Dharamsala was originally one town- but it was literally split in two by a huge earthquake in 1905. Now there are two towns, Lower Dharamsala and Upper Dharamsala- usually known as MacLeod Ganj. MacLeod Ganj is the home of the Dalai Lama and his government in exile. Home also to many Tibetans who have fled Tibet, it is more a Tibetan town than an Indian one. There are many Buddhist temples, prayer wheels, colourful prayer flags strung through the countryside and Tibetan Buddhist monks in their red robes wandering the streets. It is high up in the Himalayas, so when the clouds lift the view of the peaks is astounding.
We were lucky to find/ bargain our way into a cheap room- 150 rupees (about $3.50). However, it is down a long hillside of steps- re. the steps, if you watched all the Harry Potter movies back to back, we’d still be climbing- so we plan our days around not having to go up more than once.
Our next door neighbour is a Tibetan Lama- Lama Gele. He only arrived from Tibet four months ago, and is trying very hard to learn English. He often invites us into his room for breakfast, tea, or to circumambulate the temple with him- something Tibetan Buddhists often do. We laughed, because he’s just learning English words like “old” and “new”, but he knows the word “circumambulate”. He’s very keen to practice his English, and we often help him with his lessons.
I caught a bad cold from the long train journey, so we’ve been taking it pretty easy. Lama Gele gave me some “Dalai Lama medicine” for my cold so he’s sure I will be better soon. We’ve met up with our friends Amy and Eric here. They’ll be traveling with us until late July. We’ve hiked out to a spectacular waterfall in the nearby village of Bhagsu, visited the complex with the main temple, Tibet Museum and Dalai Lama’s residence, and joined a local yoga class, but most often we find ourselves taking shelter from torrential rain in various restaurants and tea shops (India is in the height of monsoon season). This is not a bad thing, as MacLeod Ganj has some great food- a mix of Indian and Tibetan, as well as some of the best baked goods in India, and a wonderful vegetarian Japanese restaurant. We stopped by the Japanese restaurant the other day- as usual arriving dripping wet, not having successfully beat the rain- and finally had an opportunity to practice some of our Japanese.
Yesterday we hiked up the Dharamkot, a small, peaceful village just up the mountain from MacLeod Ganj, and wandered around there, until the rain again chased us into a café. Tonight we plan to journey onwards to Manali, braving the nerve-pinchingly narrow mountain roads by night on a government bus. Perhaps it’s a good thing that we won’t be able to see the steep drops.
