Where We Left Off

Yes. After a month and a half hiatus I’m back to blogging about my experiences here in India. I’ve been MIA for three reasons. First, the month of September was crazy with a combination of Tibetan Parliament being in session, a week-long teaching by the Dalai Lama and the completion of my internship by the end of the month. Second, I started off October with a trip to Dehra Dun, the capital of Uttarakand, to visit my cousin Tenzin. Third, I moved out of my flat in McLeod Gunj to the College for Higher Tibetan Studies, also known as Sarah College. Between traveling, moving out, moving in and adjusting to a new class schedule and food I haven’t had a chance for a breather and soak it all in. Apologies to all for the hiatus in my blogging experiences, my stomachs settled and I'm ready to share.

I won't bore you with the details of all my travels but will give you the gist. I’ll start though with a short story about my final week living in McLeod Gunj: On my last Sunday in McLeod I decided to go for a run up to the Tibetan Children’s Village or Upper TCV. It’s about a 5 km run up the hill to get there and I wanted to get in a good workout before I spent a whole week on the road traveling around Uttarakand the following week. As I ran up to Upper TCV I saw the familiar sights that I've come to love here in Dharamsala, young Tibetan kids running around, teens playing basketball, girls playing jump rope, old people making their rounds and of course Football. I watched the local football teams practice and played some pick-up. After about an hour there I started back towards McLeod Gunj walking through the school campus. While passing by one of the student houses, I saw a group of Tibetan kids, probably no more than 5 years old holding American flags. They were all dressed up in their TCV uniforms, which was odd on Sunday, their holiday. I asked the young boy in Tibetan “what are you all dressed up for?” as my curiosity got the best of me. Smiling widely back to me and waving his American flag in my face he replied “Obama is coming!”

As the boy ran off with his friends I stood up in disbelief. 'Yeah right' I thought. No sitting president of the US would visit the Tibetan refugee settlement in Dharamsala. Let alone be caught visiting the Dalai Lama in his headquarters in India. I then asked another group of kids in their uniforms who looked around 10 years old I asked them again “whose coming today” The boy told me, (translated from Tibetan to English) "the person who writes Obama's speeches." I laughed again and thought of possible people. I knew Timothy Roemer was the new ambassador to India and was recently appointed by Obama so I figured it might be him. Nevertheless, I was really confused as to what was going on.

Finally, I saw a group of teenage boys walking along, they were all carrying various instruments, drums, trumpets, flutes and were all lazily dragging their American flags alongside them. “Hey, whose coming?” I asked the group. The teen in the lead responded, “Obama’s secretary is coming, I don’t know who, but we have to go sing the national anthem for them” he seriously looked depressed, like his Sunday off hanging out and playing soccer was wasted because of some Washington big-wig was in town. As they moped off I followed them to the basketball court where I had been just an hour earlier. The scenery had completely changed, there were a dozen white Jeeps in the courtyard, all bearing the Tibetan Government license plates, TCV students were all over the place in line formations, while some held instruments. I saw a huge press core of Indian media, and TCV teachers and staff mulling about. At the center of it all I noticed half a dozen armed plainclothes Indian police mixed with Tibetan Frontier Force bodyguards. At the center of the center were 4 Americans.

I approached the Indian press core and asked the friendliest looking lady what was going on. “Hey, whose here from the States?” I asked. Smiling, she replied, “That’s a good question, I honestly can’t tell you, we were just told that an Obama representative was here, they’ve kept us at a distance and were not allowed interviews,” she explained how her boss at the Times of India had told her to come and cover it as news leaked of some “Obama Cabinet Secretary” coming to Dharamsala. Thinking back to the last time I checked the news, which was a few days earlier, I remembered that Clinton was in Pakistan meeting with government officials there. I'd missed Senator Clinton when she came to my college campus campaigning last year in Tacoma, and thought how ironic it would be seeing Secretary Clinton her here on this little hill station in Northern India. The Indian reporter asked if I was American, which I replied "more or less." She then recommended I ask my fellow 'countrymen' who was here.

I approached the group, bypassing right by the Indian and Tibetan security guards to see a short tubby lady talking to a tall Indian guy. One thing I've learned here in India, people won't give you a hard time if you look like you know where your going. An older lady along with two other Americans, who looked like her aides were standing there, next to him was a guy who looked he could be a linebackers for the Seattle Seahawks. Smiling, I said “Hi, I’m from the US and was wondering which representative is here?” The tubby lady looked at the guy next to her, then smiled widely at me “Oh, I’m not sure, young man." Next thing I knew the linebacker approached me while two Indian soldiers made their presence known behind me up. “Hi,” I said to the guy who was about my height, "I’m an American citizen and was wondering whose here.” With a really sarcastic look on his face he replied “Oh, we don't know, they don't tell us these things," and with his over sized American Flag lapel pin shining the sun into my eyes, he folded his arms and stared at me.

I thought to myself, ‘this is why the world loves America so much’ and replied to the guard, “thanks for your time.” Walking away from them, I finally did the smart thing and approached the Tibetan teachers who were standing around. They were a lot more friendly, I asked them who was here and what they were doing. They told me they didn’t know who but that right now the diplomats were visiting the infant ward and meeting the TCV Principal. I didn’t have my glasses or contacts in so my vision was pretty bad and decided to head back to Dharamsala, still wondering who was there.

The next day as I moved out of my flat to my uncle's residence temporarily to lower Dharamsala my Tibetan taxi driver pulled over on the road, as a police convoy was heading up. I looked up to see the same jeeps, all bearing Tibetan Gov’t license plates. In the front jeep I immediately noticed the DIIR driver Lobsang la and in the seat next to him I saw Kalsang la, a staffer in the prime minister’s office. In the back I saw a face that I’d only seen before on TV and the newspaper during the previous years presidential campaign, it was Valerie Jarrett. She was smiling and laughing, carrying on a conversation behind her.

It all came together now, the secrecy of it all. Jarrett was meeting the Dalai lama and she was the Obama “mystery secretary.” I remembered reading numerous articles about Jarrett, as she was an old friend of the Obama's from Chicago and now a senior adviser to the President. On the rest of my drive down, I thought about what was going on. Dharamsala, this po-dunk little hill station really is the center of the Tibetan movement, the Dalai lama, Tibetan government and numerous NGO’s operate out of this little hill station. This is ground zero, our capital. Obama was playing standard international politics, by sending a “senior adviser” he could give deny that the person he sent was not an “official government representative. Sending Clinton would just piss of china. Instead he sent his old Chicago buddy Jarrett to the Obama’s to deliver a personal message. Clever politics.

I was able to see the side from two angles. From the American side, no American politician ever touts being a Tibet Advocate, always being for the middle way path. Whereas here in Dharamsala, the visit was interpreted by the local community as a HUGE sign of support by the Obama Administration for the Dalai Lama. Word had spread throughout Dharamsala how Obama’s “secretary” was coming to visit. From talking to taxi drivers, government staffers and people in McLeod everyone was talking about how great Obama is and how he’s making Tibet a priority of his China. While on the American side this trip was a hush-hush visit with China's biggest adversary. It was laughable and pretty sad at how misinterpreted how this whole trip was being blown out of proportion by the Tibetan community.

As I watched the following weeks unfold I was given a first-hand schooling in international politics. Two days later word broke out to news sources and online quickly about Jarrett’s visit.

http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-press-releases/president-obama-sends-delegation-meet-dalai-lama-dharamsala

Official photos were published and released of Jarrett and the Dalai lama, with china being “FURIOUS” but in the end the administration repeated its autonomy approach and working with the Dalai lama. The statement issued by the white house was that Obama WILL meet the dalai lama but did not specify WHEN. Tibetan websites touted this as a huge victory for the Tibetan cause.

The next month the Dalai lama made a visit to the United States to Los Angeles and DC however an Obama meeting was nowhere to be seen. Human rights groups, republicans and dozens of others were furious with Obama for not meeting with the DL, calling it a “snub” and “ an abandonment of human rights.” I found this to be pretty hilarious. NOT being in the US meant all the information I got was form foreign news sources mostly Indian and the BBC. In most cases it was viewed as Obama abandoning Tibet but the white house came out with a statement in coordination with the Dalai lama’s private office stating that the Dalai lama would meet Obama after Obama went to China later that year. Yes, it looked like a snub, but it was a strategic snub. The DL met with John Kerry, chairman of the foreign relations committee, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house and numerous senators and congressmen and even received a human rights award where dozens of congressmen and senators were in attendance. In reality, the DL did meet the important people and made the rounds. What’s happening now is a different approach to the Tibet situation. Bush, Clinton and Bush Jr. always won much praise from their “photo” moments with the Dalai Lama, but what did that amount to? Winning cheers back home while Tibetans inside Tibet still suffered. Yes, Bush, Bush Jr. and republicans have been Tibet’s greatest supporters with their “get tough on china” approach, but what has that won us in the last 20 years? Nada. Obama's recent trip to China acknowledged "Tibet as a part of China." With the financial crisis looming, two wars in the middle east, and a rampant North Korea Obama needs all the help he can get, especially from China. A few days after Obama's trip to China, Tibetans and Westerners here in McLeod Gunj have been expressing their disappointment through news and posters all over calling him Barack No-bama. I agree that Obama should've stood up for Obama, but wasn't really surprised. The problem is that the Tibetan people are ALWAYS relying on other people to solve the Tibet issue problem. It's always lobbying world leaders to put pressure on China while they themselves only go out to a few protests. The Tibet issue itself is complex and confusing. Tibetans themselves need to take more responsibility for the issue and quit putting their entire reliance on world leaders to "Free Tibet." The US is a power in the world but here Tibetans rely entirely on the "West" to solve the Tibet issue.
I'm sure that when the Dalai Lama visits Obama will meet with him, as he has already promised, but no world leader is going to back the tibetan people until they stand up for themselves.

Dehra Dun, India
After moving out of McLeod Gunj I set off on a 10 hour bus ride to the neighboring state of Uttarakand to see my cousin Tenzin Chokyab. Tenzin goes to college in Seloqui and is studying computer science. It has been 5 years since I’ve seen my aunt’s son, and I was looking forward to seeing him, as he’s my closest relative here in India.
It felt great to finally get out of McLeod Gunj, the place is great, but gets very suffocating. I arrived in Dehra Dun around 4 AM and hoped on an auto rickshaw to Dekyiling, a small Tibetan settlement where I would meet up with Tenzin. This was my first real Tibetan settlement that I'd ever seen, I’ll admit I was pretty excited. Up until then, the only Tibetan areas I’ve seen were super touristy like in Delhi and Dharamsala. I was interested to see how things work in their entirely tibetan communities.

Dekyiling itself is very modest. Most Tibetans there work in Dehra Dun or are employed in the small businesses within Dekyiling. I took a tour of the town to see the community center and small Tibetan school along with numerous monasteries. The settlement itself is extremely self-sufficient with a small local park, restaurants, primary school and community center for old folks. The next stop was Mussourrie, a hill station above Dehra Dun. There's a small tibetan community around the hill station based around the two tibetan schools: Central School for Tibetans and the Hyms School. Both my aunts went to CST and it was great to check out a settlement school. I also had my first experience in Mussourrie with Rare Indian Beef.
Beef is illegal in India but it can be found on the secret 'beef' market and in any Tibetan settlement. I ordered two rounds of beef momo's, excited as I hadn't had beef in over 3 months! Upon my first bite of the momo...I spat it out. It tasted horrible, kind of like eating a tire. The beef smelled really weird and tasted even worse. I double-checked to confirm that what I was actually eating was beef, it was. I don't know if it was old or had some special sauce, but it was disgusting.
My meat hopes gone, my final stop was the tourist town of Rishikesh. The adventure capital of India was where the Beatles spent their time living in an Ashram while composing the White Album. I was able to see more Hindu culture up close, but sadly the place is completely engulfed by tourists. It wasn't the Taj, but it had its share of hawkers and crazy babus. I seriously hope that McLeod Gunj doesn't turn into these indian tourist places, as it seems like the city looses all its culture and value.

After my whilrwind tour of Uttarakand I bidded my cousin farewell and headed back to Himachal Pradesh. Before leaving McLeod I enrolled in the College for Higher Tibetan Studies(CHTS). My new residence in India would be in a small Indian village called Sarah. I'd missed college so much that I figured it was time to go back.

Tik Bolo?

I am alive, though I am living in the jungles of Himachal Pradesh in a small Tibetan language institute called the Center for Higher Tibetan Studies, otherwise known as Sarah College. I can't get phone reception from my place and internet is even slower here than in the 'city.' Updates coming soon, just wanted to let y'all know I'm still kickin!

Raj a la Taj

Agra, India

If you ever go to India, don’t go to the Taj Mahal. My trip last month was by far my worst experience in India. During my trip to the Taj I experienced the very worst that India has to offer. The city of Agra, which houses the Taj is a place that has completely lost all of its culture and been engulfed by the Taj economy.

I met up in New Delhi with Alexi Butler from UPS and we headed on a 5 hour bus ride to Agra. Upon arrival to we checked into a hotel and went to a LONELY PLANET recommended restaurant. This was my first mistake as I quickly succumbed to food poisoning after eating some Thali(standard indian food of rice, roti and beans). And no, this isn’t like food poisoning in the states where you have some bad Indian food and have a bad night. For the next 4 days my body felt like it was dying on me as I puked after every meal I ate. Regardless of my state, I wanted to see the Taj, as I had traveled hundreds of miles from Dharamsala to see it. The streets surrounding the entrances of the Taj are laced with people trying to sell you everything from postcards of the Taj to over-priced bottles of water. And these people weren’t your regular beggars, they were intense. As Lexi and I walked to the Taj we were surrounded and accosted by people trying to sell us something. They never took no for an answer, in hindi or enligsh and kept following us until we entered the Taj.

The ticket into the Taj for local Indians is 20 rupees. For foreigners, 750 rupees. Yes, an over 3,000 percent increase for foreigners. Kind of ridiculous isn’t it? The city of Agra runs entirely off foreigners, taxis, hotels, restaurants, all cater to the Taj tourists.

The streets are completely filled with tourists from all over the world and a few thousand Indians who are trying to make money off all these people. I went there expecting to see a world wonder but instead found people just trying to take my money. Everyone from bus drivers, rickshaws, taxis, street peddlers, hotels and little kids, it was pretty disgusting. Lexi and I stayed in a lonely planet recommended hotel with A/C. However, the power was out in the city the majority of the time we were in the room, so we ended up paying an extra 300 rupees for nothing.

Once inside the Taj it was the same story as outside, people were trying to sell you items inside and take your picture. There were hundreds of people visiting the Taj on that 106 degree humid day and I felt like a sheep being herded around by our over-priced tour guide. After our trip to the Taj I proceeded back to the hotel and puked out the small amount of food I had eaten that day.

Overall the trip was horrible, but I wasn't expecting something great. After taking a sociology class on Tourism back at UPS I was all to familiar with how the tourist industry completely corrupts local economies and my time in Agra only reinforced what I learned. Agra is not India, its a weird island full of people that has completely lost its touch. I have the utmost respect for the Indian people but the city of Agra has completely lost its identity and the Taj itself represents a true irony: A wonder of the world completely surrounded by poverty, greed and corruption. Needless to say I'm never going back and highly recommend people to NOT go to Agra and if you do go to see the Taj, get out of that city as fast as possible afterward.

Dharamsala, India

One good thing did come out of my Agra trip. I realized how much I missed Dharamsala and how much I've come to call this place home. I missed being around Tibetans, the good restaurants in McLeod Ganj and of course the milder weather.

Here in McLeod Ganj I feel like I've been living in two worlds. On one hand there's the touristy side of McLeod Ganj with its own culture of visitors from around the world to come see the Dalai Lama. Its visible in the abundance of western coffee shops, restaurants and stores that cater to tourists. On the other side is the Tibetans who live and work here. Dharamsala is home to the Tibetan government, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, and over a dozen Tibetan NGO's. Dharamsala is their base as it truly is the center of the exile Tibetan community. I've found myself seeing both sides clearly but not really sure where I fit into this picture. As a Tibetan raised in the West my interactions with people have varied. Some are genuinely interested and nice and are happy that I've come back while others see me as just another western tourist. Others wonder why the hell I came to live in India for a year and why I would LEAVE the United States, as it is the final destination for many Tibetans here.

The obsession here with the west, most notably America or Ari, is ridiculous. Unfortunately, people here still see America as the bountiful land of money and fun. Many Tibetans I've talked to here have relatives living in the States, who in most cases are working menial jobs like dishwashers or restaurant owners. Regardless, people want to get the heck out of here and head to the US to do these jobs. What this equals here is people don't work very hard, have low ambitions and don't try to better themselves. Everyone works hard just to get a stupid visa to the west. It's pretty sad but true, Tibetans aren't happy in India. They have no rights, aren't considered Indian citizens and have to bend to the Indian system to get anything done. As a fresh college grad with zero world experience and higher education I've felt pretty helpless with what I can do to help. A plethora of problems exist in the community, but no one wants to address these head on, rather they'd jump on the next plane out of here. No one really seems to want to work to improve our community here in India as were just "visitors" and are "going back to Tibet very soon." This entrenched mindset of "going back to Tibet" and "visitors" has been a huge problem and will lead to unity and purpose to the Tibetan community in exile. Obviously, this stuff has been in my mind a ton as I learn more about the Tibetan community, but I'm still not sure what can be done and if its even worth trying to fix.

Anyways, I'll stop complaining about India and ranting about the Tibetan community and fill you guys in on what I've been up to.

Here in Dharamsala life has been pretty busy. September started off with the celebration of Tibetan Democracy Day with a ceremony filled with long-winded speeches and 12 Tibetan dances in a row. Some delegates were in town from the French Parliament and were the guests of honor as speeches were given in French, Tibetan and English. The whole town of Dharamsala came out to the event to the main temple and it was great to see the whole community all dressed up chupas(traditional tibetan dress). The speeches given by the speaker of the tibetan government, prime minister and the french senators were all pretty long and boring. The Kalon Tripa(Tibetan PM) gave an agonizing hour long speech that I stopped listening to after a few minutes. And as soon as he sat down he quickly dozed off. It wasn't until a half an hour later when the dances started that he woke up. The main event was an intense 12 straight performances of tibetan dance by local groups. It really was a huge variety of dances from Kham, Amdo, U-Tsang, Tibetan rock and Tibetan rap. A lot of the local Tibetan performing arts schools were in attendance and all competed to be the best performance. The best act by far though was the Yongling Primary School
pre-schoolers who came out all dressed up and danced. Their singing was really great and it was cute when they forgot their steps, paused for a second, and then quickly recovered. Celebrating 'Democracy Day' in Dharamsala was pretty funny as the day commemorates the event back in 1960 when the Dalai Lama 'gave' the seed of democracy of Tibetan people and allowed them to form their own government. It would be kind of like independence day back in the states except that Tibet isn't a free country.
People here are really really big on holidays and events as it serves as a reminder of shared history among Tibetans here. The Dalai Lama's back in town and gave a teaching, I'll write more about the teachings in my next post.

Stickshifts & Safetybelts

Amritsar, India

My second month in the largest democracy in the world has been full of ups, downs and lots of sweating. I recently took a trip to Amritsar with a few of the other interns here at the Tibetan Government. Amritsar is located near the India-Pakistan border and home to incredibly important Indian landmarks such as Jallianwala Bagh memorial and the Golden Temple, the holiest temple in the Sikh religion.

The road to Amritsar was rough, literally. On the trip was my friend Darshen, an Indian grad student from UNC, Bree a undergrad from new york, Catherine a med student helping out at a TB clinic, Annette from the Bay Area and Momo from Thailand. We made a very interesting tour group. The 4 hour rented taxi ride was a bumpy ride but allowed me to get a much better look at Indian roads, as opposed to being in the back of a bus. The Indian countryside around Dharamsala is beautiful and it was amazing to see just how packed this country is. Huts and shops were everywhere along the road and even though we were in the middle of nowhere people were still plentiful walking along the roads. Unfortunately for me, the roads became worse the farther and farther we went from Dharamsala and I had got pretty carsick. My two pills of Dramamine didn't help and I started feeling sickly. I asked the driver to pull over ASAP and jumped out and blew chunks. Of course, in India there are people everywhere and as I looked up after my session there was a group of guys sitting on the road staring at me. After a month and a half in India what I’ve begun to lose is my embarrassment and shame. And simply, I was too damn car sick to care and proceeded to blow more chunks for their amusement.

The rest of the trip wasn’t so bad and a few hours later we arrived in Amritsar, Punjab. Our first stop was the Sikh Golden Temple. Being the ignorant American I am, I had done absolutely no prior research to Amritsar or in that case anything about India. All I knew about the golden temple was the assault in the ‘80s by Indira Gandhi on it to kill the Sikh nationalists who wanted an independent Sikh country. The assault by the Indian military led to the defamation of this important Sikh religious monument and the eventual assassination of Indira by her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation.

Before entering the temple, our group checked in our shoes and covered our head with bandannas and scarves. In the temple no one is allowed to wear shoes and all heads must be covered. I have never seen so many barefoot people in my life with a wide assortment of of head scarves, turbans and bandannas. Upon entering the temple, we washed out feet in accordance with Sikh tradition and entered. The whole temple itself consists of an outer temple perimeter with a lagoon surrounding the inner golden temple. The golden temple itself is situated in the center of the pool of water accessible through one land bridge. I honesty was completely awestruck at what I had just walked into. Looking around I saw people on the ground praying, Sikh men were undressing and entering the water to bathe, Sikh drums and prayers were chanted through loudspeakers, huge Sikh men holding harpoons were guarding the area and there were thousands of pilgrims circulating the golden temple. I was speechless.

Walking around the outer temple were Sikh people of all ages, young kids wearing the traditional head wrappings along with old men. All were sitting and praying or entering the water to bathe, it was an amazing sight and surprisingly saw few tourists around. At each corner of the temple were water stations where people were continuously filling bowls of water for pilgrims while one another side offerings were being distributed to be taken into the golden temple itself.

After taking our offering we waited in a huge line to enter the golden temple inside. Inside the temple were three gurus, one was on the drums, one was on a piano type instrument and another was chanting. At the temple, these chants go on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Inside the golden temple there were also numerous gurus reading from the Sikh scriptures as people prostrated and threw money at them as they read. Beforehand I knew absolutely nothing about the Sikh people but later did some reading to find out that the founder of Sikhism was unsatisfied with both Islam and Hinduism and created Sikhism to eliminate the caste system and emphasize hard work. Thus, at the temple there is a high emphasis on equality. In the outer temple is a huge dining hall where everyone is fed for free by the huge volunteer staff that is continually making roti brad, dal and rice.

Our group was ushered in and sat in a huge dining hall on the floor as people came by and dropped food onto our plates. The food definitely didn’t look sanitary as it was served by hand by people carrying buckets of rice and dal. Nevertheless, I wasn’t going to be a bad guest and graciously accepted my roti w/ two hands, to thank the gods, and devoured one of my best meals in India. Eating in the massive dining hall with the hundreds of people on the floor was an amazing communal experience. I definitely had one of those "what the hell am I doing" moments as I sat on the floor among the hundreds of people devouring rice and bread with my hands. It rocked.

After the Golden temple we ventured 40 minutes west to the India/Pakistan border for the daily border closing ceremony. This event is supposed to be a must see for anyone visiting India as it is a display of Indian and Pakistani military bravado and nationalism.

Our group sat in the foreigner VIP section for 3 hours in the scalding sun in a huge stadium like seating arrangement right alongside the border. A whole economy of pirated videos, food, drink, and tourist trinkets has grown for the hundreds of people that visit the border each day. It was ridiculous to see how many shops, restaurants and hawkers had set up shop at the border. Our group sat through numerous Bollywood songs, dancing crowds, women running with flags up and down the border along with nationalist chants. I'd never seen Indian nationalism and this was an amazing experience as people chanted "Hindustan Zindabad!" which means 'Hindustan forever.' Finally after the long wait the ceremony started as Indian soldiers marched up and down the border throwing their legs up as they goose stepped and lowered the Indian flag in unison with the Pakistan flag on the other side at sunset. The Indian crowd was MUCH louder, bigger and crazier as it seemed like the Pakistani people were just sitting and watching while the Indian side was flipping out. Myself along with the other foreigners there felt really out of place and watched first-hand as Indians and Pakistanis yelled their heads off at each other. All in all it was an interesting experience and was a first-hand dose of international politics.

That night, Momo and I decided to stay at the dormitories at the Golden temple instead of the A/C hotel rooms. I read in lonely planet that foreigners are allowed to stay in the guest dormitories inside the temple, though it is more of an experience than anything else. The dormitories were crammed full of foreigners on a long row of beds. Many were travelers trying to save a buck while others were like us who wanted to experience the real Amritsar. I met a south Korean guy, a few Swiss and a ton of Brits inside. All were hardcore travelers who were just stopping in Amritsar for a few days.

Around 5 in the morning I woke up, restless from the hard beds. I went for a walk around, acknowledging the Sikh guard holding a harpoon at the door as I left. I walked into the inner temple area, awestruck again. The golden temple itself was light up in an awesome display of lights that were beautifully back dropped on the moon. The sun had gone down but people were out everywhere, the kitchen was bustling and the chanting was going on as well and there was still a huge line to get into the main temple. I walked around the temple at night, attracting a lot of stares from people walking around. As I started walking around the golden temple I found a small memorial apparently to a fallen Sikh general. People were prostrating to it and throwing money. Unaware of who he was, I threw in a few rupees for a good measure. The most common question people ask when they first meet me is "where are you from?" Most people are surprised when I say the states as apparently I look either Japanese or Korean. I met a really interesting Sikh guy on my walk that night who took it upon himself to explain to me everything about Sikhism and show me around. It was great to have someone who knew what was going on and I had a great discussion with him about religion, politics and my travels. I didn't go back to bed that morning, instead I looked more around the Sikh temples all the while as people approached me and inquired as where I was from. There's definitely no hesitation in asking questions and I was able to learn a ton about not only Sikhs but India as well.

On our final day in Amritsar our last destination was Jallianwala Bagh. If you've seen the movie Gandhi its the scene where the British General Dyer opens fire on thousands of Sikhs. In 1919, thousands gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh to protest recent British legislation against Indians. General Dyer opened fire without warning and killed hundreds of unarmed people including women and children. The high walls of the whole area enclose the ground, with only a small corridor being the only entrance and exit. Dyer moved in his soliders on top of the surrounding buildings and placed a tank in the entrance corridor, essentially trapping the people in the square.
The Massacre of Amritsar was an enormously important event during the Indian Swaraj movement that united and mobilized millions of Indian people around Gandhi's non-cooperation movement with the British. The grounds have been turned into a park, with the well where people had jumped into to avoid the gunfire being renamed 'martyrs well.'

After a high-class meal in Amritsar we said our goodbyes to Darshen whose headed back to UNC and returned back to Dharamsala. My trip to Amritsar has been my favorite excursion in India thus far, in large part due to our unofficial local Indian tour guide, Darshen. The Sikh people and culture are amazing and I am forever indebted to their generosity and kindness.

City in the Clouds

Dharamsala, India

I’ve been in Dharamsala three weeks now, but am super behind in blogo-logging. Apologies for my laziness, I’ll try to catch up on my adventures thus far.

After a grueling 14 hour bus ride from Delhi my uncle and I arrived in lower Dharamsala around 6 in the morning. The first sights I noticed were the extremely narrow streets. Traffic laws in India are more like suggestions and navigating the streets is like playing frogger everyday. We hopped in a taxi along the road and headed towards my uncle’s apartment that was deeper in the valley. Along the way my uncle jumped out to grab some groceries for breakfast at a small market. As I waited in the taxi for him, the driver inquired where I was from. After hearing I was from the States, the guy lit up in delight. “Namaste! Welcome to Dharamsala!” he exclaimed, clasping his hands in the traditional greeting. I thanked him and asked him how safe the city of Dharamsala. He suddenly went into deep thought, displaying his toothless grin “Don’t worry, the Taliban won’t find you here!” I laughed at the absurdity of the comment but in that moment it all hit me. Finally, after the long plane rides, bus trips, crazy traffic, and months of planning and preparation I'd finally made it Dharamsala!

I was dead tired when we arrived at my uncle’s apartment but was restless. We were greeted by my uncles landlord’s ferocious Lhasa Aspo and neighbor's grandson, Yonten, who upon seeing me pointed and yelled “inji leso inji leso!(foreigners here! Foreigners here!)” My body was telling me to crash but I wanted to adjust to the time zone as quickly as possible so my uncle and I set off on a hike up to McLeod Ganj, the heart of the Tibetan community in exile. Instead of taking the main road we took the ‘shortcut’ to the town. I definitely wanted my first visit to be memorable which is why I opted for hiking instead of taking a taxi. This was a horrible decision. I had no clue where we were and assumed that Dharamsala was a small town. Nevertheless, we started up the hill through a back-country trail. Halfway up the hill, I asked my uncle how far it was to the top. “Oh, its just 10.” I was super-confused, "Uhh, ten what?" I asked. "10 kilometers to McLeod!" I froze and did the math in my head, it was a 6 mile hike. 3 hours, 4 bottles of water, 2 pit stops in the woods and 1 blister later we made it to McLeod Ganj. It definitely was memorable and the most grueling hike I’ve ever done. I was in decent shape before leaving for India but two weeks of fun in Germany, a dozen time zone changes and a sharp increase in altitude completely drained me of energy. It certainly was memorable though.

The town of McLeod is probably one of the most unique places in the world. People from all over the world come here to see the Dalai Lama and the town has exploded into a metropolis full of tourists, both domestic and international. The majority of residents up in McLeod are Tibetans, both locals and fresh refugees from Tibet. Second, local Indians have tons of shops and businesses, while Indians from all over the country come here to see the temple and hopefully get an audience with the Dalai Lama. The rest of the town is made up of Israelis, Koreans, Russians, Canadians, Americans, Swiss, Brits, Germans, Taiwanese, Australians...and more. People here come for travel, learn about tibetans, learn buddhism or smoke hashish. Walking down the streets of McLeod is just like walking through the streets of any metropolitan city in the world, except for the cows everywhere.

Seeing the Dalai lama's main temple for the first time was amazing, thousands of people visit it a day. It consists of three large Buddhist statues, a large courtyard and area for circulation. The current census on Tibetans is that there are approximately 150,000 Tibetans in exile. That means other than the around 5 million people in tibet, 150,000 are in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Western Europe, Canada and the States. Its an amazingly small number, there are more people living in my hometown of Vancouver, Washington than there are Tibetans worldwide. I think this small number is the reason for the tight communities among Tibetans. Walking around McLeod for the first time elicited a fair share of staring. I obviously stuck out due to my American clothes(t-shirt, shorts) and my 6’2’’ height, but I kept getting double takes since my face looks pretty Tibetan. Anyway, my first day in Dharamsala would be similar to the rest of my time here where people would assume I was a foreigner, but then I’d speak Tibetan and explain to them that I was born in the States. I honestly, go through this process at LEAST 3 times a day and I have to admit its tons of fun every time to see the expressions on people’s faces.

After seeing the temple my uncle took us to a pretty nice restaurant run by the Indian government in the center of town. The highlight of my day was when I went to the bathroom. While using the urinal an Indian guy walked up to the stall next to mine. Glancing over, I saw that he had a sub machine gun hung over his shoulder, he was one of the hotel guards. Its become commonplace now for me to see people walking down the streets with handguns, rifles and machine guns, but those first few instances always put me on edge. At the bank where I exchanged my US dineros was a huge Indian guy holding a double barrel shotgun too. I felt like I was in the wild west or something.

The next day I moved into the U-Pel guest house close to the Tibetan government Office. The place was great except there was no water and I was told to keep my windows closed due to the monkeys breaking in and stealing food, soap and toothpaste. I signed up for basic Tibetan language classes and started them the same day. The teacher for the class is an elderly Tibetan nun named Ani Chorzom. She’s very grumpy, but a great teacher and has been schooling me in Tibetan. Our basic level class consists of a pretty diverse group with people from Taiwan, Australia, Israel, India, France, Canada and the States. Class so far has been a cakewalk since I’ve got a Tibetan background, but its been great to get a strong foundation in the Tibetan language and learn proper speaking grammar.

I also started my internship with the Tibetan Government at the Department of Information and International Relations. The office I’m working at is the US equivalent of the state department with research offices on human rights, the environment and China. The office I’ve been placed in is the Environmental Development Desk. My job is to do policy research on China/Tibet environmental issues and essentially see if they are gaining ground within Tibet. So far, I've been working on lots of translation work, especially with fresh exiles from Tibet. In the office are two staff members: Tenzin Norbu la and Chokyi la along with another intern from Thailand, named Ratawit whom we affectionately call Momo.

July 6th was the Dalai Lama’s birthday and my day started out at 6 Am with a prayer service on the hill around the Dalai Lama’s temple. It was my first religious ceremony in McLeod Ganj, and I was completely surprised by the huge turnout of Tibetans. The prayer ceremony lasted about
two hours and it was a really amazing event.
The only downside was that a few tourists showed up in a taxi. I had a few problems with them from the start: first of all, they took a taxi up to a place that should be walked up to. It was both disrespectful and lazy for people to be praying and then for a taxi to pull right up and start popping out people. Second, they brought cameras galore and video equipment. I could not believe how inconsiderate they were of all the whole tradition, they were going straight up to monks praying and taking pictures in their face while at the same time filming people who were making prayer offerings up at the temple.
Granted, there were foreigners who were extremely respectful and sat, but this small group was really pissing me off. It reminded me of a tourism class I took at UPS where people have no clue about any of the religious traditions in foreign countries but nevertheless show up and snap pictures like crazy with their extravagantly large cameras.

It was pretty embarrassing to watch all of this happen and sadly, all of these people doing
the picture snapping were American! I couldn't believe how bad of an image they were
displaying. At the time, I didn't feel like it was in my place to get up and say something
but in retrospect I should've politely asked them to move or show some respect.

After the prayer ceremony in the morning, there was a cultural show at the dalai lama's temple. The Dalai Lama himself was in Delhi celebrating at an official function by the Indian government while the Kharmapa was in attendance. The temple was PACKED full of people and I barely saw anything over the huge crowds, except for a guy in front of me who embodied the model tourist with his fanny pack of bottled water and T/P. I wasn't really able to see the performance so I ended up exploring the city during the celebrations. At the end of my first week there my uncle and I traveled to the Norbulingka Institute. The Norbulingka was created by the Tibetan Government to serve as a place to preserve Tibetan art such as thangka painting and craftsmanship. The grounds were amazing and I was really amazed at how strong a system of preservation was in place.

Near the Norbulingka is the residency of the the Kharmapa.
By chance, we happened to be there on Saturdays, when the Kharmapa gives brief public audiences for blessing. I'd seen the Kharmapa before in Seattle but didn't want to pass up this chance. After waiting in line with hundreds of people I was able to briefly walk by and receive a blessing from him.
On the way back from the Norbulingka my uncle and I opted for the public bus a.k.a. the rolling death trap. All seats were full when we jumped on yet dozens of people kept piling in on which made me feel more and more like a sardine. There are a ton of motorbikes and scooters as well which fill up the roads. Cars try to pass each other all the time and it seems like everyone is in a hurry on the road. Suprisingly, road rage is pretty low, as I've never seen anyone wave a finger or yell at someone who deliberately cut them off.

My first week in India ended with a cultural performance at the Tibetans Childrens Village(TCV) where I was able to see some authentic Tibetan song and dance. It was great to see the peformance, except for the 5 km walk back in the rain as all the taxis were taken by people who left right before the main act. I've still only scratched the surface of Dharamsala and plan to do a lot more exploring of the city.

Jamal Metro

Frankfurt, Germany

The first stop towards my gate was EU customs. There were several lines and the one I needed was the "foreign passport" holder line. Unfortunately, there were was a huge crowd of people in line. Knowing that waiting would truly screw me over I ran over to the only empty line entitled "EU Diplomats." I ran up to the sleepy German customs officer and quickly told him of my predicament and that I was about to miss my flight. Checking my passport, he said "Ja, Ja, Ja, its always Americans who are late, go ahead." Thanking him I headed to my next obstacle, airport security. Thinking that it was like security back in the states I stripped off my shoes, belt and took out all of my liquids as I waited in the security line. Much to my dismay, I actually didn't have to do any of those things and embarrassingly but put back on all of my clothes before I went through security. Emerging from security I realized that I was at Gate 2 and needed to get to Gate 67. I began my 2 km run down the terminal, I could almost taste India. The Frankfurt International Airport really is a beautiful airport, unfortunately, I wasn't really able to enjoy the architecture. I must have run past hundreds of stores along the way and felt like an idiot as I was the only one running while everyone else was walking leisurely. 65 gates later, exhausted, sore and sweaty I got to the gate just as they were beginning to pull up the ramp. The Indian attendant at the gate saw me and exclaimed "Glad you could join us today!"as he scanned my crumpled ticket. I tried to say in response, "Glad to be here!" but it came out more like "ghuh to bheh he" . As I walked in the plane, the female flight attendent greeted me with a warm "Namaste! Oh Sir! Your panting!" I gave her a grunt as I walked to my seat at the back of the plane. I sat down, completely drained, it felt like I'd just run a cross-country race back in high school. I popped in my headphones as the engines on the plane revved up I checked to see what the in-flight movies were. Mamma Mia and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. It was a nine hour flight to Delhi. FML.

New Delhi, India

Two bad movies and nine hours later I was walking off the plane and taking my first steps in India. Heading off the plane we were funneled into a health check line, as apparently I lived in a N1H1 flu country. Apparently, people in Germany, India and rest of the world have dubbed it the "American flu" as for some reason were to blame for everything that goes wrong. After the health check which was a joke(all they did was check my health questionnaire card that checked if I had flu symptoms) I passed through customs to the baggage claim. The Indira Gandhi Airport is pretty like any other airport, huge terminals, tons of people and signs everywhere, except the one difference was the dozens of soldiers patrolling in pairs with rottweilers, sub-machine guns and rifles with bayonets. Yay!

Exiting the airport was pretty intimidating. There is only one exit for international flights and its this long pathway with gates on both sides. Taxi drivers with signs lined up both sides, yelling, trying to find their passengers. I found my uncle, Kalsang Phuntsok la at the very back, sitting on a bench. Cho Kalsang la, or Cho Khapi la, is the former president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest Tibetan NGO in India. After a warm greeting we headed out into the blistering Delhi heat of 110 degrees and jumped in a taxi. Ironically, the driver was blaring the Jai Ho song aka the slumdog millionaire theme song. Ridiculous.

After an hour long taxi ride we made it to Majnu-Ka-Tilla, the Tibetan Colony in Delhi. Majnu-Ka-Tilla is the main district of Tibetans in Delhi and was my first experience with a tibetan community in India. The district itself is very self-contained and the majority of hotels, restaurants and shops were Tibetan owned and operated. We hunkered down for the night at Hotel Tibet. The next morning my cousin, Tenzin Chokyab came down from Dehra Dun, where is attending University to meet up with us. We traveled around Delhi during the day, seeing the old castle that the Mughal king ruled from in Delhi.
It was pretty amazing to see the architecture and also to learn that a Muslim used to rule India. On the way to the castle I got a firsthand look of the streets of Delhi. Looking out through the side of the auto rickshaw I saw the craziness that is Indian traffic. There are rules on the road, but they are more like suggestions, as everyone tries to race ahead of one another on the streets. Horns, are used very liberally here and are in as common use as using a turn signal back in the States.

After a short day in Delhi we boarded the bus to Dharamsala. The bus up to Himachal Pradesh was CRAMMED. There were western tourists, monks, Tibetans and Indians all crammed into a small space for the 12-hour overnight journey. The bus ride itself starting in the evening, we would arrive at our destination at 6 AM. I didn't sleep the whole night, instead I hunkered down in my seat and looked out the window to see as much of the Indian countryside as I could.

The New Berlin

Frankfurt, Germany

The city of Frankfurt is only an hour south of Marburg. Moritz, Becky and I went down for a day to do some shopping and see the sights. The city pretty much felt like any metropolis back in the states with its concrete streets and tall buildings. In the center of the city exists a no-driving zone, where people are allowed to walk on the streets. Its a pretty cool idea and Moritz told me its common in every major German city. Around the main shopping center were street performers, restaurants and every major label shopping center.

For lunch, I had a Bratwurst from a guy at a portable stand. It was pretty decent and I was amazed when the guy didn't accept my tip! Near the end of the day, I was hanging out in front of American Apparel while Moritz and Becky picked up some clothes when I saw this big crowd of guys headed my way.

Standing in front of me while sitting in front of AA were two girls talking and smoking cigarettes. This huge crowd of guys, probably 20 deep walked up to them, about half of them had beer and wine bottles in their hands(open containers are legal). In the center of the crowd was this one really tall guy wearing a white shirt and what looked like a basketball hoop on his back. He walked up to the two ladies and immediately started saying a bunch of stuff in German. I had no clue what they were saying but based on the girls body language, they were weirded out.

Then, the guy pulled out a small rubber basketball from his pocket. Immediately the girls lightened up. The guy handed one of the girls the ball then took a few steps and turned around. All the guys in the crowd starting clapping and cheering as the girl lined up her shot. The shot ended up hitting the guy in the back of the head and bounced to the ground. Everyone laughed and the white shirt guy walked back up to the girls and took out a stick of lipstick. Laughing, both girls applied the lipstick, kissed the guys t-shirt and then signed their names! This whole time, I sat on the bench taking pictures as the dumbstruck American that had no clue about what was going on. The crowd all took pictures together with the girls then drunkenly kept moving on.

As soon as they left Momo and Becky came out. I told them the whole story of what had just transpired. They laughed and explained that the white shirt guy was about to get married and it was his Facking Bachelor Party! Apparently, its tradition before marriage in Germany to go do crazy/stupid/fun things, especially in public. Its widely known across Germany about these 'rituals' and people love to play along. I definitely agreed that it was an awesome ritual and definitely plan on bringing this tradition to the states(LARGE!) After Frankfurt, my next stop on my euro trip was to the Northeast.

Berlin, Germany

"Hi Honeys, Ready for Sausage Time?" was my first impression of Berlin. After a breezy 5-hour carpool ride on the Autobahn from Marburg to Berlin I was hanging out with my old friend from Mtn. View, Andre Krois aka Kroisberg. Kroisberg was a german exchange student at my high school during my junior year. We met during Cross-Country and swam on the swim team together. Obviously, Tibetans and Germans have some bond. During the 5 years between his time and Mtn. View and a few weeks ago we hadn't kept in touch. On a visit back to my old high school the week before I left the States I was able to hunt him down via my old guidance counselor. After exchanging a few e-mails I figured out that he was back in Berlin, fresh from a year and a half stint in Australia teaching Scuba Diving. After meeting up with Kroisberg at his flat we hit the streets of Berlin for a drink. Upon hopping off the S-Bahn/Subway we emerged downtown.
I definitely knew that prostitution was legal in Germany, but didn't know the extent of how prevalent it was. Every one we walked by tried to get our attention and kept asking, in German of course, if we had some spare time. The best one though, was the 'sausage' lady who walked up right in front of us and stopped us. Kroisberg and I grabbed a drink at the "Hollywood Stars Cafe" and then checked out a few more bars.

The next morning we got an early start, as I only had one day on Berlin. Our whirlwind tour of the city consisted of pretty common tourist things, seeing German movie stars, fighting stormtroopers, hopping on tanks and riding conference bikes. Our first stop was the Wall. It was pretty crazy to see the actual object that divided this city and I was amazed that large portions of the wall were still kept up. A bunch of construction people were white-washing the wall too. Kroisberg asked why they were doing it and the foreman explained that the original artists who had drawn their art on the wall over 20 years ago were coming back to redo artwork.
It seemed pretty cool to be doing that and to bring closure for those people who had lived in East Berlin under the communists. And of course, I took the standard foreigner picture by the wall.

Checkpoint Charlie was our next destination and it was again flooded by tourists. On the way there, we ran into the filming of a movie and saw Til Schweiger, who is apparently is apparently a really famous German actor. Apparently, he was in Tomb Raider and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. Kroisberg and I really didn't give a crap and kept walking. At the Brandenburg gate there were more tourists galore. By the way, during my whole time in Germany it was so easy to spot the American tourists because they were the clueless ones speaking in loud English, had huge cameras, sandals, shorts and the Hawaiian shirts. It was really disturbing to witness how America is represented in other countries. At the Brandenburg gate, there were an assortment of characters including, stormtroopers, large bears and angels, all dressed up and ready to take a picture with you in front of this historic monument of German history. Heading deeper into the city we saw an old Soviet monument to soldiers during WWII with two T-34 soviet tanks. I hopped on board for a quick pic, cleverly eluding the Polizei. The best part of Berlin though, was when I spotted a Conference Bike! A friend from college's grandpa was the one who invented it and I had the awesome chance to ride it back in Tacoma. Kroisberg and I jumped on, joining some danish girls on summer holidy and we proceeded to ride around the central park. The driver of the bike was pretty crazy, I almost fell off several times as we swerved through pedestrian and bike traffic. Our last stop for the day was the Berlin Zoo, a huge park near the center of the city. At the zoo, we saw Knut, the magical ice bear. After throwing back a few beers at the playground zoo, I headed back to Marburg via the amazing German carpool system. I shared a ride back with three cool German dudes named Sven, Patrick and Joel. We talked about everything on the 5 hour drive back from topics ranging from the WWII, Iraq, EU, Turks and the abundance of prostitutes in Germany. 12 hours later I was back at Frankfurt Intl. Airport saying goodbye to my gracious hosts, Moritz and Becky.
Hanging out with them was definitely the best part of my trip and I learned a ton about Germany, Germans and Eurotrash (not Momo and Becky, of course)

The line for the Air India gate was huge. I inquired with an attendant about what the hold up was and she told me the computer systems had crashed and that they were working on it. My flight was leaving in an hour and a half, but she ASSURED me that all flights would wait for the passengers and be delayed half an hour. After a two hour wait in the line I finally made it to the front desk. Upon checking my bags and receiving my ticket, I asked the attendant what time the flight would be leaving. She double-checked my ticket, then quickly grabbed the phone and started dialing. She started arguing in Hindi on the phone with whoever she was talking to. I started to get worried. She slammed down the phone then said to me, "Sir, your plane is about to take off you will need to head there immediately" I froze and quickly absorbed the info, if I didn't make the flight, that would throw a wrench in my India plans as I had a relative coming down from Dharamsala to the Delhi airport the following day. I asked the attendant how far away and where the gate was. She told me I was at gate 67, pointed me in that direction and stated that I still had to pass through customs and security which would take at least 15 minutes. After yelling "Damnit!" Jack Bauer style I sprinted towards my terminal, determined to catch my flight to India.

Escaping Vancouver, Enter Europa

Marburg, Germany
I've only been in Deutschland for two days and already love this place. Following my 7 hour flight from pdx to jfk, 5 hour layover in new york and 9 hour flight to frankfurt I was greeted by my old german ally Moritz. Moritz was an exchange student at my high school during my sophomore year and we became good friends. Running cross-country, getting j-bo and chillin in the couv were some of the great times we had over 6 years ago. After a quick zip on the autobon we arrived in the city of Marburg where moritz goes to college and lives with his girlfriend Becky in a flat.

The city of Marburg has a population of 70,000 with 20,000 of them being the university students here. Its a pretty small, homely town that reminds of tacoma. Not much of a night life, people go to frankfurt for that but a lot to explore inlcuding old castles and numerous stands of doner khebabs. The most interesting thing I've seen so far here in Deutschland was a protest out on the streets by the local farmers. Walking down the streets in Marburg we ran into 50 tractors plowing down the road, honking like crazy and halting all traffic. This was their own form of protest of the low prices of milk and other goods. Essentially, farmers in Germany have been getting screwed by the EU, as food imports from other EU countries are forcing local merchants to drive down the price of goods to compete with foreign goods. Marburg and the rest of Germany has also been undergoing massive protests within the last few days due to the education system reforms implemented by the federal government. According to what Ive heard, the government is changing the college system from a diploma system to a bachelor system. What that means is that instead of students being able to choose their classes yearly, they must declare their major their first year and then lose all flexibility in choosing their classes for the next 3 years of college. Marburg, Berlin, Frankfurt and other cities have experienced much protests against the bachelors degree reform, with thousands of students marching, blocking traffic and trying to bring attention to the country about these reforms. They have affectionately called this movement the "facking bachelor party" and have planned more protests for the following weeks.

Its been pretty awesome to learn more about this stuff through firsthand experience. Unfortunately, my body is still on a weird jet-lag time with me waking up at 4 AM. If my first two days of my trip are any indication of how my next year abroad will be, its going to be a facking good time. Tomorrow, I'm heading to Berlin to meet up with another friend and see the sights. Its about a 6 hour car ride to berlin. Im getting a ride through this german style craigslist service that carpools people around the country. It should be pretty awesome and Im pumped to see more of this country and especially the Berlin Wall.