Behind The Scenes: Tibet-In-Exile

The Dalai Lama's three-day teaching came to a close yesterday. I'd previously seen the Dalai Lama speak at UC Santa Barbara a few years ago, but it was a whole different experience to learn from him at his home temple here in McLeod Ganj. As an engineer from Denmark told me in a coffee shop after the last session, you can't go to India without having a spiritual experience. Well, I feel like I had mine listening to the Dalai Lama. The teaching was for the most part on "emptiness." The Dalai Lama considers emptiness the fundamental idea to Buddhism, so it was very cool to hear him give commentary on such an important topic. My knowledge and understanding of emptiness is certainly deeper than before. I also learned that my body isn't made to sit cross-legged for four hours a day, but that's another story!

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Today, I hopped in a taxi and headed down the hill from McLeod Ganj to Gangchen Kyishong, the Tibetan Government-In-Exile complex, about 20 minutes away from my guesthouse. There, I visited the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives and Nechung Gompa, the Tibetan State Oracle.

The entrance to the Library

The entrance was the most ornately decorated I'd ever seen at a library. On the second floor of the Library is the Tibetan Cultural Museum, which is supposed to be really neat. Unfortunatly, it's under renovation until January or February so I didn't get to see it, but I was glad to know that the Tibetan Government can afford to improve displays of Tibetan heritage (I think with the help of the Indian Government). Fortunately, the lady at the front desk told me to sneak into a room behind me to my right with a slightly opened door. She said it was rarely open and urged me off.

Slyly entering the room, I found a room full of Tibetan texts from floor to ceiling. I knew immediately that these were old Tibetan texts. Historically, Tibetan manuscripts were handwritten on long, rectangular sheets of paper. I walked around the room, feeling like I was somewhere I shouldn't be. There was a monk sitting at a table in the center of the room with books open. I said hello and he warmly greeted me as if he was expecting my visit. I asked him if it was OK to take pictures and he said it was!

In the archives

He told me that these texts were all from Tibet and that after the Dalai Lama escaped to Dharamsala, he requested that these texts be brought over to avoid destruction by the Chinese. All of these texts were snuck out of Tibet in backpacks and on yaks, over the Himalayas, to their current resting place. Most of them were centuries old. Wow! The monk, like most of the monks I've met in McLeod Ganj, was born and raised in Tibet. He missed home a lot but has no way of returning safely - a universally shared experience amongst those that have fled their Tibetan homeland. As I left, he shut the door behind me.

After exploring the rest of the small library, I headed back outside to find the Nechung Gompa, the State Oracle. When trying to find anything in India, you just repeat what you're looking for to everyone that you pass by and eventually you find it. I ended up being led into a really nice monastery and to a big, beautiful building. I asked the Tibetan laides sitting at the steps putting back on their shoes if this was the Oracle. They shook their heads sideways and asked each other in Tibetan if they knew what an oracle was. Feeling like I was close by not quite there, I started to walk away. Then I remembered I had written down the Tibetan name of the Oracle in my pocket. "Nechung Gompa?" I asked. They laughed and pointed to the building we were standing in front of. I should've known better....

I took my shoes off, climbed the stairs, and peeked behind the cloth entrance to the Oracle. Walking in, there were two monks, one against the wall of each side of the room, reading and chanting. There were big drums laid down along the path to what appeared to be a gold covered seat in the center of the room (I'll guess the gold covered object to either be the seat of the Dalai Lama or the Oracle itself, whatever that may be). Again feeling like I was somewhere I shouldn't be, I took one more look around and walked outside. The Oracle was surrounded by a peaceful monastery and the Himalayas. While I didn't want to take a picture inside the Oracle, the building and its surroundings begged for a picture from the outside.

Nechung Gompa and the Himalayas

I decided that I had poked around enough at the Government Complex and decided to walk 10 minutes down the hill to Men-Tsee-Khang, the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute.

The campus is unassuming, but inside is the present and future of one of the oldest forms of medicine and astrology on the planet. At the request of H.H. the Dalai Lama, Men-Tsee-Khang was founded "in-exile" here in McLeod Ganj by Dr. Yeshi Dhonden, the doctor I had visited earlier in the week. I first headed to the Museum of Tibetan Medicine just past the entrance. The museum housed samples of the raw ingredients for Tibetan medicine (herbs, roots, precious metals, and gems) and described their curative abilities. Downstairs housed ancient Tibetan medical texts (in the same rectangular format of the texts from the archives) and beautiful paintings describing different parts of the texts. No photos were allowed inside the museum, unfortunately.

From the museum, I headed to the main administration building. Once again feeling like I was somewhere I shouldn't be, I headed down a random hall and peeked into a room with a sign above it that explained it was the pill dispensary. I said hello and asked the ladies if I could take a picture. They smiled and obliged.

The other side of the room had bulk bags of pills and powders, in all shades of brown and black

I asked the lady where the astrological office was and she directed me upstairs. Back in the main hall, there was a man who looked like he was getting ready to transport loads of Tibetan pills, laying out plastic liners to go in big canvas bags. I peeked into that room and there were a bunch of young Tibetan guys who were much less welcoming than the nice ladies in the other room. Woops, off I went...

I headed upstairs to the astrological office where my guidebook explained that you can get a whole horoscope of your life based on the date and time of your birth made according to Tibetan astrology. Entering the room, the nice receptionist invited me to sit down. I asked her about the horoscopes and she told me that they were made here by astrologers who study at Men-Tsee-Khang for 5 years and then do a 1 year internship, following historic Tibetan practice. I told her I would like a horoscope made and she handed me a book to fill in my information. Asking her why she needed my address, she told me that when it was finished, she would send it to my home address. "My home address...can't I pick it up later?" I asked. She told me that because they take some time to complete and the high demand, the horoscopes take about 7-8 months from the time of order to the time they reach your doorstep. Surprised, I filled in my information, including the time of my birth my mom had unknowingly slipped into the appropriate page of my guidebook before I left on my trip. I said thanks and headed off, knowing that when my horoscope arrived, I would surely be pleasantly surprised by the late gift to myself from this trip.

I walked outside without exploring more, not wanting to find myself receiving anymore bad stares. Flipping through the Men-Tsee-Khang brochure I received at the Museum looking for my next place to visit, I saw that there was a Mild Therapy Center that offered Tibetan Massages. Figuring I wouldn't receive a more authentic Tibetan Massage elsewhere, I asked where the center was and headed down a steep flight of stairs. As I made my way down the weaving stairs, I saw that on the balcony of a building across the way, roots and herbs were being dried, clearly to make Tibetan pills.

This must be where they make the medicine....

Intrigued, I headed towards the building. The first room I came across was the room where they crushed the raw materials. Neat! I ducked quickly in, then out of the room and set my camera up for a picture. I peeked back inside and snapped a few pictures off, knowing that Tibetans are somewhat secretive about the process of making medicine and that I probably looked like a snoop for some American pharmaceutical company.

Tibetan medicine - from the earth

At this point, I felt like some investigative journalist and my curiosity continued to get the best of me. Against my better judgement, I headed down a hallway into the building. The next room I came across was a sorting and packaging room. All the workers looked up at me. I gave them the Tibetan greeting of honor, a one-handed gesture moving the hand from in front of the face outwards toward the heart. They smiled and I moved on, wanting to remain under-the-radar.

Taking a right turn, I came across two ladies that appeared to be roasting roots. This was getting too good, I quickly snapped another picture so I could share and re-visit what was shaping up to be a memorable day of snooping into Tibetan culture and heritage.

The old-fashioned way

As my camera captured the moment, I heard a shout behind me. A man was coming towards me, clearly wondering what the heck I was doing there with a camera. I gave him the honorable greeting and tried to smooth over the situation. I asked if it was OK if I took photos. He responded with a firm "no." He asked where I was from, a common question. I told him I was from California. As we were talking, another man walked up in a white lab-coat and it was obvious he was a superior to this man. I told the guy in the lab coat that I was a patient of Dr. Yeshi Dhonhen's and that I was just coming to check it all out. A smile emerged and he mumbled off a sentence in broken English that I couldn't understand. I think he was trying to tell me Dr. Dhonden founded the place. I asked him if I could take pictures and he quickly responded with a big "no." I asked him where the massage center was and he told me down another flight of stairs to my left. I gave him the honorable gesture and quickly left the building. How cool, I thought, glad my snooping and pictures didn't get me into too much trouble.

I headed down the flight of stairs past some Indian guys who appeared to be chopping up what was probably bleached yak wool with an ancient tool. The long tool had a big circular wooden piece on one end with a wooden rod sticking out of the circular piece probably about 2.5 ft long. There was a string connected from one end to the other and they were hacking at the white stuff with the string. There was an incredibly old Tibetan woman sitting there watching them who could do nothing but smile and rock at my presence. I asked a couple nearby where the massage center was and they directed me further down the stairs and around a building.

Following only a sign that said "this way please," I peeked my head through the last door that I guessed was the entry room to the Mild Therapy Center. With no sign, the three room, incredibly basic clinic was empty. I shouted hello but no one was there. Walking back outside, there was a lady on the porch upstairs who told me to wait and came down to greet me. Thinking I was someone coming for an appointment, she told me to enter the massage room, appeared to start to heat up some oil, and told me the guys would be down shortly. I thought, wow, this is really a no-questions-asked place. I asked her "how much?" and she realized that I wasn't the guy with an appointment today. Laughing, she told me that they offer 30 min massages for 350 rupees - 7 dollars - where two guys massage you at the same time. Sounds pretty reasonable to me! She said they were booked until Monday which is my last day in McLeod Ganj. I signed up and I'll report back how it goes.

Deciding I'd had enough adventure and feeling lucky to escape trouble, I headed back up to the main road and caught a taxi back home.

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As I described in an earlier blog, plans in India rarely end up the way you think they will. Checking the weather, it looked like it was going to be raining in Manali for the foreseeable future. Deciding that I didn't want to hang out in a cold, rainy place, I called Ganesh back at hq to see if I could book a train to Varanasi. Getting my trip to Varanasi in before I left for Arunachal Pradesh would give me more time after my stint in Arunachal in Southern India where I planned to head. With trains fully booked, he convinced me to go on a quick tour through Rajasthan, his home state. Booking my trains and planning my itinerary for me, it appeared I would head to Rajasthan from Nov. 6 - 12, still making it back to Rishikesh in time for Diwali. This was Tuesday. On Wednesday, yesterday, I realized that before I left for Dharamsala, I had spoken with Flow about wanting to do a private trip on the Upper Alkhanada River - the stretch above the dam, previously doing the Lower stretch below the dam in October. The Upper Alkhanada is supposed to be a beautiful free-flowing run with good, challenging, and continuous class IV whitewater with excellent beach camps. I called Flow to see if he was still keen. He was and I called Arvind to work out the kinks. Today, I confirmed with Arvind that we could work out logistics and with Flow that he was still into the mission. With all systems go, I called Ganesh to cancel my train tickets to Rajasthan.

On the 3rd, I'll still head about two or three hours east to Bir to meet up with Vipin, co-owner of Red Chilli, and do some paragliding. I'll leave on the 4th, see Dr. Dhonden again on the 5th here in McLeod Ganj and leave that night, returning to Rishikesh on the morning of the 6th. Shortly thereafter, we'll pack up the jeep and Flow, hopefully Rakesh and Sahdev, and myself will head a day up the Ganga River Valley to spend two days rafting the Upper Alkhanada. And I'll still be back in Rishikesh with time to spare before Diwali. India is a blast, here's a panaroma from the back porch of the Dalai Lama's temple - until next time...