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 Schoolpre-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.
