Tibet in India

New friends
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The buses in India look like they are made out of tinfoil. Not that they are flimsy, in fact its's quite the opposite. It's just that they are so dented they look like they've been wrapped in old foil, the kind you find balled up in the first drawer in the kitchen but you can't quite flatten it out properly.

It was the 104 that took us 7 hours from Amritsar to McLoed Ganj. There wasn't much to see exactly but it will go down as one the more memorable bus trips. If you have ever been to Naples, Bangkok or anywhere else with catastrophic traffic, times that experince by six then imagine it at 100km/ph on a road not quite wide enough for two buses to pass. I can't explain much more than that because my best description will seem exaggerated and stupid, but lets just say that there was a little more washing for the bag when we arrived in McLoed Ganj our home for the next six days.

Prayer rollers
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McLoed is a former British Army camp from colonial times and is named after the British Governor of the Punjab at the time David McLoed. Nowadays it shelters the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan goervment in exile and a community if Tibetan refugees forced out by the Chinese since their invasion of Tibet in the late 1950's.

A generation or two on from the original invasion McLoed is a great example of the true meaning of community. China's brutal occupation of Tibet has given the Tibetans two basic choices; to stay in their homeland, repressed, living under threat of arrest, torture and even death, or (for the fit), brave the thirty day journey, on foot, through the Himalayas, hoping not to get spotted by Chinese patrols who will shoot them on the spot or take them back to one of Tibets gruesome prisons. For those lucky enough to survive the gauntlet and make it to India they will face a tough but brighter future. Many of those targeted by the Chinese are Buddhist monks who flee arbitrary beatings and torture by the security police in Tibet. They arrive with nothing but are greeted by a number of welfare organisations in McLoed who help refugees and former prisoners. We spent a few evenings teaching English to some of these people during our stay. Though many worry constantly for friends and family too old, young or sick to attempt the journey. What they have done in McLoed is to band together to support their countrymen and this has created a small but very successful community. Perhaps it's a combination of mutual suffering and their Buddhist faith that explains it but the result is wonderfully happy, smiling people who must be, underneath it all incredibly resilient. And, they are an endearing people with their cheerfulness, serenity and uncomplicated way of life. Though on the flip-side it makes the Chinese attempt tp dissolve the Tibetans into a greater China through social policy or outright force all the more tragic.

McLoed Ganj
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While we were in McLoed we spent most of our time relaxing, in and around the main Buddhist temple and waiting for the Dalai Lama to drive past which he did once while we were there. In the evenings we would head to the Hope Education Centre for our English lesson (of sorts) followed by a couple of beers, though the monks didn't turn up to the later activity. The monks themselves were studious, gentle and pious but by no means boring.

It was a nice, relaxing week where we made a few friends and learnt a few things about Tibet and its situation, some funny, some interesting and some shocking. But we had to move on, to a nightmare bus ride to the worlds yoga capital Rishikesh on the banks of the Ganges.