The final two weeks of my trip were a whirlwind of activity as I tried to finish my research, do some last minute sight-seeing, and say goodbye to friends. As I had hoped, staying in upper Dharamsala made it much easier to work on my Departmental Honors research. I met some Tibetan women through my host mother and made other contacts on my own. I found myself running from one restaurant or cafe to another and drinking six to seven cups of tea a day because that was the easiest way to initiate conversations without arranging formal interviews. On my second day in upper Dharamsala, I went on a picnic to a nearby town with my host mom and some of her friends. I expected it to be a low-key affair with some sandwiches and chips, but I definitely underestimated the event. We left home in the morning, loaded down with backpacks filled with cookware, meat, vegetables, bread, firewood, blankets, and thermoses of hot tea. When we chose a clearing for our picnic, we made a fire and then cooked and ate all day long. I felt like our short hike had taken us from India to Tibet, and the experience reminded me that the women who now live and cook in apartments in upper Dharamsala were raised as nomads and herders in the mountains of Tibet.

Some mornings during my week in upper Dharamsala, I woke up early to go to the temple with my host mom, after which she would buy warm Tibetan bread at a stand outside the temple, and we would sit in a nearby coffee shop to eat it and drink some tea. A couple days the weather was especially bad, and we stayed home instead, wrapping up in blankets and drinking hot water to compensate for the lack of central heating. Most of upper Dharamsala lost power on those days, transforming ordinary cafs into candlelit diners and making me reluctant to brave the weather to meet people. All in all, though, it was a very enjoyable and productive week. On Saturday, I spent the day with a young Tibetan woman who I met through a mutual friend earlier in the week. She took me to Dolma Ling Nunnery, where her cousin lives, and we ate lunch with some of the nuns there. After that, we went to see His Holiness the Karmapa, the highest lama of the Kagyu Buddhist sect. We brought white cloths used for blessings, and the Karmapa placed the cloths over our necks, along with a necklace made of red string. After seeing the Karmapa, we stayed in the monastery there for a short while to visit a monk who my friend knows from her village in Tibet. Read the rest of this entry »

Though it’s hard to believe how fast the time has gone, I’ve already said a few of my goodbyes and am now beginning the next chapter of my trip. Thursday was my last day to volunteer with Cross-Cultural Solutions, so I will no longer be leading the women’s group during the week. I will, however, see the women from Khaniyara again because one of them has invited me to live with her family for my last week in India. Until then, I am staying in upper Dharamsala to finish interviews for my Departmental Honors project.

For my time in upper Dharamsala, I initially planned to rent a room at the guest house of the Geden Choeling Nunnery, but an opportunity arose for me to do a home stay with a Tibetan woman, which will be an invaluable asset to my research. The woman is a single mother, and her two children and niece attend a residential branch of the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala. Her flat consists of one small room and a tiny kitchen, but it’s more than adequate for the two of us. She moved here from Tibet in 1997 and her family is nomadic, so she never received a formal education. Thus, finding profitable work in Dharamsala is difficult, and she is currently unemployed. She goes to the Dalai Lama’s temple every morning to do prostrations and circumambulate the temple complex, and I’m looking forward to sharing part of her daily routine. Read the rest of this entry »

Upper Dharamsala was bustling with activity last week as local Tibetans and international tourists gathered to welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama home from his latest travels. Thanks to some holidays on the Indian calendar, I had a couple days off from volunteering and was able to attend a few of the Dalai Lama’s public teachings. On the days of the teachings, my friends and I went to the temple in the morning and waded through rows of seat cushions until we found a few unclaimed spots on the floor. We added our cushions to the mix and tuned our FM radios to the station providing English translation. Our neighbors included an assortment of Tibetan laypeople, monks and nuns, and fellow tourists. The energy in the air was almost tangible, especially among the locals. I could tell they were looking so forward to having His Holiness back home for a brief while. Read the rest of this entry »

Upper Dharamsala, otherwise known as Mcleod Ganj, is a medium for cross-cultural communication unlike anything I’ve encountered on previous travels. With its deep Indian roots, unmistakable Tibetan flare, and recent Western influence, it induces a disorienting but delightful cultural whiplash. It’s not uncommon for me to find myself wearing an Indian outfit, complete with bindi and bangle, studying Tibetan and befriending Buddhist monks and nuns, all the while sitting in a western-style coffee shop with a familiar Beatles’ song playing in the background. The diverse cultures do not mesh seamlessly by any means, but they coexist in a delicate balance that is fascinating to observe.

I’m spending more time in Mcleod now as I try to get a better sense of the Tibetan presence there. I’ve become more comfortable in the area and have been fortunate to meet some fellow tourists who have provided helpful contacts for my research. One evening as I was walking down the mountain from Mcleod to lower Dharamsala for dinner, I met an American woman whose involvement in human rights law concerning Tibet has brought her to the area. She’s done a good deal of local research and was interested to hear about my project. From her, I learned about an organization called Learning and Ideas for Tibet (L.I.T). It was started by a former Gu-Chu-Sum student for the purpose of teaching Tibetans and Western tourists about Tibetan culture in an open atmosphere that fosters positive interaction between East and West. Read the rest of this entry »

Festivals have a unique ability to blur boundaries and unite people in a spirit of excitement and celebration. Monday was Dussehra, which celebrates the triumph of good over evil in the form of Lord Rama’s defeat of the demon king Ravana. I had the day off from volunteering, but I went to Khaniyara village anyway to have lunch with the women’s group. In celebration of the holiday, everyone gathered at the village temple to share a meal. The temple provided food at no cost, and the open invitation drew quite a crowd. Irrespective of social status, everyone came together and sat side-by-side to enjoy the meal.

When we arrived, we added our shoes to the growing pile at the edge of the temple grounds, then found a spot to sit on the mats that were spread in rows across the floor. The temple is outside, so there were fabric canopies to provide a bit of shade. When we sat down, someone gave us plates made of leaves sewn together with grass. Soon after, a man came around with a large basket of rice and used his hand to throw a serving onto each plate. Various dals and vegetable dishes were then ladled on top of the rice in quick succession as servers walked up and down the rows with pots of steaming food. I had a hard time keeping up with the pace of the seven-course meal. For dessert, we ate a small serving of sweet rice. As we rose from our places on the mats, another wave of people sat down to eat. Read the rest of this entry »

As home to the Tibetan Government in Exile and the Dalai Lama’s monastery, Dharamsala attracts a unique combination of scholars, activists, tourists, nomads, and spiritual seekers. It is intriguing and exciting to be part of the mix and to witness a small piece of Tibet’s struggle for a free state. Last Saturday, I was spending some time in the reading room of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, enjoying a book on the exile community in Dharamsala. After only a few pages, I was startled by a déjà vu sensation as the author related experiences that came eerily close to my own. He mentioned staying in a hotel I pass quite regularly and frequenting a cafe I recently stopped in for a cup of tea during an unexpected rain shower. I recognized the street names and could supplement the text with my own memories of sights, smells, and sounds. I then began reading a chapter about the author’s time working in the very reading room where I was sitting. He described the students absorbed in their books, as I was at the time, and the people circling the outside of the library building, carrying their prayer beads and chanting mantras. Through the open window, I could see and hear those very things. The experience was a poignant reminder that people and places I now consider a routine part of my day are in fact extraordinary parts of Tibet’s ever-evolving history. Read the rest of this entry »

This week, I celebrated the festival of Sair with the women’s group in Khaniyara village. We took a holiday from class on Wednesday, and I visited the houses of a couple of the women. Sair is a harvest festival in which the villagers offer up their first fruits in thanksgiving and pray for continued blessings on their crops. As part of the celebration, they invite friends into their homes to share a meal. At both houses I visited, the women insisted on serving me hot tea and some food in accordance with the hospitable tradition.

The custom here is to eat with one’s hands, but I tend to fall back on utensils when they’re available. For my meals in Khaniyara, that wasn’t an option, so I tried my best to imitate the precise method of eating I have observed so many times. There is a definite technique to mixing the various soup-like foods into the rice in just the right amounts to create a dense ball that is easy to pick up and guide into one’s mouth without shedding pieces of rice everywhere along the way. I was moderately successful. Read the rest of this entry »

Monsoon season is coming to a close, and a season of festivals and weddings is fast approaching. I’m looking forward to sharing in the excitement, but first, I’m trying to make some progress on my research so I can relax a bit over the holidays.

From previous attempts to converse with locals, I have realized the challenge of gaining insight into my research topic without first establishing a relationship with my interviewees. Naturally, people are hesitant to talk to me if I approach them with no familiar context and introduce myself as a student doing research. Further, my project seems a bit odd compared to what locals have encountered from other researchers in the past. Firstly, instead of studying the present situation in Tibet, I am more interested in the present situation in exile. Secondly, my research values lay opinions over monastic scholarship. Thirdly, I am singling out the role of women. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always been told India is a place that can’t be compared to any other, and in my three weeks here I have found that to be true. The vibrant colors, frequent festivals, cows and monkeys wandering the streets, endless offerings of chai, and lingering smell of incense combine to create an unfamiliar but intriguing atmosphere that is anything but ordinary. Read the rest of this entry »