Trip to Dharamshala - Mcleodganj

Dharamshala and Mcleodganj are two places I always wanted to visit. Apart from the sheer beauty of the mountains, it was the Tibetan culture and mysticism attached to it that intrigued me the most. Around 10 days back (weekend of Nov 4-5), I finally got a chance to explore what can be termed as a truly unique place.

I left on Friday night with my kid brother in a Himachal tourism bus. It was like a campus student when you plan something on Saturday afternoon having woken up with a hangover and leave Saturday evening to the bus stop with no plans. I did the same and had money good enough to afford a dormitory and roadside food.

After a 12 hour jerky ride on the backmost seats of the bus, we reached Mcleodganj. We checked into a hotel run by Tibetan refugees. It was a decent room but the washroom was shared. For a hot shower, one had to go down two floors to the basement. We had our shower and put on full sleeve tees as it was a bit cold. The hotel had a beautiful rooftop restaurant serving Italian and Tibetan food and a continental breakfast. We took the corner seats giving us a wonderful view of the valley. We quickly finished breakfast (pancakes, cheese omelets, sausages and not to mention herbal Tibetan tea) and venture out to the Tibetan Temple where his holiness the 14th Dalai Lama runs the Tibetan government in exile. Unluckily, the Dalai Lama was traveling and we could not have the pleasure of attending one his public discourses. However, it was quite insightful to see Tibet side of the story. There were posters everywhere asking ‘Where is the Panchem Lama (Tibetan’s second highest religious authority due to succeed the Dalai Lama)’and ample free literature on the human rights violation in Tibet. I chatted with a few monks in whatever broken Hindi and English they could speak and headed to the temple.

Seeing a bunch of monks doing their daily ritual of making a painting with colors (very much like Rangoli) was quite phenomenal. They take color in a small metallic pipe having a very small hole at one end and run another pipe with it to drop the color on a pre sketched colorless painting. It takes a group of 6-8 monks some 6 hours to complete the painting which is destroyed right after the Dalai Lama or the person standing in for him completes the prayers. It’s quite amazing how things come full circle – Buddhism a religion which originated in India is once again flourishing in India only though through a refugee population. Buddha’s idol was truly magnificent and quite surprisingly photography was allowed. Still, It was quite embarrassing to see a bunch of college students posing in front of the Buddha and clicking pictures not just from the cameras but with mobiles as well. I could hear them talking about sending MMS. Its quite ridiculous to see your fellow countrymen making mockery of a calm spiritual place. Anyway.

After spending a few hours in the temple, we made our way back to the Mcleodganj square where we had a lunch in a small authentic Tibetan café. It was a delicious meal of noodles, soup and momos in a very reasonable 90 bucks. We generally walked around the place for sometime and headed back to the hotel to catch some sleep. Its been long walks of roughly 8 kms. We slept for a couple of hours and left to see a documentary on the history of Tibet. Watching the beauty of Tibet and the richness of their culture, I resolved to one day visit Lhasa. We came out of the theatre with lots of questions in our heads. Will Tibet ever be free? Will it be possible for the Tibetans to retain their cultural identity and language against the mighty Chinese? Will China one day have the fate of that of the former USSR? Will the brutal Chinese occupation one day break the resilience of the Tibetans and force them to take up arms and give up a peaceful struggle for cultural and religious freedom?

With all these questions, we headed to an Italian/Tibetan restaurant where my Bro enjoyed delicious pasta and I enjoyed a healthy and delicious meal of noodle soup. After the dinner we again walked back to the temple. It was beautiful weather and the air was scented with the burning of incense sticks. After a long walk, we went back to the hotel and slept.

Next day, we decided to visit the St. John church where Sunday mass was going on. We sat for a few minutes and walked back to the main square. We checked out of the hotel and decided to trek down to Dharamshala. It was roughly a 10 km trek and was full of some breathtaking views of the snow covered hill tops and small villages and markets in the valley. We reached Dharamshala in the afternoon after a tiring 2.5 hour trek. A heavy Indian meal in a small roadside hotel near the bus stop was enough to satisfy our appetite and we headed to visit a nearby temple of Chamunda Devi. We had three hours and we thought it was a good idea to explore the local roads and villages in an almost dilapidated bus. After praying for Almighty’s blessings, we made our way back to the Dharamshala bus stand where we saw West Indies struggling against the Aussies in Champions Trophy final and boarded the bus back to Delhi. We reached Delhi early morning and I loved the morning mist and cold as I was up that early after a long long time. After a dose of history and culture, it was back to discussions on how to streamline Australian cardmember acquisition strategy in partnership with the external vendors. I love Tibet and wish I would one day have the pleasure of visiting Lhasa and experience the richness of Tibetan culture in full spirits.