tibetans

thursday april 28, 8:45pm

writing this from delhi, the capital of india. flew here today from bagdogra (about 60km south of darjeeling) . . . bagdogra is a huge military place, i think it's a "just in case" base, where the indian army "ramps up" for potential northern border skirmishes w/chinese . . . the airport from which i flew is a combination military/commercial one, just one runway, and it's strange to have indian air force fighter planes taking off from the shared runaway . . . also having indian soldiers with uzi's standing guard everywhere is kind of weird . . . very heavy security too, everyone scanned and frisked twice, once in the airport, and then again on the tarmac before boarding plane.

so much to say, am going to focus on a couple of things, the mountain trek and tibetans.

the trek: unbelievable. took a jeep about two hours west to the indian/nepali border town of maneybhanjang, where trek began. i was trekking with a tibetan guide named gyabo (guy-bow), 25-years old, good spoken english, lots of fun . . .

don't really understand why at my age i elected to undertake the most physically demanding task of my life, but there it was . . . in high altitude, we walked almost straight up for over four hours. what began as a paved mountain road turned into a boulder/dirt one, and it just went straight up, switchback after switchback . . . legs ached, knees burned, lungs were bursting and although it was cool and foggy, i was drenched in sweat, really very very difficult. ahh, but the scenery. and the air. and the surreal realization of exactly what i was doing, where i was . . .

we stopped in a small village for tea, and then continued on (i.e., up), but in short course the fog intensified and the wind picked up and we decided to turn back to the village for shelter, because it was surely going to rain . . .

gyabo knew a tibetan family who lived in the village, a family of farmers, so we headed to their place . . . just as we got there the rain started big, accompanied by lightning and thunder (thunder in the himalyaya sounds different than i've ever heard thunder before, not so sharp, but very deep and very rolling, lasting for over a minute) . . . so, we stayed in shelter for most of the afternoon and at around 4:30p decided to "officially" stop trekking for the day and stay there.

well, the trek was fun, but staying in that little house with that family was the highlight of my time in india so far -- funny that the house was right on the indian/nepali border, with all but the prayer room being in nepal (the house was built over 120 years ago by nepalese farmers, the parents of this family found it deserted when they arrived in 1960 having fled the chinese oppression in tibet) . . . i learned how to milk cows, how to dance to tibetan music and spent the day in constant conversation with my hosts (dad, mom, two girls (13, 7) and a one-year old son) . . . the girls were learning english in school (i read some of their english books with them) and the parents spoke pretty good conversational english (and taught me some tibetan) . . . it was fun for them too, to have a big goofy american house guest . . . took lots of photos, and as the day (and evening) went on, huddled around the fire (it was cold out!) we all made good friends . . . in addition to the few homes and farm buildings (cow shed, etc) in the village (named "chitra") there's also a beautiful buddhist monastery perched on a hill peak, and we went to the 6pm puja (prayer service).

slept that night in a little hiking hut (no room in the house) and it was cold and wet and not very comfortable, i am kind of tall for the typical tibetan bed, and the next day, still rainy, gyabo and i carefully felt our way down the mountain on the wet rocks and ultimately made it back to darjeeling . . . gyabo then invited me to his home, where i met his father, brother, sister-in-law and tibetan mastiff puppy named simba and had a typical tibetan lunchmeal of tea, vegetables and noodles (tibetans put milk and salt in their tea).

many many images and memories . . .

i spent six days in the darjeeling (west bengal) area of the indian himalaya, and there's lots i'll never forget, but most moving to me were my first experiences with tibetan people . . . the folks who owned/ran the small hotel in which i stayed were tibetan, i ate at tibetan restaurants, chatted with tibetan shopkeepers and then there were my experiences on the trek and with gyabo's family . . . each day becoming more interested in these people, the story of their exile, the intensity of their connection with hh dalai lama, the chinese occupation of their homeland, their spirit, their culture, buddhism, etc. . . . so tomorrow i'm going back into the himalaya, to dharamsala, where the tibetan government in exile is "headquartered" and where i'm told the heart of exiled tibetans beats loudest and clearest . . . i'm sure my knowledge and understanding of "all things tibetan" will grow, and i may even change my mind about what i'm going to say next, but here goes . . .

tibetans: beautiful people. perfectly beautiful. men are ruggedly handsome, women exotically beautiful, children stunningly cute. to foreigners they really do seem to fit that "shangri-la" stereotype that gets projected onto them, the "gong-bashing, jedi-like monk" image . . . it seems as tho the idea of tibetans has the "dolphin effect" on people -- tibetans are cute and endangered, look at them and their funny ways . . . much has been made of the myth (and mystification) of tibet . . .

well, this image is a real problem for tibetans, and has much wider, more complex implications for the tibetan cause . . . it's only a part of what these people are all about, and not the main part . . . these are educated, rational, globally aware people . . . they are compassionate, family-oriented folks who, for the most part, seem to have a wisdom and worldliness that is hard (impossible??) to find in our own "sophisticated" western world . . . in chitra we talked about everything, schools, deaths of loved ones, violence, etc. and when i was asked about my family, hearing that i am divorced brought a very genuine and almost awkward sadness to these people, who value family so highly . . .

to a certain extent, this image problem is their own fault, there are tibetans "out there" who cultivate this "shangri-la" myth to their own advantage --religious centers, charity organizations, and others have gained the favor of westerners by presenting the image of tibetans being underpriviledged refugees . . . and the media is to be blamed for selecting only those images of traditional and religious tibetans that look so good in national geographic . . .

(maybe the romantic image of tibetans has also drawn many people into the cause, as in the case of many high-profile actors and musicians) but what i think happens is that people are, for whatever reason, first drawn to the religion (maybe they've read some of hhdl's quotes, etc), and then they learn about tibetans and their movement . . . and then, maybe, they dig into the culture and history and begin to get a sense of how remarkable many of these people really are . . . i think most westnerners are holding onto the "shangri-la stereotype" -- maybe one day they'll begin to realize they're only in love with the image they hold of tibetans, and not with tibetans themsleves . . .

but when one is lucky enough to meet and speak and listen and learn, we quickly discover that tibetans are worldly and generous, educated and wise, clever and playful, respectful and proud . . . they are peaceful and passionate, care deeply about their personal, family and cultural history, and truly live and act from their hearts . . .

under the most difficult of circumstances, these people are dedicated to teaching their children and others about their heritage . . . in fact they celebrate it, even as they're forced to adapt to different lifestyles in countries other than their own . . .

we westerers could learn many important "things" from these "underprivileged refugees" . . .

all good things, mark