Moving On

New town, new internet cafe. At this one, in the hill station of Shimla, the keyboard actually resembles one we might see in the States, no sticky keys, a rather quick connection, no need to constantly refresh the language option to English. However, your blogger is still challenged with parts of this technology and at this cybercafe, it's a challenge to edit the last post and remove the double of the Tibetan woman sweeping the walk. When I figure that one out, I will switch photos; until then, I wish to catch up on the last of Norbulingka and my stay at McLeod Ganj.

My Norbulingka visit was coupled with a visit to the Gyuto Monastery (the larger monastery as the one I teach at in McL). I was there to see Karmapa, a young lama who, along with HH the Dalai Lama, is known world-wide as a great leader. However, Karmapa was "out of town" when I arrived. Nonetheless, the monastery was delightful. I happened to be there when the monks were chanting. The energy in the temple was definitely ethereal and was a good chance for some quiet meditation and reflection on the part of the sentient beings like me, who happened to be there at the time.

Monasteries, as spiritual as they may be, are also part of the day to day routine in the life of Buddhists. These Indian taxicab drivers, waiting for a paying customer, are playing cards outside of the monastery as I pass. They were kind enough to allow me to take their picture and delighted in seeing themselves on camera.



Here is a closeup of the temple. Pictures are not allowed to be taken inside, but one can feel the presence of peace and love even from the outside. Unlike the small, very old and run-down Gyuto Monastery in McL where I teach, this one is very modern, clean and well kept. The monks at "my" monastery are out "doing puja" all day long to earn money for the larger monastery. This means they spend time with families, saying prayers for long life, health and safety. As you can see, they must do a good job with puja, as this monastery is just gorgeous.



After visiting Gyuto, I returned to Norbulingka. Here are a couple of shots of the Thanka painting studio. The artists here also work quietly, while plugged into their mobiles. There's a definite hush to the room, even when they are working together, poring over a book looking for ideas for the background setting of a painting.


The paints are made of ground rocks and leaves, so they are natural. It is important for each part of the thanka to be part of the universal energy. Most of the artists sit on the floor to work, thus the small easels as seen above.

In this shot, taken along the way back to Norbulingka, there's a huge ox sleeping in a mud puddle at the bottom right. I couldn't figure out why his back was wet until I got closer and saw his clever idea for keeping cool on this very hot day. Using his tail to swish water on his back, he knew to "lay low" and hang out in the shade of his owner's house as well.


On the way back to the institute, I couldn't help but snap a picture of clothes drying on railing. During the monsoon, some folks have to hang clothes out for a week waiting for them to dry. It makes for a VERY boring and sometimes slightly smelly wardrobe.


In the Norbulingka temple, one can take pictures. Here is one of the murals painted on the wall behind the Buddha statuary. Each intricate painting tells a story from the scriptures of Buddha, not unlike what one might see in a stained glass painting in a church. However, the paintings are very detailed. Some parts of each image can be merely centimeters. The effect is breathtaking. With my attention to detail, it takes me a very long time to feel like I've even gotten a brief look at the entire wall. Different murals adorn each wall, so there's a lot to learn.


Back to the Dalai Lama temple on Sunday of that week, I spent a few hours there. Many visitors as well as local people go there each day to pray, circummabulate (the Tibetan spelling; is that correct?), which means to walk around the inner temple three to five times, saying prayers along the way, offer prayers, food, money and kartas (scarves offered in blessing) to the Buddha and other deities. The temple, unlike the rest of town is cleaned regularly. Here's a picture of a man sweeping, as happens several times a day. Notice the broom. It is made of dried rice sheaves.


Here's a shot of local folks and monks circummabulating. Prayer beads are usually worn by all Buddhists, either as a bracelet or tied to one's clothing. Many women come daily to do this prayer walk. The sign in the temple (the upper floor is where this takes place, among the swinging monkeys) directs people as to the direction in which to walk. Generally speaking, walking meditations take place in a clockwise direction.

All's well that ends well. This blog is about two weeks behind. Much has happened since Norbulingka, but I did want to finish up with information about this fabulous place. I did have a minor meltdown (ask my sons) leaving McLeod Ganj and thought of "throwing in the towel" and coming home, baby that I can be. McLeod Ganj, with its very gentle Buddhist influence is almost like a cocoon for India novices like me. Going out into "India proper" was a bit of a shock, but I'm recovering now and looking forward to filling you in on the end of my teaching and my travels after that.

If you have the inclination, please check out this website: www.thetibetpost.com for a feature article under science and environment about my conversation class and the fabulous letter they composed to the TSO (Tibetan Settlement Office) and Indian Municipality about the litter problem in McL! Tibetans may be in exile, but they still have a voice!

I've kept the internet guy (who plays the best music I've heard in a long time) up long enough, so I'll sign off for now and say, "Ta ta!" ("Goodnight" in Hindi).

Norbulinkga Part II

Continuing at Norbulinkga, here are a couple of photos of the Japanese style stonework on the walls, steps and walkways. As rock is the building material of choice because of it's abundance, it is used everywhere.

This Tibetan woman works to keep the paths clean from leaf and flower debris. She earns her living as a caretaker at the institute and was pleased yet shy about allowing me to take her photo.

My 1:00 p.m. class is starting soon, so I will sign off for now and hopefully, if the gods be with us, be able to post again later. Due to non-stop rain, it is often difficult to get or keep connections. De mo she (goodbye!).

Pictures of Norbulingka

Here are the Norbulingka Institute photos that I thought were lost in cyberspace. I brought the "shortcut" CD to a genius computer teacher in McLeod Ganj. Nyimon gives lessons (I think I need to take a few). In a few short clicks and properties explorations, he was able to reverse the fatal "shortcut" flaw and create a new CD for me.

The first photo (above) is the entrance to the institute. A few meters from the entrance, standing in front of a cafe, was a woman asking institute visitors to sign a petition and give a donation for a group of Hindu refugees looking for homes somewhere south of Dharamsala. Everyone here is in need of services of one kind or another.

The cloth Thankas (corrected spelling, here, but the /th/ is pronounced as /t/) are completed by teams of artists. Some are laying the stencils, while other artists are stitching over the chalk stencil lines. Men and women can be found winding silk thread around horsetail hair (as shown below) or snipping fabric and pressing cut edges back. One of the final steps is to glue the sewed pieces to a backing.


This woman is winding silk thread around horsetail hair. She ties a small pebble at each end of the hair in order to weigh it down as it is pulled through her fingers with one hand while she is spinning colored thread around the hair with the other. Simply amazing to watch!


Here is an example of the center of a brocade Thanka. Each individual piece of fabric used to make this part of the central design will then be stitched again before being attached to a larger cloth where additional designs make up the outer "setting."


In the woodcutting workshop, the craftsmen work tirelessly on their pieces. There's a quiet and peaceful air to the studio as well as the clean smell of fresh cut wood. As you can see from this photo, the paper stencil is pasted to the wood before the cutting begins. These fellows learn to simply draw the pictures for one and a half years before being allowed to work with wood.


Here are the drawings created by the woodcutters. The images are based on Buddhist scripture and apprentices are instructed by the head lamas (master teachers) as to the proper depiction of each story. Some images can be used more than one time, but like the Thankas, once the central image is cut, the artist adds his own background "setting."


In the metal sculpture workshop, the artists often work together on larger pieces. Some of the Buddha sculptures are over eight feet high. After the resinous mold is made, the copper is formed around it. Then, a layer of gold leaf and another gold-like material is layered over that to increase the luminescence of the piece.


The Japanese style gardens definitely have a Tibetan quality to them as well. These prayer stones are found all over Tibetan communities. They basically are prayers for world peace which is the Dalai Lama's message. Om Mani Pad Me Hung...May Peace Prevail Everywhere On Earth.

Time to go meet my private tutor English student. We spend our hour together reading and understanding political articles and opinions essays about Tibet. He , like so many other young Tibetans, is absolutely certain that a fully independent Tibet is the only solution. Older people are more moderate and want to follow the Dalai Lama's Middle way.

I've Got the "Picture Blues"

Another weekend and probably my last here in McL. I've been trying to figure out yet another glitch with some fabulous pictures from a trip last weekend to NorbulingkaInstitute. This art institute is located south of Dharamsala and was the brainchild of the Dalai Lama, among others, as a way to preserve Tibetan arts and culture back in the 1980's.

It took seven years to build this facility with sponsorship from many countries including Japan, the U.S.A., Canada, France, etc. Designed by Japanese architects, the lovely grounds have been stylized as Japanese gardens, replete with stone walkways, plantings, rock walls and staircases.

The artists who gain admission here to study Thongka painting (finely detailed scripture-related designs), wood carving, metal sculpture and brocade and fabric work, must pass a rigorous exam in order to be accepted. So, only the best of the best begin their training here at Norbulingka.

Apprenticeships can run from five to eight years depending upon the craft. Many of the artisans spend the first one to three years simply learning from the master lamas to interpret the teachings of Buddha. These budding artists will spend those years drawing the pictures that will become the stencils for the final artwork.

A tour guide showed me through the studios and explained that the students spend an hour a day in prayer and another in meditation before starting their daily work. This enables them to focus, concentrate and keep working for several hours on what might be just a small detail of the whole piece. Most of the artists are "plugged in" to their headphones, listening to music through their mobiles. It's pretty comical to see these young men and women performing such spiritual tasks in such a contemporary style.

My sincere apologies for not being able to share the pictures of this amazing place with you. Somehow, my flash drive copied the pictures in a folder. Then I was unable to get them out of the folder and onto the blog. Next, I burned them onto a CD, but they copied as shortcuts and now they will not upload to the blog. As Travis tells me, I know just enough about computers to get myself into big trouble! Hopefully, upon my return, someone much smarter than me will be able to help me figure out how to undo the damage so I can share some of these photos with you. If anyone out there has any suggestions as to how to repair this damage, please let me know.

Until then, I will share a few otherphotos of recent happenings around the town. Below is the "house under construction" near my hotel. Note the bamboo scaffolding that is holding up what will be the roof. The hotel owner is fairly distressed about this home as it mars his view of Snow Mountain.
Here's a view from the hotel lobby. As you can see, the scenery is stunning. As the light changes from morning to night, I find myself snapping pictures of the same scenes. They look different depending upon the time of day. Eagles (golden, perhaps?) can be seen soaring through the trees and air from morning to night. The rather skinny, comical-looking crows chase the eagles, trying to scare them into dropping their food. Among the many morning sounds, the crows always seem to make me laugh. They're loud, raucous and rude, just as you'd expect crows to be!


Not sure if you've seen this one before. Below is a typical toilet as can be found in most hotels and public facilities. This one is rather big and clean compared to some. Notice that there is virtually no seat. A squat toilet is properly used by planting your feel on either side of the "bowl," squatting down in a deep-knee bend and "having at it!" It's a bit tricky at first, figuring out just how far forward or back one needs to stand in order to "aim straight," but once that detail is confirmed, all is well. The blue bucket in the back corner is for paper (most paper is NOT flushed unless you are in a high-tech facility).


Note the bucket in the front left side of the photo. It stands under a faucet that comes out of the wall. When finished with your "business," you turn on the faucet, run some water into the pail and dump the water down the toilet. The tank on the back wall does not hold water for flushing. In my humble opinion, it is just for show! One must always remember to bring paper in with you when using the "toilet" as none is provided. Neither do most facilities have sinks for washing. One gets used to carrying toilet paper and hand sanitizer at all times!


Here's picture taken on the day I traveled to Norbulingka Institute. I was at the bus station in Dharamsala, waiting for my government bus to leave for the next leg of the journey, when I spotted these Indian families waiting for their bus. Traveling by bus is very popular because it is so inexpensive. My trip from McLeod Ganj to Norbulingka cost Rs12/-, which is approximately 25 cents to travel about 15 -20 miles.


When traveling long distances, people bring suitcases, bags, backpacks, boxes, etc. with them. The government buses are about as roomy and comfortable as a school bus (with many fewer seats) and when filled, passengers are encouraged to stand in the aisles or sit in a seat near the driver. There's little storage room on the bus itself (even though you may want to protect your parcels), so many bags are carried on top. Here you can see the "problem solvers" trying to figure out the best way to load and tie the bags on top of the bus before it leaves the station.


The monkeys are everywhere, though seeing them at this end of town is not quite so common. This revealing fellow (or gal) was one of a troop that climbed the buildings, electric poles and swung on the unruly cables found hanging from poles to housetops. A few moments later, another monkey crossed the road in front of the pedestrians who gave him/her plenty of room. Buddhists and Hindus revere the monkeys, Along with the cows, mules, dogs, etc., the monkeys are never harmed.


...after the rain the mountains look misty and surreal. It's quite moving and mystical here during the monsoons.

On rainy days (there's been quite a few of those, lately!), everyone sleeps late. Shops may not open, the stalls where Tibetans, who are not allowed to own property and do not have the resources to do so anyway, are closed up until the rain ends, and even the dogs lie low until the rain ends.

The above photo was taken on my way to the "best coffee spot in town,"where each order of South Indian coffee is served in an individual French press for Rs35/- (75 cents). The many homeless dogs are tolerated by the townspeople as part of daily life here in McL. The dogs survive by eating from the wet dump sites along the roads until the Welfare Office trucks come to shovel up the debris each day. These scraggly pups are waiting out the rain like the rest of us.


Here's a typical Tibetan stall along Temple Road. Each day, Tibetan craftsmen and women carry huge bags of their wares to the stalls, unpack their goods, carefully laying out each piece of jewelry, blanket, etc., and wait for customers to come along and negotiate for a good price. As you can see, the stall is not much more than some bamboo poles, a few planks of wood for the counter and plastic tarps to line the back and bottom. Rocks are piled up underneath the wobbly counters to add to the stability of the temporary shop.

...negotiation is the name of the game here, although it is a bit unfair to do so with the Tibetan people who are barely making enough money to feed their families each day. I try to keep my bargaining at a minimum or not engage in it at all when buying from the stall owners. Dealing with the Indians, however, is quite another story. They expect you to bargain with them and usually start their prices quite high waiting for the customer to begin the game of "name the next lower price." Much good-natured bantering goes on while a price is being decided upon.


Here, some jewelry is being weighed and the price will be decided upon depending upon the weight of the items. Even though some sellers cannot speak much English, the calculator in hand does all the talking as it is passed back and forth from merchant to customer.


These lovely Tibetan women were leaving the Dalai Lama temple when I asked if I might snap their picture. They were pleased if not somewhat shy. Tibetan women typically wear their clothing as shown here. The long dress is really a wrap-around jumper that ties in the back, and the apron is a necessary part of their daily wear, whether they are in the kitchen or not! I loved the "cowboy" hat on the woman on the left.


Sending packages home is easier than carrying more weight in my bag. This tailor master, Lobsang Ngodup, is preparing a package of wall hangings for me to ship home. India is, according to him, the only country where packages sent through the mail are custom-fitted with cloth wrapping. Lobsang sews, on the spot, a cotton cover for your package; seams are run quickly on his machine and the package is secured in the cloth cover with a bit of extra hand sewing. Then, candle wax is used for extra protection along the hand-sewn edges.


Thanks for visiting my blog from time to time. I know some of my posts are long and probably tedious for my readers. There is so much to share that sometimes I get carried away. I love reading your comments on the blog and look forward to hearing from you anytime!

A Day in the Life

Living in small hamlets outside of McL, are many Indian families. These women were visiting with each other, sitting on rocks close to the road. Renea and I were walking to the booming metropolis of Dharamsala one Saturday when we met them. While their goats and cows grazed along the hillside below, we tried to ask them questions. Although they spoke no English, pictures (having a camera helps one to make friends immediately, as most villagers are not shy about having their pictures taken as long as you show them the results), gestures and smiles helped us to communicate with them.


This young lad was another "local" we met along the way. He insisted on walking with us, directed our picture-taking and was quite assertive for one so young. He carried a small metal pail that had a honey colored liquid in it and several coins that he'd earned from begging in McL earlier that day. A real conniver, he asked Renea for a drink of her water (most Indians and Tibetans drink without letting their lips touch the bottle) and after firmly planting his lips on the bottle and taking a nice, big swig, she told him to keep the rest of it, knowing that he'd probably planned to make the water his anyway!

Road crews are manned (and "womened") by some of the lower castes. This woman, carrying a load of sand in the basket actually had a pretty light load to transport to the workers repairing the road (note the condition of the road beneath her) that day. Many women can be seen balancing stones, bricks and concrete pieces on their heads. They wear a padded cushion beneath the basket to protect their skulls. I've been told that they are paid Rs 10-/ an hour (that's about 20 cents an hour!)


We passed this Hindu shrine along the way to Dharamsala. Ganesh, the god of balance, is on the right. Shrines are often open to anyone who wishes to stop by and pray. Offerings of food, money and flowers are often found at the feet of the statues. This small building sat along one of the steep switchbacks on the road. We climbed a set of steps to reach it and rested in the shade along the way to the "big city." The cow (below) rested with us beneath the beautiful flowering plants outside the shrine.



My dad was a sheet metal worker and would have appreciated the handicraft of this young man. Making aluminum containers, bowls, hinges and other metal objects is apparently a very lucrative business here. In the hill towns, not only do mules carry supplies up the mountains, but people do, too. It's not unusual to see someone walking up the hill with one of the larger trunks strapped to their back. I've seen truckloads of these handmade containers being unloaded in McL at restaurants, shops, etc. They provide good waterproof storage in this very wet area of the world.

Shoe shops are everywhere. Many shops sell new shoes and sneakers (walking on this rough terrain requires new shoes more often than we'd expect). However, shoe repair, a lost art in our neck of the woods, is still very important here as new shoes cost more money than most people can afford. This man tried to sell me another pair of hiking boots (that looked slightly used) and was very eager to have me watch him work.


In McL, Tibetan prayer flags are found everywhere. Prayer flags are screen-printed with passages from scripture, the teachings of Buddha.

This collection of tarps, I believe, is someone's humble home on the roof of the building across from the monastery where I teach. Houses for the poor in India can be made from plastic, corrugated metal, slabs of wood and cardboard. Regardless of the material used to construct one's home, the surrounding plants are usually beautiful and serve to detract from the otherwise unsightly exterior of a family's home.


The mules are carrying concrete rubble that's being removed from a building in town where renovation is being completed (You've seen some of the construction pictures of this building in earlier posts). They scamper down the hillsides on the return trip to eat some well deserved grass once the concrete's been unloaded from the burlap bags on their backs. The herdsman has to yell at the top of his lungs to get them back on the road again. Their bells can be heard jingling past my window on most days. It's a lovely way to wake up!

Water detail is, for some families, a daily chore. This man usually checks the water tanks before loading his bucket for the day. He is standing on the roof of his home which is level with the road where the mules kick by each morning. Note the motorbikes on the roof, too. After bringing the water to his family in their flat below, the family again walks upstairs . Mom and the little boy wait just beyond the brick structure you can see on the lower left for the dad to start up the bike and whisk the family off to school and work. No one wears helmets and kids often sit in front of the driver!

Here are some pictures of my students. The nuns are in the 1:00 p.m. class. The nun on the left is quite shy in class, but as you can see here, is quite a cutie when it comes to taking pictures!

Waiting in the rain for class to begin, we sit outside the monastery that we share space with at Volunteer Tibet. The monastery will not allow us to meet outside the classroom even though there may be over thirty students and two or three teachers in the classroom at one time.

In our 1 p.m. class, there are students from Burma, Vietnam, Tibet, Thailand and France.

These precious monks (four out of the five, anyway) are my students at the Gyuto Monastery on Tipa Road in McLeod Ganj . They are funny, boyish and full of glee, just as you might expect Buddhist monks to be. We laugh steadily as I try to teach them some simple English. I will sorely miss them when I leave in a week's time!

Good night from India!

Hiking to Triund

Last Sunday, I hiked up the local mountain, Triund, with some students and a fellow teacher from San Diego. We left at 7:00 a.m. for the seven hour trek in order to be home before dark. This mountain stands at almost 3,00m. While still on the road to Dharamkot, the next closest hill town, we were met by the many maque monkeys who live on the hillside. They mostly ignore humans except if they feel their young are being threatened. Needless to say, we kept our distance.

As always, I am in awe of the size of what we know as small "critters." Here's a slug found along the road. Check out the size of this guy next to my boot. Apparently, they do not have long life spans, but they make tasty treats for the next generation of offspring. You can often see younger ones feeding on the "expired" elders.


Still down at the bottom of the trail, Renea and I are full of vim and vigor. What we didn't know was how far we still had to go to reach the summit!

The trail was long, steep and very rocky. What you can see here is not even as high as we climbed on that day. I am so glad I had my trekking poles. Although the weather was overcast, it was the perfect day for hiking, not too hot and not too sunny, something most locals don't want when climbing over 1,000m from where we live.

Along the way, we met lots of locals who are out on the trail for a variety of reasons. Some are cutting firewood, others are cutting grass for their livestock, others are leading cows and mules laden with supplies up the mountain. This pesky fellow spent much of his owner's valuable time trying to butt her with his horns as she was cutting branches along the hillside. Eventually, he found some grass to eat and let her get back to work.


As we climbed, we passed these houses on some of the smaller hills below. What you're looking at are the slate roofs of monks' homes who live in this wilderness, a simple but peaceful existence. As you can see, the clouds have already moved in and the town below is invisible.


At our first stop, a cafe where hikers can rest and have a snack and a beverage (notice the crates of Coca Cola at bottom right, delivered to the cafe by mule), we noticed the barn above. This is the typical dwelling for the livestock that the hill people depend on to bring supplies to them each week.

...still we climb...it seemed endless at times, but the views, when the clouds lifted from time to time, exposed such gorgeous views as this one.


Finally we made it to the top. Exhausted but exhilarated, we cheered, stretched, collapsed on the tarps laid out for folks who plan to camp for the night and ate dal and rice to re-energize before the much less strenuous climb back down.
Over the edge of this flat summit were, of course, more cows. Among them was this massive fellow who allowed me to take several picture of him. He did seem a bit unnerved as I attempted to get closer and closer. At the point at which he began to move his legs as if to stand up, I quickly said goodbye and headed back up to the summit cafe where the rest of our group was getting ready to eat lunch.
For those of you who remember Liz Harkes, this shot shows me sending off some of her ashes on the summit of Triund. I'd collected some last fall, a few days after friends and family climbed Vroman's Nose to release her remains, brought them to India with me for the very purpose of spreading her gentle and joyous spirit in yet another place on earth.


After eating lunch, it was time to head down the mountain. It had taken us, thanks to slowpoke Susan, an extra hour to hike up, and we wanted to be down before dark. Two of my English students were our guides that day. Tashi and Balu, a Tibetan and an Indian, are studying yoga and hoping to open their own studio someday. They had the opportunity to practice their English all day and Renea and I had reliable guides to help us find our way.
Balu, above, is from southern India. Tashi, pointing to the mountain, is from Tibet. Tashi escaped from Tibet fifteen years ago. It took forty-nine days to walk to India. He slept overnight on the cold ground with twelve other refugees, having little food and then none when their supplies ran out. He, like so many other Tibetans, is determined to return to his homeland someday and help his family who remains there.




This stone house was entirely handmade . As rocks are for the taking and trees are not plentiful or preferred due to weather conditions and Buddhist belief of not destroying living things.

Gotta go, power's ending. Later!