Next time in India...

So, there is a big jump, both in time and space, between the last post and this one...

Via New Zealand (awesome, beautiful, fantastic), Fiji (beaches, sea, sand) and the US (I love the USA!! California - LA, Yosemite NP, San Francisco. East coast - Boston, Woodsville, NH and NYC) then home to the UK, London, Edinburgh and Inverness (mum's 60th!).

And now I'm back in India!! Again!!

Back to the wonderful Tibetan town of McLeod Ganj. Doing a course at the meditation centre then going to teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

In the morning on the days of the teachings the whole town flows in the same direction, down the hill to the temple. Monks and nuns in their maroon robes - some with maroon hats and maroon bags . An open top carrier truck goes past with about 30 monks inside and hanging off the sides! All the Tibetans walk down carrying cushions to sit on, the women looking lovely in their beautiful thupa dresses, usually a plain colour with a shirt underneath and a bright, stripy apron on top. Everyone joins their respective queue, Tibetans and Sanga (monastics) one way, foreigners another, and files through security.

It is simply wonderful, sitting outside the temple, under the trees which create some much needed shade from the sun, surrounded by Tibetans. His Holiness walks past, into the temple (which is packed with people) and we all bow down as he passes. Then half way through each session the monks serve everyone tea (no idea how many people but a huge number!). So round they come with huge teapots and pour the butter tea in the morning and milk tea in the afternoon. Everyone gets their cup/bowl/bottle out ready for the tea and lots of people bring cartons of milk as an offering which the monks then carry back to the kitchen. Butter tea is an interesting experience! Just make sure you aren't expecting sweet tea as it is salty and has a lovely skim of oil floating on the top...

Then everyone drinks tea and watches the monkeys jumping on the roof or around the trees. All the kids run around and get grabbed by a random stranger who want to give them a cuddle or play a game with them. It's a very laid back affair. The whole town shows up to hear His Holiness speak, even though most of it is so in depth not many of us understand what he is talking about!! Many older Tibetans sit through the whole thing spinning their prayer wheels or going round and round their mala's reciting mantras. And on the last day of the first four day's teachings, His Holiness give a Tantric initiation and even more people show up! The place is packed, inside and out, and people recite the initiation.

It is a great experience, and for the second set of teachings His Holiness speaks in English!! So now we all get the jokes!! And what a wonderful laugh he has!! Even when I don't get the joke, his laugh still makes me laugh!!

So this is my second time here, and it feels like coming home. It is so lovely, to feel so easy in a town I hardly know, yet I feel so welcome.

May this not be the last of my Tibetan adventures.


PS I would just like to add a massive THANK YOU to India, and the wonderful Indian people. It may be a full on country, which can immerse and totally overwhelm the senses and at times it can be very intimidating. But which other country in the world would allow thousands of refugees from their neighboring country, fleeing from persecution from the next world superpower, to not only set up home but to completely take over the town and swamp the surrounding area with their culture and religion? They seem not to be worried at all as the Tibetans build temples, monasteries, set up shops and run businesses. How wonderful, to be so sure of your own culture, and so proud of the diversity within your own country that you can allow those in need a place to live. It seem fitting that for the celebration of it's 50th year of independence from the British in 1997, the India government used the slogan "Unity in Diversity". And recently His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been celebrating his 50th year living in exile in India - the place he now calls home.