Journeys: To Dharamshala for the Dalai Lama

McCleod Ganj (October 4-6, 2014)

From Amritsar, we went by road with a car and driver from (Rajasthan Four Wheel Drive, which we highly recommend) to Himachal Pradesh, in the north of India, for a 2-week tour. Our first stop was Dharamshala, home of Tibet’s government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama. Actually, all the action (Buddhist and tourist) takes place in the town right next door, called McLeod Ganj, (Mcclo for short), named after a British lieutenant governor of Punjab. The town is also known as Little Lhasa because Tibetans and their culture permeate the town’s steep, narrow, winding streets. Burgundy-robed monks clutching cell phones and iPads can be seen walking through town, eating lunch in restaurants, having shoes repaired, meeting other monk friends outside the shops, and of course, visiting the local temple.

Monk on cell phone

Notice monk on scooter behind the cow

Monk at temple

Nuns outside the shops

Even nuns need shoes repaired

On our trip to Laos in 2010, we observed the ritual of Buddhist monks with their begging bowls going through the town early in the morning asking for food. Tibetan monks don’t do this. We did observe one Indian monk (dressed in the same robes as the Tibetans) begging; he stood outside the tea shop and café where we were having our tea and the shop manager gave him a few coins.

The weekend we were there was Dussehra, the biggest holiday weekend of the year in India (according to our price-gouging hotelier), and the streets were filled with holidaying families and groups of young friends, mostly from Punjab, the neighboring state. The narrow one-way streets pulsed with small cars and large SUVs, monks and motorbikes, donkeys, dogs and cows, locals and tourists, all scrambling for space between the street vendors on both sides selling fruits, vegetables, cooked food and Tibetan souvenirs. In short, it was mayhem, especially closer to the main square, where six (narrow) roads converged.

Sharing the road

Narrow streets

Sharing the road

Holiday-makers from Punjab inundated the town for Dussehra

Sharing the road

Holiday-makers

Sharing the road

The town is very cosmopolitan. In two days, we sampled the Korean-owned vegetarian Peace Café, Jimmy’s Italian Kitchen (amazingly fresh and tasty tomato soup), and a Japanese-run tea shop. To our regret, the vegetarian Japanese restaurant was closed both days we were there.

Art is on walls everywhere, from the simplest sign to the most complex murals.

Tibet Ink Tattoo Parlor

Sign outside Japanese-run tea shop

Korean-owned vegetarian Peace Cafe

We visited the main temple complex of the Dalai Lama (no photography allowed) and observed that Tibetan Buddhism borrows a fair amount of Hindu-style mythology, such as thousand-armed deities and sages with miraculous powers who save kingdoms. The temple idols are dressed in fine robes and at their feet are packaged offerings of milk, chocolate, crackers, honey and various other goodies one imagines a deity might enjoy. They apparently like the same stuff we do. The Buddha is given pride of place in the center and is raised far above the other idols. Pilgrims came and touched their forehead to the wooden pedestal on which he sat, and the paint was worn through by the oil from so many heads. (Where does the paint go? You don’t see paint on anyone’s forehead and yet the paint definitely wears away.)

The complex (indeed, the entire town) was preparing for the Dalai Lama’s 3-day teaching to start the next day. Inside the temple, right in front of where the DL himself would sit was the section marked VIP. Large film cameras pointed to his chair. Just outside the temple, nestling up to the walls on three sides was a section reserved for “Taiwanese group.” Extending outward from there all the way to the railings were sections reserved for various groups, with an occasional single cushion with a sheet of paper taped to it marked with a handwritten name, such as “Margaret. Do not remove.” The courtyard on the ground floor under the temple was empty now, but the next day it would be filled with people who had come from far to hear His Holiness dispense wisdom for a modern age. They would have to bring their own cushions, and they would likely be waiting in line for several hours beforehand.

The road connecting the temple to the town’s main square (called, sensibly, Temple Road) is lined with street vendors all selling the same thing: jewelry, clothing and Tibetan paraphernalia (singing bowls, prayer flags, religious statues). We opted to buy from a charity shop supporting Tibetan refugee children, and then got sidetracked by a small jewelry store whose Kashmiri owner brought out endless stores of rings, pendants and necklaces for us to browse. At one point, he left his shop and went to get something, leaving us unattended in his store, with all his wares out. We noticed this in the tiny Japanese tea shop as well, where the manager left us to sip our tea in the middle of all her goods. There’s a high degree of trust, perhaps because the Buddhist philosophy is based on detachment.

In keeping with my consumerist American attachment to material goods, we racked up quite a bit of merchandise in a few hours: rings, Tibetan stoles, shirt, singing bowl and cushions (for those Hollywood Bowl concerts!) and organic Himalayan incense.

We found Mcclo to be a sweet little town and one we fear will soon be even more over-developed. At least a dozen more hotels are under construction, and Marina, of course, stopped to comment on and photograph construction methods (plastering with a piece of paper instead of a trowel, improperly blended mortar, insufficient support, etc.) We also observed that, throughout India, men work in salons doing manicures, pedicures and shampoos, while women work on the streets, carrying baskets of sand and stones on their head to build India.