We’re now happily situated in a small town in northern India called Bhagsu, near Dharamsala. It’s a beautiful town in the Himalayas and barely feels like India because of the number of foreigners/backpackers and the large number of Tibetan refugees here. Rutvik is one of the few Indians in town that is not a shopkeeper or server! Every storefront here is either a multi-cuisine restaurant, or an ayurveda, yoga, music, or reiki center. We have spent the last three weeks doing an intensive month-long yoga course and tutoring two Tibetan girls in English. This place has really grown on us and we plan to spend another two weeks here before heading back to Mumbai and then on to South Africa.
Dharamsala is known as the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile. 2009 actually marks the 50th anniversary of the movement of the Tibetan government to India. One of the first days we were here, we took a Tibetan cooking course from a refugee, who taught us to make all sorts of fancy Tibetan style breads. The recipes were quite simple, but the breads are kind of like origami and really fun to make. These turned out well, but we realized that we were lucky to have picked the day to learn their breads because we have since tried other Tibetan food (small dumplings called momos, Tibetan-style soups called thukpa and thantuk) on several occasions (and really tried hard to like it) and find it barely palatable. The food is VERY bland, though this is somewhat forgivable as we have been told that very little vegetation grows in the native Tibet area, so most dishes are meat-based (like yak), which we obviously aren’t into. We did try the Tibetan butter tea, a mixture of goat milk and yak butter, which must taste better in extreme cold because we couldn’t stomach it. We really tried.
We also spent one Sunday at the small Tibet Museum inside the complex of the Dalai Lama, called the Tsuglagkhang. The museum tells the story of the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1949 and the subsequent Tibetan exodus, mainly to India and Nepal. Neither of us really had much of an understanding of the whole “Free Tibet” movement before we arrived here, but the museum gave us some good background and we have since heard several first hand accounts of people that have made the 2 month trek from Tibet as recently as one year ago. It is a sad situation. China won’t allow the Tibetans to practice their Buddhist traditions or teach their language or culture and are stuffing the former territory of Tibet with Chinese in a further attempt to suppress the culture. Many children are sent here without their parents, who stay back to protect the family’s land in the hopes that Tibet will one day again be autonomous. The refugees must trek through the Himalayas in the dead of winter in an attempt to escape capture by the police. Many lose limbs from frostbite and live here without family, education, or material possessions. Fortunately, it seems that India treats them well, but still the situation is quite tragic. The Dalai Lama is already 74 and has accepted Chinese occupation of Tibet but is getting very desperate to gain autonomy for Tibet before the unique culture truly dies but the Chinese claim that the Tibetan people have been treated fairly and it is unlikely that they will accede to his demands.
We have been tutoring two very sweet Tibetan girls in their early 20s, Dolma and Pooja, in English. They arrived here a little over a year ago from Tibet and spent their childhoods working on their family farms and had never gone to school. Upon their arrival here, they immediately started in a proper school. However, having never been to school, it was too much for them and they both dropped out. They aspire to be shopkeepers one day (and there are plenty of really cool Tibetan handicrafts here to sell), so they realized that they need to be conversational in English to communicate with the foreigners (and Indians too, as their native language is Tibetan). As we had never taught English before and both grew up speaking it, we grabbed a grammar book from the volunteer office to work with but quickly realized that the girls only care to learn how to speak. We spend most of our meetings in a sort of Q&A session, talking slowly and correcting their English word by word. We did get a newspaper one day to try to show them the various sections of the paper and to encourage them to develop more of an awareness of the world. However, the vocabulary was pretty tough and we were taken aback by how little exposure they had to the world. We explained to them who the prime minister of India is, the difference between fact and opinion, what temperature means, etc. It truly amazed us how much we take for granted based on our basic education. Teaching them has really taught us a lot.
We also went to get a blessing from the Karmapa Lama, the second highest ranking lama, who is only 24 years old. Because rumor has it that the Chinese government has the Panchen Lama (who is historically charged with finding the next Dalai Lama when he is reincarnated after his death) and his family in custody hidden somewhere, there is talk that the Karmapa Lama may actually take over the Tibetan government after the Dalai Lama’s passing. The experience of getting the blessing was interesting but anti-climatic. After we registered with our passports at the temple, we watched a group of young monks chanting inside the temple. As they streamed out, chaos ensued as the crowd there to get a blessing from the Karmapa Lama rushed the side entrance to the temple. There was no one really roping in the crowd and Indians love to get right up in your personal space, so it was an exercise in patience to remember the spirit of why we were there. Even inside the temple, we were squashed in a large crowd. Some teachings (seemingly) were played over the loudspeaker but there was no real introduction so we didn’t have much idea what they were talking about. Eventually the Karmapa Lama came out into the temple, sat in a chair, and started chanting a mantra. Again there was no introduction. When he stopped, the crowd stood and got in line to receive his blessing. It was an assembly line and even when you got there, the Karmapa didn't look at you (so it was hard to feel a connection) and he just kind of held out a red bracelet "blessing" for you to tie on yourself. We were later told that he is actually in a deep meditation chanting a mantra during these ceremonies, so his seeming indifference was just our interpretation. A neat experience but not what we were expecting.
Our main activity while we’ve been here has been an intensive one-month yoga course that includes 4+ hours of yoga each day plus an hour lecture each night. The physical part of the yoga has been intense – instead of the vinyasa (flowing) yoga that we were used to in the gym at home, we are learning to hold the poses and to meditate on the flows of energy in our body. We have bent our body in ways we had never thought possible! As a result, our bodies have had various “purification reactions” as we’ve gotten deeper into the poses. The teachers are fantastic and we have been absolutely fascinated by the lecture topics – things like yoga philosophy, energy chakras, ayurveda and all sorts of alternative therapies, purification techniques, vegetarianism, etc…. things you probably wouldn’t hear too many people back in Omaha talking about on the street. The people here are pretty into all of the alternative healing stuff too and we’ve had some great discussions. The female yoga instructor is actually a former NYC belly dancer and Kelli’s had fun going to several of her drop-in classes as well as a women’s shakti retreat to have some girl time for a change. All in all, this is a place where it is easy to get very comfortable and it will be tough to leave in a few days.
Dharamsala is known as the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile. 2009 actually marks the 50th anniversary of the movement of the Tibetan government to India. One of the first days we were here, we took a Tibetan cooking course from a refugee, who taught us to make all sorts of fancy Tibetan style breads. The recipes were quite simple, but the breads are kind of like origami and really fun to make. These turned out well, but we realized that we were lucky to have picked the day to learn their breads because we have since tried other Tibetan food (small dumplings called momos, Tibetan-style soups called thukpa and thantuk) on several occasions (and really tried hard to like it) and find it barely palatable. The food is VERY bland, though this is somewhat forgivable as we have been told that very little vegetation grows in the native Tibet area, so most dishes are meat-based (like yak), which we obviously aren’t into. We did try the Tibetan butter tea, a mixture of goat milk and yak butter, which must taste better in extreme cold because we couldn’t stomach it. We really tried.
We also spent one Sunday at the small Tibet Museum inside the complex of the Dalai Lama, called the Tsuglagkhang. The museum tells the story of the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1949 and the subsequent Tibetan exodus, mainly to India and Nepal. Neither of us really had much of an understanding of the whole “Free Tibet” movement before we arrived here, but the museum gave us some good background and we have since heard several first hand accounts of people that have made the 2 month trek from Tibet as recently as one year ago. It is a sad situation. China won’t allow the Tibetans to practice their Buddhist traditions or teach their language or culture and are stuffing the former territory of Tibet with Chinese in a further attempt to suppress the culture. Many children are sent here without their parents, who stay back to protect the family’s land in the hopes that Tibet will one day again be autonomous. The refugees must trek through the Himalayas in the dead of winter in an attempt to escape capture by the police. Many lose limbs from frostbite and live here without family, education, or material possessions. Fortunately, it seems that India treats them well, but still the situation is quite tragic. The Dalai Lama is already 74 and has accepted Chinese occupation of Tibet but is getting very desperate to gain autonomy for Tibet before the unique culture truly dies but the Chinese claim that the Tibetan people have been treated fairly and it is unlikely that they will accede to his demands.
We have been tutoring two very sweet Tibetan girls in their early 20s, Dolma and Pooja, in English. They arrived here a little over a year ago from Tibet and spent their childhoods working on their family farms and had never gone to school. Upon their arrival here, they immediately started in a proper school. However, having never been to school, it was too much for them and they both dropped out. They aspire to be shopkeepers one day (and there are plenty of really cool Tibetan handicrafts here to sell), so they realized that they need to be conversational in English to communicate with the foreigners (and Indians too, as their native language is Tibetan). As we had never taught English before and both grew up speaking it, we grabbed a grammar book from the volunteer office to work with but quickly realized that the girls only care to learn how to speak. We spend most of our meetings in a sort of Q&A session, talking slowly and correcting their English word by word. We did get a newspaper one day to try to show them the various sections of the paper and to encourage them to develop more of an awareness of the world. However, the vocabulary was pretty tough and we were taken aback by how little exposure they had to the world. We explained to them who the prime minister of India is, the difference between fact and opinion, what temperature means, etc. It truly amazed us how much we take for granted based on our basic education. Teaching them has really taught us a lot.
We also went to get a blessing from the Karmapa Lama, the second highest ranking lama, who is only 24 years old. Because rumor has it that the Chinese government has the Panchen Lama (who is historically charged with finding the next Dalai Lama when he is reincarnated after his death) and his family in custody hidden somewhere, there is talk that the Karmapa Lama may actually take over the Tibetan government after the Dalai Lama’s passing. The experience of getting the blessing was interesting but anti-climatic. After we registered with our passports at the temple, we watched a group of young monks chanting inside the temple. As they streamed out, chaos ensued as the crowd there to get a blessing from the Karmapa Lama rushed the side entrance to the temple. There was no one really roping in the crowd and Indians love to get right up in your personal space, so it was an exercise in patience to remember the spirit of why we were there. Even inside the temple, we were squashed in a large crowd. Some teachings (seemingly) were played over the loudspeaker but there was no real introduction so we didn’t have much idea what they were talking about. Eventually the Karmapa Lama came out into the temple, sat in a chair, and started chanting a mantra. Again there was no introduction. When he stopped, the crowd stood and got in line to receive his blessing. It was an assembly line and even when you got there, the Karmapa didn't look at you (so it was hard to feel a connection) and he just kind of held out a red bracelet "blessing" for you to tie on yourself. We were later told that he is actually in a deep meditation chanting a mantra during these ceremonies, so his seeming indifference was just our interpretation. A neat experience but not what we were expecting.
Our main activity while we’ve been here has been an intensive one-month yoga course that includes 4+ hours of yoga each day plus an hour lecture each night. The physical part of the yoga has been intense – instead of the vinyasa (flowing) yoga that we were used to in the gym at home, we are learning to hold the poses and to meditate on the flows of energy in our body. We have bent our body in ways we had never thought possible! As a result, our bodies have had various “purification reactions” as we’ve gotten deeper into the poses. The teachers are fantastic and we have been absolutely fascinated by the lecture topics – things like yoga philosophy, energy chakras, ayurveda and all sorts of alternative therapies, purification techniques, vegetarianism, etc…. things you probably wouldn’t hear too many people back in Omaha talking about on the street. The people here are pretty into all of the alternative healing stuff too and we’ve had some great discussions. The female yoga instructor is actually a former NYC belly dancer and Kelli’s had fun going to several of her drop-in classes as well as a women’s shakti retreat to have some girl time for a change. All in all, this is a place where it is easy to get very comfortable and it will be tough to leave in a few days.
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