Dharamshala was a highlight of my itinerary because I was pining for a visit to the Library of Tibetan Works and Archive. Additionally, being up in the mountains so close to the Himalayas seemed really cool, especially because the Dali Lama lives here in the suburb of Mcleod Ganj. As do a bunch of Tibetans. I sort of wanted to maximize my cultural and ethnic exposure on my trip.
First of all, leaving Rishikesh went smoothly and when I got delivered to my hotel in New Delhi’s Aerocity from the train station by Masan (my driver every time in Delhi so far) and Kawaljeet (who met me at the train station), I was on cloud 9: the Lemon Tree Hotel is a four star hotel and seemed like a luxurious palace after staying in the yoga school for 5 days. There were slippers by the door! There was a nice, fully stocked bathroom with a completely enclosed shower! There was a TV and a little sitting area, room service, laundry service, etc. and in the morning someone delivered an iron to my room! While I self reproach for being “bougie,” Vinayak assures me “there is nothing wrong with wanting to be comfortable.” Before my trip I agonized over what type of India experience to have: ashram, five star hotel, home stay, AirBnB, etc. I guess I have discovered I like me a four or five star hotel just because I can’t afford those types of places outside of India so the splurge has a novelty, but otherwise a nice homestay like the Colonel’s Retreat meets all my needs.
Friday, December 20, 2019
I got prepped for my flight to Dharamshala after a delicious breakfast buffet, made it to the airport and to my gate fairly smoothly, and waited, and waited, and waited… around the time the flight was supposed to take off, it was announced that it was canceled. I didn’t quite realize what was going on, so I identified the two other white people that had been at the gate that were quickly striding off and ran after them like, “Excuse me! What just happened?” They informed me of what was up and we basically stuck together for the next couple hours as we negotiated getting let out from the gate, going to arrivals, and getting our bags back. Apparently the reason was weather—we assumed weather in Dharamshala—it can get quite foggy between the mountains—but lots of people I spoke with assumed because of the protests in Delhi or the low fog and pollution in Delhi. Who knows! But reason 1,999 to book through Maavalan Travels: Kawaljeet took care of everything for me, including rescheduling my flight for the next day, booking me a hotel, and giving me advice on how to get a prepaid taxi to the said hotel. He rocks and I have never felt so at ease with a canceled flight before!
Unfortunately the IBIS hotel I stayed in was a step below the Lemon Tree (which was unfortunately booked up that night), but it had a warm bed, good wifi, and a hot shower. After a little jaunt around the bewildering Worldmark Complex for some “fast food,” I headed back to the hotel where I binged the last four episodes of season 3 of Spiral. Although peeps at breakfast irritated me and the layout of the dining room, staff attentiveness, and buffet offerings were a notch below Lemon Tree, ultimately I have no complaints…
The flight to Dharamshala on Friday went through, but India Air moved the flight up 1 hour! I have never heard of an airline having a flight go earlier. I feel like it had something to do with the weather and just making sure we went, but man I ran through the airport and cut so many people in line (with the blessing of the officials) and I made it! I briefly passed out on the plane, jerked awake about 10 seconds before we landed, and watched the ground meet the prop jets gracefully.
I stepped off the plane and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. It was pretty clear, sunny, warm, and the Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas loomed behind the tiny airport, which itself was surrounded by green pastures and open woodlands. A small rose garden greeted us as we entered the airport to claim our luggage.
The driver sent from the hotel brought me up steep roads with hair-pin curves and the view got increasingly incredible as we climbed to the peak. Upon arrival at Chonor House, I was greeted with a cozy room called the Amdo Room with murals of Tibetan scenes painted on all four walls. (More on the significance of the word Amdo later.) After getting settled, I ventured out to the town were open air market stalls line Temple Road—a narrow one-way road where motorists, scooters, pedestrians, beggars, dogs, and the occasional cow battle it out for footing) and on every street there are tons of shawl vendors, cafes, head shops, alcohol stores, and more. At every step there was a new breathtaking view to take in, on either side of the precipice of the little suburb of Mcleod Ganj. I finished out my little jaunt around town with a mint tea, carrot ginger soup, and chicken roll at Moonpeak Cafe, all of which was delicious.
Saturday, December 21, 2019
My second day, Saturday, was the big day: I was finally visiting the Tibetan Library! My visit began with an attempt to walk to the Library of Tibetan Works and Archive, but I couldn’t find the cut-through path (I went back and forth between where Google Maps said it should be several times, assumed it had gotten over grown, and retreated to the orthodox route on the main road, which was good because I found out later people will hide on the bushes near the path, jump out, punch you in the face, and steal your bag when you pass). In the process I ended up doing half of the walk around the Dala Lama’s Temple, a beautiful walk lined with Tibetan Prayer Flags, spinning prayer wheels, stupas, shrines, and tablets impressed with the script of prayer and painted gold, blue, yellow, and green. It’s also a walk lined with monkeys, cows, and dogs.
Once I back-tracked and went down the regular road, I finally found the small road short-cut that leads into the little Tibetan complex… and found the library… and met the manuscripts librarian! He courteously showed me the stacks and some manuscripts, showed me how the paper is made, how the room is organized, etc.! SO AWESOME. More on this coming in another post.
After that, I wandered around the complex some more, enjoying the sunshine and relative peacefulness compared to the narrow, busy road outside. There I also visit a working ATM! And exchange big bills for small bills at the clerk’s counter—a simple service not always available in India, and that I often take for granted in San Francisco. On top of it all, when I checked my bank balance online later, I found that I got a great exchange rate: 10,000 rupees for $144.00 ($1 = 69.45 rupees).
Due to sheet stubbornness and refusal to barter/get ripped off for a taxi, I trekked back up the hill… which nearly killed me in the thin air, exhaust and hazard from scooters, motorcycles, taxis, and trucks. Half way to the Illiterati cafe, I took a much needed pitstop at a small roadside cafe where I gulped down nearly a whole liter of water. I know how important it is to drink lots of water at an altitude of 6,500 feet! Just a little further I made it to the Illiterati cafe, a very hip, cute coffee and food joint with stuffed bookshelves lining the walls and a small balcony that overlooks the valley and mountain range. I have to admit someone with a saw mill doing construction down the hill harshed my mellow of sitting in the balcony table, and I got cold sitting there after sweating walking up the hill, so I left sooner than I would have liked. The rest of my walk up the hill back to Chonor House nearly killed me all over again, but I did it! Once I was around the corner from my place, I bought two 2 liter bottles of water for my room, went back, and hung around the common areas reading the newspaper. Dinner was a quiet affair in my room, a bowl of thenthuk soup, “a favorite dish of Tibet,” which is a vegetable soup with noodles in broth with vegetables, tofu, and mushrooms (the noodles are more like dumplings, squat little hearty things). I find Tibetan food to be so hearty and homey!
I have been reading a book I got from the Chonor House Library since I came here, a book called Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald. It’s set in Delhi/Northern India and is the story of an Aussie girl moving here to be with her boyfriend cum husband and it is very informative about places, cultural happenings, etc. Admittedly its focus is on the author’s dabbling of all the different religions and philosophies that coexist in India. Paired with Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India by Miranda Kennedy, one can learn a lot about what’s up with India from a female expat perspective. Turns out I really like learning about a place from a memoir of an expat moving there. I remember I read Bad Times in Buenos Aires by Miranda France before I left for Argentina in 2012…
That evening I also listened to part 1 of an apt episode of Snap Judgement (radio program/podcast) called The Search for No Name Aporva, about an American woman getting caught up in a scandal when she tried to adopt a baby from India. I listened to part 2 the following evening. These episodes paired with the book have been good fodder for enhancing my experience of being in India, because they have helped me understand cultural practices better!
Sunday, December 22, 2019 (Winter Solstice)
I made a friend at breakfast on Sunday! A Buddhist nun from the San Francisco Bay Area. We chatted away at breakfast for quite some time, and then did the complete walk around the Dali Lama’s Temple. It was a gorgeous, sunny day with almost totally clear skies. It was very warm in the sun, but if you break a sweat then step into the shade for a while, you get a nasty chill. I was planning on going to the Tibetan Museum inside the Temple complex to watch the 11 am documentary after our jaunt, but they informed me the showing was canceled because they were having electricity issues (a common occurrence in all parts of India). I met back up with her, went around the market a bit together, then we parted ways since she had some work to do—she is doing an online masters program in Buddhist Philosophy through a University in the U.K.
I arranged for a car at the hotel to take me to the Dharamshala Tea Garden to appreciate the weather, but after some discussion between the hotel lady and the driver, I found out he would take me wherever I wanted, and offered some suggestions. I ended up doing the two things I had really wanted to do: visiting Kangra Fort and the Monolithic Temple at Masroor! At the Fort I got an audio tour and it was the first time doing a big tourist attraction like that without a guide. I felt a little exposed because it was all Indian families and Indian youngsters snapping selfies, and all of them couldn’t help but look at me curiously as I passed. Ultimately only two teenage girls asked for pictures. I really enjoyed the history, architecture, and views from the fort. It is a photographer’s paradise for sure. I got pretty clever setting up selfies of myself because I wasn’t really in the mood to ask ask anyone to take my picture. The temple of the fort had the remnants of blocks of carved stones built up, and a quote from the audio tour stuck with me: it took artisans 10 years to carve the stones, and it only took a few minutes for it all to be destroyed in the 1905 earthquake. The audio tour told story after story of sieges on the fort, and ended the tour summarily by saying, “He who holds the fort rules the hills.”
Afterwards I thought my driver was going to squeeze in as many sites as possible on the way back to Mcleod Ganj, but once we saw how much I liked the Fort, he suggest Masroor temple. It was 20 km further, all on winding roads, and it was already 3:30 pm and the sun was lowering itself. However we did have enough time so we set out! He drove a bit fast in order to give me as much time as possible, which he apologized for later, but we arrived about 4:30 and since the temple is at the peak of the hill, the sun had not yet set. I raced up to the overlook of the monument and took it all in. A young woman saw me trying to take selfies and took my camera and insisted on posing me. She put me in multiple poses in multiple locations and really seemed to be having fun photographing me. I was so thankful to her to get some good shots and again felt so much affection for Indians.
A little after that, what turned out to be “family photo album time” commenced. It seemed like everyone who was at the monument was emboldened by the setting sun and started requesting pictures with me. I must have posed with four different groups of families in multiple shots with different groups of from each family. The last one was a little tiring, I admit, but in general it is such a fun way to meet people and exchange some good energy. As the sun set, the snow on the mountains turned pink, and it was a beautiful, peaceful, and exotic end to a stimulating day. I was happy to head home after that, after a quick little roadside chai for 10 rupees! The drive was twisty, cold, and dark, but my I felt very comfortable with my driver and we talked a little about his two sons, his joint family living situation (he lives with his brothers’ families as well, but has his own kitchen so he and his wife can make the children’s lunch early in the morning before they go to school).
I had a simple Tibetan dinner in the hotel cafe, took a nice hot shower and washed my hair, and then cozied up in bed with the hot water bottle the hotel staff places in guests beds every night around 5:30 pm.
Monday, December 23, 2019
Breakfast at the hotel as usual, then a trip to Norbulingka with my new friend! I did feel bad because I had made plans with my driver for the day, but my friend insisted on using her driver probably because he would give us a better price. While waiting for her at the bottom of the hill (sitting in the vegetable market booth because the owner saw me awkwardly standing for 10 minutes in the midst of the hustle and bustle and insist I sit), I hear “Hello, Ji,” and turn to see my driver! I profusely apologized to him for standing him up but he seemed cool about it. Later I discussed how much he had charged me the day before and my friend informed me that was way more than the local price, so I stopped feeling bad for standing him up.
At Norbulingka, which means “precious garden” in Tibetan, I was enchanted by the peaceful grounds, paths, and all around design of the complex and grounds. It was founded in 1994 as an institute to preserve Tibetan arts and crafts since they can no longer be practiced in Tibet due to China’s occupation. Norbulingka is also the name of the Dali Lama’s summer home. The six acre grounds gradually lead past workshops and other buildings through prayer wheels, fountains, streams of water, and prayer stones to the main temple with a large golden Buddha presiding over a wealth of colorful and intricate Tibetan handicrafts. The Buddha is filled with scriptures and texts.
My friend spent her time in the cafe working on her assignment while I explored the grounds and took in the Laso Doll Museum. It was here that I learned Amdo, the name of the room I’m staying in, is a region in Tibet and the people from this region are renown for their literary skills and hard work. Also it was display number 13 and I felt all this was karma for me, because those traits describe me!
I returned to the cafe to enjoy the buffet lunch with my friend. I really like Tibetan food. It’s like a cross between Indian food and Chinese food without the strong, overpowering flavors and spices, and it is more homey and comforting somehow.
I rushed to the entrance to start my free tour with a group of older Sikh men. Our guide took us through each workshop where we learned about the different arts and crafts: woodwork, wood painting, thangka appliqué, metal sculpture, and thangka painting. We then took a brief tour through the Laso Doll museum where the guide answered some of the questions I had and then we ended in the temple with a group photo!
I did some shopping in the gift shop, had some ginger tea with my friend, then we headed back up the hill to our respective homes, where I sit now typing this. I look forward to one last Tibetan dinner in the Hummingbird Cafe at Chonor House, and of course the complimentary breakfast in the morning. Hopefully I will have time to do another walk around the temple with my new friend before taking off for the airport.
Tomorrow I blast off for Delhi again, and meet up with the wedding peeps, at which point the reason for the trip—#Vinrora—will officially begin!
