Dharamsala / mcleod ganj 2022

Dharamsala / mcleod ganj

Sep 1, 2022

Day 1 of His Holiness' DaLaiLaMa's arrival

A man lies on the board of an empty street stall and shouts in Tibetan. His pants were dragged below his underwear and fortunately the gray underwear was in the right place. I asked if he wants laphing (a type of rish dish)and he just repeats laphing. He banged the board twice with both hands and seemed to want me to sit with him. I sighed with relief when I see that the laphing maker is not there and proceeded forward with less guilt that I did not have the means to help him. Plus, a monkey already came into my room through the balcony and took all three apples I had left so I was in no mood for more shenanigans.

He looked around 40 years old with shaggy long hair that reached below his ears and seemed to be handsome in his youth.

Update from summer 2023:

According to Sonam, the beggar has died recently.  The man was sponsored by someone who pitied him to sell Momos (dumplings) for some time. Unfortunately he did not manage to remain sober.  He fell off the Stairs of Yongling one day and died due to this drunken accident. Om Mani Padme Hum. 

Sep 2, 2022

Day 2 of HH DLLMs arrival

I went to a Cafe for breakfast because the kitchen was not accessible at the time when I woke up.

Cafe owner: "Yesterday I got a text from her, she was very anxious."

Guest, southeast asian (han) woman around her 50s. "Do you have *** phone number?"

"No, he does not have a phone."

"It is very nice that you employ both of them so they can take care of the baby."

"They are so young. She is so young."

"She went to Mumbai. She is now in Delhi."

Mumbai is so dangerous. Did she go to MT? (manju ka tila a bordered city within a city. )

No. She met some kind people so fortunately nothing bad happened. Her phone is not reachable.

Maybe she does not have a charger and that is why it is off?

No she turns it off all the time, her father told me.

Does she have money?

I guess she does.

Most tibetans stay in MT when they go to delhi. The big cities are very dangerous. Especially if you don't know anyone."

"Yes, very dangerous."

"How did she make it to Mumbai. It's so far away.

"We all want to ask her that. How did she get to Mumbai?"

"You know after giving birth most women suffer from anxiety."

"She had some history of issues. She used to stay in the mountains when she was 13 or 14. Now, she lost all her documents. She lost her baby's documents. Her family is working on obtaining documents to go to France."

"Many tibetans want to go to France. Then they can go to other European countries As well. But I don't know why they want to go. Do you have a passport?"

"No. I have the identity card. The yellow book."

"The yellow book (chuckles at the casual phrasing)."

"I can apply to become an Indian citizen but I don't want to. Sometimes even when one becomes indian one cannot own property here."

...

Guest: "I hope *** rinpoche can visit tibet again

Nowadays it is very difficult. Most people cannot visit.

I heard the peopme who work for the office of DLLM cannot visit Tibet. 

.

"I was a monk in ***, tibet."

"Which Temple?"

"Sera. Back in 1984."

"Could you do sadhana and othe retreats?"

"Yes but we had to apply for permission. We also could not attain higher levels of study."

"Did she (refering to his wife)see what this place was like?"

No. She has never been to tibet. She was born here.

Some invest hope in xijinping because his father and mother were Buddhists. But we don't know.

"No matter how much compromise you give the Chinese government does not respond. The middle way approach is preferable. The situation is worse now. They just make a show of compromise to ease th western pressure on the tibet issue."

"30 years ago i could do long periods of meditation in **** monastery. Nowadays we can only see the place for 2 hours. And it costs 120 dollars."

"120 dollars!! That's a lot of money."

Then the political discussion was interrupted by the start of rain. The mom went to check on their baby who turned to also be a girl. She was crying so the dad, the Cafe owner, also went upstairs. The guest checked on her smart phone and continued her studies in Tibetan. She has short hair and wore a yellow peanuts themed t shirt. 

Later I heard my host, a pahari from Himachal Pradesh. call the monk staying at our inn "panditji." Then I realized this is their new found identity in India: "Pandey." A title which i thought was reserved for the Brahmin caste, now given to the learned men from Tibet as well. Even after they left the monastery, they can continue to enjoy this prestige. This is a small point of comfort despite all the clashes between formal religions nowadays. The old "lax" standard of Hinduism for Brahmins (the fact that they can get married and have children) provide the refugees with some social position with the caste conscious Indian society. 

Sep 4, 2022

More from day 2:"Her whole family went and tried to find her. They spent almost 1 lakh rupees trying to find her!!"

 "She ran away once when her baby was only 5 months! Now she's gone again!"

Day 6:

I went to the same Cafe again. At first the same monk was there conversing with a Canadian girl who were also there last time after the gossip intervention session was over. They discussed attachments to money and problems of technology. The monk tried to convey his sense of worry over "society" which he thought was a problem. Then later he realized the right word he wanted to use was suicide. He said it is a lot in Japan. The girl said there is also a lot among the "natives" of Canada. She tried to explain the history bit unfortunately she used the word "government gave land to the indigenous" which is probably concerning in itself. But their conversation was overall pleasant. A beggar who was blind came in with his guide. I have seen him around. this time his guide was a child. The monk who was studying next to the two conversationalist gave them some money. The girl also gave them some money. He Continued to stand there a while but I did not reach for my bag. They left after the owner shooed them a couple of times. The beggar was repeating some religious expressions to make his situation seem dire. 

The protagonist (male) of the missing wife was also serving customers today. He looked like what westerners mostly think of as a a smiling buddha. The southeast asian woman joined the Cafe later and stood near the espresso machine asking if he needed money. She also suggested him to contact their mutual friends in Delhi to check on the wife. He was not very audible but also seemed to be used to this level of concern. He carried on with his work and the woman sat down. She was wearing a t-shirt with Tibetan text on the back today. 

A mutual friend of Sonam and I whom I met yesterday for the first time joined the Cafe as well with another friend. He was white and had a big beard. We shared some more food and my attention left the Asian intervention. 

Academics Against Uyghur Genocide: Zvi Ben-Dor Benite

Given the current state of affairs, I have decided to create this initiative to connect academics who are against the current genocide against Uyghur culture. As the Dalai Lama has said in the context of Sino-Tibetan relations, studying history together, alongside non-Asian historians, is a possible route for addressing the present. 
 I hope to garner more support in the future. There is currently a twitter account for posting happenings related to such efforts within academia. 

Here is a book review I read yesterday. I am sharing it here with some of my Mandarin annotations for those people interested in peace, Uyghur history, and preserving Uyghur culture.

----------

Book review: Holy war in China

Benite, Zvi Ben-dor

The Journal of Asian Studies, 2005, Vol.64(1), pp.170-172

Visiting the Tibetan Mindrolling Monastery of Dehradun

During my stay in Uttarakhand, the northwestern province of India last month, I visited Mindrolling Monastery in Dehradun with V. I went there not only because the place is top-rated on tourist sites for Dehradun, but also because I have been interested in the Tibetan struggle for independence and I have visited Tibet before this trip. 

First I visited the dharma hall, which was hosting a dharma class upstairs. Some monks looked down curiously. I could not step in the dharma hall 法堂 but I admired the wall paintings and drew some sketches of the deities portrayed. 

Then we proceeded to the Great Stupa, the major point of interest. Construction just completed this year in May.

We had to take off our shoes before we entered the temple grounds as well as this pagoda, which is customary for most religious sites in India. I thought was a sign of Indian customs combined with a Tibetan religious setting (Religious sites in Tibet did not require tourists to take off our shoes.). 

Aside from the Dalai Lama's blessing of the stupa, which was commemorated in 2002 on a plaque, I also found a plaque that wrote in Tibetan and English that "the foundation stone for this stupa of Buddha's descent from Devaloka which liberates upon seeing has been laid by the honorable [Indian] defense minister George Fernandes on the 29th of April 2000." So it clearly has some geopolitical significance as well. I looked up the word devaloka: "In Indian religions, a devaloka or deva loka is a plane of existence where gods and devas exist." Another point of synthesis between Tibetan and Hindu culture.

Inside this pagoda structure were two floors. There were two exquisite installations of Tibetan cosmic mandalas, which were surprisingly better than the ones I saw in Lhasa, one Buddha statue, as well as wall drawings of stories, flower vases, and Tibetan medicine diagrams. No photography was allowed. I paid my respects to Shakyamuni and left.

The English text below says, "This representation of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet has been built in the year 2002 in order to commemorate the 360th anniversary of the establishment of the Gaden Phodrang spiritual and temporal government of Tibet."

Some mini-stupas with a giant Tibetan prayer wheel inside. While I was pushing one, an Indian girl asked me in Hindi what that was. I could only shake my head since I only knew the Chinese name at the time...

Monkeys seen on-site

Very inspiring words from the 14th Dalai Lama

Flag with sutras written on them

Amusing sign (along with no loud voices etc.)

I was slightly amused to discover that the monks and people who worked there speak fluent Hindi. V spoke to a postcard shopkeeper in Hindi about Xi Jinping's recent visit to India, while I had to speak him in English. I realize that as I write this, my impression of "the exiled life" is limited to elites, who have the luxury to retain a clear identity distinct from their host culture. Whereas the Tibetans who have lived in Dehradun assimilate very well, at least on the level of language.

Here is some background from the Mindrolling Monastery website regarding the particular sect of Tibetan Buddhism based in Tibet: 

The Nyingmapa or Nyingma School has six main monasteries of learning and practice. Of the six, Mindrolling was one of the largest and most important practice and study centers in Central Tibet. Established in 1676 in the Drachi Valley by the great Dharma king Chögyal Terdag Lingpa, Mindrolling attracted monks from the length and breadth of Tibet.

Mindrolling was, and is today, considered by all the great masters of Tibetan Buddhism, and especially by all the teachers of the Nyingma lineage, as an inspiring example of the practice of the pure and profound Dharma of Vajrayana Buddhism. An unbroken lineage of great masters continues up to this day. With the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959, many Tibetan masters were urged to flee in an attempt to protect their lives and thus the precious teachings.

Brief history of the monastery in India:

Mindrolling began to re-establish its monastic seat in exile in Dehra Dun, India in 1965, through the untiring efforts of His Eminence Khochhen Rinpoche and small group of monks. Embarrassed by the wilderness and rough conditions on the land they had selected, they first worked to build monk's quarters and the main shrine room before inviting His Holiness the XIth Mindrolling Trichen to assume leadership. His Holiness then moved from Kalimpong to Dehra Dun in 1976.

Finally, on the subject of exile and nostalgia, it reminded me of a Tibetan song the U. Wisconsin Madison summer language class presented, that left a deep impression on me. Basically it's written from a kid's voice, asking her father, mother and relatives to teach her Tibetan and maybe show her Tibet one day. As I left monastery grounds, I saw a Tibetan girl hop on a motorcycle with her family. Without much time or resources to research, one can only wonder how many Tibetans still can speak Tibetan while in exile in India.