McLeod Ganj
H.H. the Dalai Lama
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama lives in exile in a small hill station called McLeod
Ganj near Dharamsala in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. The town
is the headquarters of the Tibetan Government in Exile. It is known as "Little Lhasa" due to
the large number of Tibetan refugees living there.
The Dalai Lama crossed the Himalayas into Nepal on March 17th, 1959 and was granted
political asylum in India. Over 80,000 Tibetans followed him. I spoke to a 26 year old Tibetan
monk today who left Tibet the same way, by foot over the Himalayan range into Nepal. The trip
took him fifteen days. He said it was very dangerous not only because of the repercussions he
would face by the Chinese government if caught, but because of the risks of the trek. The
mountains are cold wearing sneakers and without ice picks and crampons crossing glaciers
can be seriously difficult. Older Tibetans cannot make the trip. He left when he was only 15
and traveled with a group of 25 people. He said his parents wouldn't have survived the
journey.
Walking through town you cannot avoid the plight of the Tibetan people. There are posters on
every wall and in every cafe and shop circulating these statistics:
- More than 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed
- Over 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed.
- Thousands of Tibetans are still imprisoned for exercising their fundamental rights.
- Tibet's natural resources and fragile ecology are being irreversibly destroyed.
- There is evidence suggesting that Tibet is being used for dumping of nuclear wastes.
- Tibetans (6 million) have been outnumbered by Chinese (7.5 million) in Tibet.
- Tibet, once a peaceful buffer state between India and China, has been transformed into a vast military base.
We got into a long winded, philosophical discussion about Buddhism. We basically spent two hours drilling Ngawang with questions which he patiently answered. He spoke and wrote English well enough to cover the basics: The main facets of suffering are desire, anger (caused by desire) and "un-knowledge." We explained to him we use the word ignorance for un-knowledge. They believe there are two types of knowledge "internal" or spiritual and "external" or cerebral. The focus of their practice is to gain internal knowledge in order to avoid suffering and live in peace. This of course, takes many, many lifetimes.
The Dalai Lama speaks of compassion on a regular basis. The Tibetan monks believe their lives are granted to help others by practicing good Dharma. There are three elements to Dharma: Thinking, speaking and acting. In Dharma there are "good works" and "bad works." If you cause harm to a person or animal with your actions or words or thoughts that is considered bad works. If you help others and focus on compassionate actions, thoughts and words that is considered good Dharma or good works. I've heard so many people in this part of the world talk of spending their lives doing social work and helping others.
The Paradox of Our Age
We have bigger houses but smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense;
more knowledge but less judgment;
more experts, but more problems;
more medicine but less healthiness.
We've been all the way to the moon and back,
but have trouble crossing the street to meet our new neighbor.
We built more computers to hold more copies than ever,
but have less real communication.
We have become long on quantity,
but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall men but short characters;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It's a time when there is much in the window
But nothing in the room
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
Comments
Wow Susan, what great stories you tell. Simultaneously heavy, enlightening, fun, scary & uplifting. Thanks so much for sharing. I'm hooked. Stan The Team says HI!