Between Monks and Monkeys

Photos: Niue

flyingpiglet — Sun, 29 May 2016 07:56:00 GMT

A small but fascinating island in the Pacific. It's a great place to visit. Clear water, warm climate, friendly people, delicious food, good accessible snorkelling and diving, spectacular cave formations. Highly recommended. We stayed at Matavai Resort (excellent!) but there are guest houses and backpackers available too. Flights twice a week from Auckland, New Zealand.

Photos: Sri Lanka

flyingpiglet — Thu, 28 May 2015 21:16:00 GMT

A quick look at a fascinating country

A quick look at Sri Lanka

flyingpiglet — Thu, 28 May 2015 21:06:00 GMT

“Aryubown” – Sri Lankan greeting meaning ‘long life to you’.

I spent a slightly hectic but very interesting five days in Sri Lanka in May. It was my first visit, and I only got a quick feel for what the country is like, but it was enough to want to go back again for a longer visit some time.

After being in India for several months I immediately noticed some very positive things about Sri Lanka – it’s very clean, the traffic is not crazy, the countryside is beautifully green and lush, it has a relatively small population, the food is good, the water is clean, the people are friendly and helpful, and many of them speak pretty good English.

I spent two days in the capital, Colombo, staying at the Ceylon City Hotel, which was relatively central for sightseeing, did a good breakfast and had comfortable rooms. The staff were generally helpful, too.

On my first day I took a trishaw to the National Museum, which is a bit dusty and ill lit, but gives you a good idea of Sri Lanka’s rich history and some of its important historical sites. I recommend the canteen, where I had a very nice cup of sweet milky tea and a kind of coconut cake. Your ticket also gives you access to the Natural History Museum, which is even dustier and more old fashioned than the history museum. However there was a nice bonus - on the way out I met two staff members who had found a tiny baby squirrel that had fallen out of a tree, and were feeding it with drops of milk. Very cute. I hope it survived.

Colombo has a couple of important Buddhist temples. The first one I visited, the Gangaramaya temple, has a relic of a hair of the Buddha, as well as a cutting from the branch of the Bodhi tree which was brought to Sri Lanka by the daughter of the Indian Emperor Ashoka. It also has its own resident baby elephant, which was having a bath and obviously loving it. It’s a large complex with many rooms, a museum, and some fine Buddha statues. Well worth a visit.

The other temple, Seema Malakaya, which is an offshoot of the Gangaramaya temple (keep your ticket from Gangaramaya) is built out over Beera lake, and there were some very large pelicans swimming around it. Seema Malakaya is very minimal and elegant, and has daily meditation sessions morning and night.

I had dinner both nights in Colombo at Saraswathi veg restaurant just round the corner and up the road from my hotel. Cheap, busy and great food!

On my second day in Colombo I went to Mount Lavinia beach. You can swim at the beach, where there are lifeguards, or you can go to the large hotel on the point and swim in their pool for around 1000R. I swam in the sea, or rather, I bounced around and was felled by the waves, as the sea gets quite rough around monsoon time. If you want to visit Sri Lanka and dive or snorkel, January – March are apparently the best months.

About 200 m south of Mt Lavinia Hotel, on the beach, is a small turtle sanctuary which is worth visiting. I was shown around by a knowledgeable guide and was allowed to hold various flapping turtles. The entry fee was 500R, plus at the end of the tour I was asked for more money to support their activities. It’s hard to refuse (and also hard to avoid the feeling of being railroaded into a donation..)

I was guided to the turtle sanctuary and generally taken care of for the day by a lovely local fisherman, David Sanjeewa, who also took me to his home and introduced me to his family. If you go to Mount Lavinia and meet David, you’ll be in good hands. I had a really pleasant and most interesting day.

To get to Kandy, about 120 km away, I hired a car and driver. (www.colomboairporttransfers.com) It cost around US$95 but was well worth it, as I had a very comfortable drive with a knowledgeable driver/guide, Suresh. Thanks to him, I saw a number of things that I would have missed had I gone by train.

We stopped first at the elephant orphanage at Pinnawala, where we saw many elephants having fun in the river, and were entertained by the baby elephants playing ducking games – a beautiful sight!

We also saw three very interesting 14th century Buddhist temples: Gadaladenya, carved out of granite with some very old faded murals; Lankathilaka which was plaster inside and also had murals similar to those at Gadaladenya, but whose original colours were amazingly fresh; and Ammbekka, which was a wooden temple with 32 pillars carved from one tree, with square panels around the top of each column on which were different scenes and figures – over 150 different ones in all.

We drove through some very lush and beautiful scenery, and saw farmers ploughing paddy fields with hand ploughs and water buffaloes, fruit bats hanging in trees, and various villages specialising in pineapples, watermelons, cashew nuts, pottery, brass and wooden items. We also stopped at a fruit stall where I tasted some of Sri Lanka’s 50 varieties of banana, and toured a spice garden where they make Ayurvedic remedies. Our last visit of the day was to a gem factory in Kandy itself.

Kandy is in the hills, so it is cooler than Colombo, and is situated rather beautifully around a lake. It has a number of somewhat faded buildings from the British time, but is most famous for the temple beside the lake, Dalada Maligawa, which houses a revered relic of the Buddha – a tooth. The main temple and its various smaller shrines are spread over a large area. The very beautiful grounds were full of Sri Lankans dressed in white with flower offerings – I visited on a Sunday so it was particularly busy. I also visited the Museum of World Buddhism on the same site, which was extremely interesting. I’d recommend staying in Kandy a few days as there are some very fine looking cave temples not far away, which unfortunately I did not get a chance to visit.

I stayed at the Sovereign Hotel which was within easy walking distance from town, had very comfortable rooms, friendly helpful staff and provided a superb, reasonably priced dinner on my first night. (From the information for guests in my room: Please not keep the windows open, the monkeys might inter the room.) The second night I ate at the Garden Café beside the lake – local, busy, cheap and good. Try their kutta, a Sri Lankan dish of chopped meat, veg and egg, with a tasty sweet/sour sauce.

The Sovereign Hotel sold tickets to a cultural show which was in a rather shabby Red Cross hall near the temple. It was good – not top class, but an interesting introduction to Sri Lankan dance and drumming. The show ended with a fire walking display.

For a quiet break from temples and city busyness I took a walk in Udawattakele Park near the city centre. It’s a natural forest park and provides a lovely, cool circular route of about 4.5 kms. Monkeys, greenery, many birds (which I generally heard rather than saw). Very peaceful.

I took the train back toward Colombo – a very good ride at an extremely reasonable cost – I went 2^nd class. My last hotel was the Airport City Hub near the airport, so I got off the train at Gampaha and took a local cross country bus to Katunayake, where the airport is, about 30km north of Colombo. The ancient bus was even more packed than the Indian ones I’ve been on, which is saying something!

The Airport City Hub is close to the airport and provides free one way transfers, even in the middle of the night, which is good. However, on the negative side, it was obviously designed by an architect and landscape designer who went for looks, not convenience. There are no covered ways or navigable paths to the rooms, so it would be useless for someone with a disability or anyone who didn’t want to get wet in the monsoon rain; the outside lighting is hopeless when you have to leave at 3am, and in my room the aircon unit was directly over the bed.

But those are minor details, and all in all, I had a very good, brief introduction to Sri Lanka, which has definitely made me want to go back there again.

Photos: Jamyang Choling nunnery, near Dharamshala, India

flyingpiglet — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 01:59:00 GMT

Life in a Tibetan Buddhist Nunnery

flyingpiglet — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 01:49:00 GMT

I am extremely fortunate to be living and teaching English for 3 and a half months at the Tibetan Buddhist nunnery of Jamyang Choling, near Dharamshala, India.

What is life in a nunnery like? First, it’s a very peaceful and tranquil place to be. It has well designed, solid buildings set around the grounds in a thoughtful way, so the overall space is well used. It has lots of trees – including what I’m sure are going to be well laden mango trees in the pre-monsoon time. It’s pleasant to walk around, and it’s very clean and tidy, because the nuns do a big community clean-up for three to four hours every Saturday afternoon.

It’s evening. The main sounds that I can hear at the moment are nuns chanting their memorisations on the roof of the building near to me, a few voices of nuns or villagers calling to one another, and birds singing and cheeping.

The variety of birds here is wonderful, from flocks of quarrelsome, shrieking mynas to swooping green parakeets, hoopoes, crows, swallows, finches, magpies, bulbuls, doves, drongos, and even the occasional kite.

The other wildlife that you often see is monkeys. One or two monkeys or small groups of them visit quite regularly, stalking over the roofs, swinging through the trees in the cow paddock, and sorting through the rubbish area near the incinerator. They keep an eye on any humans they spot, and it’s advisable not to make eye contact.

I also give the three resident cows a very wide berth, having been gored in the leg during my first week here by Nyima, a brown cow with sharp horns and an evil attitude. I am not the first person she has attacked. It’s not all tranquillity in a Buddhist nunnery! Fortunately the doctor at the nearby clinic did a great job on the rather deep and scary looking hole in my leg, at a very reasonable cost, and it recovered well.

On the more welcome side, I have two very cute little grey/black geckos living in the gap between my mesh windows and my glass windows.

Now for the human inhabitants of Jamyang Choling. What can I say about the nuns? They are a delightful bunch of people. As students, they are lively and interested, and most are not at all shy about trying out their English conversation. They are confident and happy within their own small community of around 120 people, aged between 14 and about 40. They get on very well with one another, they laugh a lot, and they have a very positive attitude to life, considering their demanding schedule.

They get up at 5.30am, and their whole day is spent doing puja (prayers), having philosophy and other classes, studying, memorising Buddhist texts and practising their debating. Breakfast is at 7am, lunch at 12, afternoon tea at 3pm and dinner at 5.30pm, followed by prayers, debating and study. Even the young nuns of 14 rarely get to bed before 10.30pm, and the bell gets them up again at 5.30am the next morning. Their only day off is Sunday.

There are two English teachers, a nun and a lay student, who teach English grammar, reading, writing and so on. My job is to focus on English conversation, and to encourage the nuns to practise their speaking and listening skills. I teach about eighty students at several different levels, from beginners to students whose English is quite good.

As well as the nuns, there are five lay students here. Jamyang Choling is unusual in that it allows lay students to live on the premises and take part in all aspects of the nuns’ curriculum, including debating. Several of the nuns I know started as lay students and then decided to become nuns.

The nuns and lay students work very hard at Buddhist philosophy and other subjects. Most of their teachers are monks. Debating is one of the most entertaining – and visible - parts of the nuns’ curriculum. Tibetan Buddhist debating involves clapping, stamping and other actions to emphasise a point, and it can be very interesting to watch, even if you don’t understand what they are talking about. The nuns debate outside twice a day for at least an hour, before lunch and after the evening puja (prayer) session, so the evening quiet is frequently broken by sounds of frenzied clapping and shouting. To begin with I thought there was some sort of domestic dispute or village ruckus going on, until I went out into the night with my torch and found the nuns happily debating away in the darkness.

As well as the English teachers who I have already mentioned, all the other jobs in the nunnery are done by the nuns. There is a group who work in the kitchen, cow-nuns, a couple who run the small shop, and three or four who cook food for the restaurant which is open in the evenings. There’s even a nun who is responsible for the water and electricity. One of my senior students is the Disciplinarian, which sounds fierce, but it basically means that she looks after the general welfare and health of the nuns. Another couple of senior nuns work in the office which just across from my room. A lot of the jobs, such as those in the shop, restaurant and kitchen, are done on a rotation basis.

The nunnery sits in the middle of an Indian village. Near the nunnery is the local Hindu temple, so there is frequently quite a lot of religious competition going on in the morning and evening, what with the nuns chanting pujas, and recorded singing or chanting emanating from the temple.

This is a very fertile area, and the houses in the village have blooming gardens, many trees and brightly coloured flowers. We are up on a hill, and below me, as I walk to the main road to catch the bus, is a wide valley of gently terraced fields, with not a straight line among them, burgeoning with wheat and other crops. At the moment the bright green is starting to turn a little, and by autumn it will be golden. With the distant snow-covered mountains as a backdrop, it is a very beautiful sight. It's a lovely walk to the bus stop, as long as you don't mind being constantly gawked at. I've got used to it, as I am the only foreigner living in this area. A friendly "Namaste" is a good ice-breaker, but it is pretty well the limit of my Hindi.

The bus (or if I'm lucky, a jeep taxi) takes me from Gharoh via a number of extreme bends in the road and some groaning uphill climbs, to Dharamshala. There I catch another crowded bus or packed jeep for the half hour climb to McLeod Ganj. Here there are plenty of cafes and restaurants to give the diet a bit of variety, but there are also many, many Indian and foreign tourists, so it's noisy and crowded - quite a culture shock after the tranquility of Gharoh.

I'm very lucky to have been offered a room at Jamyang Choling's McLeod Ganj head office, which I can use whenever I come up to town. A number of the senior nuns live in Mcleod Ganj, and the general administration for the nunnery is taken care of here. The nuns also rent out rooms on a long term basis to foreigners, including Western-born Buddhist nuns and lay students who are studying Buddhist philosophy or learning the Tibetan language. The nunnery building is situated near Kirti monastery, not far from the Dalai Lama's temple, with a stunning view down the Kangra Valley.

People constantly visit the busy office staff, and the atmosphere is always open and welcoming. Many Tibetans commission pujas from the nuns at Gharoh, for sickness in the family, new ventures, or general well-being. The donations paid for these prayers help to finance the nunnery's daily costs, in addition to generous regular sponsorships from Jamyang Choling's foreign supporters and friends.

All in all, whether in McLo or Gharoh, this is a very special place, and I feel really privileged to have been able to share the lives of the nuns of Jamyang Choling.

To learn more about Jamyang Choling, check out their website. http://www.jamchoebuddhistdialectics.org/ Or see theri Facebook page: Jamyang Choling Nunnery.

Photos: Rajasthan. A cow hospital and a rat temple

flyingpiglet — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 00:44:00 GMT

Rajasthan - a cow hospital and a rat temple

flyingpiglet — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 00:25:00 GMT

COWS: Around 2 hours from Jodhpur on the road to Bikaner we stopped at what looked like a cattle sale yards, and turned out to be a cow hospital. We were shown around by a very knowledgeable elderly guide.

There were 1500 cows all being lovingly cared for and fed every day with cooked up food. Some had cancer and had had surgery to remove a horn. Others were amputees which had mostly been hit by cars, and there were some calves whose mothers had died. There was an emergency area with some very sad looking beasts. We saw a team of vets bandaging cows’ horns, and an ambulance, one of 23, arriving with a new patient. They collect cows from a 200 km radius around the hospital.

The hospital has an x-ray room, operating rooms, a pharmacy full of medicines, and big outside ovens to cook up the mash for the cows’ dinner. It was all very impressive and well organised. Private cow owners can bring in their sick animals and get a recovered cow as a replacement.

They also care for sick and injured wild animals. We saw a couple of eagles, a pelican, other wild birds, a monkey, some white rats, rabbits, budgies, parrots, and various deer. The hospital was started 6 years ago by a Swami whose name is something like Kushal Gere Ji Maharaj. He lives there and gives audiences every day.

The first patient at the hospital is still there too – a very pampered cow which came in as a calf with an injured front leg, and now has painted horns, a special cover and place to live, and someone looking after her. She had a very knowing look of an animal that has found itself in a very good space! Many people give donations – the hospital gets no other funding. There was a table of men sitting specially to take donations, and while we were there several people stopped, including a tractor driver who gave about as much as we did in memory of his mother who had died. All in all it was the most interesting thing we have seen so far. It was the first time our driver had stopped there and he said he would do it again with other tourists. It’s also possible to stay there, apparently.

RATS! Next stop, not far out of Bikaner, was the Karni Mata rat temple. This is more than 500 years old and apparently originated when a local woman, Karni Mata, was born as an incarnation of the goddess Durga and lived to be over 150 years old She performed many miracles throughout her life, including restoring her son to life again after he had drowned. She then declared that members of her family would henceforth be reincarnated as rats, which would then be reincarnated as humans in her family. 600 families claim to be part of her extended clan.

The 20,000 rats in the temple are mostly black rats but there are a few white ones which are meant to be reincarnations of Karni Mata and are particularly revered. It’s meant to be very lucky if a rat runs over your foot. The woman I photographed with one on her offering tray looked pretty happy about it, too. Food nibbled by the rats is meant to be very auspicious – fortunately our driver who had bought some sweets did not share them with the rats, though we did eat them in the temple after passing through the very ratty interior, past the statue of Karni Mata which is at the heart of the temple.

There were several newly married couples there as it’s meant to be lucky to visit the temple just after you are married. We then went to the museum with pictures of Karni Mata’s life and had a rather garbled explanation from the man on the desk about her and her life of miracles – raising the dead, calming boiling milk at a wedding, causing water to appear in dry places, rescuing a merchant in danger of drowning etc. Fortunately there was a short explanation under the photos to aid understanding.

This is an interesting place to visit, for sure, but you need to be aware that it's VERY ratty... Rats eating, scampering, sleeping, lots of rat droppings. Not for the faint-hearted or anyone who doesn't like small rodents.

Photos: Manali and Rewalsar, Himachal Pradesh

flyingpiglet — Sun, 6 Oct 2013 20:39:00 GMT

A few days in Manali

flyingpiglet — Sun, 6 Oct 2013 19:13:00 GMT

If you are travelling in north-east India, I recommend Manali as a great place to go. I’ve been in McLeod Ganj (upper Dharamshala) now for two and a half months, including during the monsoon. While I love living here, and it’s got a great atmosphere, there’s no denying that it’s rather dirty, you get honked at by cars all the time when you walk the narrow streets, and it’s pretty busy, especially at weekends. And in the monsoon the rainfall is some of the highest in India.

So, when we were given a week off from school to coincide with the Dalai Lama’s recent teachings, five of us at Tibet Charity decided to go to Manali for a few days. We’d heard it had beautiful mountain scenery, was a good source of woollen fabrics, and (a big drawcard for me) was home to some yaks.

We took a taxi from McLeod Ganj to Rewalsar for the first night (about 4 hours). Rewalsar is an hour off the main road to Manali. It’s a lovely little lake surrounded by hills. The main feature of the town is the enormous statue of Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche), one of the Indian sages and teachers who brought Buddhism to Tibet in the 8^th century. He spent some time meditating in a cave far above the town. You can visit the statue (very impressive) and the cave (which Guru Rimpoche wouldn’t recognise any more..)

The lake, by the way, is teaming with fish, and fishing is forbidden, so maybe keen fishermen should avoid this spot – it might be too frustrating. We stayed in a nice little lakeside hotel, the Lotus Lake, and ate at the nearby Kora Café. As we arrived on a Monday, we had no trouble finding a hotel.

The next day, having visited the statue and cave, we set off for Manali, in the same taxi. Soon we were in the Kullu Valley, a narrow gorge which followed the Beas River. It reminded me of the Manawatu Gorge in New Zealand, except for the addition of monkeys, many dhabas (eating places), cows meandering along the road, donkeys, busloads of colourful Indian tourists, shrines by the roadside, wandering holy men, and lots of evidence of habitation and crops high up in the steep hills.

Just after Aut we went through a very long tunnel which wound through the hills, and then emerged again beside the river, which we followed all the way to Manali.

Manali is a small town which is the last main stop on the road to Ladakh. The high season is from July to September, and now it’s coming to an end. Soon the road to Ladakh will be closed by snow and tourism in Manali will be minimal.

Visiting in early October has some advantages. We got heavily discounted rooms in the Dragon Guest House in Old Manali (clean, very friendly, quiet at night, nice restaurant), and quite a few good shopping bargains, as the shopkeepers were starting to close up for the winter and move to Rajasthan or Goa.

It was also very quiet, which we liked. The weather was perfect – not a drop of rain for the three days we were there, which we really appreciated after living through the monsoon in McLo.

New Manali is where the main shopping area and markets are. It’s well designed, with no cars allowed in the main market area, so it’s pleasant to walk around, and there are plenty of places to sit. Right next to town is a big stretch of forest which you can enter for five rupees. The Himalayan pines are huge and it’s a lovely tranquil place to walk. There’s also a children’s play area and a rather scungy little pond with decrepit paddle boats near the river.

If you’re looking for pashminas and Kullu shawls, the town is full of good shops and it’s worth checking out several, as prices vary. There’s also a good government-run Tribes of India shop selling ethnic crafts from all over the country. It’s near the taxi stand. A good place to eat in town is Chopsticks restaurant.

Old Manali is up the hill from the main town – about 45 minutes easy walk. Judging from the merchandise in the shops, it’s a popular hangout for dope smoking tourists and party animals, but when we were there it was very quiet, and I was only offered one joint.

Some good places to eat in Old Manali: Café 1947 (good pizza). Dylan’s – real coffee, nice muesli for breakfast, delicious chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven, and interesting Bob Dylan memorabilia on the walls. The restaurant at the Dragon Guesthouse is also good.

It’s also a good place for walks. Follow the left bank of the river and walk through the trees as far as the village of Goshal, with some lovely old houses and an impressively carved new wooden temple. A bit further along at the village of Shanag (4.5 km) you can cross the river.

The Manu temple is ten minutes’ walk up the hill from Old Manali, and the Hadimba temple (16^th century) is in the forest up the hill, just over the bridge. Past the Hadimba temple you walk for a couple of minutes up to where there are two yaks which you can ride (for a fee) and many angora rabbits which you can hug (for a fee), as well as some not very exciting craft stalls and a few dhabas. Say hi to Rocky the handsome yak for me.

There are other things you can do around Manali like rafting and paragliding, but we didn’t try these.

All in all, a good few days holiday. And when we got back to McLo, it was misty and raining…

Photos: Riding a yak in Manali

flyingpiglet — Thu, 3 Oct 2013 01:44:00 GMT

My first yak! What a beautiful animal.

Photos: Indian wrestling in McLeod Ganj

flyingpiglet — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 16:39:00 GMT

The wrestling match was part of the mela (fair) being held here this weekend.

Photos: On the Kora, McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala

flyingpiglet — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 18:01:00 GMT

Photos: The Dalai Lama's teachings - a few drawings

flyingpiglet — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 20:12:00 GMT

The Dalai Lama's teachings, Dharamshala, August 2013

flyingpiglet — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 19:54:00 GMT

The Dalai Lama has just returned from a month’s meditation retreat in Ladakh. I must say, it was good to think of him there, having the time to do some quiet meditation after a fairly hectic few months of foreign travel which even took him to Australia and New Zealand.

Anyway, he drove back to Dharamshala last Friday, on a very beautiful fine morning. The monsoon weather is at last starting to improve, and it’s not either raining or misty all the time.

This week His Holiness gave three days of teachings on a text by the Tibetan master Tsongkapa. The teachings were sponsored by a group from Korea. This seems to happen with all his teachings here. A particular group of Buddhists pays for the event and brings hundreds of people to hear HH, and the rest of us get to attend as well. Tibet Charity English classes were suspended for three days so teachers and students could all go.

Security at the temple has generally been increased a lot since the recent bombings at Bodhgaya, and as expected, the security for the teachings was tight. Everyone, including the Tibetans, had to register beforehand and get an identity card, which for the foreigners involved filling out a form, producing two passport photos, and paying 10 rupees (20c NZ). On my card I’m identified as “Gillian” from “Newzland”.

On the day of the teachings you go through a metal detector, have your bag searched and get patted down. No mobiles or any electronic gizmos are allowed in the temple – I even had my little penlight torch taken away when I visited one day. If you have water with you, you have to sip it to prove it’s not dangerous. And no cameras, which is why I’ll post a few drawings that I did.

The other difference from the teachings I attended in 2010 is that no radios are allowed in the temple any more. Previously you bought a little FM radio, and the translation (His Holiness talks in Tibetan) came through in English and a number of other languages. You could sit anywhere in the temple, and I used to enjoy sitting in the lower garden area with the Tibetans. Now all English-speaking people have to sit in the same area and a translation is broadcast over a loudspeaker. It’s tough on people whose second language is English, as the choice of translations was either Korean or English. However it seems to work quite well. His Holiness talks for a while, then pauses for the translators to do their stuff. There are TV screens throughout the temple area, so everyone can see what’s going on.

On the first day of the teachings the Dalai Lama spoke generally about the need for compassion in the world, about the ways in which different religions encourage compassion, and the role of secular ethics in the modern world. On the second day he started working through the writings of Tsongkapa and interpreting these, discussing the means of achieving compassion through reading and analysing Buddhist texts and through the practice of various types of meditation. The third day included the taking of several vows for those Buddhists who attended. For some people it would have been the first time they had done this, while for the Tibetans it was an opportunity to renew their dedication to Buddhism.

I was glad to see that His Holiness was looking really well. He’s as sprightly as ever as he walks through the temple to his throne in the main teaching space, lighting up the place with his smile and occasionally stopping to talk to some lucky person.

Unlike 2010, I now understand a little bit more about Buddhist philosophy, and I was able to follow most of the teachings. There’s another series coming up next week. It’s a bit of a nuisance in terms of breaking up the teaching continuity at Tibet Charity, but a wonderful opportunity to see and listen to His Holiness.

As always, there were some uniquely Indian and Tibetan aspects to the teachings. Because the temple is an open space, it’s very common for monkeys to make their appearance. One large monkey had a great time playing a game of tightrope-walking along a metal pole – part of the canopy over the garden area – and jumping up and down so that the pole shook with a resounding banging noise. Later it (well, it looked like the same monkey..) was raiding a rubbish bin as we were walking out, and made a rush at a woman who got too close. Luckily she was protected by the thick material of her chuba when it grabbed her skirt.

Tea and Tibetan bread are also part of the ceremony. Relays of young monks come through the crowd (of several thousand) with rounds of fresh Tibetan bread in buckets, followed by others bearing big battered teapots holding lightly salted Tibetan milk tea. Delicious!

Many Tibetans, both men and women, dress in their best chubas (traditional dress) for the teachings, and often put their small children into beautiful brocaded chubas. When your attention wavers from the teachings, there’s plenty to look at. It’s a very Tibetan occasion – a nice mix of ceremony, hospitality, good organisation and a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. Highly recommended…

Photos: Tibetan carpet weavers, McLeod Ganj

flyingpiglet — Mon, 5 Aug 2013 22:35:00 GMT

Tibetan carpet weavers, McLeod Ganj

flyingpiglet — Mon, 5 Aug 2013 22:29:00 GMT

The other day I visited the carpet workshop in McLeod Ganj. When you walk into the big airy workroom, your attention is first drawn to the gorgeous carpets hanging on the display wall. The colours are rich and varied, and the carpets have a beautifully textured appearance. Many more carpets are stacked on the shelf below – and there’s plenty of choice of patterns, sizes and colour combinations.

There were about eight rugs of different sizes in the process of being made. The weavers, all women, sat cross-legged at upright looms. Depending on the size of the rug, between one and three weavers worked on one loom.

I watched as they deftly threaded the thick skeins of richly coloured wool through the neutral coloured vertical threads (the warp?) of the loom, picking up three threads or four at a time – they worked so fast it was hard to see exactly how many. To change colour they cut off the first thread, leaving a short tail of wool, and gathered another colour from the wool ends sitting on their lap. Every so often they would glance up at the full-sized pattern drawn on paper and held in a roll above their heads, but they clearly knew the patterns really well.

Each row is woven over a metal rod about half a centimetre in diameter that is gradually drawn into the weaving as the line progresses. Once the row is finished the women use mallets to vigorously beat the rod down so it sits snuggly against the previous row of weaving. Then they use scissors and a small tool like a thick screwdriver to cut off the ends of wool, leaving a flat, uniform surface. After that the shuttle picks up the next row of vertical threads, the horizontal base thread is sent through the loom, the first threads of wool are knotted over the end of the metal rod and the first few vertical threads to form the edge of the carpet, and the next row begins.

Despite the speed at which the women worked, the atmosphere in the workshop was both relaxed and cheerful. As they wove, the women chatted and laughed among themselves. One weaver started singing a plaintive Tibetan melody and some of the others joined in. I provided some added entertainment as I tried out some of my rudimentary Tibetan, which gave the women a good laugh. They had no objection to my photographing them, and I was able to get some good pictures of them at work.

On the floor at one end of the well-lit workshop three women were sitting trimming a large carpet, delicately sculpting the borders of each patterned motif with large scissors.

In the old days in Tibet, the wool used in the traditional carpets would have come from the yak. The wool used in the carpets woven in exile comes from New Zealand. It’s preferred for Tibetan carpet weaving because it is soft and strong and moves smoothly through the weavers’ fingers. It’s dyed in Delhi and wound into big colourful balls, which sit in a luscious pile in boxes or on the floor behind the weavers.

It takes about a month to complete a carpet measuring about two metres by one metre. They sell at a remarkably reasonable price, and carpets can be shipped all over the world.

I’ll definitely be going back again to watch these talented and friendly weavers in action, keeping alive the fine tradition of Tibetan carpet making.

To McLeod Ganj in a taxi; monsoon mist and a monkey

flyingpiglet — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 16:42:00 GMT

Well, I’m back in McLeod Ganj (Dharamshala) for a third time teaching at Tibet Charity. This time I decided to splash out and take a taxi from Delhi, because the bus travels overnight and I was interested to see the scenery. It’s also a shorter trip; 10 hours in a car instead of 12 in a bus. I was fortunate in that although I had ordered a small taxi a much larger air conditioned car arrived, so I travelled in great style and comfort.

It was well worth travelling in daylight. Driving through India is never boring. The landscape on the plains is not particularly interesting, being dead flat, but fascinating signs of human life are all around. As we passed through the villages there were often cricket games in progress; mostly it was a group of men and boys on a piece of waste land; once a proper game with the players in whites. There were stores of bamboo scaffolding and rather beautiful bamboo ladders propped up beside the road. Amongst the tuk tuks, motorbikes, buses and cars were carts pulled by buffaloes, horses and even a camel.

In a small town called Ghaurunda we passed what looked like a small ruined red castle or fort. Around the area of Chandigarh were signs for various luxury housing developments such as Spanish Meadows – expandable luxury villas, or Mohali Hills (not a hill in sight) or Nirwana Dreams. Most of them have not developed much, although there were some big blocks of apartments under construction here and there, and there was inevitably an elaborate gateway leading into the new development.

People watching is fun in India too, as the country is full of colour and life. At one crossroads I spotted an impressive grey-bearded elderly man in a big blue turban, fawn tunic and pants, with a large rusty looking sword at his side – a character straight out of Kipling’s Kim.
A lot of commerce goes on along the roadside. At one point we passed people selling umbrellas, displayed in colourful rows. In another place there were lots of inflatable toys on display. Hung from trees were dolls and balls, teddies, tigers and children’s seats in the shape of pandas and clowns.

In the hills we passed several villages where they evidently specialise in rather dramatic woodwork, such as carved eagles in flight, and large scale macramé including hanging baby cribs. We also began to see monkeys by the side of the road as we drove higher. They sat on the concrete blocks beside the road, watching the traffic with an abstracted air as they relaxed or groomed each other.
Favourite sign spotted in a village: 'Harsh hairdresser'.

Despite being the monsoon season it was fine when we set off from Delhi, and stayed that way until we got into the hills. Then we had a selection of misty, drizzly and bucketing down rain. The heavy rain didn’t seem to last too long – or maybe we just drove out of it. The worst bit was when we went through an unlined tunnel not far from Kangra. As we made our way through, it felt as if someone was dumping buckets of water on the top of the car.

When we crawled our way up the final steep hill and arrived in McLeod Ganj it was drizzling, and both the driver and I were thoroughly glad to have come to the end of a long but interesting drive.

Talking of the monsoon, it is proving to be quite different from what I imagined. For example this morning - my third in McLo, I woke at around 5.30am and when I looked outside the sky was clear – I could even see the moon, the mountains were standing out against the sky and there was a delicate sunrise over Dharamshala. However the monsoon means changeable weather, and it could be completely misted over by mid-morning. So far there has not been heavy rain at all, although it’s very humid.

Yesterday morning it rained early in the morning, but had cleared by 9am, so I decided to walk down Dharamshala to buy a few things like sheets which you can’t get in McLo. It was quite hot and I used my umbrella as a sunshade. After making my purchases I wandered up to the Dhauladhar Hotel for a drink. When I got there it was still fine and clear, and I was admiring the view from the terrace as I waited for my lassi, but I could see a cloud advancing up the valley, and by the time I was half way through my drink we were engulfed in mist.
When I left the hotel Dharamshala was entirely misted up – you could barely see across the street. I waited at the bus stop with a couple of young Tibetan women, and after a short wait a jeep taxi emerged out of the gloom. We squeezed ourselves in – I was jammed up against the back door beside a rather dapper looking Indian man who clearly didn’t think much of my sweaty form pressed against him. We were thirteen in all in the jeep, not counting the driver, and you could not have squeezed another soul in.

At McLo I paid my 10 rupees (about 20 cents NZ) – good value for a 9 kilometre ride - and walked through town clutching my parcels. I had glimpsed the mountains as we drove up the hill, but the mist was evidently following us, because by the time we arrived in McLo it was very foggy and quite chilly.

When I arrived at Snow Height I found that the narrow passage to my room was blocked by a large monkey rootling around in a rubbish sack that the staff had left there. It was snacking away happily on scraps and clearly didn’t want to be disturbed. It bared its teeth and made a rather menacing move toward me when I started down the passageway, so I retreated and called Amit the manager for help. He sent one of his staff up but the monkey charged him too, when he rather half-heartedly hurled a stone at it. Luckily a construction worker armed with a hammer was passing by. He shouted and waved the hammer at the monkey, who carried on eating. He then shied a couple of well-aimed stones, and the monkey decided it had had enough and took off over the roof and up the hill. It was the first time I’ve been seriously threatened by a monkey, and I can see why people are wary of them. I love seeing them in the forest or leaping about in the trees, but that’s usually in a situation where they don’t feel cornered or threatened by humans. This encounter was a bit too close…

PS: MONSOON UPDATE!!! Last night I woke around midnight to find a strange blue light show playing around on the wall of my room. The rain was absolutely belting down, and there was a faint background rumble. The lightning was continuous for an hour, exactly as if someone was flashing a strobe light in the sky. I ventured to the window (with a torch, as the power was off) but I couldn't really see anything through the sheets of rain. It was astonishing - I've never experienced lightning like that before.

Peru, part 2. Artisans and history in the Andes

flyingpiglet — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 15:33:00 GMT

After our coffee adventures, the Trade Aid group embarked on the second part of our trip. This was organised by Minka, Peru’s fair trade organisation which supports artisans in the area around Cusco and on the altiplano.

We were all a bit nervous about flying from sea-level Lima directly to Cusco at 3400 metres. However almost all of us took half a tab daily of acetazolamide (Diamox) which has few side effects (mainly some tingling in hands and feet) and seems to do the trick. We also drank lots of coca tea and took it easy for a day after arrival. The most problematic reaction was occasional breathlessness if we went up stairs too fast, or hurried uphill.

We were lucky on our free day in Cusco to catch the huge Corpus Christi procession that wound around the Plaza de Armas for most of the day. It was a great experience in terms of the colour, the music, the huge effigies of the saints being carried by twenty or more men staggering under the weight, the costumes worn by people both in the procession and in the crowd, the street stalls that had sprung up everywhere, even the hordes of cleaning ladies in their neat blue uniforms waiting to clean up the square after the parade. (The cleanliness of squares and streets – at least in the main public areas - is a noticeable feature of Peru’s cities.) We also visited a good artisans’ market and the sprawling San Pedro market where the locals shop.

Over the next two weeks we visited various groups of artisans in the Cusco/Pisac area. It was fascinating to make personal contact with the people who make the wonderful crafts that we sell – ocarinas, jewellery and beautifully crafted and colourful woven goods. All were master craftsmen and women, carrying on traditional crafts and making it look so easy! We had a go at making ocarinas in Cuyo Grande, with limited success… The scenery in these areas was spectacular – looming hills, sweeping valleys, picturesque villages of adobe houses, often decorated with relief decorations made of adobe, or cleverly placed clay pots. Life is simple, but the local people have a great sense of style which runs through their lives and their crafts.

We also visited two important Inca sites, Pisac and Machu Picchu. MP is of course world famous, so all I’m going to say is that it well and truly lives up to the hype, and is a very special place in a spectacular setting.

Pisac is a little difficult to reach from Cusco just now as they are repairing the bridge to the modern town, and you have to take around an hour’s detour. It’s worth it, though. The historic fortress settlement of Pisac is perched on a ridge overlooking a massive series of complicated irrigation terraces and with a huge view out over a wide valley toward more spectacular mountains. I could imagine the Chasqui (Inca messenger) puffing his way up the hill with an urgent message from Cusco, and cursing the fact that the settlement was built on such a high position, but strategically it was a master stroke. The houses – most in pretty good repair (or reconstruction) cascade down the hill, and made me think very strongly of the fortress of Rohan in Lord of the Rings. I almost expected to glimpse Peter Jackson appearing over the ridge with a film crew..

On the plane again at Cusco, and off to Juliaca (a dump – you should get out of there asap and stay in Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca.) Next stop was Taquile Island which we reached after a 3 hour boat ride. En route we visited the amazing floating Uros Islands, made of reeds or totoras. (Fascinating, and be prepared to spend up large – they make some lovely jewellery and fabric crafts.)

Taquile Island is very special. The people have a distinctive form of dress - for example the men wear a sort of red and white knitted hat like a nightcap when single, then a red one once they get married. Knitting is basically what the men do a lot of the time - they walk around knitting away with the wool slung around their necks, concocting very elaborate patterns in an almost absent-minded way. As a very bad knitter I was in awe of them! There's also no transport on the island - not even donkeys, so everything is carried on ones back. It's quite a magic place - very beautiful with an almost Mediterranean feel. We also had the best meal of the trip there - fresh caught trout from the lake for our lunch when we arrived.

We were parcelled out to various families to stay the night - the islanders have things very well organised for tourism, which is what they rely on for extra income on top of farming. My room mate and I were taken in the dark to a little hut with basic but comfortable beds - in the morning we were visited by a gorgeous little four year old called Yaquelin who came in to see us giggling madly and clutching an enormous chicken! I left my head torch with Yaquelin's grandfather, a lovely old man called Sebastiano (continuously knitting away) who gave me a very nice knitted headband in return.

Our last stop was a community at Cochaquinray ,south of Juliaca on the altiplano. Amazing scenery by a lake in which was a flock of flamingoes. In fact it was a bird watcher's paradise. The people there spin and knit goods out of alpaca fibre, and we had the chance to try out those skills - I failed dismally!

Once again the hospitality - from people without a lot in the way of material good themselves - was really touching. (They were being paid for our visit, but even so they really outdid themselves in terms of welcome and effort). We stayed in a very basic two roomed adobe hall, and as we went to sleep that night we could hear the ladies chatting and laughing together next door - when we woke the next morning they were still at it! They seemed to be having a great time, and we did too. There were two eight year old cousins there, Imdira and Josue, who we become good friends with - we had a lot of fun dancing with them at night ( a good way to keep out the cold, which was pretty severe). Lovely kids.

Back in Lima we visited Minka, the Peruvian fair trade group that deals with the artisans we had visited, and had a great welcome with dancing, delicious food and Pisco sours - very yummy!

Our last visit was to an instrument maker which entailed a 90 minute drive through some of Lima's meaner streets - it is a huge city of 9 million people, many of whom live in very basic situations. As always it was great to see a master craftsman at work making pan pipes, flutes, drums etc, mostly from bamboo. We also had a chance to look around the centre of Lima which is very impressive.

Then it was almost time to leave Peru. We said a fond farewell to our lovely Minka guide and interpreter Maria, who had done a fantastic job. Once again we were off to the airport. After a lengthy delay in Santiago, one of the world’s less interesting airports between 1 and 4am – it was back home to faraway New Zealand after a truly memorable trip - for all the right reasons.

If you want to know moare about Trade Aid, New Zealand's foremost fair trade organisation, check out www.tradeaid.org.nz

NB Ours was a very focussed trip in that we went to visit specific communities of craftspeople that Trade Aid deals with. However if you go on a guided tour in Peru you'll probably end up visiting very similar artisan villages.

Photos: Peru

flyingpiglet — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 15:23:00 GMT

Trade Aid trip, May/June 2013

Peru, part one. Visiting the coffee farmers of northern Peru

flyingpiglet — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 15:15:00 GMT

Recently I made a three week trip to Peru with a group of nine people from Trade Aid , New Zealand’s biggest fair trade organisation. Most of us are volunteers in one of Trade Aid’s 29 shops, and are also involved in education in the community. The party also included a board member from Trade Aid international, the head office of the organisation, and the Education co-ordinator for Trade Aid who organised the trip. Our itinerary took us to meet some of the groups who produce the crafts and the coffee that we sell in our shops.

We landed in Lima on a hazy day – we later learned that Lima is often covered in this misty haze which has apparently inspired writers and poets – we just found it a bit weird. We stayed in the suburb of Miraflores, which is quite well-to-do, and not at all representative of how most of Lima’s population lives, as we later found when driving around some of the sprawling city’s more typical and much poorer neighbourhoods. Miraflores was a good place to relax, however, take a walk through the seafront parks, and get used to the idea of suddenly being transferred from little old NZ to South America.

From Lima we flew to Piura in northern Peru. (NB When taking a domestic flight in Peru you have to arrive at the airport 2 hours early. You may also get your suitcase searched.) In Piura we met up with representatives from Cenfrocafe, the coffee co-operative, and our interpreter, Hugo . They took us to dinner at a great restaurant, Don Parce, near the Plaza de Armas. It’s recommended in Lonely Planet and has an excellent menu. My fish was delicious.

Next day we had a 6 hour van ride from Piura to Jaen. The excellent road took us through very flat, scrubby dry country and little scattered dusty villages, where a major feature was the lurking presence of many sinister-looking turkey buzzards, called gallinazos in Spanish. Then we wound upwards and began to see many cacti and some spectacular and arid looking hills. As we went onwards the landscape morphed gradually into lush peaks covered in greenery with steep fields and tiny villages perched high above the main road. One minute we were climbing steadily through mist, then we had crossed a 2100 metre pass and were descending through barren sandy hills once again. Lower down we followed a rushing river and began to see many rice paddies, and realised that this is an important rice growing area of Peru. It was a fascinating trip and a reminder of how much interesting and varied scenery there is in Peru.

The following few days were spent visiting coffee growing villages of Tabaconas and Las Pirias, near Jaen. We met coffee farmers, did some picking of the red coffee ‘cherries’, and learned about pruning and fertilising the bushes as well as the problems that the farmers have with rust disease and shortage of labour to help with the harvest. We followed the coffee beans through the process of washing and fermenting, dehusking, drying, removing the parchment layer, testing for quality, and finally bagging the dried green beans for export.

The most important thing we learned, and something I’ll remember every time I drink a coffee from now on, is that the farmers do most of the work and take most of the risk to get your cappuccino into the cup, and they get the least return. Even the higher fair trade prices which Cenfrocafe members receive are tied to the low prices paid on the ‘open’ market for one of the world’s most valuable commodities.

During our stay in the coffee region we met some fine people and were offered wonderful and very generous hospitality. At Las Pirias we were fascinated to see a sideline which the local families are developing – honey production. The non-stinging bees are tiny – about the size of ants – but they produce lots of the most delicious honey, with a subtle lemon flavour. Cenfrocafe is helping to develop the honey business by investing in equipment to enable larger scale production. It should be a winner!

NB if you are in Piura, make sure to visit Cenfrocafe’s Cafeteria in a walking street near the main Plaza. Fabulous coffee desserts!

After a fascinating week in the coffee growing area, we said a fond farewell to the people at Cenfrocafe who had given us such a well organised and interesting experience, and flew back to Lima.

NB For more information on Trade Aid, NZ's foremost fair trade organisation, check out www.tradeaid.org.nz