Dharma in Dharamsala

           I know that it has taken me awhile to write about Dharamsala. It’s not that I’m completely exhausted from the trip, but I am feeling very strange about coming home soon. I am both excited and anxious. I do also feel a little sad, but I do believe that nine months is maybe as much as I can handle of my life being in flux. It has been very hard to ever feel settled in India. My work is especially unsustainable, because it requires me to push myself hard physically and spend a lot of time alone--not really a great combination. Also, I’ve been in Joshimath and the internet has been extremely crappy here.

            Dharamsala was a welcomed relief from the tedium of doing data entry in Dehradun. I love my fieldwork, but the Wildlife Institute is a pretty bad place to have to do data entry and analysis. There aren’t a lot of comfortable places to sit and the lighting is not great. Even more difficult is the recent heat, which makes it challenging to concentrate. Therefore, we were feeling pretty excited when Alison and I set off on a 12-hour bus journey that took us from 5:00 PM in Dehradun to 5:00 AM in Dharamsala.

            We got into Dharamsala and had to get into a taxicab to take us to where our friend and fellow Fulbrighter, Sara, lives. Alison speaks Tibetan and Chinese but not Hindi. I had to handle the interactions with the taxi driver, which were largely negative. I hate coming to a very touristy place. It’s very difficult to get a good price for anything and most people in the tourist industry are pretty unwilling to please you. This driver went up the hill to MacLeod Ganj—where the Tibetan community lives—so fast that we passed Sara’s house. We told him to go back and he told us to walk! I explained that it was far and he said that it was a one-way street. There are no one way streets in the whole of India! Sure, a sign might be there, but no one listens. I’m speaking in Hindi to you, buddy! Don’t try using rules of the road as an excuse! Also, this was 5:30 AM and I have yet to see a police officer in India do anything before 11:00 AM.

            So we got to Sara’s and then passed out. Around 7:30 AM we went to a lovely coffee shop that makes real espresso, very good omelets, and granola with yogurt. Dharamsala has very good food, both in quality and variety. I’m told that the Tibetans don’t like most of the exotic foods, but tourists do. This is one good part of going to a place that has a large expat community. The rest of that day we pushed ourselves through “bus lag,” which is the fatigue from spending your night on a bus. We ate some more amazing food. Lunch was at a Japanese restaurant and dinner was at a Korean restaurant.

            That same day we also wandered around MacLeod Ganj. The town completely changes between 7:30 AM and 11:00 AM. In the late morning, all the hippie tourists come out. It’s not very appealing. Sara told me that she sees people walking around barefoot. Let me again remind you that we are still in India. I believe that is a great way to get lockjaw. But MacLeod Ganj is also interesting, because it has the largest Tibetan community in India and is where the Dalai Lama lives. It has a very different feel from the rest of India as a result. For example, Sara took us to the Dalai Lama’s residence. During the day, many Tibetans walk around his residence to gain merit. Alison explained that in Tibet, people also take animals on this walk so that they animals can gain merit as well. About five minutes after she said that, a man walked by with his dog. But the dog was a disabled dog. It had casts on both its back legs, which were held up by a small cart. The dog was walking along using its front legs and looking very happy. I have never seen such compassion for a dog elsewhere in India. I’m sure some Indians would do that for their dog, but it’s not really part of the way that people interact with animals here. Walking around the Dalai Lama’s residence, there are great views of the Himalayas. The mountains around Dharamsala are not as large as the one’s in Joshimath, but they are very green. Also, you can see the trans-Himalayas behind them. It is a very different view from what I usually see during my fieldwork. I can understand why the Dalai Lama moved to Dharamsala rather than staying in Mussoorie/Dehradun, where he originally lived in India.

            Sara strongly encouraged Ali and I to contact some teachers while in Dharamsala. She said that the Karmapa was especially easy to meet, which is surprising given that he is the leader of the Kagyu branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama is also a leader of a branch, which gives you and idea of how important the Karmapa is. Ali called his secretary and we were told to show up at 9:30 AM the next day. His residence is at the bottom of the hill and we took a taxi early in the morning and got there early. After walking around the grounds, we waiting in the reception room along with several Tibetans, some East Asian tourists, and two Indian government officials. The Indians were the only people who were late.

            After waiting for a while, we were taken through security and waited in line for our private audiences. The Karmapa is not big into ceremony and walked past us all without any warning, which seemed to alarm the Tibetans. There was one especially eager looking mother, who had her very small baby with her. Alison and I were the last people to meet him, which made us feel comfortable asking him questions. The whole event was very laid back. We were told not to prostrate in front of him and he seemed very relaxed just talking. His presence is difficult to describe. I can only say that is it obvious that he has spent a lot of his life meditating and thinking about the spiritual world. He is my age. Meeting him was one of the main highlights of my trip.

            Ali and I then had to prepare to leave for Bir, which is were our Buddhist teachings were to be held. Bir is about two hours from Dharamsala, and we shared the car with Sara and some of her friends from Dharamsala. Bir is also very beautiful. It is much more peaceful than Dharamsala and the Deer Park Institute, where the teachings were, is a beautiful facility. The landscape reminds be of Mandal, because they are both large, flat valleys in the Himalayas. Many foreigners also pass through Bir and it also has good food as a result.

            I really enjoyed the first day of the teachings that we had. It was a great treat to just take a break from research and thing about spiritual concepts rather than data. The second day, Ali, Sara and I started to experience “burn out.” Although the teachings were a great experience for Ali and I, we had been pushing ourselves a lot during our research and we were struggling to concentrate. Sara felt tired because she has been going to a lot of teachings recently. We skipped the last teaching and went back to Dharamsala early.

That evening, we went thangka shopping. Thangkas are paintings of Buddhas, which are used during meditation. Sara’s friend owns a wonderful Thangka shop, which supports artists who are traditionally trained. Ali got several Green Taras. Green Tara is a female goddess of compassion. I got a medicine Buddha for myself, and a Guru Rinpoche for my mother. Medicine Buddha’s purpose is fairly easy to understand. Guru Rinpoche is the person who brought Buddhism to Tibet. After thangkas, we had amazing Chinese food in a restaurant with a great view of the mountains. Then we went to a Tibetan-run bar. Ali explained that the bar looked very similar to those in Tibet. It had lots of lights and disco balls hanging front the ceiling and it was playing a lot of Tibetan and American pop music.

The next day was our last day in Dharamsala. Although, Ali and I loved our break from Dehradun and its heat, we were ready to go back. I was especially ready, because I knew that I would be going back to Joshimath soon. Ali wanted to go to the Tibetan Library to check and see if they had any texts that she could use. They had one that she did not have for her research yet. While we were in the library, a group of American students came into the main reception area. They were so noisy and didn’t listen to the librarians telling them to be quiet. Most of the girls were dressed inappropriately and one was even wearing shorts. I was listening to them talking and I was relieved to find out that they were High School students. I feel that at age eighteen you can be pretty dumb without it being that big of a deal; but if you’re twenty-one and still too self-absorbed to notice culture, then you need a wake-up call.

Ali and I took a bus from MacLeod Ganj to Dehradun. The first one that we took was from Dehradun to Dharamsala. It was a government bus and filled with Tibetans and Indians. The bus from MacLeod Ganj to Dehradun was almost entirely tourists and some Tibetans. That made me feel safe, but it also made me feel uncomfortable. Some of the women on the bus were dressed as if they were still in Europe or America. One Isreali tourist was smoking cigarettes in the street. I get very embarrassed and also angry when I see tourists behaving this way. I feel embarrassed as a foreigner and angry as a researcher. I have to overcome a lot of the stereotypes about Caucasians when I’m doing my research. I get extremely frustrated when I see the cause of my difficulties. Also, I hate the way that tourists treat India as their playground. I feel that if you’re in someone else’s country, you need to try to follow their cultural rules.

We got back to Dehradun and parted ways. Most of the tourists went onto Rishikesh, which is filled with ashrams. I was very glad to get back home, as I had not slept very much on the bus. I had been thinking about everything that had happened over the past several days. Being tired and hot in Dehradun also made me feel extremely grumpy. I tried to nap, but when the electricity went out in my house, I had to go to the Wildlife Institute to sit near a working fan. I wish that I felt more of a connection with Dehradun, but I almost always feel sad when I come back there after being in the mountains.