Dharamshala… Dalai Lama!

18th June, 2010

The morning we left for Dharamshala, Clodagh came down into the lobby pale with wide-eyed calm. In her distinct Irish accent she announced:

‘There’s a monkey in our room.’

I keeled over with laughter. What an awesome way to start a day! Waking up to a monkey sitting on your coffee table chewing on the remote control. HAHAHAHAHA! Tom and Clo had left their windows open to air out their room overnight, thinking that their room was high enough out of reach of monkeys. Uhhh…they’re monkeys.

The monkeys are funny here. Ha-ha and peculiar. It’s so strange to see these aggressive little red-faced creatures, freely mingling with people. They self-importantly perch themselves on over-hanging branches, looking down at us ground-ridden people, probably thinking, ‘too bad I’m not the species that throws its own faeces’.

I was really excited about Dharamshala. It’s the mountainous refuge home of the Dalai Lama! The DALAI LAMA people! He’s such a rock star. He was on tour in Japan at the time of our stay so unfortunately there was not to be an encounter. We did, however, see his Number One Groupie, sitting outside his temple grounds, digging into a full-sized watermelon, wrapped in the Tibetan flag, cackling good naturedly at passers-by. We couldn’t figure out if he was a she or she was a he. Then the mystery was solved when she stood up and waddled past us with her huge boobs knocking about her knees. She’s become well known in town. We were told she arrived at Dharmashala from America about 6 months prior, in search of an answer. What the question was…no one knows…but she is convinced that the Dalai Lama is the answer. She has sworn devotion to him and constantly demands private audience with him. Each time his Holiness politely declines. Many have criticized her craziness and don’t understand why the Dalai Lama won’t send her away. But being as gracious and compassionate as he is, he allows her on to the temple grounds with tour groups and helped her extend her Visa so that she can stay close to him.

Dharamshala attracts all sorts of people (obviously). But it mainly attracts the soul-searchers and hippies. Dreadlocks, harem pants (baggy pants that grip the ankles and the crotch hangs at the knees), beaded jewellery, sunkissed skin, the lingering scent of cannabis as they hippy-on by… yeah, man, serenity now. Looking past all that, I observed to my fellow traveler, English Adam, that the majority of these seekers were young and really good-looking. He agreed and said that these people were likely to have come from middle to upper-class families. I cocked my head with curiosity and asked him to elaborate. He said it’s a sad-but-true fact that good-lookers have more chances for better opportunities with job prospects and end up more prosperous and therefore end up with more freedom to do things such as travel. All these young, attractive people milling about Dharamshala can afford the time and the luxury to ‘find themselves’ because either their families will have their back, or opportunities will simply arise or be waiting. I nodded. They have it easier. Putting livelihood opportunities aside, being aesthetically-gifted often extends into the confidence of facing the world. The way I see it: the world is made up of people. And the world is much more accepting and willing to help when you present yourself with the confidence usually associated with ‘beauty’. But you know what I think? If you’re picture perfect, with perfect symmetry and facial proportions but have the stinkiest, darkest, unpleasant attitude- you’ll still come across pretty, bloody ugly. No one’s going to help you, or want you, or even be around you. So I don’t think it’s all about the appearance- it’s about the SMILE. A genuine I’m-pleased-to-be-in-your-presence smile. It starts from there. And then the world is a much more pleasant and everything blooms and falls into place.

Besides the hippies (Adam: I just want to shake them and yell ‘CONTRIBUTE!’), Dharamshala is also heavily populated by refugee Tibetans. The moral of the story for the Tibetans, I think, is: don’t be too nice. In a very simplified nutshell, the people of Tibet were living peacefully in their own country, doing their own peaceful thing when the Chinese stumbled across them. The Tibetans welcomed them with big smiles and open arms, said ‘mi casa es tu casa’ in Tibetan and the Chinese went all Rambo with it. Now, the Dalai Lama and thousands of his people are taking refuge in Dharamshala, banished from their own home with memories of torture, fear and despair. So, when asked ‘where you face from?’ I said ‘Korea. SOUTH Korea.’

It’s no exaggeration when the Tibetans are described as an extremely peaceful people. The perfect example of it was displayed in the Tibet Museum. There was a large, glass case that on one side held the bloodied handcuffs, torture devices, gas bomb shells used on Tibetan prisoners. On the other side were woven bracelets, small embroidered tapestries, and little beaded key-ring things done by the prisoners during their ‘rest time’. Seriously, any other race would’ve made voodoo dolls to cast hexes on the bloody Effers who fucked up their lives.

On a lighter note, this is how I looked while in Hippy Town: