After a filling healthy breakfast at a Tibetan restaurant I headed to the Tsuglagkang Complex, home of the Tibetan Government in Exile.
The plight of the Tibetans is really tragic and it was a saddening experience to look through the museum which tells the story. Apparently the Chinese have plundered and destroyed the cultural and religious sites of the Tibetans attempting to assimilate them into the Cultural Revolution (liberate them, according to the party line).
Apparently it is customary to do a clockwise loop around the complex - stopping at the museum, art galleries, two beautiful though modest temples and the living and administration areas. The residence of the Dalai Lama is also in the complex.
I took a long time walking through, stopping to spin the "Mani Prayer Wheels" which apparently are filled with sacred chants and each spin gives you merit as if you had spoken the "Om Mani Padme Hum" chant - I don't know exactly what that merit counts for but I have been chanting it quietly under my breath ever since.
I stopped at the Namgyal Cafe which is a vocational training centre for new arrivals from Tibet to give them a start in the hospitality industry. I had a nice Herbal Tea and a piece of carrot cake, feeling very happy that it not only tasted nice and was peaceful there, but that I was helping a worthy cause. I came back again later and had my dinner there, which was also high quality.
The Dalai Lama had recently been awarded a gold medal from the US congress - and there had been much celebration in McLeods Ganj. A fellow traveller told me however that the presentation on the BBC cable TV news service had made a big deal about George W's speech, playing it in full with his lines about "human rights and self determination" etc. but when the DL came on for his acceptance speech rather than translate it they had cut in with the political commentators analysing Georges speech in terms of the conflict against the democrats in the US parliament rather than focussing on the DL and the Tibetans.
I had a quiet afternoon, looking around the handcraft shops and thinking about the injustices in the world not just that of the Chinese against the Tibetans, but the US against the Iraqis, Mugabe against his own people, the Australians against the Aborigines.... It was really quite depressing.
I had a quiet interlude at a lookout reading my book and "people watching".
A Japanese looking traveller was sitting reading quietly a big fat book in English;
An English man was patiently trying to teach a tibetan monk some english "Did you come from Tibet", "Yes I was walking from Tibet", "Were you very tired" ' "Yes I was very tired".;
An indian family arrived and were taking turns at lining up different configurations of the family for scenic photos against the lovely back ground. Noisy and disorganised, trying to get the children to line up and smile. One of the children slipped over on the concrete and everyone laughed, I wondered why we laugh at peoples misfortune. She was crying and after a little while I think they took her more seriously and the women gathered around her to console her. Meanwhile a little boy runs off and slips. An accident? - he starts to cry too, the attention turns to him. I look over and see that the first girl isn't crying any more - she is laughing at him.;
There is an old tibetan lady sitting next to me, she is twirling some sort of cylinder mounted on a wooden stick - I assume it is some kind of meditation aid or sacrimental ornament - a portable mani wheel perhaps?. She looks at me and pulls out a bunch of woolen bracelets that she wants me to buy.
It was a pleasant relaxing interlude - I am enjoying sitting and watching as life rambles on around me.
I caught the evening bus headed towards Rishikesh. This one is a tourist bus. Only half full, mainly western looking backpakers headed to the next stop on the spiritual tourism trail. Next to me on the bus is a girl from Melbourne who is travelling around India on a motorbike with her boyfriend. She is an unemployed graduate of Journalism who was interviewing a number of escaped political prisoners to put together a piece for community radio that she hopes will help her CV - her boyfriend went on ahead to Rishikesh on the bike while she finished off her work. There is an Israeli couple in front, an English couple behind. All moving along - some have been travelling for years, some for months. Interesting people with interesting lives. Everyone with a different story - most looking for something, but not sure quite what hoping to find the answer on the road or in the mountains.
