A Journey To Northern India And A Teaching Session With The Dalai Lama

I know there is a “risk/reward ratio” but I am just so glad I didn’t die before my opportunity to see and hear the Dalai Lama where he works, prays and teaches. The risk: a trip to Dharamshala (literally “Rest House”) required a death defying 7 hour van ride on twisting, steep mountain roads with an hour detour (due to a landslide) on a one lane back road. These pictures do not do justice to the precarious situations, especially when sharing the tiny mud covered road with cars, trucks and buses coming from the opposite direction:

This town in India is where the Dalai Lama escaped to in 1959 when the Chinese Communists invaded and took over Tibet. Approximately 90,000 Tibetans are in exile with a large percentage living around this mountainous region. Today there is still much unrest in Tibet where the native people are not permitted to practice their religion or show honour to the Dalai Lama. Currently there are about 6 million people living in Tibet and through out the world.

This Dalai Lama( the 14th) is 84 years old and has been the spiritual leader since he was 4 years old and the political leader (until his exile) at 15 years old. He looks great for his age. He lives in a house on the temple grounds, tends a small garden and likes to repair watches:

It was sheer serendipity the we happened to be in Dharamsala on September 4th for a day of teaching by the Dalai Lama at Kalachakar Temple. We realized our good fortune when we arrived and promptly went about obtaining our entry pass. This was pretty complicated and thanks to our tour member Yas’s Internet skills we found out we needed to register. J.D., our guide had to obtain the applications and pick up the passes–no easy task. No cameras were allowed so I think I’ll just keep my pass as my memento forever more:

The teaching was in the Tibetan language but English was available on a FM radio. I loved the Dalia Lama’s animations and inflections and he would laugh at his own words (which allowed everyone to laugh) with a contagious chuckle. The “gist” of His message was love and compassion. We must work on growing in these areas our entire life. Our enemies deserve this response from us–even if they cause us to loose our temper.

This region is in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. I just cannot imagine being in this city/region (that seems to be hanging on to the side of the hill) when there is snow. The view from my room:

We visited the Norbulingka Institute for the preservation of Tibetan culture and paid respect at the Buddhist temple:

We stopped at the highest cricket stadium in the world–the Himalayas are peaking through the clouds:

We are off on another mountainous travel adventure with a trip to the largest hill town, Shimla, which was the British government’s summer headquarters from 1864 to1939.