ThisIsVlad

there are a lot of famous places in india… sometimes it seems like every little thing around is famous to some degree. during our two months of traveling around india, we’ve seen our fare share of major monuments, but the most famous monument of all, the Taj Mahal, we ended up leaving till near the end of our time here. out of two and a half months in india, we’d end up seeing the Taj during our last week here. after a while, i was really starting to wonder what i’d think of the Taj. would i be all that impressed? i mean, was it really that much better than a lot of the other really cool places that i’ve seen??

well, when i finally go to see the Taj Mahal, i was completely blown away. it was so absolutely incredible. the whole thing is made of white marble and is gleaming white. it’s so impressive looking that it almost looks completely unreal, like it’s just a mirage floating there in the air. caryn and i spent several hours just walking around it and looking at it from all angles. the other really cool thing about it was that because of the sun reflecting off of it, as the sun sets, the Taj Mahal seems to be constantly shifting colors, from gleaming white, to shimmery golden, and sometimes to a deep dark grey.

the Taj Mahal is described in the book as being “the most beautiful monument ever dedicated to love” and so it seemed fitting that caryn and i would get to see it on March 9th, our anniversary. after the taj mahal, we decided to go out to a nice dinner. we went to a restaurant at a fancy hotel here named Amar Villas. when we pulled up to the place, on a bicycle rickshaw of all things, we started getting a bit worried that they might not let us inside. the guy at the gate looked at the rickshaw driver as if he was the scum of the earth, but then he let us in. the hotel was fancy… i mean *really* fancy. i felt pretty out of place hanging around there in my grubby tshirt etc.

the dinner was super good. i got a Thali dinner that came with a ton of different kinds of curries, all of them tasting really good. caryn’s dinner wasn’t as great, but the dessert she got was sooooo good!! the dinner ended up being crazy expensive though… especially for indian standards. the cheapest bottle of wine there was like 150$!! when i went to use the bathroom, the urinals had little tiny fuzzy mats that you stood on and everything was gleaming clean. it kind of made me a little sad in a way to see all of this. i thought about all the people that i has seen in town that day. the rickshaw drivers, the construction workers, the ticket collectors. this place was beyond their wildest dreams. their bathrooms weren’t clean,and they certainly didnt have little fuzzy mats to stand on… instead, these people just had a hole in the ground. for me, this hotel was way out of my price range, but i know that if i *really* wanted to stay there, i could afford it… but most people around here, they couldnt save up enough money to stay here even if they saved for several years. i would say that this is the kind of place they could only see on tv… but i doubt that too many of them have tv’s. of course, all of this is quite a generalization, there are plenty of indians who are well off, own tvs, stay in fancy hotels, etc etc… but unfortunately, there are so many others that i see on a daily basis, who dont.

*v

we woke up ridiculously early this morning and set off for a small town called vrindavana about 2 hours south of delhi. we didnt know too much about this town other than the fact that it had some beautiful temples dedicated to the hindu god krishna and it was on the way to agra which is our next destination.
we arrived in town and got a room at one of the two guesthouses mentioned in our book.

the first thing that tipped us off that something was odd, was that everyone around us was dressed oddly. in fact, we seemed to be the only people dressed in western clothing. everyone around, including the westerners, were wearing saris or other such garb. and then we noticed that all the men had shaved heads. huh?

so, it turns out, that we are in a town full of Hare Krishnas. this is *the* main center for that group. since this is the town where Krishna allegedly once lived, tons of pilgrims from all over the world come here to pay homage.

it’s so weird being here. the way people here say hello is “hare krishna!” and goodbye is “hare krishna” as well. not to mention that people around are constantly singing “hare krishna” over and over. in some ways, it almost seems like some cliched movie, where everone walks around always smiling and then tries to force you into their cult. i dont know why, but it just seems so bizarre to me that so many of the people here doing this are westereners. they seem kind of out of place in a sari for some reason. anyways, caryn and i spent the day here touring around the temples, taking in the sites, and being determined to not be converted, no matter how much free soap the hotel offers us!!

——-

one other crazy thing happened today. there are monkeys all over town. they’re quite rambunctious and seem to be causing havoc all over town… jumping on buildings, pounding on things, and being really crazy. when we went into one temple that was completely surrounded by frenzied monkeys, the guard told caryn to take off her glasses just in case. you never know with the monkeys. i thought this was a bit overcautious.. i mean come on, i could maybe see a monkey try to grab something from someone if they were sitting on the groun, but would caryn’s glasses be stolen when she was walking?!!

a little while later, my question was answered. we were walking down the street and there was an old indian woman walking ahead of us. all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a monkey jumped from the roof of a building and slowly walked towards her from behind.. it gained speed, started running, and then made a flying leap to the woman’s shoulder, just long enough to snatch her glasses and leap away. it was insane!!! such a crazy sneak attack.

the woman of course was incredibly distraught as the monkey toyed w/ her glasses while sitting perched high above on a rooftop. maybe you’re wondering, why would a monkey need glasses?? well, it turns out, the monkeys are much smarter than you would think. how do you think people get their glasses back?? they bribe the monkey to come down by offering it food. the monkeys here are so damn smart, that they can plan that far ahead…. they specifically go around stealing glasses so that they can trade them for food. a crazy monkey scam!!

*v

india never ceases to amaze me. no matter how long i’ve been here, i’m constantly finding new things that completely impress me. but at the same time, india also never ceases to show me the darker side or life. all the time, i find things that are painful to even look at. each day i pass hundreds of poor old ladies crawling in the filth, dirty men with various limbs all twisted and/or missing, and little children living on the street. i see grown men shitting in the streets, in plain view of everyone around them. i see dead animals, lying amongst the other rubbish on the side of the roads. today i saw a man walking w/ a cane… and when i looked, i saw that the man had no eyes, just holes. i saw an old one-legged man, absolutely naked except for the tatters of what used to be a shirt… as he sat there muttering to himself, the puddle of urine he was sitting in steadily grew as more piss streamed from his exposed genitals. and later, i saw a crowd of people walking down the middle of a dusty road and carrying a stretcher over their heads… the stretcher was covered by a sheet, with clearly defined contours of a human corpse beneath it.

when i see all of these things, i really dont know what to do. i try to look away… but looking away, doesnt help you forget.

*v

there’s something in the air here in delhi that makes me completely lethargic. i dont know what it is, but i just have no motivation to do pretty much anything. i really dont know what it could be. it’s not that delhi isn’t an exciting city, cause it’s very exciting. it’s not that it doesnt have much to offer, cause it does. it’s not that there isn’t anything to do, cause there’s tons to do. yet for some reason, i just cant do anything except for wake up late, eat lots of food, and… well that’s pretty much it. last time we were in delhi, i think we were here for about 4 days and during those days we saw absolutely nothing. this time, now we’ve been here for 3 days, and we spent the first 2 days doing absolutly nothing again! we didnt go sightseeing till midafternoon today. but we finally saw some stuff!!

Pahar Ganj

the area we are staying in is called Pahar Ganj. it’s a dirty grungy area of town that most people from delhi don’t really like. everything is crazy congested, there’s hardly any room to walk because of the constant barrage of rickshaws, cows, and foot-traffic. garbage is everywhere. there’s constant noise. the other day we saw a leashed german sheppard pounce on a child who couldn’t have been more than 5 years old, and the child dodged it and kept walking like it was an everyday occurance. hustlers are everywhere trying to sell you anything from bus tickets, to cab rides, to drugs. but, at the same time, it’s the main area for all the backpackers that come to delhi… and the rooms are cheap. unfortunately, the fact that so many backpackers converge on this place makes it feel too… i dunno.. cheezy? i dunno, i think theres just something that bugs me about places that are so much of a backpacker mecca.

india gate

after doing virtually nothing for two days, i decided to take a walk last night. i just chose a direction and started walking. most indian cities are compact and there’s tons too see in every direction. delhi isn’t quite like that. it’s huge and spread out. during my *3* hours walking, i hardly saw anything other than dark desolate streets. at one point, i actually did manage to stumble up to something cool: India Gate. it’s a huge archway that is a memorial to indian soldiers who died in WWI. the area surrounding the gate had nicely manicured lawns w/ happy indian families walking around or sitting in the grass. men walked around selling cotton candy, balloons, and glowsticks etc. the atmosphere was so different than anything i’ve experienced in india so far. there’s wasn’t a trace of anything hectic or rushed, no trash anywhere, and not a single beggar.

the addiction

i have a shameful addiction. i know it’s bad for me. and i try to do it as seldom as possible. yet somehow, at least once a month, i usually have to feed the addiction. especially when i’m abroad, i try even harder to resist. but it’s not always possible. the addiction is to…. mcdonalds. yes, i just cant keep away. i know all the arguments on how disgustingly bad for you the food is. and it honestly pisses me off to no end that they have multiplied so much, that even in foreign countries, you often see several in one city. i often promiss myself to never go to one again. but then my will breaks down. oh well. no one’s perfect.

since we left on this trip, i’ve gone three times: morrocco, croatia, and israel. yesterday, i decided i had to visit again. i stopped a cab and asked them to take me there. surprisingly, ths man had never heard of mcdonalds. honestly, i got a little satisfaction in that fact! as we drove towards the main restaurant area, i wanted to ask people where it was, but i felt weird. i didnt want to be that tourist, who comes to india and dosnt touch curry, instead taking every meal at mcdonalds. but finally we found it. inside, i walked up to the front, and to my horror, realized that caryn had been right…. no meat. no burgers. only chicken stuff. that’s because cows are sacred in india. i was hopng they might bend the rules (israel’s mcdonalds serves non-kosher burgers!), but they dont. they did have some weird stuff on the menu like the “mc tikki alloo” and the “mc maharaja chicken mac”. i got the latter. it tasted weird as hell. not bad.. but definitly not great. the power went off *twice* during my visit… the customers werent even phased.. they just cheered, and kept eating as if nothing had happened.

food

other than mcdonalds, we’ve actually been dining very well here. delhi has some amazing restaurants to offer. huge varity, and the quality is great. we’ve had some incredible chinese food and delicious indian food. the other night i walked into an indian restaurant, one that was considered a bit more upscale than a lot of them… and yet, there was a tv blaring in the corner and everyone in the room was staring at it while they ate. turnd out, it was the finale of “indian idol” (same as American Idol), and everyone absolutely had to know the winner. when the winner was announced, the whole room went crazy w/ applause! looks like soon reality tv will come here too!

sightseeing

finally today we did a little sightseeing. we check out the place where gandhi was cremated, Raj Ghat. a quiet peaceful place w/ huge lawns.

next, we went to Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in india. it looked realy incredible from the outside, but unfortunately, we didnt get to go inside since we happened to come right at the time of the afternoon prayers, and no tourists were allowed in.

afterwards, we went to the red fort. it’s a humongous fort, and inside there are all sorts of impressive marble buildings. lots of benches for just relaxing and quiet lawns.

photos

back when we were in gujarat, so many people wanted to have their pictures taken with us. it all felt so bizarre, who would want a photo of *us*? since then, there has been much less of that, but today at the red fort, 3 or 4 different groups of people came up to us and asked to have their photo taken w/ us. one of them was a large family, and everyone crowded around caryn as i snapped the shot. one time a man walked up to us, introduced himself and said “this is my son! i would very much like to have a photo of you with him!” he was so excited to have his son be in a photo w/ us. it was very touching. although, i still gotta say, that each time it happens, i really keep thinking “who the hell am i to be posing in other’s photos!! sheeez, i hope other people passing by dont think i’m pompous!!”

mosquitos

mosquitos love me. i’ve always known that. lots of times i’ve hung out w/ people and i’ve ended up with tons of mosquito bites, while the other people come away w/ no bites, or maybe just one. i dont know what it is about me. i’ve always known this, but it was insane today to see it in action. all of a sudden caryn points above my head… there’s a *swarm* of like 20/30 mosquitos hovering over me. i move, they follow. i run, they follow. they just wont leave me alone. i swat at them, but they dont leave. i look at caryn, just 3 feet from me… she doesnt have a single mosquito above her. not one. unbelievable.

just bizarre

traveling around the world, you see people selling all sorts of weird things. strange foods, funny knick-knacks, junk, etc etc. we’ve been in india for 2 months now, and i thought i’d seen it all. but no. as i was walking away from the red fort, a guy came up to me… trying to sell me a beard. yes, a beard. a fake beard and moustache set. i was completely stunned. who the hell sells beards?? and… who the hell *buys* beards. at this point, i realized… i must buy a beard. yes, i must have one at all costs, cause it’s the most random thing ever, and i have to get a photo of me wearing this ridiculous thing.

so, to everyone’s great amusement, i bought a beard. hillarious. everyone around was staring at the ridiculous white guy getting his photo taken w/ a fake beard next to the fake beard salesman. after lots of laughing and photos, i realized… hey, so now what? what do i do w/ the beard?? i tried to give it back, but the guy wouldnt take it. after walking for a while, i saw a random rickshaw driver and walked up to him handing him the beard. and he took it!! as i walked away, i looked over my shoulder to see the rickshaw man standing there by his rickshaw wearing the fake beard i had given him. ahhhh india… land of the bizarre.

the beard salesman

*v

in buddhism, there is a form of meditation called tong-len which literally means “giving and receiving”. in this meditation you visualize yourself taking on all the sufferings of others and giving back to them all of your good karma and anything else that may help them. it’s an incredibly altruistic thing as you are basically doing everything you can for others by taking from yourself. Jamyang, the monk who we’ve been helping, chose Tong-len as the name for his organization.

the organization has taken 10 kids from the beggar’s camps near mcleod ganj and has given them a chance at a future. tong-len’s main aim is to give these kids an education so that when they grow up, they can make something of themselves. but, how can you convince a child to go to school when they dont even have a home to live in or decent clothing to wear? so, tong-len has rented a house to be used as a hostel so the kids can live there. the organization has set up beds there, bought the kids school uniforms, has someone cook them food, pays for their schooling, and pays for all sorts of other stuff to make this possible. thanks to tong-len, these kids, who have had no schooling at all, have been making great progress. in the next month, they plan to add 10 more kids to the program as well.

unfortunately, despite its great motivations, tong-len doesnt really have too much money to acheive its goals. the small amount of money that they have is acquired from a small handful of sponsors and barely covers the basic necesseties for the kids. for instance, although the kids now have new school uniforms (a requirement by the school), back at the hostel, they still wear the same grubby old clothing that they’ve always owned. a few days back, i told Jamyang that Caryn and i would like to donate some money to his organization, and that my parents would like to donate some money as well. Jamyang thought that a great way to put this money to use would be to buy some new clothes for the kids. the kids would be so excited to finally have some *new* clothes to call their own!

so, yesterday, we set out on a shopping trip. before we got to the clothes though, jamyang asked us if we could buy a new water storage tank for the hostel. the water in town often gets shut off, so it’s important to have a tank to store water. in fact, the water at the hostel had been broken for the last 3 or 4 days and they’ve had no water!! next, we went to several different fabric stores and chose the color and type of material that would be used to make pants and shirts for the kids. we tried to pick colors that were not too dark (so the kids wouldnt get too hot), but not too light (so it wouldnt look too dirty) but at the same time we tried to choose colors that wouldnt be too drabn and boring. also, since it’s obvious how important fun is when you’re a kid, we had some of our donation money used to buy some games for the kids. once we bought all the materials, we went back to the hostel and a tailor came by to measure all the kids. the kids filed in, one at a time, and a tailor took down their measurements to make the clothes

all in all, it was a really cool day. it really felt good to be doing something to help all these kids. it turned out that to make 10 sets of pants and ten sets of shirts, the cost of the materials and putting them together only was $100!! the water tank also cost almost a hundred bucks, and we just gave tong-len the rest of our donation money in cash. we know that they’ll use it well. Jamyang says that when the clothes are finished, he’s even going to email us photos of the kids in their new clothes.

i really hope that tong-len continues getting the funding they need so they can keep doing what they do. and even besides getting funding, the battle that jamyang has to fight each day is so rough. fighting against kid’s parents, schoolboards, landlords, etc. he really is doing such a good thing. i’m looking forward to seeing how everything turns out…

*v

refugees

it’s weird, sometimes i really forget about why there are so many tibetans around here. since there are so many of them here and i see them everyday, it just seems natural that all of these people are here. but the thing is, it’s not. not a single one of these people belongs here. the tibetans didnt just up and decide that mcleod ganj is a pretty place and might be a nice place to live.

all of these people are refugees. they’re all here because about 50 years ago, china invaded their country. the chinese came in and killed, tortured, and imprisoned thousands of tibetans. it desecrated sacred sites, tore down monasteries, and completely destroyed the tibetans’ way of life. tibet, when it was still its own country, only had a population of 5 million people, and virtually no army since it believed in being peaceful… an easy target for china. the more i learn about the history of tibet and what the chinese government did to it, the more absolutely disgusted i get.

so, beacause of all this, the tibetans did the only thing they could do… they fled. first the dalai lama fled with a small entourage, and then over the next several decades, many others followed. it’s really crazy for me to think that every single person i see as i walk down the street is someone who had to flee their country. every single person i see has lead a life much harder than anything i can imagine. everyone is here because they are doing what they can to rebuild their lives. it’s a long way here from tibet, and the journey is extremely difficult over high mountain passes w/ no real roads. a lot of them came here with absolutely nothing.

yet, thanks to the tibetan community that came before them, and thanks to help from the indian government and other people from all over the world, they’ve managed to build a town here that lets them preserve their customs and their way of life. they can eat tibetan food, wear tibetan clothing, worship in the tibetan fashion, etc. it’s a really amazing place, this McLeod Ganj. of course, despite everything, life here isn’t perfect. for instance, when we were talking to Jamyang a few weeks ago, he told me that many of the people here are actually more sad than usual when new years comes around. this is because new years is a holiday traditionally spent w/ their families, yet for most people here, a big part of their family still remains in “china”. not everyone can come here, and many people still have to live under chinese oppression. *sigh*.

weather

for the few weeks we were here, the weather in town had gotten worse and worse. it went from raining, to heavy storming, and eventually to snow. as the time of the dalai lama’s teachings came closer, many people started to worry about what would happen to the teachings if it continued to storm (most of the seating area has no roof). someone told me a story that a few days before the teachings started, he asked a monk about what would happen if the weather didnt get better, to which the monk replied “weather? do not worry about the weather. the dalai lama will make sure that everything is fine with the weather”.

a day before the teachings, the weather mysteriously got fixed. the snow had all melted, the rain had stopped, and the clouds parted. everything was all sunshine. right on time!since then, the weather has been a little rainy at times, but somehow it has *never* rained during the teachings. on one day, it was sunny during the morning teachings, but then started raining during the 2 hour break between the morning and afternoon teachings. but, by the time the afternoon teachings started, the rain completely stopped. the rain had only continued for the duration of the lunch break. coincidence?

good timing

sometimes, i think it’s really incredible that we’ve had such good timing w/ where we are during this trip. just watching the news yesterday, it was sad to see that everything in the middle east has become all crazy again. lebanese prime minister assassinated. suicide bombing in tel aviv. israel and the US threatening syria. everything’s a total mess. and we were there just 2 months ago! how lucky are we that we were there then instead of now? and the same thing goes for the tsunami. right now we’re in india and about to venture into South East Asia. what if we had timed our SE Asia visit for just 2 months ago? we would have been there right when the tsunami hit. seems like our timing has been incredibly lucky!

*v

here’s some random stuff about McLeod Ganj. some of the stuff i may have already mentioned in previous posts, i cant remember…

the town itself is tiny. ridiculously small. it’s pretty much just two parallel (semi dirt, semi paved and crumbling) streets with two other even smaller streets splitting off from them. pretty much everything in town is on those two main streets. directly in the middle of town, between the two streets is the chorten, or a temple, which has the red prayer wheels that i’ve posted pictures of. other than the temple, pretty much everything on these roads are small shops which come in 6 varieties: hotel, restaurant, internet cafe, grocery shop, craft store, and book store.

the restaurants are all fairly small, and will almost always serve indian, tibetan, and chinese cuisine. usually they’ll specialize in one of these, for instance, the indian food will be delicious, but the chinese food will suck, but almost always, all 3 will be on the menu. the indian food in this town is really good at some places and the same goes for chinese at other places. as for the tibetan… well… unfortunately, i cant say that i like it all that much. most of it is bland, and kind of boring. the one good thing they have are momos which are dumplings similar to potstickers. they have a variety of noodle soups, vegetable gravies, etc… but i havent been impressed by any of these. they also have this weird grain stuff called tsampa which they either roll into little balls, or make porridge out of. the most horrible thing though, is this stuff called butter tea. this “tea” doesnt have any tea leaves in it or anything… instead it’s like 75% water, 25% milk, and a ton of meleted butter. it’s totally disgusting!!

caryn eating tsampa porridge

the internet cafes here are usually really slow, and get even slower when there are a lot of people on line. the craft stores usually sell t-shirts, prayer flags, incense, bags, and the little handheld prayer wheels that the tibetans always walk around with. the book stores will sell pretty much books on buddhism, the dalai lama, spirituality, and stuff like that. other than the main types of places i’ve already mentioned, there are some yoga places, volunteer organizations, massage places, travel agents, and a few “movie theaters”. the theaters are just small buildings with a huge tv that they’ll play dvd’s on. since we havent seen hardly any movies in the last few months, we were really excited about these and saw the Aviator yesterday.

in front of all these shops, the tibetans have all sorts of little stalls set up. the most common stall you’ll see are ones where people sell momos that they fry up on the street, or sometimes these weird sausage-like things. there’s also an outdoor vegetable market, postcard stalls, etc. during the day, these streets will be full of toursists, monks, tibetans, cows, and stray dogs. a lot of the tibetans here wear their traditional clothing. the women wear these dresses that have small stripy aprons on the front. at night it gets pretty dark as there is not much lighting around, and often the power goes out (almost daily) which makes it even darker! also, as you walk down the roads, you constantly have to watch out for taxi vans that drive surprisingly fast given the fact that they are on one lane “roads” that are packed with people. luckily, they have their horn blaring 24/7, so as soon as you hear the horn you know you need to run off the side of the road or get hit.

if you keep walking down one of these two main roads, you’ll get to the Namgyal monastery which is the complex where the dalai lama lives. it’s a really cool place, and as i mentioned before, the trail around it is a wonderful walk…

temple on the path around namgyal

prayer stones

looking in any directoion from town, you’ll see snowy mountains and beautiful valleys. little colorful houses are perched among the hillsides and that’s where most of the tibetans live. down the “highway”, if you can call it that, is the Nechung monastery. this is the monastery i mentioned in my post about the oracle. it’s a small little place, and since i didnt bring my camera on the day of the oracle, caryn and i wandered down there yesterday.

statue of nechung oracle behind a curtain

there’s more to the town, but not really too much more. really small, really chill, scenic, spiritual, and with incredibly nice people.

oh, i just remembered one thing that happened a few days ago. while walking past a grocery store, i saw a big box of fruit loops, so i decided to buy it. as i walked down the road, a little beggar girl ran up to me asking for mony. i shook my head “no”, and then she started pointing at my box of cereal. how could i say no to that? so i started opening the packaging as she held out her little bowl. as i was fiddling w/ the box, she turned her head and yelled something, which apparently meant “COME AND GET IT!!! FOOD’S ON!!”, cause when i looked up again, there was now a large group of people in front of me, all asking for cereal. people had their hands out, and were also holding out the bottoms of their shirts to make bowls out of them. i was totally swarmed by them, and was pouring fruit loops like mad to everyone. by the time i was able to get away, there was less than half of the cereal box left!! it was nice to finally be able to give something to people after saying no so many times!!

*v

for the last several days, we’ve gone to the dalai lama’s teachings. it has been so cool! there are two sessions per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. for each session, he walks in through the crowd, does the teaching up in front, and then walks back through the crowd. when he is actually doing the teaching, we’re pretty far back, so it’s a bit hard to see him, but when he passes through the crowd, he’s fairly close. it’s so exciting to actually see him!

over the last few weeks, i’ve read a lot about him and he’s one of the most amazing people ever. such an incredibly warm, happy, courageous person. despite the fact that his country has been virtually demolished by the chinese and millions of his people have been killed, he still doesnt believe in violence and wants to settle the situation in a peaceful manner. he gives hope to so many tibetan and many many more people throughout the world. he’s won the nobel peace prize. he’s written so many books to help others achieve happiness, have compassion, and have peaceful minds. each time he walks through the crowd, he just radiates happiness and warmth. i, and everyone else around, literally can’t help but smile when he’s there. you really do feel like you’re in the presence of a buddha. yesterday, we managed to get ourselves right next to the path where he walks through the crowd, and so we were only a yard or two away as he passed by. so great!

although seeing the dalai lama has been wonderful, the teachings themselves have not been so great for us. there’s a variety of reasons for that. first off, as i said, there’s the crazy battle for seats on a daily basis. we’ve had a bunch of difficulties w/ some russians. if you want the full story, here’s caryn’s account of it. anyways, the troubles didnt stop there, and we had to battle w/ them for the following two day until finally we realized we just had to give up. the whole thing was incredibly frustrating.. there were times when i would be saying “hello!!! hello!!!” to the guy who would just stare down at his paper, and ignore me completely and pretend i wasnt there. it was tough trying to keep the situation from pissing us off. second, the reception for the radios we had (to listen to the translation) was often terrible. constant hissing and screeching, and it was tough to hear anything in our headphones above the loudspeakers. two of our radios broke (that’s what happens when you pay $3.50 for a radio!), but then, finally, our third radio actually worked pretty well. lastly, a lot of this stuff was just a bit too much for us. we barely even know the basics of buddhism! although it’s very fascinating, i think taking the one week course was plenty information for us (for now), and listenting to two more weeks of lecture for 5 hours per day, is a bit over the top.

so, i think we’ll probably be leaving McLeod Ganj in a few days. it’s been an incredible 18 or so days. even without the dalai lama, the time we spent here has been a lot of fun, but seeing the dalai lama was definitely one of the highlights!

*v

the Tibetans believe in oracles, helpful spirits that can be summoned to give information and blessings. there are many of them, but one of the most important ones is Dorjee Drakden, the dalai lama’s personal protector spirit. this spirit has been contacted many times by the dalai lama when he needed advice on making important decisions. it is Dorjee Drakden that is summoned when a dalai lama dies in order to find out where the next dalai lama will be born (reincarnated). and also, it was Dorjee Drakden that told the dalai lama when he must flee Tibet and even gave explicit instructions on what route the dalai lama must take for his escape.

the oracle is talked to through a human medium. there is a long intricate ceremony where the abbot of the Nechung monastery, while wearing a huge ornamental headdress goes into a trance. as he gets deeper and deeper into his trance, the spirit enters him, which causes his face to transform and he starts hissing!! at this point, Dorjee Drakden, by using the abbot’s body, can give blessings or tell the future. if you’re interested, you can read an interesting article about the Nechung oracle here.

i’ve always had this huge fascination with the supernatural, and although i’m too grounded in physics to believe pretty much any of it, i’ve always had this hope that someday i’d be able to witness at least something that can’t be explained by science. all of a sudden, it seemed that i might finally get my chance when a friend told me that in a few days they would be summoning the oracle down at Nechung monastery. i couldn’t believe it… how exciting! the only thing left to find out was when it would happen. this is something that can be incredibly tricky in India. hardly anyone ever knows the exact date or time of anything. any info you get on pretty much any event is usually second hand, and often, even if you directly ask people who are organizing an event, even they wont be able to tell you when. scheduling things isn’t India’s strongpoint. a few days later i finally got the word… the oracle would be summoned the following morning at 6:30AM. and i was told to get there *early* cause the monastery is small and it fills up quickly.

should i go? the problem was that this day would be my one and only day off to sleep in. the one free day i had between the Buddhism class and the dalai lama teachings. i was also planning on volunteering for Jamyang that day too, but i wouldn’t have to get up at 5am for that!! i so badly wanted to sleep in! plus, what if i had gotten wrong information and this was not the actual date/time and i got up for nothing? or, what if i got there and they don’t allow non-monks inside? but i just had to see this oracle. definitely something not to be missed, so i decided to go for it.

the next morning at 5am, i got up in the freezing cold and pitch black. it was going to be a long walk in the dark to the monastery, and i was all alone since caryn wasn’t going to go. i set out down the crumbling dark road w/ a tiny almost useless flashlight. at this point, my main goal was to not fall off the cliff and also not to get run over by the few taxi vans that would barrel by me every once in a while. as i was walking, suddenly someone hissed at me. i swung my flashlight towards the person but they just stood there and didn’t say anything. oh crap. what did this person want? why were they standing alone in the dark on this road waiting for me? well, as i got a little closer, it turned out that the “person” was actually a tree, and the hiss had come from a broken water pipe. oops! as i continued walking eventually i would run into small groups of Tibetans walking down the road. they all were elaborately dressed up and muttering prayers as usual. nice! this was a good sign that there was actually something going on at the monastery today! after a bit i saw a large boulder in the middle of the road. why was there a boulder in the road? i kept walking towards it, keeping my flashlight on it the whole time… when i finally realized… it was actually a Tibetan woman squatting to pee. doh!! and i had been shining my flashlight on her for a while now!! smooth.

eventually i finally got to the monastery. it was still completely dark and there didn’t seem to be too many people around. pretty much all of them monks. was it ok for me to be here? finally i asked someone about the oracle and was told that the oracle was actually the following day!!! there was supposed to be a “long life ceremony” there this day and that’s why people were coming. DAMN IT!! i had gotten so little sleep for nothing!!! for a minute i thought about staying for the other ceremony, but the idea of sitting down here in the dark for 2 hours waiting was really unappealing, so i went back to the hotel room.

after getting a tiny bit of sleep, i went to go help Jamyang some more w/ his finance spreadsheets. all day i kept thinking about how bummed i was that the oracle thing wasn’t that morning. should i really get up the following day a second time at 5am to see this oracle?? i decided i had to do it.

the following morning, waking up was even more difficult. ouch. fortunately though, since i had already made the trip once, now i knew that the taxis actually run at 5am, so this time i was able to catch a cab down the hill. when i got to the monastery, there was already a long line of people waiting to get inside. the line wrapped around a huge courtyard and then continued up some stairs and away from the monastery. there is a Buddhist tradition where you are supposed to give a Kata (a long white piece of silky fabric) as an offering and people in line were buying them, so i got one too.

everyone there seemed to be incredibly excited to witness the oracle and the atmosphere was quite electric. there were monks dressed up in special headdress who would every once in a while blow these 7 foot long horns. one of the horns was high pitched and the other made a very low and ominous sound. the monastery itself was very beautifully painted. it was all just so eerie to be standing there in the murky dark, listening to the ominous horns, and waiting for this spirit to descend. unfortunately, i had left my camera at home, and didn’t get any photos of all of this.

after a while, the doors to the monastery were opened and then a few special people from this office were allowed to enter. this is when the insanity started. as soon as the waiting mob saw that a few people had entered, others started to run towards the temple to get inside. all of a sudden, chaos ensued. everyone started running for the monastery doors. the line all but vanished. and then people on the stairs started shrieking as they were crushed forward and pushed down the stairs by the eager people behind them.

it wasn’t yet time for people to go inside, and so the few monks around frantically tried to stop the crazed crowd. but it was hopeless. every time a monk would catch someone, 20 others would run by him. little old ladies were scrambling around dodging monks and running as fast as they could for the monastery doors. people were yelling, trying to get control of the situation, but the mob wouldn’t listen. i stood there trying to decide what to do. should i join the people who were abandoning the line and screwing everyone over by running to the front? or should i try to be good and wait it out? i decided that cutting in front of others who were waiting in line would be pretty much the same as stealing, and that stealing at a monastery just wasn’t quite right. then the monks managed to shut the doors to the temple and blocked off the stairs w/ benches so no more people could come through.

i waited to see what would happen, and hoped that all those people that had rushed in from the back of the line would be kicked out, but they weren’t and when i heard the ominous horns sound again inside the building, i knew that the ceremony had started. i was pissed. really pissed. i had gotten up at the crack of dawn *twice*, and now i would have to miss the ceremony because a ton of people ran in front. i couldn’t even imagine how the people at the front of the line must have felt!! they might have been here for hours now waiting, and now they couldn’t go inside. grrrr! luckily, it turned out that all was not lost. the people inside would get to witness the ceremony, but after the ceremony, the oracle would come outside and hand out seeds that were blessed (since the oracle had touched them).

so, it sucked about the ceremony, but at least i would see something! as time passed, people outside started getting impatient. people here and there would run and cut into the line. others would just start shoving ahead. the monks struggled to control the crowd. there were parts where there would be a “wall” of monks 5 or 6 deep bracing themselves and trying to hold back people who shoved forwards. it was completely ridiculous. and still, every once in a while, there would be screams from the stairs when huge groups of people would be pushed down the steps. at this point i started worrying that people would get hurt. there was a railing around the place where the line was, but there was also a courtyard which had no barrier between it and the 2 story drop into the cement moat below. often monks would stand near the edge and when the crowd would surge forwards, i was sure they’d get pushed off. luckily, as far as i saw, no one fell in.

a while later, the doors to the monastery swung open. it was time for the oracle to come out. and so, all hell broke loose. the crowd went absolutely nuts. everyone surged in all directions and the desperate monks were completely overrun. there wasn’t even a trace of a line anymore, just a crazed mob pushing up the stairs towards the oracle. you couldn’t move in any directions other than the direction where the hundreds of people behind you were pushing you. it was hard to breath. your ribs were being crushed and you were constantly in danger of losing your step as you moved this way and that. i’ve been in lots of crowded situations… packed concerts, mosh pits, but i’ve never experienced anything like this. where you literally didn’t have an inch of space to move and had absolutely no control over where you stepped.

people everywhere were screaming as they were pushed either up the steps where they tried not to trip on each upward step, or pushed down the steps as the people up top pushed back and people would almost fall down having to grasp the people in front of them. there were people actually climbing the stairs *on the outside of the railing*, pulling themselves along with their arms and trying to climb over as monks frantically tried to push them back. utter chaos. i slowly worked my way up the steps as the crowd pushed me forwards. it was really freaky, and lots of times i lost my footing, but luckily didn’t fall.

finally, i got to the top where people were forced into a single file line by the monks, and pushed towards the oracle. in order to keep the crowd moving so as to prevent an accident, the monks hastily grabbed the Katas from people’s hands and tossed the quickly into a huge sack. and then i saw him. an elaborately costumed Tibetan, sitting on a throne. his face was all twisted and angry looking and he was hissing at people in an animalistic fashion. it was pretty crazy… but i only got to witness it for like 2 seconds before i was pushed ahead, he dumped a small handful of sacred seeds into my palm, and then i was whisked ahead.

i then stood around for a while, trying to peer over people’s heads to try and get another glimpse of the oracle. it was tough to see since he was sitting down, but every once in a while he would stand up, hiss, and throw handfuls of seeds out into the crowd. lots of people were dropping to their knees and crawling on the ground trying to gather each little seed they could find. after the last person passed, the oracle jumped up, and went back in the monastery. the mob surged forward, but the monks were able to slam the doors before anyone got in.

and that was that. as the crowd dispersed, certain monks walked around and would hand out sacred ribbons to people, but as soon as anyone saw these given out, that monk would be swarmed w/ people not leaving him alone. people were actually reaching up under the monks’ robes trying to snatch a ribbon. the monks literally had to *run* from the crowd. appalling.

i left the experience feeling really sad. Katas, which were supposed to be ceremoniously handed over, had instead been hastily thrown into bags. instead of slowly walking by the oracle and honoring him, people in the end had to just run by him quickly to make more room for those behind. this was supposed to be a beautiful ceremony. something really special, and spiritual. instead it was turned into a hysterical mob scene.. as if it was a rock concert or a celebrity autograph session. these people’s religious devotion that had seemed so pure and beautiful the day before, had shown a darker more manic side. how could these people not respect each other, the monks around them, and even the oracle itself? was it that crucial to be the first to get a handful of seeds? and *luckily*, no one was hurt. on the news just last month, almost 300 people died in a stampede at a Hindu temple. in India these things are common place. *sigh*

but anyways, despite being really disappointed w/ the crowd, and being disappointed at missing the ceremony, i was really excited that i at least witnessed something. seeing the oracle was really cool. and the blowing of the horns and costumes and everything before the ceremony had been quite a sight. i don’t really believe in oracles. the few seconds that i got to see this one, didn’t really give me much of a chance to change my opinion. it could easily be an act, right? but still…. there definitely was something really exciting about it all. the atmosphere surrounding the ceremony (sans mob), was so eerie and unnatural, that in many ways i felt as if i had seen something out of this world. often, it’s the people’s perceptions of a thing that give it its power.. not the thing itself. if people see the oracle as a magical spirit.. in a way he is magical. if they see the seeds as sacred, they are sacred. and now… i’ve got a small handful of sacred seeds. my luck is on the upswing.

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here are the first two sets of photos from McLeod Ganj. a lot of them are blurry because of fog, and there are too many photos of either snowy mountains or monkeys, but oh well!

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