India - Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama

We didn't waste any time in Jammu & took the first available bus out of town into the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh, climbing up once again into the foothills of the Himalaya and heading for the town of Dharamsala.

Dharamsala, and in particularly the small village of Mcleod Ganj only a couple of km's further up the valley, is where His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet now lives in exile, after escaping the Chinese threat in 1959. The Tibetan government in exile, of which His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is both head and spiritual leader, operates out of the area. It is now pretty much the number one place that Tibetan refugees head to after escaping Tibet, being guaranteed a personal audience with their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama himself. When we were there, he had committments in the US and was unavailable however it is fairly common to see him apparently when he is home. The numbers of Tibetans still making this journey of exile are incredibly high, even though it involves a 6-8 week walk across dangerous high altitude mountain terrain. Many die en-route, and many are caught by the Chinese police, returned to Tibet for likely imprisonment and torture by the Chinese authorities. This doesn't discourage them trying though - it still being the preferable option to many than staying in Tibet under threat of torture or attack by the Chinese government as they systematically go about trying the wipe out as much as possible of the Tibetan culture. There are over 150,000 Tibetans living in exile and at least 100,00 of those in India after fleeing the country. Not that within China you will ever see anything other than positive news stories for what they are doing for Tibet - such is the communist propaganda that pervades the media there.

The sad fact also seems to be the rest of the world are apparently now turning a blind eye to the Free Tibet movement and the infringement of human rights that is ongoing, major world leaders now apparently not wanting to upset the new economic superpower as the western world is probably now more economically dependant on them than they are us. Not to mention also the fact the Chinese government are a pretty volatile, paranoid and unpredictable lot, with enough military might to cause the world more problems than we are apparently willing to deal with for the sake of a few million Tibetans...

Dharamsala is not only full of Tibetans but also completely overrun with tourists, either here to see firsthand what is going on with the Tibetan cause and maybe catch a glimpse of the Dalai Lama, or to get stuck into one of the many residential yoga or meditation courses on offer. It really is quite unbelievably commercial, there are more cappuccino bars, pizza restaurants and travel agents in Mcleod Ganj than there are probably anywhere else in India in such close proximity. The place that started out as a refuge to Tibetans in search of a better life is unfortunately starting to feel a little like a Tibetan theme park, and whilst tourism adds significantly to the local economy and enables exiled Tibetans to set up some small business', there is definitely a feeling that you get from some of the refugees that they would rather just get on with it without the constant audience.

That said it is in a beautiful mountain setting and the vast majority of the Tibetans we came into contact with were very warm people, appreciative of any assistance people offered, whether it be taking the time out to practise conversational English with them or offering basic advice about how they could make more of their small businesses.

The Dalai Lama's residence, monastery and temple came as a bit of a shock to us after visiting many of the traditional Tibetan monasteries in Ladakh that all have a very special ambience about them, the place here felt pretty soulless. It is a large concrete block done in the style of 1960-70's English architecture. The place is naturally filled with monks (& tourists) going about their daily prayers and debating sessions which can be quite heated debates involving shouting and load clapping, reverberating around the concrete building which unfortunately lends it the feeling of a drop in centre.

We only stayed a couple of days, the endless noise of traffic horns during the day driving us mad, and made our way on another 10 hour bus journey through the mountains up to the town of Manali to meet up with Leanne & Sonia.