Holi Moly and Bod Rangzen

Many exciting happenings around Dharamsala! This week is my last at the College for Higher Tibetan Studies Sarah Campus, which saddens me greatly. But the past week has been so much fun! Last weekend was the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to India and Sarah was the institution in charge of welcoming him back. I got up with my roommate at six so we could wash our hair and dress in our finest, and then get incredibly sweaty and dusty on the multiple kilometer hike to the airport. Waiting for His Holiness was reminiscent of the Christmas parades in Chapel Hill, except instead of wreaths and bows there were prayer flags, incense burnings, and auspicious symbols in the street. And then instead of an hour long parade of floats and Santa Claus, there was a two second time period during which HHDL rode past in his car with the windows rolled up. He was smiling though! It was really fun, actually, and we had delicious lassis afterwards to cool down, which is a great way to conclude any event.

Last Sunday was the holiday holi, which some of you might be familiar with due to Google’s theme days – although I’m not sure if the themes are different over here at Google India. Regardless of Google’s art, holi happened here, not so much on campus but in the neighboring Indian towns. Holi, I guess I should explain, is celebrated by people throwing colorful chalky powder on one another. I asked many people about the significance and history of holi to no avail. A few of us went to Lower Dharamsala in search of celebration, but caught only the tail end of it. So we bought a few colors ourselves, intending to bring them back to campus and surprise attack our Tibetan roommates… but we ended up walking back and impatiently ripping into the bags and having an all-out war on the road back. It reminded me of the movie Color Wars that used to play at UNC’s planetarium, if any of y’all remember that classic. We had a good time and managed to save a few hits for our friends back at Sarah, which was obviously appreciated. It was nice to take a step outside of Sarah and experience real India for an afternoon!

As I mentioned previously, this is my last week at Sarah. After this our group is moving up the mountain to McLeod Ganj to live with families in homestays. We went up today to meet our future families and now I’m so beyond excited for it! I will be living in His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Temple for the two weeks we’re doing homestays. My pa-la (adopted father) is the handyman around the Temple and my ama-la (adopted mother) is the tailor that takes care of the monks’ robes. They live in the Temple building right across from an amazing eatery called Namgyal Café, which I’m excited to be near! They have an 11 year old daughter who I didn’t get to meet today because she’s away at a TCV school and a 7 year old son who is going to tutor me in Tibetan. He seems like a pretty typical 7 year old boy, full of energy, eating cake, and playing with toy cars. We had a rousing game of Jenga while I visited with them today, which ended in a tie. They seem wonderful and I can’t wait to move in!

I don’t actually move in with them until March 21^st though because my spring break starts at the end of this week! My father and sister are supposedly en route to India at this very moment, slowly but surely making their way to me! They’re coming up to McLeod in a few days and after my classes end we’re going to Delhi and traveling from there wherever our hearts lead us. Luckily they are arriving just in time for March 10^th, which is National Tibetan Uprising Day. Wiki it and educate yourself about the so-called “Tibet Question!” Until next time, Bod Rangzen!