From Brahma to Buddha, Spring 2010

Check out the group in Domkhar...

Peter tries to throw Eliot over the edge, near the confluence of the Indus and Zanskar rivers

A lone tower is all that remains of a ring wall of Basgo Palace, a stopover on the way to Domkhar

Looking down onto Basgo village

Domkhar valley

Balang! A balang (cow) sticks her head out of a shed

Dzo (a yak/cow hybrid) are most frequently used for plowing in the fields

Jeremy and Eliot play volleyball with students on the Domkhar Highschool grounds

Looking down onto Domkhar village

Peter painting in the classroom

Margie going to work

Jeremy and Haley

We arrived in Domkhar during the students examination week. Here the students sit for that day's exam

Domkhar students huddle around Margie, who teaches them how to use Microsoft Word

Eliot tutors his students

Long! Freshly sheared long (sheep)

Checking out a bit of the Himalayan geology during our short day trek

Jeremy helps tie up a string of prayer flags

Eliot on the trek

Namgial Le, our fearless local coordinator

Students on teeter totters at Domkhar school

A GLAB vs. Domkhar volleyball match. We both put up a good fight

Eliot sets up for a serve

A monster spider we found near the stupa

As part of our service in the village, we helped repair a stupa wall

We are intense!

Transporting dirt to the Stupa wall

Jeremy and Eliot work on the wall

Ladakhi kids next to a world Buddhist flag

Eliot gives a speech to the school about similarities and differences between Ladakhi and US school systems during our "cultural program" on the last day at school

Jeremy and Haley give speeches. Watch out for some dancing video uploads soon...

The generator used to power the computers

Students at the computers

Posted by Kai at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

And, here are some more pictures! Jealous, yet? :)

Jeremy and Ashok Ji at tabla

Haley's jewelry creations from Dharamsala

Margie and her Ama La at the farewell dinner

Haley gives a speech in Tibetan to her homestay family

Margie gives her speech, to the enjoyment of everyone

Eliot gives his speech

Jeremy gives his Ama La and Pa La a katakh (white scarf) after his speech

Post dinner dance party!

The party continues

Haley and Margie making chapatis at the Golden Temple complex, Amritsar

Jeremy serving food in the Langar, the communal mess hall which serves delicious, free food and remains open 24 hours a day. The whole of the Golden Temple complex runs on a donation basis, and the Langar must feed approximately 10 to 20 thousand people per day

Eliot serving food in the Langar

At the Waga border ceremony, on the border between Pakistan and India. Like most things in India, it is full of people, colorful, loud, and features music and dancing

A variety of volunteers were able to run with the Indian flag

And on to Ladakh and cold weather! Looking down onto Leh and the mountains beyond

Blue Steel

Huzzah! Mountains!

Eliot climbing up the steps of Shanti Stupa, perched atop a hill on the outskirts of Leh

Looking down onto Leh valley from Tso Mori, Leh Palace. The entire valley is serviced by an extensive network of irrigation channels.

Margie climbing through prayer flags

Eliot looking out from atop Tso Mori

Eliot and Margie in lower Leh

The mountains surrounding Leh

Haley on the way up to a nearby peak, looking down onto Leh

Jeremy silhouetted against the sun

Margie and Eliot, on the way to the top

Windswept Margie, almost there

Jeremy and Eliot, on the ridge

Finally at the top!

Posted by Deborah at 3:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While the group is off on the trek, we thought we would share some pictures of their Dharamsala experience with you. Enjoy...

Posted by Kai at 12:24 PM | Permalink

For the past week we have been living in a small village a few hours away from Leh Ladakh. Although this homestay only lasts a week I have grown very close to my family and will miss them terribly when we leave. In my family there are three brothers a friendly neighbor and a cousin. We all hang out everyday during and after school. The youngest, a little four year old, is full of energy and loves to cuddle up on my lap, without a doubt the cutest kid I've seen on the trip. The other guys and I play cricket in the street after school using rocks as wickets. Its great fun. We also play a hakey sack type game with a bunch of rubber bands strung together. In this we kick the ball and the last foot it touches that guy has to whip the strung bands at the closest person. The other day I found out there's a thriving hockey community here and every winter they organize a team and play on the weekends. This past summer they placed second in the annual tournament in Leh. The cousin is captain of the team. When they found out I play they got together some roller blades and I went for a skate down the road with another member of the team. It’s a beautiful place to blade. Were surrounded by rocky mountains and on one side there's a magnificent snow peaked mountain. Also following the road is a creek that winds through the mountains. The first day I was here we hopped along the river over the rocks skipping stones across the flat areas. After I got back from blading I realized how out of shape I am seeing how every muscles in my body ached and I was gasping for air/ im not quite sure how ill fair on the trek next week. When its to dark to play outside we head down to the kitchen/living room. Here we play cards or the occasional chess game. One of the brothers is an avid chess player and although I've beaten him a few times he puts up quite a fight. As the night winds down we flip on the tv and watch some discovery or animal planet. The first day I saw a special on the wildlife in the area and there were clips of yaks on mountain sides and the elusive snow leopard making kills.
During the day we usually meet at the school where we have assisted in painting a few classrooms and then putting up posters. Afterwards we challenged the boys to a volley ball game and had some tough intense games. Every day from4 to six we would teach the students how to use the recently installed computers at the school as well as teach English.

- Eliot

Posted by Kai at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Jule!

Namgial, our Local Coordinator in Ladakh, has reported that the group arrived safely in Leh. After an early morning flight from Delhi, they were welcomed at the airport by Namgail and his team and are now enjoying the cool, clean air of the high Himalayas.

Since Leh is at an altitude of 3500m (11,500 ft), the group is now resting at the guesthouse in order to let their bodies gradually acclimate to the altitude. In a day or so they will be out exploring the sights of Leh and beyond.

Posted by Deborah at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The group just took the overnight train from Amritsar to Delhi. (I can't wait to hear about the ride! Please post your experience for all of us to share). They arrived safely in Delhi and spent the day getting ready for the next adventure on the program - Ladakh!

Posted by Deborah at 2:02 PM | Permalink

I just received a text from Peter and Kai that they arrived safely in Amritsar. They will spend the next couple of days exploring the Golden Temple and Sikhism and doing service at Langar, the temple's free kitchen. They will also watch the Wagah border ceremony and will discuss non-violence while visiting the Jallianwala Bagh Gardens, the site of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919 where over 1000 people were killed during a peaceful protest.

Posted by Deborah at 3:54 PM | Permalink

We had a nice farewell dinner with our home-stay families last night.

Posted by Jeremy at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

During our time in Dharmsala, I had the opportunity to meet and interact with many members of the Tibetan refugee community through conversational English classes. Each person had a different story, but they were all firm in calling Tibet their home and expressing a desire to return.

At one class, I met and talked to a Budhist nun who had been a political prisoner for being part of a peaceful protest against the Chinese government. The police beat her to the ground and continued to hit her with rifles as she screamed out the Dalia Lama's name. She was taken to prison where she spent many years in horrible conditions, being beaten and tortured every day to give up the names of Tibetan political leaders. The police made her watch as one of her close friends was tied by the arm to the ceiling and left to hang until the arm had turned completely black. She wanted to save her friend, but she had no names to give, for the Tibetan resistance was people based, and had no certain leaders. Her Chinese torturers called her a whore for the monks and kept her in a small cell with prostitutes. Every day they were given a small cup of black tea and a piece of bread, and the prisoners were hungry all the time. Some starved to death. When she was finally released, she was so weak she could barely walk, but when she got up her strength again she was determined to escape from Tibet to meet the Dalai Lama and tell him her story. She met up with a group from Lhasa, and set out to try to reach Nepal. The group walked only at night, hiding during the day from Chinese soldiers who are ordered to shoot Tibetans trying to escape. The journey was thirty days, and at many times she thought she would not make it. People lost toes and fingers to frostbite, and many of the passes were dangerous. At one time, a small avalanche fell near the group, at another, a bridge they were crossing swayed and nearly broke. Fortunately, the entire group made it to Nepal, from where they were able to obtain papers to come to India. When she arrived in Dharmsala, she was able to meet the Dalai Lama, and fell crying. She joined a nunnery near Dharmsala, encouraged to study by His Holiness' words. She can no longer contact her family for when she calls the Chinese come to her family's home and beat her siblings and elderly parents. The last time she called her brother begged her not to call again to preserve the safety of her family. So here she stays, studying and waiting, praying for a free Tibet which will allow her to return to her family.

I

Posted by Margie at 5:13 AM | Permalink

Hey all,
So the last three weeks weve been living with Homestay families in Dharamsala. this for me has been one of the highlights. I loved my family; my mom was the nicest women and my dad was a great guy who loved to bicker about cricket. we would start everday by having breakfast with teh fam. for me this consisted of a mutant pancake that was half American style half tibetan, it was good though. then we would head to tibetan class, afterward we heard from a speaker who usually was some kind of local leader. i enjoyed these the most because we heard some amazing stories and interested points of view about the situation in tibet. sometimes after the speaker we would go out to a local place such as the Tibetan youth congress or the the place where they make the traditional arts and crafts. after this we pretty much had the rest opf the day free except for our ISPs. we could walk around or check out the internet cafe. most of us would go to the volunteer conversational english class. here we would work with recent tibet escapees and help teach them basic english. this was an amazing experience meeting and learning about their experiences. For my ISP i did more interviews, but this time i recoreded them and rather than ask about tibetan culture I wanted to hear their personal accounts of their life. many tibetans had incredible stories to tell. so were political prisoners who spoke about the atrocities the chinese committed while in jail. others told about escaping and who they had to walk for 7 days with almost no food through the freezing Himalayan passes.
we are now leaving for the golden temple and then trekking in Ladakh.

Posted by Eliot at 5:02 AM | Permalink

The group is now leaving Dharamsala, everyone is sad to go because we all became really close with our families. Last night we had a farewell dinner, where we gave speeches to our families in Tibetan thanking them for their hospitality and for making us a part of their family. After the dinner, we had a dance party filled with the dirtiest rap songs of the decade; our families didn't care though because they couldn't understand the lyrics, so we all boogied down with the tackiest dance moves ranging from the sprinkler to traditional Tibetan dance. After dinner, we all went back to our respective homes and spent our final night in Dharmsala with our families. This morning, after saying goodbye and exchanging gifts, we head to Amritsar to see the extravagant Golden Temple. I will never forget Dharamsala and the people I met here.

-Haley

Posted by Haley at 4:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

These pictures have been a long time coming: a look back on our journey from Jaipur to Dharamsala

Eliot with his ISP mentor and translator in Jaipur, Babu Bhai

Haley and Margie celebrate Peter's Bday in Pushkar

The rest of the group at Peter's Bday party

At our farewell dinner in Jaipur, each student said a small thank you speech to their homestay family in Hindi. Here Eliot says his to his family.

Haley and Margie say their speeches

Jeremy says thank you to his family

The group at Shivani Ji's house, just before leaving for Delhi

Back in Delhi, we toured around the city and went to a few monuments including India gate in the background which was built to honor the Indian soldiers who died during WWI and the Afghan Wars

We also went to south Delhi to visit the Lotus temple of the Baha'i faith

During our intro to Buddhism retreat we had a daily karma yoga job: turning and mixing soil in the Deer Park compound

Haley, Margie, and other Deer Park visitors hard at work. We have received word that they are now starting to plant trees and small shrubs.

The main Deer Park temple, with the Himalayas in the background

Peaceful and relaxing Bir

Hide and Seek:On our last day, we did a small hike up into the hills. Can you see Jeremy?

More photos of Dharamsala hopefully coming soon...

Posted by Kai at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tashi Delek Everyone,

We are at the very end of our time in Dharamsala, and after ISP presentations and homestay farewell dinner on Friday, we take off on Saturday to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, then back to Delhi on Wednesday when we fly out to Ladakh. But, before we go, here are a few glimpses of what the students have been working on in the ISPs:

Haley has been working with her Jewelry Gegen La (teacher) for two weeks now, and has already made several pieces of jewelry. Here she is putting a few finishing touches on a pendant.

In one of his ISPs, Eliot is interviewing members of the Tibetan exile community to collect their stories of Tibet and coming to India. He has accrued quite a collection so far and we are looking forward to his ISP presentation tomorrow.

All of the students are going to one or two English conversation classes throughout the day. This one is held by an NGO called Learning and Ideas for Tibet. The topic of the day was 'dreams'. You can see Margie in blue and Eliot is hidden in the masses.

Jeremy explains a few of the different notes a tabla player utilizes, then gives a demonstration.

Posted by Kai at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It was nice to go to Deer Park in Bir and finally see something other than a ridiculously busy city and be in the mountains.

When we first got to Dharamsala we visited a neighboring town called Norbulingka and saw where to go learn various arts like wood carving and Tangka paintings.

McLeod Ganj is my favorite place so far. It's nice to be in the mountains after being in busy Jaipur and Delhi for so long.

The Tibetans are extremely nice and it is lots of fun volunteering at the Tibetan Hope Center and talking to people who traveled here from Tibet, evading Chinese soldiers.

We are staying with really nice home-stay families. It's slightly less luxurious than Jaipur, no servants. Our house are mostly just a few rooms: a kitchen, one or two bedrooms, and a living room. My living room is outside and we eat dinner on my home-stay parent's bed in front of the tv. I like it better than Jaipur though.

We have heard from many speakers on the China in Tibet issue. Including Ahma Adhi:

Ahma Adhi lead protests in Tibet for three years after 1959 and was imprisoned for 27 years, for peaceful protesting. She was one of four women who survived long enough to be released of the 300 initial prisoners. They were extremely underfed and all of them died of starvation. They took turns eating each others shoes for nourishment because they were made of yak leather. We have heard many horrible stories of life in Tibet from many different people, from the daily speakers to the people we talk to in conversational english. It's ridiculous, the things that continue to happen even today. Many Tibetans in exile cannot talk to their families back in Tibet because if the Chinese find out they will imprison their family.

We visted the Karmapa, who is like the Dalai Lama but of a different sect of Buddhism. He blessed us all and rid us of our past seven lives of bad karma. he also blessed my kendama. This is his monestary:

My house has a cage to keep out monkeys and one day a monkey came up to it and we stared at it for a while. My home-stay dad Karma gave it some bananas. When we looked at it wrong it glared back with a look like, "you talkin to me?" and then angrily smacked the cage.

Most of us have been going to the Tibetan Hope Center for conversational english everyday. Conversational english is just westerners talking english with tibetan refugees who need to hone their english speaking skills. We get to meet many interesting people and usually hear about their story of traveling here from Tibet. Some have been caught and sent to jail and when they got out they try again. One 18 year old I talked to had been caught three times by the time he was 15 but finally made it to India two years ago. The Tibetan Hope Center is a school started by Tibetan youths. The people who run it are very friendly and every conversational English class is followed by a game that usually involves dancing and music. This is Kusung and another Tibetan Hope Center staffer:

We got a chance to check out The Tibetan Parliament in Exile and hear from a member. The Tibetan Parliament in Exile is exactly that. It's the Tibetan Government ready to go into effect the second they get Tibet back. Here is Peter in the Parliament:

We hiked up to Triund this weekend. We hiked six hours and stayed in a guest house at the top. Some of us slept outside. We had an amazing view of every single star and we even saw a few shooting stars. We ate lots of Magee which is basically Top Ramen. The view from the top was absolutely amazing, we could see all of Dharamsala, Norbulingka, and more. There were some massive snow covered mountains behind us also. There were thousands of butterflies fluttering overhead all day long:

We saw some snow on the way up! and did some glisading. This is Eliot about to eat it:

More new photos on Flickr too!

Posted by Jeremy at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The group decided to prepare for their upcoming trek in Leh by going on an overnight trek to Triund. The 9 km trek starts from Mcleod Ganj and goes through mixed forest of oak, rhododendron and deodar trees. Triund is a flat meadow on the top of a ridge and affords a breathtaking view of the snows above and the valley below. From Triund one can see the Dhauladhar range very close on one side and the whole Kangra valley on the other. It is a famous trek route for local people as well as for tourists. We look forward to hearing about their adventure when they return.

Posted by Deborah at 7:14 PM | Permalink

This is a video of Haley's homestay dad playing the Tibetan guitar. Its a bit dark and tilted, though it is the best shot we have so far. Even if you cannot see the picture, you can still hear the beautiful music! Enjoy!

Posted by Deborah at 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For the past 2 weeks I have been making jewelry with a Tibetan jeweler in his shop at his house. I have already made a silver ring made with a coral stone found in Tibet and a pair of turquoise silver earrings (for my sister Gabrielle), right now I am making a pendant made out of silver and jade. In the making of the pieces I have to heat silver and then stretch it out, I also have to weld pieces of silver together with a blowtorch and create designs, it is very meticulous work. The actual stones that go into the jewelry are held in by Lak, which comes from a plant and is usually used to make bangles. The jeweler I am studying with is a professional jeweler who does custom orders and even made a mirror for His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama made completely out of gold and silver.

Teacher teaching

Making a design for the pendant.

Jhangarmo! Tea Time!

Hope all is going well back home!
-Haley

Posted by Haley at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)