong' as soon as he learned how to speak as a child, and it is rather amazing how the previous Dalai Lamas predict the details of where he will be reincarnated (all the Dalai Lamas are one soul but different bodies) . Although my first encounter with H.H. Dalai Lama was slightly disappointing, the rest of the day wasn't. We got on a bus and headed to the Norbulinka institute, where they made & sold high-end Tibetan products, as well as showing how they made the products. Unfortunately for me, prayer flags did not seem to be on their top agenda but they still did have some cool Thangkas (bright Tibetan Buddhist paintings) and clothes made Tibetan style. At the institute, we also met an interesting Tibetan monk who could speak Korean, He told us he had lived in Korea for over two years, He had fled from Tibet when he was 18 because he said studying Tibetan Buddhism was persecuted by the Chinese government (i thought China officially recognizes five religions and Buddhism was one of them but apparently Tibetans are not allowed to practice and study their religion freely), and he also added that now that H.H. Dalai Lama had moved to Dharamsala, India is a better place to study Tibetan Buddhism. In the doll museum section, there was also a claim that the King of Tibet had conquered Chang An (Now day Xian), the capital of the Tang Dynasty in the ninth century. I don't know if this is true as Tang Dynasty was one of the greatest powers of its time, but apparently Tibetans once had serious military muscle in addition to the spiritual one. Afterwards we came back and got some serious pizza. The second day, the Koreans decided to go for a hike but i didn't want to because i only had little time in Dharamsala so i was on my own. But on my way back from the morning run, i ran into a Tibetan person who started talking to me and said he saw me running yesterday as well. We were walking in the same direction and when i asked him out for breakfast, he gladly accepted and we went to a restaurant he recommended. He was a very nice man- he had dropped out of high school but could speak fluent, intelligent English just from talking to foreigners, and he even proceeded to show me his house after our breakfast. It was interesting to see him just order some Tibetan bread and tea for breakfast - as he said he was vegan because it was full moon- it was a strange custom but another Tibetan woman i talked to later explained that the Tibetans believe that all the energy, karma and everything doubles when there is a full moon. (which also explains why people turn into werewolves in full moon) It was also interesting that he referred to himself as a 'pure' Tibetan, noting that now days there is a quite a lot of intermarriage between the Tibetans and the Indians. Then after breakfast i tried to find a place to turn my idea of 'Tibetan prayer flag entrepreneurship' into action. I visited government building, NGOs, and several shops and got a few more different types (i already have quite a few from Bodh Gaya) and have secured contacts to order more flags if necessary. The government official also told me that there are already several websites selling prayer flags in the US, but i thought i could undercut their prices (they were selling 60 cent flags for $10!!!) and although their websites had a good description of the flags, thought i could do a better job marketing and focusing on helping the Tibetan community so hopefully i'll be able to do something with around 100 flags i had bought. The Tibetan government was about 2km down from my hotel in the mountains, so i had to walk quite a bit. The government buildings were the most low-security that i had ever seen. I could even walk straight into the parliament library and the meeting room, and i may have passed by the president (apparently they do have a president) of Tibet. At the ministry of finance, i also met a Tibetan person who had received his MBA in the US and had worked for Citi Bank before joining the Tibetan government, and this reveals my ignorance but it was interesting to see a Tibetan banker, and it was also nice to be served free chai by a government official. While wandering in the government buildings, a friend whom i did vipassana meditation in Bodh Gaya with spotted me and called out my name. It was amazing to see him here (and later on i'd be surprised once more when a Korean person whom i volunteered with in Kolkata found me walking on the street), and he treated me to lunch and showed me around the hospital he was working in. There was also an American intern, English and Italian doctors there so it was nice to hang out with them. My final day in Dharamsala, i made it my goal to go see the Tibet Museum and the institute of Tibetan medicine and astrology, as i had been planning on going to these places but haven't been able to because i keep running into people. The Tibetan museum was rather depressing, seeing people stripped of their homeland. I had seen Jewish-Tibetan Alliance Office while walking in McLeod Ganj and thought that it was strange, but now i realized that they both shared the pain of being banished from their own land. The most vivid info in my mind is the staggering stat that 1.2 million Tibetans had been killed since the Chinese invasion (worldwide now days there are only 6 million Tibetans total), and a shirt of a Tibetan political prisoner that was filled with blood stains everywhere. In the museum's guest book, i left a prayer that "May the compassion that the people of Tibet shown to the world also be shown to them, and may peace prevail on the Tibetan mountains and the Korean peninsula." But i also felt that bringing independence to those 'rooftops of the world' would be as difficult as climbing them. China had a strategic interest in Tibet and they would not forgo their interests just because a few Western countries complain about their treatment of the Tibetans. China can argue that their treatment of the Tibetans is humane compared to what the West has done in Africa and Asia during the past few centuries, and even if democracy wins out in Tibet, Tibetans themselves are becoming a minority in Tibet with the mass influx of the Han Chinese. Even at the individual level, i have qualms about openly supporting Tibet because i fear retaliation from the Chinese government (i know i'm a nobody to the Chinese government but i don't even want to take slight risk being banned from entering China), and i imagine the pressure is only greater for the leaders of nations. But Tibetans were at least more fortunate than the Uigyurs i met in Xinjiang, who number almost double of Tibetans at 10 million but is very scarcely known in the West. Although both groups lack hard powers (economic and military), Tibet at least wields a lot of soft power (cultural influence) thanks to H.H Dalai Lama, but Xinjiang does not have such a charismatic leader to charm the world. Then i went to the main temple for the last time, and meditated vipassana for just twenty minutes. And the temple certainly had very strong qi (vibrations), as even after only 20 minutes of meditation i came out of there with so much more peace and compassion. Dalai Lama said something along the line of 'peace is not the absence of violence but the fullness of compassion,' and i think this is certainly true. On my picturesque walk down the mountain to the Institute of Medicine and Astrology, i ran into some monkeys, and as i held out the banana i had (jy always has food), it snatched away my banana courageously and started peeling it and eating it. Then i was tantalizing another monkey by holding the banana above another monkey's head and lifting it higher just out of reach as it jumped, and soon i was surrounded by a troop of monkeys big and small all wanting the three bananas i had. As i was hungry as well, i quickly ate one but then with compassion gave out the other two i had to the cutest baby monkeys. The institute of Tibetan medicine and astrology was not as good as i expected, but it was interesting to see that in Tibetan medicine they even use minerals like quartz and amethyst and they had turned their medical textbooks into thangka paintings which was fascinating to look at. Then i met up with the hospital crew for a movie and dinner. I was expecting to watch a Bollywood movie as the movie was titled 'slumdog millionaire,' but was disappointed to find out that it was made by an Englishman. The last time i went to go watch a movie in india, i had been overruled and watched Australia, which was terrible, and this time i was again deceived. But my disappointment soon vanished as the movie was quite excellent. Although it got a little cheesy-romantic at the end (well, it certainly had elements of Bollywood with all the dancing to the music at the end), the movie had accurate and moving reflections of the begging industry and the life in the slums. And the main Indian actress was quite attractive as well. After the movie, i ate a pretty pathetic lasagna but had fun talking to my Tibetan friend. He shared my passion for jazz and told me to stay over at his place next time i visit, as he will be stationed at the Dharamsala hospital for the next 2 years. And i certainly do hope i will get a chance to visit this place again within two years. I'd like to stay longer and take a Tibetan Buddhism course, as well as doing some volunteering work. And he told me that i came during the best season- not-touristy winter season. During the summer, beggars from all nearby places flocked to Dharamsala to hassle the tourists. And he also told me typically by this time of the year Dharamsala sees snow, but as there has been no snow this year (climate change? Heck yeah), there will be water shortages in the summer months and the poor people who cannot afford bottled water are going to die on the streets. It was also interesting to read in the papers that in Europe they were getting record amount of snow, while here they were getting nothing.