[LINK] "Indian town 'more Tibetan than Tibet'"

[rfmcdonald]

Today's Toronto Star features Jade Hemeon's article "Indian town 'more Tibetan than Tibet'", a travelogue written about the former British hill town of Dharamsala in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh that is now most famous as the home of the Dalai Lama and seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile

At an altitude of almost 2,000 metres, the little hill station of McLeod Ganj huddles in the shadow of the enormous, snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. But as home of the Dalai Lama and seat of the Tibetan government in exile, it is an important and unusual place.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and Tibet's Buddhist spiritual leader, has lived in McLeod Ganj (also called Upper Dharamsala) since 1959, when he escaped from Chinese-occupied Tibet. Since then, thousands of Tibetan exiles have settled in the town, creating a Tibetan world in India with restaurants and businesses, homes, monasteries, meditation retreats and schools. Everywhere you go, you see people with their Tibetan clothing, smell the Tibetan foods and view the curled-up rooftops of the Tibetan temples, rows of prayer wheels and lines of prayer flags.

"Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj are now more Buddhist Tibetan than Tibet, where the religious traditions and cultural history have been destroyed in the name of the Chinese cultural revolution," says our guide, Vipul Bansal.

"The Tibetans in exile have recreated their traditional way of life in India."

Next door to the Dalai Lama's house is the main Buddhist Temple and monastery. The inner sanctum of the temple is colourfully painted and adorned with thankas, silk wall hangings intricately painted with Buddhist icons. The temple also houses a giant carved and painted image of the Buddha as well as the 100-armed deity Avalokitesvara.

Our arrival coincided with the Dalai Lama giving a public audience. We joined hundreds of red-robed monks and Dalai Lama followers, all rushing to find a spot to sit on the temple floor.

The Dalai Lama was to speak in Tibetan, but the shops along the way sold transistor radios for those who wanted to tune into an English station to hear the instant translation. I picked up a radio and earphones. At the gates, an enterprising family had staked out a spot for a breakfast stand, and was busy selling tea and deep fried Tibetan dumplings and pastries.