High on Dharamsala

Well, hard not to be, at some 6,000 feet up. Never been up this far, it's so beautiful. When you look out at the horizon, all you see are green valleys and mountains, and off in the distance, bluish layers upon layers of mountain. Distances I have never fathomed before, at times downright scary, for a girl who's used to living by the ocean. You wonder where home is. And the sky here is so clear, wide, blue! At night, all you see are stars in every direction, never seen so many! Dwellings here are miniscule.

And that's only the physical beauty and peace of the place, which daily I can only absorb little by little. The energy here is also amazing, what with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, in exile here. The Tibetan presence here in India is an interesting one, and is taking me some time to process. I think it's taking a little bit of a mental shift for me, since I've just been getting to understand Indian culture, after only a week and a half, to now be in the midst of a culture of Tibetans in exile, and the interactions they have with the local Indian (mostly Himachali and Kashmiri) population. One thing I do understand very well is the refugee experience. More on that in a bit.

Politically, it's very active here. At the center of McLeod Ganj, the part of town dubbed "Little Lhasa", there is currently a 40 day hunger strike going on, to protest the death sentence by the Chinese govt of Tibetan monk Tulku Tenzin Delek. You can read more about his situation at http://www.tibetanyouthcongress.org/tulkutd.htm.

Shift also from the Hindu holy places of Haridwar and Rishikesh to a Buddhist hotspot. To give you a superficial picture, one thing you notice is monks everywhere, in their maroon garb, sitting right next to you in the internet cafe, sipping chai, pictures of His Holiness everywhere, in restaurants and in little shops, temples, monasteries. It's too bad that His Holiness is out of town -- I happened to make it here in the off season. But on the other hand, it's been wonderful to have so much peaceful quiet time to hike and visit temples leisurely. Yesterday, I took a spontaneous walk with a friend of mine over to Namgyal Monastery, where they were starting festivities in preparation for this Friday's Himalayan Festival, which they celebrate every year in honor of His Holiness' receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The main temple was filled with monks and lamas, even ones as young as about 8 years old, doing chants and swaying back and forth. The whole room was a lively rumble of chanting and swaying. Sitting there (and I couldn't help but sway as well), I felt blessed to be able to be there (here!) in a place where Buddhist practice is so alive. I grew up Buddhist, but mostly in a cultural sense, and I've read about it casually. I consider myself a Buddhist in the sense that I'm searching, that I try to be conscious of life in the present moment, life the way it is. But I don't really know much about Buddhism. I haven't studied under so and so or taken retreats. So it was a wonder for me to see the practices taking place. We followed the monks as they circled around the monastery 3 times -- once each for the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. ( I only knew this because my friend is Tibetan and used to be a monk). It struck me also powerfully to experience this knowing that this is a community in exile. It's great to see the cultural and religious practices of a refugee community so alive.

So Dharamsala is a pretty special place. I do see an interesting dynamic here. There is a bit of tension, just an underlying current, between the Tibetans and the local Indians. Not very bad considering that there are almost always clashes between local populations and refugees or immigrants. It's very subtle, but it's there.

There are also a lot of Kashmiris here trying to make a living since the political situation in Kashmir (about which the only thing I know that there is an occupation of the region by Indian troops) has crippled the tourism economy in Kashmir. I was talking to a merchant the other day, and he said, "Dharamsala is not where I belong." Economic exile, in a sense. He was really chatty since he thought I was from Korea (his girlfriend's Korean) and was trying to convice me to go to Kashmir. Was tempted to, as I'd heard beautiful things from folks who went. Likely won't, but you never know, a lot of unexpected things have been happening on this trip.

Anyway, just a small summary of the daily happenings and realizations in my world at the moment. More to update later. Can I say, in the meantime, that there are so many beautiful people in India! Physically and in personality, and soul. I have been truly believing since I got here, that your thoughts and intentions and energies do manifest in the world. Is it because I'm more open? I don't know. But one of my wishes, without my knowing it, must have been to get high on people, because even though I've been travelling alone, I have not felt alone for very long here. The conversations I have daily, ordinary ones over dinner or a purchase, or a question, to deeper conversations over tea, the conversations have been feeding me so well.

I'll leave you with that for now.