visiting tibetan refugees in dharamsala | A Little Adrift...Travel the World |

A Little Lama…Visiting a Mini Tibet

22 May 2009 Comments

The blog is going back to India now for a bit longer although I made it to Italy!! There was some visa drama and 22 hours from hell in Delhi, but I will go into all of that later :) My friend Jenn has joined us for a few weeks and she will be keeping an actual up-to-date record what we’re doing on her blog. I am still behind on posts and have just two more cities to bring you all to until we reach Kathmandu – and then maybe I can get you guys up to date with me. So, going back to India, here is a post I wrote a bit ago but haven’t posted because of the power situation!

After visiting the Sikh holy Golden Temple Helen and I headed further north into the foothills of the Himalayas to the town of Dharamsala where a large community of Tibetan refugees live in exile – this town is also the seat of power for the exiled Tibetan government. A couple of miles outside of Dharamsala is the smaller town of McLeod Ganj and this is where the Dali Lama calls home for now.

Helen and I were really psyched by this point to have a taste of something that wa s a bit different from the intense Indian culture. The area of India that we just came from was Rajasthan – and you don’t get much more in-your-face intense than this area of India. McLeod Ganj is like entering a sanctuary after the sensory assault of all of the touristy places we had just visited. The weather was much cooler and the mountain scenery was really splendid. We found a really fantastic guesthouse and camped out for about 5-6 days.

We had some really high hopes to do a lot of hiking into the surrounding mountains but illness alternately struck us both. We had done superbly well throughout India until this point but the traveler’s adage proved true – it’s not a matter of if you’re going to get sick in the country, but rather when. We have been traveling with a SteriPen that Helen brought with her from the states and it saved us money while also eliminated the assault on the environment that comes from mass consumption of bottled water in a country that has no effective waste management system. The SteriPen never failed us but the street dumplings we craved and figured were safe shaved off two full days from our stay in Dharamsala.

I have to admit, at this point I am dreaming of the first world – I am so tried of being sick and hugging toilets – I mean really over it. Again we thanked the heavens for having Cipro with us and were better in just a day each – but not fun and we have vowed to be a bit more careful for the rest of the time that were are traveling in the developing world.

As far as what we did do here in Dharamsala, we both learned a whole lot more about the Tibet situation. Naturally I knew the basics about His Holiness the Dali Lama living in exile because of China, but I didn’t know the numbers. The Tibetan museum is really basic and really centers on rooms full of pictures that tell the story of what has happened to all of the Tibetan refugees crossing through the snowy mountains to find freedom – frostbite, lack of food, and general poverty have meant a lot of strife for the refugees as they struggle to rebuild their lives with the support of the Tibetan government in exile.

Also near the museum was the monastery where the Tibetan monks live – this was a fantastic experience. The older monks were all preparing for the final debates and if you have ever seen a roomful of monks debate, it’s not something you are likely to forget. They emphatically make their points to the other person and then do a large slapping/clapping motion at the end to kind of emphasize the point and throw it to the next person. It was really neat to just hang out in the courtyard and observe the process.

We didn’t get to see the Dali Lama this time around because he is getting older and wasn’t feeling very well. We missed the big “50-years in exile” event by about a week, but the general tone was still there – these people are so peaceful but still want the world to know what’s going on.

Helena and I fortified ourselves on the local food of salted butter tea, Tibetan brown bread and Momos and took a few hikes around the outskirts of town. The Tibetans are really low-key but, this is not to say that we aren’t still in India. We hiked to a small waterfall outside of town and found ourselves, once again, a novelty to the Indians. Here is a mini photoshoot that we posed for – they really are just fascinated by the Westerners.

On our way back from the hike a large and boisterous family accosted us on the small pathway back into town. There must have been at least 12 of them or more and once we agreed to take a picture with the children, the mother of the group decided to gather the whole family together. It was a riot because they all jostled us around so that they could be touching some part of us during the picture – and once one picture was snapped on one of the cameras, the mother would grab our arms in a death grip and hold us in place – as if we were going to dissipate or flee at any moment. The family gave us a good laugh and we literally had to back away from the group after about 10 minutes of picture taking!

We also took a cooking class in McLeod Ganj that was really simple and a whole lot of fun. Sanji Tashee teaches two classes each day with several different lessons. I’ve fallen in love with the Tibetan momos and was super psyched to see that he taught a class that teaches how to make them from start to finish. The traditional momos have spinach in cheese filings; cabbage, onions and veggies; and another mixed veggie once. My favorite of the three – a chocolate momo!! It may not have been a super-traditional Tibetan momo but Tashee won my undying affection with this one -imagine cocoa, sugar and sesame seeds steamed in a dumpling – so good!

One of the coolest parts – we learned how to roll out the momos, stuff them, and then how to fold them into pretty little dumpling shapes. Between the Laotian cooking class and now with the Tibetan momos, friends and family back home can expect a special international cuisine night when I get home!!