Whirlwind days

I will try to put into words what I have experienced in the last 5 days, but I will point out in advance that words and pictures do not begin to express this whirlwind ending to our stay in India.

On Thursday morning, we all split up and headed to five different locations in Himachal Pradesh to work on our field study techniques and experience a different aspect of Tibetan life. My group head to Chauntra, 80km southeast of Dharamsala and a 4-hour bus ride away. The Indian bus systems are a whole experience within themselves. If the bus goes longer than 5 minutes without stopping, it’s a miracle. The bus driver lays on the horn 99% of the time, which is ridiculously loud, and people getting on and off barely put one foot down before the bus begins to move again. It was standing room only for most of our trip.

We were the last group to get off the bus, and when we arrived we had to walk about 15 minutes to get to the settlement. That 15 minute walk was done on a road that is being prepped to be paved, so it was all large rocks laid side-by-side at the time. A bit treacherous. When we got closer to the town, we were told that all the guesthouses were full because of the beginning of school for the year. Yet we were lucky enough to find a woman who got us 3 rooms at the local government-run guesthouse. After dropping off our stuff, we headed into “town” to find some food. There are technically 5 restaurants in Chauntra, but only one actually serves food on a regular basis. Little did we know that the Hard Rock restaurant was to be our home for 12 hours of our 2 day trip, as food took forever to make. Which is odd considering all they serve is mutton momos and chowmein. So it was chowmein, chips, and coke for the weekend. The settlement is only 500 people, but there is a TCV school that has 1000 students and a CST school that has 375. TCV’s (Tibetan Children’s Village) are all privately funded and the CST’s (Centers of Study for Tibetans) are funded by the Tibetan government in exile.

We spent all of Friday at the two schools, interviewing principals, secretaries, parents, and students. Though both schools follow the Indian education system, they teach only in Tibetan for the first 4 years and then slowly add English and Hindi. The TCV school was built recently because its previous location was prone to floods during the monsoon season, and the CST school was built 17 years ago by His Holiness for the children of Tuting. Tuting is in Arunchal Pradesh, the farthest northeast province of India (which is on the east side of Bhutan). The Tibetans there live in the woods and are the poorest of the poor. When HH visited there, he was so deeply concerned that the children were not going to be able to make a life that he built a school for them. The kids have to travel from 5 to 12 days to reach the school, as they live in the forest and usually walk for days just to find any transportation. The principal at CST is one of the most forward thinking, creative people I have met and the government in exile gives him free reign to do what is best for the children. He has instituted an integrated classroom system in which at each table in the class a child from class 1,2,3 and 4 all sit together. They learn separately but they are together so that older children can help the younger ones and instill confidence in both. He also makes sure that the most educated teachers teach the youngest kids because he believes they are the seeds and they won’t succeed unless given the best at the very beginning. To make sure he gets the best teachers, he pays all of his teachers the same, while at TCV those who teach the higher grades make more money. Though I still don’t know how successful the integrated class will be, it is nice to see someone so willing to try things and work with his students and teachers so closely. CST also has an extremely strong arts and music program where every child there can play at least one of the traditional Tibetan instruments, and some play them all.

Outside of the schools, and in I guess, we were celebrities, especially with the little kids. Most of the small kids had never seen an ingi (English person, the word used for all westerners). I think I took 200 cute-kid pictures, as when you bring out a camera they run to be in the shot. Digital cameras especially fascinate them because they get to see themselves afterward.

After our stay in Chauntra, we headed to Bir for lunch on Saturday before heading back. Bir has 5 monasteries, one of which is headed by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, the guy who directed The Cup, Travellers and Magicians, and wrote the book What Makes You Not a Buddhist. We went to his temple in the afternoon, and while the monks were performing a puja (chanting), we were all ushered to the front where he blessed us. You go to Khyentse first and he touches your head and then you go to the teachers on either side of him. The one guy spins one of those drums that have the string and bead attached over your head, but just hit Aurelia and I on the head. The other guy holds your hands and says hi. Pretty fast, but nonetheless cool (though we didn’t know what was in our near future that would eclipse this blessing).

The taxi ride back was miserable. If I had known how bad it was to be, I would have opted for the bus again. We took roads that really weren’t roads and drove 20 mph the entire trip. A trip that should have taken a little under 2 hours took us 3 ½.

Sunday we had off, and was spent writing papers and trying to get a handle on all the work that has to be done by Wednesday. And we received the best news:

We had an audience with His Holiness on Monday! The last time our group had an audience was 2 ½ years ago. But as excited as we were, we were equally bummed that our two Tibetan program assistants were not allowed to join us. Tinley and Tenzin are so so great and we owe them so much, but security would not allow them to come. We don’t really know why but I guess it has something to do with if two Tibetans get to come in with a western group, Tibetans will try to get in with other western groups.

So this morning, we had language class before going to the temple at 11:30. Between our homestay families and the generousity of Champa-la (one of the lang. teachers) we were all in chubas. Its definitely a sight to see 26 westerners walking to the temple dressed in traditional Tibetan dress. Once there we went through security and waited in the compound for a while. We were all still bummed that Tinley and Tenzin couldn’t join us, for we would have happily traded all of our spots for them. They have never met HH before and it would mean so much more to them than to us. For us it’s a honor and so great, for them though, he is the leader of them politically and spiritually. So how excited we were when at the last moment they both come through the gates, Tinley still putting on his chuba. I think almost everyone of us cried when we saw them, that was more special to us than what was to come. Meeting the Dalai Lama is pretty informal in the sense that you walk up the hill, he stands outside of his house, and you stand in line and go through, present a khata to him which he places around your neck, shakes you hand and you move on, quickly snapping a photo with him as a group and then being ushered out by security. Or so we thought. That’s what happened to the groups in front of us. We all went through the line and placed ourselves for the quick photo. Then HH came into the middle of us and grabbed my hand on side and someone else’s on the other. I can’t even explain how amazing it is to have the Dalai Lama standing next to you holding your hand, smiling and laughing. For one, his hands are really soft. Two, his grip is extremely strong and he squeezed tighter and tighter. Again, I can’t put into words what I felt. After we took the picture, he turned around and spoke to our group. He asked us to be messengers of compassion to the world and keepers of Tibetan culture. He asked us to go home and explain to people what Tibetan culture is and why it is so important to maintain. He also talked about China and his desire for us to promote the middle-way policy. He told us that we were the future hopes of Tibetans and of peace. It was truly amazing. He shook our hands and thanked us all. When we walked away we realized that we were all teary and I can’t express how thankful we were that Tenzin and Tinley got to be there with us. It was so special for them and for us to experience it with them.

Final side note: yesterday we were walking down the street and saw a camera crew outside of the refugee center. On closer inspection we realized that it was a CNN crew and Christina Alampur (sp?) was there. The CNN woman. We talked with her for a few moments, and when asked her what she was doing, her answer was simply, “oh, you know.” Which we didn’t. Anyway, at the meeting of HH, she and her camera crew were there as well filming us in are chuba glory. We assume that she is probably doing a special, so keep your eyes out for it. The camera man got a great shot of Tinley and I walking down the hill afterwards in our chubas hugging and teary-eyed.

Well now that I have adequately avoided writing my paper for some time, I should get back to the work that is calling me. Life is ridiculous for a week, but we have a few days in Thimpu next week where I should be able to get internet access for a bit.