Travel Plans

Tibet Charity has been abuzz with activity lately. We have had a few new teachers arrive in the last few weeks, and supposedly there are more scheduled to get here soon. This Saturday some of the teachers are going on a day trip with the Director of Tibet Charity to a (semi-) local Tibetan settlement called Bir, as well as a school and at least one temple and/or monastery. Next week His Holiness is holding another teaching at the temple in town, so we don't have classes.

We foreign English teachers decided that sounded like a good time for a road trip. When I first decided to come to India to teach, I planned on that being all I did here. I figured I haven't really traveled before, and GOING TO INDIA was a pretty big trip in itself, so I could just chill and focus on teaching. Once I got settled in, though (and talked to some people), I started thinking it might be nice to travel a bit myself. India's a pretty big place, and the mountains here in Himachal (the state where Dharamsala is located) are not representative of the entire country.

So anyway, there are “holidays” planned. I'm nearly halfway through my stay here already! Can you believe it? It's looking more and more like the second half is going to be busy, too. September has just flown by, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if October and November do the same.

Earlier Gustie (Augustine), a teacher who arrived a couple of weeks ago from Austria, came in to lunch telling us that the police had made all the Tibetans on Temple Road dismantle their street stalls, because apparently they lacked the required permits to be there. It seemed strange; the street vendors are a huge part of the scenery around here. Besides, I don't imagine most of these people make a ton of money anyway; they are just trying to take advantage of the fact that they live in a popular tourist destination and support their families.

After class, I figured I'd go into town to check it out. I wanted to use the internet anyway.

It's so weird. Normally the street is lined with stall after stall after stall of people selling jewelry, or miniature prayer wheels, or little statues of the Buddha, or clothing, or artwork..... and now....... they're all gone. It's almost like a ghost town. I noticed things that had been hidden behind them this whole time, like a gazebo I didn't know even existed. Peering down the side of the mountain I could see the frames of stalls, tables, tarps... it's like in their haste to dismantle their property before it was seized by the cops they just tossed everything down the mountain. I'm curious to see how long it takes everyone to rebuild.