Today was a bit short of horrible for me. It all started off all fine and dandy, but over the course of the day, plans had to be changed because my health started deteriorating (thanks to h. anemia).
As always, I woke up with my ears screaming in pain from having slept on them with noise-canceling headphones shoved inside all night. I was curious to see what Dharamshala looked like since I didn’t get a chance last night, so I stepped out on to the balcony to be blinded by a bright white light coming from the base of the mountain where we were staying. Turns out that we weren’t actually staying in Dharamshala; we were half way up a mountain next to the valley where the city is. The view from my hotel room overlooked the city, but like I said, there was that blinding white light – sunlight hitting a huge cloud of fog that had settled over the entire city. It was mesmerizing and at the same time annoying because that would mean that it would be freezing beyond anything and I wouldn’t be able to take photos.
Still, we had to go, but before leaving, I had to sit and stare at a woman sitting a short distance from my hotel wearing a skimpy sari in the cold, making cow patties. Having been brought up with western social standards, this sounds absolutely disgusting, but these village folk have seen this since the day they’re born and it was interesting looking at the speed with which the woman worked and that too, without any repulsion. Almost made me want to go help. Almost.
But anyway, we finally got out of the hotel and I was told that we wouldn’t be going down into the foggy city, but higher up the mountain through the local canton area instead, along a very narrow and dangerous road that will take us up to the peak of the mountain. At Naddi, we got a full view of the Dholadhar Hills while walking on wet roads with melted snow from last night. Surprisingly it was quite warm in comparison at the peak because of the sunlight. They told us that there had not been a lot of snow fall this year – the mountains are usually stark white with feet over feet of snow, but many of them were barren. Global warming, I hate you.
From here, we went back down across Dall Lake (cute) which is surrounded by a dense pine forest (very cool), through Bhagsu Nag where we visited a temple sponsored by the Indian Military (with the nastiest toilet I have ever seen), and then up to Macloed Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama and his temple/shrine when he stays in India. Out of the whole day’s plan, this was the place I was looking forward to visiting the most because taking my previous experience, I was expecting a place of calm and peaceful worship. Instead, as soon as we entered the area of Macloed Ganj, we entered a Tibetan-refugee market busy with hawkers and very scared looking people (thanks China). At the temple, we walked along what should have been one of the most peaceful religious sanctuaries in the world, but instead, we were greeted by sad monks, posters of political prisoners and pictures of those dead in Tibet over the past few months. The whole atmosphere brought me back to reality. Buddhism has always been a religion I associated with peace and one that I always ran into when I felt troubled, but even that has been broken now. It made me think a lot, but I won’t go into that just yet because I am still confused where I stand religiously, if anywhere.
The temple was cute though – there was no fancy architecture or anything. Instead, it was a simple and modest building that to be reflected the lives of the people it served. I was disappointed with how commercial a part of the temple had become, but I can’t blame them. The money the temple makes goes into a charitable trust to keep the monastery up and this is one place, where I think corruption does not exist.
Anyway, as soon as we came back down to the hotel to collect our things, I started feeling extremely ill. I forgot to take my medication yesterday, which just threw me into major fatigue by noon. Because of that and another couple of issues, we decided that we would head straight back to Chandigarh instead of Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar as we had planned. This meant that we would have to cancel our trip to the temples of several goddesses along the way, but as the superstition goes, once you visit a higher-ranking goddess, she does not let you turn around and visit those of lower-rank...and we had visited one of the highest yesterday (Chamunda Devi).
The ride back was very long and I was on the brink of passing out from nausea because of my medication, but we finally reached Chandigarh, ate a huge amount of food and here I am in bed. Plans have yet to be made for the rest of the days I’m here.
Oh and while on our trip to Naddi, I was asked several times why I have not chosen to go into computer engineering or "a reputable career" and why I have not started coaxing my parents into finding a bride for me since I'm 23 already and "getting older very fast." I didn't know whether to laugh or throw those people over the cliff we were standing on.
As always, I woke up with my ears screaming in pain from having slept on them with noise-canceling headphones shoved inside all night. I was curious to see what Dharamshala looked like since I didn’t get a chance last night, so I stepped out on to the balcony to be blinded by a bright white light coming from the base of the mountain where we were staying. Turns out that we weren’t actually staying in Dharamshala; we were half way up a mountain next to the valley where the city is. The view from my hotel room overlooked the city, but like I said, there was that blinding white light – sunlight hitting a huge cloud of fog that had settled over the entire city. It was mesmerizing and at the same time annoying because that would mean that it would be freezing beyond anything and I wouldn’t be able to take photos.
Still, we had to go, but before leaving, I had to sit and stare at a woman sitting a short distance from my hotel wearing a skimpy sari in the cold, making cow patties. Having been brought up with western social standards, this sounds absolutely disgusting, but these village folk have seen this since the day they’re born and it was interesting looking at the speed with which the woman worked and that too, without any repulsion. Almost made me want to go help. Almost.
But anyway, we finally got out of the hotel and I was told that we wouldn’t be going down into the foggy city, but higher up the mountain through the local canton area instead, along a very narrow and dangerous road that will take us up to the peak of the mountain. At Naddi, we got a full view of the Dholadhar Hills while walking on wet roads with melted snow from last night. Surprisingly it was quite warm in comparison at the peak because of the sunlight. They told us that there had not been a lot of snow fall this year – the mountains are usually stark white with feet over feet of snow, but many of them were barren. Global warming, I hate you.
From here, we went back down across Dall Lake (cute) which is surrounded by a dense pine forest (very cool), through Bhagsu Nag where we visited a temple sponsored by the Indian Military (with the nastiest toilet I have ever seen), and then up to Macloed Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama and his temple/shrine when he stays in India. Out of the whole day’s plan, this was the place I was looking forward to visiting the most because taking my previous experience, I was expecting a place of calm and peaceful worship. Instead, as soon as we entered the area of Macloed Ganj, we entered a Tibetan-refugee market busy with hawkers and very scared looking people (thanks China). At the temple, we walked along what should have been one of the most peaceful religious sanctuaries in the world, but instead, we were greeted by sad monks, posters of political prisoners and pictures of those dead in Tibet over the past few months. The whole atmosphere brought me back to reality. Buddhism has always been a religion I associated with peace and one that I always ran into when I felt troubled, but even that has been broken now. It made me think a lot, but I won’t go into that just yet because I am still confused where I stand religiously, if anywhere.
The temple was cute though – there was no fancy architecture or anything. Instead, it was a simple and modest building that to be reflected the lives of the people it served. I was disappointed with how commercial a part of the temple had become, but I can’t blame them. The money the temple makes goes into a charitable trust to keep the monastery up and this is one place, where I think corruption does not exist.
Anyway, as soon as we came back down to the hotel to collect our things, I started feeling extremely ill. I forgot to take my medication yesterday, which just threw me into major fatigue by noon. Because of that and another couple of issues, we decided that we would head straight back to Chandigarh instead of Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar as we had planned. This meant that we would have to cancel our trip to the temples of several goddesses along the way, but as the superstition goes, once you visit a higher-ranking goddess, she does not let you turn around and visit those of lower-rank...and we had visited one of the highest yesterday (Chamunda Devi).
The ride back was very long and I was on the brink of passing out from nausea because of my medication, but we finally reached Chandigarh, ate a huge amount of food and here I am in bed. Plans have yet to be made for the rest of the days I’m here.
Oh and while on our trip to Naddi, I was asked several times why I have not chosen to go into computer engineering or "a reputable career" and why I have not started coaxing my parents into finding a bride for me since I'm 23 already and "getting older very fast." I didn't know whether to laugh or throw those people over the cliff we were standing on.
View of the Dholadhar Hills from Naddi (and an oddly shaped tree!)
Traditional houses in Himachal are made of wood and slate. This is a closeup of a wall (no cement!)
Dalai Lama Centre at Macloed Ganj
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