Free Tibet!

Hello out there! I realize its been a long time since I last wrote... So its been two weeks of independent study, and we have three more to go. Its a totally different pace from the rest of the semester where every second was planned for us. For all of ISP time we're completely on our own doing research. Of course, there are 15 other students who came to Dharamsala with me, but we're all doing our own things. Its a nice change of pace to be able to schedule myself and really enjoy this experience. Needless to say that we've been watching a lot of movies and I'm halfway through season 3 of Scrubs :)

Anyway, my project is on activism and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Lhadon and Tendor from SFT HQ in New York were here for a while but they're gone now. Its been a lot harder than I thought to do this project. I'm looking at basically profiling the Olympics, why they are historically political, why it is so important for Tibet, and then ultimately trying to figure out what needs to be done to make it a catalyst for Tibetan independence. I don't know how great its going to turn out, but I'm working on it..

I really like this portion of the program, its really cool to do two months of intense academics and then have 5 weeks to just experience the culture and live in this part of the world. Its also nice that I still have a month and a half left in India!

Happy thanksgiving!
Sam

I'm back in India!

Hey friends,
So I am sitting in Majnu Ta Kila, the Tibetan refugee settlement in Delhi, India. We arrived from Kathmandu yesterday afternoon and we're heading to Dharamsala by overnight sleeper bus tonight. It's been quite a journey, these past few weeks...

Tibet is a crazy, hard, scary, beautiful, repressive, incredible, complicated place. The entire issue of Tibet is more complicated than I ever imagined. What is development? Is development good or bad? Is Tibetan culture better preserved in Tibet or in exile? What is culture? What is Tibetan culture? Everyone agrees that Tibetan is better preserved in Tibet than exile. There is almost no english in Lhasa, and all signs by law have to have Tibetan on them in addition to Chinese. The Chinese is always bigger, however.

When we first arrived in Lhasa many of us commented that it didn't really seem as bad as Tibetan exiles would have you believe. I eventually saw how wrong we were... What we came to realize after spending time in Tibet was that what we were seeing was the surface, the superficial Tibetan culture that is being preserved. The repression exists just as strongly today as it did ten years ago. Only now it is more subtle, an underlying tension that keeps everyone on edge. Tibetans are allowed to wear traditional clothing, eat Tibetan food, and practice a very limited form of Tibetan Buddhism. But even such simple things as circumambulating important sites--while allowed in general--is restricted on important dates. Just before we arrived ten monks at Drepung monastery were arrested for attempting to celebrate HHDL's recieving of the congressional gold medal by whitewashing his former residence. They were beatan, and the monastery was surrounded by the People's Liberation Army. Our group was not allowed to go there. Because of the gold medal a Chinese flag had been posted on top of the Potala palace, usually there is only one on the square in front. More Tibetans had been arrested before we arrived for chanting slogans at a karaoke bar.

Tibet is a hard place. Tibetans and Chinese don't interact, Lhasa is an incredibly segregated city. There is almost no intermarriage. There are police everywhere. Where there aren't uniformed police, there are undercover. Sometimes they are spottable by the way they act, or that they have earpieces. It was very difficult to be in Lhasa by the end, I was very sad.

Sam

Tomorrow I'm off!

Tashi Delek friends!
So tomorrow we leave for TIBET! Yup, 7am. We're flying to Lhasa we're we'll be spending 6 days exploring and learning. Then we do about 8 nights of camping in several areas whos names escape me. They are very important and interesting sites in Tibet. Mostly religious sites. We'll be doing lots of day hiking and a 3-4 day trek towards the end... with yaks! Holy moly.

So what does going to Tibet mean? Well for one it means that I will not be writing on this blog or checking my email. Thats because China reads EVERYTHING, no joke. If I opened my blog in Tibet they would see that I have been to Dharamsala and saw His Holiness and then I could get in trouble. Same goes for my email. So in the mean time I just won't check it while in Tibet. But you should still write to me, I promise I'll write back when I come back to Nepal in a few weeks!

I also know I promised pictures, but unfortunately the internet is too slow to upload them, so that too will have to wait. In the mean time check out wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudnanath_Stupa and read about the stupa (It also has pictures). Its a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The guesthouse we've been staying at is right next to the stupa.

So tomorrow we're off, I'll catch you on the other side...

Holy Moly in I'm in Nepal!

Hey all,
Sorry for the lack of posting over the past week. We are in Kathmandu, Nepal!!! We are staying right next to the Boudha Stupa, which is one of the most famous and important sites for Buddhists in the world. It is the famous one with the "Buddha eyes" on it. Unfortunately I don't have my camera with me at the internet cafe so I can't upload pics.... and the connection is slow anyway.

So we have been in Nepal for the past week. Our primary activities have been recieving teachings from a Khenpo from one of the bigger monasteries near Boudha Stupa (there are 41 just right here!). He is teaching about Chapter 6 of Shantideva's Way of the Bodisattva. This chapter has to do with patience, why its important, and how to develop it. In Mahayana Buddhism, a Bodisattva is the ultimate realization, and it is what Buddhists are striving for. A bodisattva is someone has attained enlightenment but who chooses to delay ultimate nirvana and stay in cyclic existence for the benefit of all sentient beings. The ultimate purpose of Buddhism is liberation from samsara, cyclic existence, which is the cycle of birth and rebirth. So a Bodisattva is often considered even higher than a Buddha because they remain on Earth to help everyone. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is believed to be an incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the Bodisattva of Compassion.

So that is what we've been doing, also exploring and continuing with language class. This evening is our last teaching and we are going to have an audience with the abbot of this monastery as well as five others in Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. So he's a big deal!

Kathmandu is an interesting place, it is very very dirty and polluted. Its big, incredibly historic, and has a huge western population. It is the beginning of trekking season right now as well so lots of people are here for that. Theres a gear store on every corner selling fake stuff.

In other news, we're leaving for Tibet on thursday!

In Nepal there continues to be civil unrest. The Maoists are trying to call a special sesion of parliament to abolish the monarchy, but the date keeps getting moved back. A few days ago there was a huge rally in the center of town. We're supposed to stay away from such things because of the recent bombings, we're also not allowed to take public transportation, so we take taxis.

Gotta run, more later...
love Sam

Final day in Dharamsala, for now!

Hey friends,
So today is our last day in Dharamsala, in fact, we leave tonight at 5:00pm to take taxis to the train station (3 hours away) then an overnight train to Dheli that arrives at 5:00am. Yesterday we took our language finals, both oral and written. I did pretty well. I know so much more Tibetan than I did a month a half ago, in fact 100% more Tibetan! Its pretty exciting. Tibetan is a very difficult language but you have to start somewhere. Last night we had our big final party to honor all the homestay families and to also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the SIT Tibetan Studies program. It was a lot of fun, we all dressed in semi-traditional clothing and danced! I didn't take any pictures but my friend has a bunch and I'll get some from him.

Today is a weird/good day. We've been hanging out and trying to relax for the first time after a month of crazy busy-ness. It's really sad to leave our homestays where we're just starting to get really comfortable with them. Its also sad to leave Dharamsala. Though I know I will be back for ISP, which I'm excited about.

So this past wednesday I was invited to a really important and interesting discussion between 5 British MPs and SFT/other Tibetan youth that support independence over autonomy. It was really cool and an awesome opportunity for Tibetan youth to convey their frustration with the state of the dialogue and also express the urgency of finding a solution that grants independence to Tibet. The need for independence is so great and so important and time is running out.

The biggest problem facing Tibet is population transfer from China. Period. Chinese now outnumber Tibetans in Tibet. This is a problem that is disastrous for Tibet. Tibetans are becoming marginalized in their own country. Recently the Chinese government forced 100,000 Tibetan nomads to move into cities because they claimed that the nomads were polluting the source of several major rivers that originate in Tibet but flow down into China. This is an absurd assertion because it is China that is clearcutting oldgrowth forests, strip mining the hills, and dumping nuclear waste on the Tibetan plateau!!! The nomads have been living in Tibet for thousands of years without any of the environmental problems facing China today from their policies in Tibet. Tibet must have independence. If you think it is still not going on today, right now China has 6 Tibetan teenagers (14 years old) in prison that they arrested 2 weeks ago for allegedly writing pro-Tibet slogans on the side of a building. Reports are that all of the boys have been tortured and severely beaten while in custody. If you think China does not rule by force, think again.

Now we head to Nepal...
Love, Sam

HH the DL and others

Hey all!
So yesterday we saw a teaching by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It was very interesting. We had radios with an english translation, but it was very difficult to understand what he was talking about. Also the teachings were requested by a large group of Koreans, so the Dalai Lama would talk for 20 minutes and then a woman would translate in Korean over the loudspeaker for almost half an hour, concurrently with the english translation. So it was kind of difficult to figure out what was going on. It was cool, worth experiencing, but I didn't go back for the afternoon teachings and probably won't go to any more this week.. Unfortunately an audience is most likely not going to happen, though we will be hearing from Geshe Lhakdor, the previous translator of His Holiness.

Carrom board is fun! Its a square board with 4 holes in the corners. In the middle you start with 9 black pieces, 9 white pieces, and an orange one. All the pieces are kind of like checkers, but a little heavier. Then you have a striker which is bigger and heavier than the others. You play by flicking the striker at the other pieces. It can be played by 2 or 4 people, and each person or team of 2 is white or black, and you try to get all of your 9 pieces and then the orange one in to the holes before the other team. Its very tricky but really fun. The board we played on was home made out of plywood. Around the edge is a lip so the striker can be bounced off in order to hit the other pieces.

Hmm Tibetan food... There isn't much food in Dharamsala that is originally ethnically Tibetan. The only ones are Tibetan butter tea (what it sounds like, melted butter and milk with some tea and salt.) and tsampa. Tsampa is barley flour. Its high in fiber and protein, and they eat it by pouring some in a bowl and then pouring tea on it a little at a time. You eat with your hands. Its pretty good if you add some sugar. Other Tibetan foods are momos, which are basically dumplings. They are usually steamed, though can be fried. And are stuffed with veggies, potatoes, or meat. We also eat tingmo, which is steamed bread twisted in a knot. At my house we eat a lot of rice and veggies and dal. Another thing we eat a ton of at my house is pale (pronounced pa-LAY), which is flat bread. My amala makes a bunch of dough in the morning and then we cook it all day. You rip off a chunk and flatten it on both sides into a circle, then put it on a hot pan for a short time, and it gets warm and tasty. And last but not least that everyone drinks a ridiculous amount of is tea. Most Tibetans here only drink butter tea in the morning. But everyone drinks milk tea all the time, like almost 10 cups a day. Its just black tea with milk and sugar in it. I drink plain black tea generally, because I don't want to eat that much milk, but I do sometimes. Even that I have 10 times a day. Mmmmmmmm

We are in our last days in Dharamsala, I wish I could say it was winding down, but we have a ton of work to do... interviewing people for a paper, writing postcards in tibetan, and our finals coming up too.

woohoo!
SAM

ps, I slept on the roof of my house last night. Its 10:20 am here right now, and 12:50 am on the east coast.

Chuantra and a HUGE Buddha

Hey folks,
This past weekend we split up into small groups and completed a "village assignment." In other words we went off to a random village and did research on it. My group was assigned to Chauntra, which is home to a Tibetan settlement, a Central School for Tibetans, a Tibetan Childrens Village school, and a large monastery.

The monastery is the Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Institute, is brand new, incredibly beautiful, currently houses 600 monks, and contains a Huge Buddha that is probably 10 or 20 meters tall. We explored it and then met a group of young monks playing Carrom board. We sat down and played for over 3 hours.

Last week on wednesday myself and a few others went to see a long life ceremony for His Holiness the 17th Karmapa. It was an incredible experience. Horns were playing, hundreds of monks chanting as well. And at the end he individually blessed each of us. And then the monastery served lunch for everyone. mmm

Tomorrow we're going to attend teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama!
Rock on,
Sam

ps I realyl tried to upload pictures but it took FOREVER and then errored... sorry maybe next time?? I'm ready for bed.

Learn Tibetan?
Nga nang la dro gi yö. = I am going home.
Nga kasang cha tung pa yin = I drank tea yesterday.

Lucky

Hello friends,
Today is monday, and another free day. As promised here are some photos of my adventure up to now:

The first picture was taken this morning when I had an audience with Venerable Ling Rinpoche. He's 22, and the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama's senior tutor. He will be the teacher of the next Dalai Lama. He knows perfect english and was asking about where I'm from and what I'm doing here. He asked if I was religious and I said we're learning about Buddhism. He responded that he knows a little about that! I went with my Amala and her friend, she said it was very lucky to meet him.




This is a view of Delhi, big, dirty Delhi. But the sunset was beautiful!

The second picture is of two monks debating at Namgyal monastery.

Next is a stereotypical picture of a sunset.

Then a stupa and lots of prayer flags.

Next are three Tibetans turning prayer wheels. Those prayer wheels contain the mantra Om Mani Pema Hum written 180 million times. No joke.

This is a sign updated almost every day in Dharamsala, it is right across the street from my home.

This last picture is the view from the roof of my house. Theres a rainbow. Its beautiful.

Love, Sam

Friday

Hey folks,
Thanks for the kind words to everyone who commented! it was starting to feel like I was writing to myself!

So today is friday and I'm still sick.. Its not terrible, just a bad head cold. BUT, I took this opportunity to explore Tibetan Medicine. I went to the Men Tsee Kong clinic a few days ago and saw a traditional Tibetan doctor. The way that Tibetan Medicine works is they talk to you and read your pulse to tell whats wrong. By reading your pulse they can literally figure out what is happening in your body, the causes, and how to fix it. Its pretty crazy. So the doctor and another younger Tibetan woman who I assumed was an apprentice doctor both read my pulse while asking questions about the sickness. They then gave me a series of Tibetan medicine that I have to take after each meal for 1 week. I have 3 different medicines, I take a different one after each meal. They are small brown pills that I crush up and then eat with hot water or tea. They taste terrible, very bitter, but at the same time, they're made out of plants collected in Tibet and Ladakh in the Himalayas. Theres no chemicals in Tibetan medicine! You also need to have faith in the medicine for it to work. They say you normally get worse before you get better while taking Tibetan medicine because instead of treating symptoms it teaches your body how to fight the sickness. So hence I am still sick! But hopefully it will be done soon.

So Renee brought up an important point about Nepal that has the potential to impact my semester. The Maoists, who have been working with the Nepali government for the past two years have withdrawn from the government and are beginning "three weeks of street protests." They are upset because, among many other things, the government has refused to abolish the monarchy before the upcoming national elections. SO, this, paired with the bombings in Kathmandu two weeks ago, may result in a change of plan for us. SIT is still figuring out if we will be allowed to go, it may be too dangerous, but we'll see how the next few weeks go. Unfortunately, if we can't go to Nepal, then we won't go to Tibet either, because it is much more difficult and expensive to go to Tibet without going through Nepal. So if we are unable to go to Nepal, we will probably go to Bhutan instead. While I would be really disappointed to not go to Tibet, Bhutan would be a pretty incredible experience. It is still within the realm of Tibetan civilization, and it is the home of Gross National Happiness.

Anyway, that is the latest update from me. Still plugging along! I promise I'll get some more pictures up soon! This is the only one I have because I used it in a paper I just turned in. It is the front of the Tsuglagkhang Temple at Namgyal Monastery. The steps face the front entrance to His Holiness the Dalai Lama's compound. Speaking of His Holiness, we are going to receive teachings from him in October! And we're trying hard to get a private audience as well...


Peace,
Sam

Tibetan:
Aa gi lobtra re = That is a school
Nga tso lobtruk re = We are students
Nga tso trom la dro gi yin = We are going to the market
Nga po-ke yakpo yew! = Tibetan is good! :)

FREE DAY!

Today is our first free day after 8 straight days of class... woohoo! Yesterday we had a talk by a guy (I forget his name...) who has been to Beijing 5 times to directly negotiate for Tibet as envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In other words, he's a big deal. It was quite interesting, obviously His Holiness is a proponent of his Middle Way approach to Tibetan autonomy instead of independance. This is a big point of contention in the Tibetan community.

Tibetan is going well, we know enough to be able to read the language now! Thats a pretty big stop for an alphabet that is completely new. There are so many exceptions in how letters sound. In addition to learning the 30 letters and 4 vowels, we also have to learn the three suoperscript and 4 subscript letters, which all change their root letter in a different way. Its pretty exciting!

Dharamsala is really great, its a really fun place to be and to hang out in. I think that I'll be coming back here for the five weeks of independant study project. My idea right now is to research activism in exile, specifically regarding the build up to the 2008 olympics in China. Its crazy that we only have 2.5 weeks left here before going to Nepal. We're all really looking forward to it!

My homestay has been going well, my amala is awesome. I tried making momos the other day, what a mess... My pala can make like 8 different shapes, and I could barely make them stick together.

On another note, I'm sick... I spent last night in the hotel.
Keep on rocking,
Sam

ps, the title of this blog is kind of misleading, we only go to Tibet for about 3 weeks, most of the program is actually in India.. But oh well.

pps, is anybody actually reading this blog?

Learn Tibetan:
Sim ja nango = good night
Nga lo nyeeshutsachik yin. = I am 21 years old.

Howdy

Hello,
Today is tuesday, day two of formal classes. This means that we don't have much free time anymore. 2.5 hours of Tibetan in the morning, and then a lecture or two in the afternoon. Lots of reading and projects. Yesterday's discussion was on the concept of Orientalism, or rather the Occident (America, England, France)'s perceptions towards the "East." It is rooted in colonialism and domination by the west over the "East." We looked at views of Tibet in particular, what they are, where they came from, and why people think that way. Then we talked about Donald Lopez's book Prisoners of Shangri-La, where he argues that Tibetans have adopted and played up western perceptions of Tibet and that it has led to ultimately "imprison" or impede the Tibetan independence movement. I disagree with Lopez, and I didn't like his book.

There are many perceptions of Tibet and Tibetans that westerners have. For example that all Tibetans are spiritual, compassionate, nonviolent, Buddhist, vegetarian... The fact is that none of these are true as a rule. Though vegetarianism is a rising movement, most Tibetans eat meat. Tibetans in Tibet before 1949 were definitely not nonviolent...

Anyway, I figured I'd through in a little of our discussion so you know what we're up to!

I got sick yesterday for the first time, that sucked. But I feel good today. I helped my Ama-la make chapatis for dinner. We don't eat until 9 at night, but its ok. They're trying to help me learn Tibetan but its quite hard! We just finished learning the alphabet and its pronunciation and then just today we learned several super and subscripts that change all the pronunciations!
Time for class,
Sam

Week two in Dharamsala begins

Tashi Delek!
Today is sunday, and a lot has happened since the last time I wrote. For one, I have moved in with my homestay family! We met them yesterday and moved our things in. My Ama-la (Tib: mother) has a stand at the main market where she sells shawls. My Pa-la (Tib: father) works at the Tibetan cooperative handicraft shop where he makes carpets. In addition I have several brothers younger and older than me, and one younger sister. And in addition to that, we share three rooms. A kitchen, and two bedrooms. My bedroom I share with my Pa-la, it also is the shrine room. That means it is filled with pictures of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, statues of the Buddha and Guru Rinpoche, and Thangkhas of the Buddha and other deities. A thangkha is a sacred painting, essentially.

Dharamsala is still fun, theres lots to explore and new neighborhoods that I have only just discovered. Still lots of tourists. I don't like the tourists. Yesterday I had breakfast at an Indian restaurant for 10 rupees. In case you were wondering, thats 25 cents.

I have gone to the Nyingma monastery ( I think thats what it is called, I'll look it up) several times. It is the monastery of His Holiness. In the temple there is a huge statue of the Buddha. In the courtyard one time there were monks debating. Essentially one monk sits on the ground and the other stands. The seated monk makes a statement about a Buddhist text, and the standing monk then tries to refute it using specific examples from that or other texts, all from memory. Whenever the standing monk makes a point they clap their hands very loud. It is quite animated! Debating is an incredibly difficult aspect of monastic education.

We have continued with our Tibetan classes, learning more phrases and beginning to learn how to read Tibetan script. Tomorrow we begin with our formal language teachers, as orientation is now over. Its really fun but still very difficult. I am trying to practice with my family, but if I don't have a pad to write down what they teach me, then I forget...

I'm off to go exploring, keep on rocking,
Sam

learn Tibetan:
Thu je che = thank you
Thu je see = please
Nga sha sa-gi me = I don't eat meat!

Hello from Dharamsala!

Tashi Delek! friends out there in the world, I am writing to you from the town of Mecload Ganj, sometimes called upper Dharamsala. This is the home of H.H. the Dalai Lama, as well as the center of the Tibetan exile world. It is incredible! We arrived today after an overnight train and 3.5 hour jeep ride. We have spent the past few days in Delhi beginning our orientation, getting accustomed to India and starting our language class! Tibetan is quite challenging but so enthralling to learn. Our group is great, 26 of us all together and another girl is meeting us this weekend. This week we are continuing orientation and on saturday we meet our homestay families and move in with them for the next 4-5 weeks. Dharamsala is a really interesting place, there are a lot of westerners, for better or for worse. The city however, is beautiful. There are two main streets, with a temple in the middle. Lots of restaurants, cafes, and Tibetan stores. Indian and Tibetan food is super-delicious. So many flavors!

Well that is all for now, we have to be up bright and early for yoga tomorrow morning! Then we start learning fieldwork and exploring Dharamsala.
Take care and write me letters or emails or post comments!
Sam

learn Tibetan:
nga Sam yin - I am Sam

Holy moly I leave tomorrow!

Thats right, tomorrow. Holy crap. This is my last day in NY for four months!

If anyone feels the urge to send a letter or something by snail mail, our address for the first half of the semester is this:

In Dharamsala:

c/o SIT
Hotel Tibet
Mcleod Ganj
Dharamsala, H.P.
India

But it could take 1 to 8 weeks to arrive, so a better option might be to email me! During the Dharamsala stay I will have pretty regular internet access, and then semi-regular following that.

I leave tomorrow out of JFK airport in NY, and fly for 8 hours to Paris. Then after a three hour layover it is another 8 hours to Dheli, India. From there we take a 2 day bus trip up to Dharamsala where we will be for the next five weeks. 16 hours of plane travel here I come! This will be my last post before I write again in Dharamsala, India!
Sam

Two weeks!!

Hey all, it is now just over two weeks until departure to India on September 1st!! It is getting closer and closer to the time when my world will change dramatically for four months.

For those of you that I haven't spoken to, here is a brief outline of the semester: The first five weeks will be in Mecleod Gangj, a small town above Dharamsala, India. It is the center of the Tibetan exile universe, home to the residence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as well as the Tibetan Government-In-Exile. During this piece of the semester we will be doing a homestay, learning Tibetan language, and becoming immersed in Tibetan culture. After Dharamsala, we will travel to Kathmandu, Nepal for a week before traveling to Tibet for four weeks. We will be centered in Lhasa but will travel around, visit important sites, trek in the Himalayas, and continue the language classes and seminars. Next we will travel back to India where we will spend a few days preparing before heading out for four weeks of Independent Study Project on our own. During the ISP we will conduct research and write a huge paper. After this we will come back together to present to each other and wrap up the semester. On December 15thish the program ends and my parents are coming to visit, then I'll be flying back to the states on December 31st.

So that is four months in a nutshell. A really big nutshell. I have been reading nonstop and practicing Tibetan characters. I'll write again before leaving. I wanted to get this sweet blog rolling.. :)

The Summer and the Future!

Hey all, so it is May and I don't leave for India until September 2. I will be living in the woods building trails all summer, so there will be few updates here. But definitely bookmark this page and check back in the fall for semi-regular stories from my travels and adventures studying Tibet...

First post! 4 months...

A little test post...

I leave in 4 months and I'm excited! :)