Colorado

In late July, I flew to meet my Mom for a trip to Colorado. It was a family vacation, but just for the two of us! Mom has a deep affinity for mountains, and I enjoy driving through beautiful scenery with big open skies, so we were a good pair!

We drove from Denver, over the mountain passes on I-70, and through my former haunts in the Vail/Avon/Red Cliff area. I lived there back in 2003 for six months when I worked for the Ritz-Carlton on the ski hills. Just prior to moving to Colorado, I had been working for a non-profit organization helping at-risk youth. The work environment was stressful and, like many non-profits, underfunded. It was quite an amazing switch to be suddenly working for The Ritz, with all that money to and time to pamper the hotel guests... While I worked at the front desk of the Ritz I met Al & Tipper Gore, Anne Heche, John Lithgow, Paul Rudd, and the Hilfiger family. I also loved exploring the valleys, mountains and high deserts of the Rocky Mountains.

Back to August of 2011... Mom and I drove westward from Denver, through Vail, and on to the westernmost down of Grand Junction. We stopped in a cute mining town named My favorite part of the road is near Glenwood Springs, with the incredible cliffs and medicinal sulfur springs.

Along the way, the scenery changed from green mountains to rolling hills to high desert.

We met Mom's friend Mary Jean and her daughter Shannon, who hosted us and took us camping in Colorado National Monument outside of Grand Junction. It was stunning.

Mom and I bought local oranges and mead from the good people in western Colorado, picked sage for making ceremonial bundles, and then drove back to Denver.

I managed to fit in meaningful visits with my friends Laura and Amber, and my goddaughter Gracie.

Poverty and Gratitude

Early morning in Delhi, a man was slowly waking up. His bed was on the edge of a very busy street. Lots of people in the city slept on the grass medians, sidewalks, and parks. People everywhere.

Carrying home the groceries, gracefully.

The laundry facilities at the Tibetan Children's Village. Each household hosts 30 children .

The allopathic (western-style) hospital in Dharamsala is called Tibetan Delek Hospital. I urge you to click on this photo below to see it bigger. The patients standing on the balconies are wearing masks because they have TB. This hospital also has a department committed to serving victims of torture. Many, many Tibetan refugees were tortured by Chinese forces in Tibet. Tibetan Delek hospital also has departments for surgery, obstetricts, etc. It serves Indian and Tibetan people in the region, and it is severely underfunded. If you want to learn more, go here.

This simple entrance is the welcome center for refugees coming out of Nepal and Tibet. Every year since the Chinese occupation, 1950 to 2007, several thousand refugees streamed out of Tibet. Since the Chinese olympics in 2008, the borders were locked down and Tibetans have been unable to leave. Now, only a few hundred escape each year. The situation is dire.

A dugout home in the mountains, looking from the street above.

And now that I'm home? I'm grateful for streetlights, traffic control, clean water, my right to vote in a democracy, the reminder to simplify, the peaceful example of the Tibetans, and most of all I am grateful for perspective.

Tibetan Buddhism

The purpose of my trip to the Himalayas was to study Tibetan Medicine, which I found to have great depth and wisdom. I've already written academic papers on Tibetan Medicine for my classes with the Center for Spirituality and Healing, which I should probably share with you all sometime... A secondary purpose of my trip was to observe the political structure of the Tibetan government-in-exhile which is based in Dharamsala, India. I will eventually work some of those observations into a paper or project for my master's degree in Public Affairs... But in additon I have a strong interest in religion and was deeply moved by the deep Buddhist practice of Tibetans. I found their religious culture to be rich in ritual, philosophy, and practicalities. I had opportunity to study other types of Buddhism previously in college, in Japan here and here, and in Thailand.

So here's a basic visual primer:

Religions of the world, according to adherents.com.

There are three types of Buddhism, all of which were founded in India. Theravada is predominately found in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asian countries. Mahayana is mostly in areas further east like China, Japan, and Korea. Vajrayana is related to Mahayana.

This next image is interesting because of its depiction of the percentage populations in these nations. For the last several hundred years Tibet was almost 99% Buddhist, but since the Chinese invasion of Tibet in the 1950's, the new influx of ethnic Chinese has changed the religious makeup of the country.

One of the most famous images of Tibetan Buddhist religious practice is the use of prayer wheels. The circular wheels are painted or carved with prayers, and put on a rotating axis. Rows of these wheels are set up around a temple, so that people walk around the temple "circumambulating", spinning these wheels and saying prayers with each spin. It struck me as similar to a giant rosary, or stations of the cross. I was very moved to both observe and participate. What is it about physical ritual practice that enables deeper contemplation?

This circumambulation path weaves through the moutainous woods around the Dalai Lama's temple. Tibetan prayer flags blow in the breeze. Painted rocks remind pilgrims of scriptural passages. Vistas enable new understanding.

These people are circumambulating the Dalai Lama's temple, touching engraved metal scrolls. Each scroll has a prayer on it, and they spin the scrolls as a way to earn 'merit' for each of the prayers as it rotates round and round. People walk meditatively.

Another very famous visual expression of Tibetan Buddhism is the creation of mandalas. This sand mandala pictured below was made by Tibetan nuns at Dorma Ling nunnery, down in the valley below Dharamsala. The sand mandala is a work of meditative art made out of colorful sand. The making of mandalas is full of tradition, and the colors and symbols in each mandala are ritualistic and usually created to pray for healing and prosperity. Often, at the end of a mandala ceremony, the monks or nuns who made it will perform a ceremony to meditate on impermanence and then brush together the sand. The grains are released into a nearby river, as a blessing for healing for everyone downstream.

Just recently, I attended a sand mandala ceremony in Minneapolis along the Mississippi River. Tibetan monks in Minneapolis created a mandala as prayer for healing of the Mississippi and the Gulf. The Mississippi River is long, but we are connected even still.

These people are performing Tibetan Prostrations as an act of devotion. The movements in the prostrations are similar to the yogic asanas of Sun Salutations. Some yoga historians say that Sun Salutations are derived from these Tibetan Prostrations.

I have spent a lot of my time around nuns and monks (Catholic and Buddhist) and am attracted to their influence. However, for a while I was unconvinced that their contemplative lifestyle contributed adequately to the common good, but I am now coming to understand that their choices to live peacefully contribute and inspire us lay people to live more peacefully. Tibetan monks and nuns interact freely among the lay people. This might be an act of courage on the part of the monks and nuns, for surely our busy world distracts from the inner focus they seek. However, I am grateful for their influence.

This family of Himalayan Indians walked a beautiful white goat down the mountain path. My friend later told me they were preparing to sacrifice it! The Himalayan Indians and the Tibetan Buddhists coexist peacefully in the same mountainous region. Sometime I would like to go back and study how they influence and inspire one another.

Tibetan Foods

One of the reasons I was excited to go to India was the food. If you haven't noticed from either reading my blog or hanging out with me....I like food. And one of my favorite things about traveling is eating! So, much to my surprise, I only ate a couple Indian meals in the three weeks I was there. The weather was too hot. And, um, like many of my fellow travelers, I experienced what we called "Delhi Belly", so all I wanted was mild food.

In my rudimentary understanding of Indian food, they use more spices because it's hotter down there, and spice acts as a preservative to prevent the food from going bad. The Himalayas have less plant diversity, and the food is more mild. I was surprised to learn that a lot of Tibetan food is similar to northern Japanese food. Yum!

Most mornings I ate a big meal, because the heat of the day made my appetite decease as the day went on. This was jasmine tea, masala omlette, and porridge.

Momos are a rather-famous Tibetan food. They are basically small dumplings, like Japanese gyoza or Chinese potstickers. ( I have a good recipie for gyoza here. ) These momos were filled with a mix of cabbage and cheese, in a mild soup broth with chopped vegetables, spinach, and peas.

This Tibetan curry over brown rice was awesome! Mild and sweet, like Japanese curry.

Tibetan thentuk soup. Tomatoes, daikon radish, spinach, peas, yum. Fresh carrot juice.

The guesthouse we stayed at was vegetarian, following Buddhist spiritual principals to "do no harm". Here's another thenthuk soup with thick egg noodles. On the side is lemon-honey-ginger tea with lots of fresh boiled ginger root. Good for the digestion! Because, according to Tibetan Medicine, if you're not digesting well, you will get sick. Even if you choose healthy food, if your body doesn't digest well you aren't able to absorb the nutrients. Makes sense, huh?

Beware generous hosts, pouring delicious beers at high altitude! On our last night in Dharamsala, we had a party with the Tibetan Medical Institute professors and physicians.

Tibetan Carpets

Before going to India I did quite a bit of research about buying rugs. I was nervous because carpet sellers are notoriously misleading, and I wanted to be prepared. My plan was to buy one or two Tibetan-style carpets and perhaps one Kashmir carpet.

The Himalayan region we stayed in had lots of Kashmiri-owned shops because of its proximity to Kashmir. The Kashmiri make those beautiful wool or silk carpets that you see in fancy turn-of-the-century dining rooms. I did some shopping in a few non-Tibetan stores but, honestly, I felt like I was being fleeced. A Tibetan friend took me shopping one day in a Kashmiri-owned store and the shop owner tried to charge me way more than a reasonable price for a gorgeous blue silk rug; he said (in Hindi) to my friend that the shop would give him a 'cut'. I guess the shopkeeper presumed that my friend was a hired tour guide. We both left. A couple days later I returned to the shop one more time and offered a firm price for the gorgeous blue rug. I was determined not to be 'attached' to it; I was resigned to let it go if he wouldn't come down in price. He refused, wanting to haggle, and I left contented. I didn't want to bargain and then later wonder if I paid too much; I didn't want to spend time shopping when my purposes in India were spiritual. I was there to learn from the Tibetans about letting go!

So I did some searching of the carpet shops and was amazed by the Tibetan rugs! This store also had a workshop where we could watch the carpet makers work on the looms and then trim the carpets.

This carpet was being trimmed with big scissors. These rugs were made in the traditional Tibetan style with classical patterns. The backing was cotton, and the rug was pure wool.

This woman is using a brush to finish the fibers. Her young son sat beside her after school, doing homework.

I purchased this beautiful carpet from a store which gave all profits to the Tibetan Children's Village, a system of schools around India that raises orphaned Tibetan refugee children. We were able to visit the central campus of the TCV on our first day in Dharamsala.

I purchased this carpet from a store that gives the profits to the Tibetan Government in Exile.

I also got this resonant Tibetan singing bowl for Nick's birthday present.

I am so very happy with that which I brought back from the Tibetan artistans!

Delhi, India

The days we spent in Delhi were at the end of the hot/dry season, shortly before the rainy season. Record-breaking temperatures were above 110F. As students touring on a budget, we stayed in modest rooms at the YWCA, walked for transportation, and covered our noses to prevent inhalation of the dust and smog. Delhi shocked me with the smells, the filth, the extreme disparities. Poverty and wealth, starvation and fashion, architecture and tin. I avoided taking photos of the filth and poverty, knowing that I could not 'do it justice'.

These were my first impressions:

A meal from the Indian region of Rajistan.

Workers at a busstop. The public health announcement at the busstop urges drivers to hang up their mobile phones!

"Connaught Place", the fancy shopping zone in the center of Delhi.

Purses and pillow cases, music and jewelry from Connaught Place.

A diesel-burning auto-rickshaw juxtapositioned against the government eco-car.

Overall, I cannot say that I enjoyed or even liked Delhi. I appreciated the lesson of hospitality at the Sikh temple, and I needed the jarring reminders about poverty and excess. But the filth of the city, especially in the sweltering heat, was immense. On our last day in Delhi, some of us cooled off in the luxury of a fancy hotel for high tea. It provided acculturation for our travels back to our extraordinarily wealthy lifestyle in the USA.

Children in Dharamsala

At the Tibetan Children's Village, the orphans' shoes line up at the doorway to the home. Each home hosts about thirty children. The arrangement is similar to Omaha's Boys and Girls Town, with one host family in each home.

At TCV, the young monks and lay children live and go to school together. The current Dalai Lama has changed the education system for monks and nuns, so that they now get an equal education as lay people. It used to be that the monks were only taught religious texts. If they later chose to leave the religous life they were unable to find work. Now they have options. This Dalai Lama actively encourages Tibetans to pursue higher education; this focus is helping the Tibetans in exile to succeed in their host countries.

The Tibetan Children's Village is a frequent stop for visitors to Dharamsala. Our group brought several suitcases of medical supplies as a donation. The kids at the TCV were very accustomed to western visitors, so it was a little hard to get them engaged. However, my hat was a good prop to initiate games of "it".

The children of the TCV prepared for a theatrical performance in anticipation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's visit the next week.

At another Tibetan school, the students performed traditional dances for our visiting group.

Here is a pic of some traditional Tibetan musical instruments. Most of the children at this particular school are not orphans. Their impoverished parents live in rural areas of the Himalayas, and send their children to Dharamsala to get a better education.

Walking on the mountain path to class, a family scraped together breakfast. This playful child pulled the green scarf over her head so that she couldn't see, in a sort of hide-and-seek. Just as I passed she pulled the scarf off and jumped in surprise to see a white woman looking bemusedly down. The child then posed for the photo 'just so'; her parents are beggars and each photo earns them a rupee.

The Tibetan exiles in India take care of one another. Adults touch the heads of children passing on the street, whether or not they know one another. I was captured by this moment as a man, walking down the road, paused to wipe the hands of this child. Respect. Care. They didn't speak much, but the boy looked at him with total trust. There is something about travel that reminds me about the importance of human connection, drawing me back home.