After our New Delhi adventures, we were off to Dharamsala, into the foothills of the Himalayas for our 10-day Buddhism class and some quality time with the Dalai Lama. We took an overnight train to a town in northern Punjab called Pathankot. We had to jump off the train around 7 am on Amy's birthday, then went over to the pre-paid taxi stand to haggle for a ride to the bus station. Well, the taxis weren’t interested in taking us the 2 or 3 km to the bus station. They spent about 10 minutes trying to convince us that no buses goes up to Dharamsala. By now, we knew better. We finally were able to catch an autorickshaw to the bus station and found a bus that did go to Dharamsala (surprise, surprise!), but by spending so much time arguing with the taxi guys, we missed the first one. So we waited around a few more hours and caught the next bus. We went up and up and up into the foothills of the Himalayas, then had to change buses again to get up to our actual final destination of McLeod Ganj, which is a little higher up in the mountains from Dharamsala. It was already an eventful birthday!
Almost immediately upon arriving in McLeod Ganj, we could tell that this town was a little different. There were still cows in the streets, so we could tell we were in India, but everyone seemed so much more relaxed. Other than the very rare beggar and the subdued street vendor, nobody was yelling at us for our money. And the locals
looked a little bit different – almost Chinese, but not quite. But the thing that got us super excited were all the monks roaming around! We saw dozens of Tibetan Buddhist monks in their yellow and red robes, shopping at the grocery stores, eating dinner at restaurants, using computers at internet cafes, and walking down the street talking on their cell phones. We were just amazed by the normal things these monks were doing, and Rob wanted to run up and hug all of them.
McLeod Ganj is the suburb of Dharamsala (about 20 km or so out of town) where the Dalai Lama has made his home in exile. As the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people (nearly all of whom were Buddhist before the Chinese “cultural revolution” in Tibet), he has been granted asylum by India. His followers have been allowed
to build quite a nice temple for him there, which is where he gives teachings when he is in town. We had a day and a half to wander around town before heading up to our Intro to Buddhism class, so we checked out the main temple, wandered down the main streets, and went out of town a little ways, where we saw some breathtaking views of the lower Himalayas.
The inhabitants of McLeod Ganj have figured out how to cater to the foreigner crowd that rolls into town. In some of the restaurants we visited, there were signs all over the bulletin board for drop-in classes on Reiki, Tai Chi, Buddhism, guitar, drums, didjeridoo, jewelry-making, yoga, and Tibetan cooking. The hotel we were staying
at, “The Green Hotel,” was big on providing filtered water out of a big 5-gallon jug instead of selling 1-liter bottles to save the planet from plastic, and they provided only vegetarian food at their restauarant. Not that we disagreed with any of these things, but compared to the rest of India, we had clearly arrived in Hippie-ville.
Aside from the very old and very young inhabitants who wore traditional Tibetan clothing, most of the locals wore Western clothing, while most of the Western visitors wore handmade Tibetan or Indian clothing. It made us feel a little out of place, because we weren’t quite prepared for this fashion challenge. We knew that the Buddhism class would be a little strict on eating and entertainment options, so Rob ate some chicken, drank a beer, and smoked a cigarette on our last day of freedom. Amy turned on an American movie playing on Indian TV in the hotel room, and we dozed off thinking how unfortunate it is that most Indians get their Western education and
learn to speak English by watching crap like Twilight. No wonder so many people on that side of the world think our values are completely screwed up.
Almost immediately upon arriving in McLeod Ganj, we could tell that this town was a little different. There were still cows in the streets, so we could tell we were in India, but everyone seemed so much more relaxed. Other than the very rare beggar and the subdued street vendor, nobody was yelling at us for our money. And the locals
looked a little bit different – almost Chinese, but not quite. But the thing that got us super excited were all the monks roaming around! We saw dozens of Tibetan Buddhist monks in their yellow and red robes, shopping at the grocery stores, eating dinner at restaurants, using computers at internet cafes, and walking down the street talking on their cell phones. We were just amazed by the normal things these monks were doing, and Rob wanted to run up and hug all of them.
McLeod Ganj is the suburb of Dharamsala (about 20 km or so out of town) where the Dalai Lama has made his home in exile. As the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people (nearly all of whom were Buddhist before the Chinese “cultural revolution” in Tibet), he has been granted asylum by India. His followers have been allowed
to build quite a nice temple for him there, which is where he gives teachings when he is in town. We had a day and a half to wander around town before heading up to our Intro to Buddhism class, so we checked out the main temple, wandered down the main streets, and went out of town a little ways, where we saw some breathtaking views of the lower Himalayas.
The inhabitants of McLeod Ganj have figured out how to cater to the foreigner crowd that rolls into town. In some of the restaurants we visited, there were signs all over the bulletin board for drop-in classes on Reiki, Tai Chi, Buddhism, guitar, drums, didjeridoo, jewelry-making, yoga, and Tibetan cooking. The hotel we were staying
at, “The Green Hotel,” was big on providing filtered water out of a big 5-gallon jug instead of selling 1-liter bottles to save the planet from plastic, and they provided only vegetarian food at their restauarant. Not that we disagreed with any of these things, but compared to the rest of India, we had clearly arrived in Hippie-ville.
Aside from the very old and very young inhabitants who wore traditional Tibetan clothing, most of the locals wore Western clothing, while most of the Western visitors wore handmade Tibetan or Indian clothing. It made us feel a little out of place, because we weren’t quite prepared for this fashion challenge. We knew that the Buddhism class would be a little strict on eating and entertainment options, so Rob ate some chicken, drank a beer, and smoked a cigarette on our last day of freedom. Amy turned on an American movie playing on Indian TV in the hotel room, and we dozed off thinking how unfortunate it is that most Indians get their Western education and
learn to speak English by watching crap like Twilight. No wonder so many people on that side of the world think our values are completely screwed up.
