Musings from Tibet

I posted a while ago about my anger at China's overthrow of Tibet and the World's blind eye to it. I also think that trying to boycott Chinese items, though it would be very effective would be very hard to accomplish as they are pervasive from ingredients in toothpaste to cars and electronics.

However, following is a post that was made to another list I'm on. Angela McDonald has spent quite a lot of time living with people in Tibet and teaching English to the monks. She posted several entries. This was one of her last jsut after she left Tibet. She sent it July 7th. I have posted this with her permission.

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Back in India, and happy to be home. Again here with my friends, people who speak english, and of course, my beloved cows. It was very difficult to leave Tibet, but at the same time, in some ways I was ready to leave. I loved it there very much, but I'll admit that it was a very intense experience, and after 3months, I was feeling the need to go some place relaxing to re-cooperate a bit.

Before I left Tibet, Jinpa and I traveled around for about a week before finally arriving in Beijing whereI flew to Delhi. It was a lot of fun, Jinpa is great. We went to a few different places in Tibet, then into China. Poor Jinpa, it was difficult for him to travel with me in Tibet because as a monk, its not exactly socially acceptable for him to be wandering around alone with a woman (as the most common way for monks to stop being monks and become lay people is to have sex). Especially since he had taken off his monk robes to avoid extra attention from police (or other people for that matter). We did run into a friend of his from Labrang monastery one time. His friend looked at Jinpa, then looked at me, and then got avery concerned look on his face and whispered to Jinpa, "Are you still a monk?" Jinpa laughed and assured him that he was. I'm hoping that no rumors circulated in Labrang about that. Oh, the scandals I create...... ;-)

I'm glad that I got to travel around Tibet at least alittle. I think my favorite place was Rekong. It is known as the art capitol of Tibet (and I really love art as many of you know), and the monasteries were just incredible. The landscape was also wonderful as the mountains were filled with forests and rivers, so it looked a lot like Oregon and Dharamshala. Made me feel a bit homesick. Labrang is beautiful, but its basically all grasslands, there are very few trees.

We also went to Kumbum monastery which, though beautiful, was actually rather depressing. It was once one of the greatest monasteries in Tibet, but now it is only a Chinese tourist attraction. There is very little monastic activity there. The monks didn't even really speak Tibetan, they mostly just spoke Chinese. I asked Jinpa what language they taught Buddhism in at that monastery and he looked at mestrange and said "Tibetan of course!" But when I pointed out to him that the monks barely spoke Tibetan he leaned down to me and whispered "the monks at this monastery don't really know much about Buddhism anymore." Almost all of the monasteries in Tibet were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (I saw ruins of them all over Tibet), but the Chinese are actually allowing them to be rebuilt now, mostly for tourist purposes. They are still trying to restrict monastic activity by putting limits on the number of monks admitted, imprisoning and intimidating many monks, not allowing certain teachings, etc but they discovered that they could make money on the tourism from the monasteries so they are allowing them to be partially rebuilt. Its very strange, and makes me really sad tos ee. Also, in many of the monasteries the tour guidesare Chinese (not in Labrang monastery, the tour guides there are all monks, including Jinpa) who don't reallyknow much about Buddhism or the monasteries, but instead just make things up to tell the tourists. Jinpa listened to the tour guides as we went to different places and many times I heard him whispering under his breath "that's not true." I was amazed to see just how much the Tibetan culture was perverted and changed by Chinese influence. It was reallydifficult to see.....

It was hard to pry myself away from Tibet. Saying goodbye to mother and father in Labrang was reallydifficult, then having to say goodbye to Jinpa in Beijing was hard again. But I am confident that Iwill be back there again. Jinpa and I are plotting to get me back there next year to really study Tibetan language, and he and I have several projects we want to do together (teaching english, writing books, etc) when I return. So many things to do.....

And now back to India! The first few days here were strange, there is always a little culture shock when I switch countries. I had to get used to things like running water, toilets, pants, answering to the name Angela, and eating good food again. Its been nice, but I still find myself occasionally in the market looking around for a field to pee in. Then I remember where I am and instead I just go to a bathroom. Weird.....

I'm still basking in the small glories of life such as toilet paper (but I still find myself rationing it ands tuffing napkins in my pockets at restaurants), showers, tampons, people who speak english, peanut butter, etc. But things like tsampa, yogurt, and milk are really disappointing now. You win some, you lose some. But its funny how much you appreciate small things like these after you go without them for so long.

I've had back luck on weather. When I left India in April it had just fully turned into summer and was hot, sunny, and absolutely beautiful. Then I went toTibet and it was snowing. It continued to snow off and on in Tibet until I left, and when I got back to India, the monsoon season had started. Its still nice and warm here, but there is torrential rain every day (and lots of awesome thunderstorms) which means that everything is in a constant state of dampness. Everything in our house is completely moldy yet again,and the cement walls are literally deteriorating from it. There is not much point in doing laundry as it takes about 4 days for anything to dry, and at that point it is also moldy. If you make laundry a 24 hour job for a few days you can get it done quicker, but that means taking laundry in and out of the house (and hanging it on the line outside) every couple hours between the rains. We're to busy for that, so I'm just getting used to everything smelling like mold.

As soon as I came back, I was practically mobbed by my friends who were anxiously awaiting news and pictures of their families. It's been fun to show everyone pictures of Labrang, and especially of their families, as many of them have not seen pictures of their families for many many years. All of Shedhe's cousins came up the day after I arrived and they were practically bouncing up and down when they saw me. It was very cute. I had so many things to bring here that when I left Labrang I left most of my clothes there and just packed my bags to the brim with all the things for people here. I must have been quite a sight getting into the airport, I probably looked like an overburdened animal (I'd say a loaded yak, but I don't have a big wood ring through my septum and really I'm just not quite that big).

Yesterday was the 73rd birthday of H.H. The Dalai Lama, and there was a big celebration at the temple. Shedhe got me to dress up in the fancy nomadic clothing that his mother sent with me from Tibet, so I again became a blonde haired blue eyed Tibetan nomadwalking through the streets of India. Always an odd sight. But it was fun to wear a chupa again, though I didn't wear it for long as that thing is made of wool and it's hot here! Today, the Dalai Lama started a 7 day teaching which is wonderful as always. I love being here for his teachings and getting to see him. Never experienced anything else like it, I feel very blessed to have this opportunity.
All in all things here are good. Getting settled back in, and having a good time relaxing. Of course, it didn't take me long to pick up new students, and as soon as the teachings are finished I'll start studying Tibetan language and Thangka painting again I hope. There are just to many things here to learn, I feel like a kid in a candy shop.....

Take care, Angela