Mumbai...Integrating the Experince

I arrived back in Mumbai on the night of 2 March. Arriving at the airport, a phone call from my friend notified me he was not coming to the airport to meet me as expected.
I was disappointed, but not bent out of shape or terrified as I would have been had this happened 4 months ago.
So I collected my bags and decided to check out a pre-paid taxi.
300 rupees later, I clutched my receipt and navigated the queue out front without a lot of difficulty. It took what felt like forever to get out of the airport car park but at last we were whipping through the Mumbai night.

What struck me most as we rolled at a decent speed through the city was that...it did not seem as strange or crazy or frightening as it all had when I landed at the airport the first time, arriving from the USA in late October 2009.
In fact, it seemed pretty average. I can't believe I just wrote that!
I kept track of location by reading bank branch signs... Had my friend called to ask, I wanted to say, in my twisted humor, "I'm at the corner of Amitab Baichan and Shah Rukh Khan" (two Bollywood megastars whose faces are EVERYWHERE on billboards as well as tv and film). HAHAHA
Shops and temples sailed by...
Then I saw the Breach Candy bank branch and knew we were getting close. As we veered off to the right, I suddenly actually recognized the neighborhood.
I was able to give the taxi driver exact directions from there...although it was more gesturing as my Hindi and his English were pretty much equal at...virtually none.

India India India.

Hard to explain the mindset I've been in ever since getting back. The apartment here is posh, in India terms. I took the longest hot shower I'd had since I could remember. I slept with a sheet under a ceiling fan instead of two blankets and a space heater. I ate Domino's pizza and drank white wine and laughed over how much I've changed.
I do not feel threatened by the curious stares, anymore. In fact, there don't even seem to BE any curious stares. Maybe I have just learned to look past them?
Today we went to the grocery...the same grocery which seemed dangerous and complicated during my first week here. It was...routine. Absolutely normal.
I have said it before and I will say it again.
My life will never be the same.

I have cried, but not a lot. Mainly when I get an email or a facebook chat or a phone call from someone in Mcleod. I miss them more than anything but I am somehow applying the lessons of acceptance and letting go that I learned there.
Life is good. Everything is as it should be.

I am focusing on life NOW. On working on projects both online and off which will help get me back to my heart's home in the Himalayas quickly.
My goal is to be back and teaching English conversation to the Tibetan refugees again before October...hopefully by late August.

Please check out the links below to see what I am working on:
Tibet in Exile
Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Wheels
and
Support for Tibet

As all my work in McleodGanj is self-funded and completely voluntary, I appreciate anyone who would like to make a donation to contact me for my PayPal information!

Geshe Lobsang Gyaltsen's Story

(NOTE: Geshe-la is one of my students. He has a sharp wit, a quick mind, a great sense of humor and a kind heart. I am constantly awed to be in his presence. My life has been deeply blessed to be touched by his. The above photo is of one of our English conversation lessons at LIT, Learning and Ideas for Tibet)

Geshe Lobsang Gyaltsen, a Doctor of Buddhist Philosophy, chose to become a monk at the age of 15, in 1987. He speaks to a group of international travelers at L.I.T., Learning and Ideas for Tibet, a non-profit organization which supports a Free Tibet, about events related to his arrest and torture at the hands of the Chinese.

He became a monk at the age of 15. Roughly two years later, he became involved in a campaign for human rights, free Tibet, and awareness of related issues.

In 1989, he says, the Chinese came to interrogate monks at his monastery on issues related to an uprising in Tibet. The monks and local villagers decided to protest on 24 August, 1989, stating that Tibet had been a free and independent nation throughout history until 1959.

 Chinese police arrived quickly and told the protesters that if they capitulated and declared that Tibet was part of China, they would not be arrested. The protesters resisted. The next day villagers and monks decided to oppose the Chinese. Some 500 Chinese police were sent from Lhasa. Of these, roughly 300 were “special forces” who were authorized to shoot and kill without official direct permission or orders.

Geshe-la was one of four organizers and leaders of the protest who stood up and admitted their role. The police hand-cuffed him to another organizer, Dorje, and they both had their hands tied behind their backs. They were taken to a prison in Lhasa where they were kicked and beaten with gun butts. Then they were lined up against a wall and beaten with sticks and fists for about an hour, during which time they broke his nose. He says he remembers bleeding badly.

After the beating stopped, they were put in separate dark windowless rooms with no sheet to put on the floor or use as a cover. They had to use a corner of the room as their toilet. He was held at gunpoint and told if he renounced Tibet he wouldn’t be arrested. The Chinese beat him again and poured hot water over him for refusing to say that the Dalai Lama had organized the protests. 

He reports being tortured daily for a month with various electric devices until he lost consciousness. Water would be thrown in his face to revive him each time, but still he refused to comply.

Each day, he said, prisoners were given only a small amt of tsampa and one cup of water. Some days they received no food or drink. They were forced to clean pig sties and never given clean clothing or allowed to bathe.

He spent 9 months in prison. When he was released, he was given a letter he was ordered not to open for delivery to the abbot of his monastery. The letter said he was to be expelled from the monastery. He went to live with his family, but was watched closely by the Chinese, his activities limited.

After 6 months he decided to escape. He requested to visit his brothers in another part of Tibet. Permission was granted, but instead of going to see them, he went by bus to Lhasa, then on to the Nepali border, where he paid a guide 700 yuan to lead him through the mountains. It took a week to reach the reception center in Nepal.

He stayed at the reception cnter for 2 months, where he was given good food and medical care. In 1990 he was sent first to Delhi, then to McleodGanj. After meeting HH the Dalai Lama, he received an opportunity to study Buddhist philosophy along with approximately 5000 other monks at a monastery near Bangalore. His studies continued for 18 years, until he achieved the degree of Geshe (Doctor).

In 2007 he returned to Dharamsala to study Sanskrit at HH the Karmapa’s monastery for one year. Now he teaches Buddhist philosophy at  a monastery in McleodGanj, India. He is studying English at L.I.T. and has expressed an interest in teaching Buddhism to foreign visitors.


ADDITION: Geshe-la has since told me that, after his escape, his brother, who was also imprisoned with him resulting from the protest, was questioned harshly and repeatedly about Geshe-la's where-abouts but refused to answer. This resulted in his re-arrest. Not long after, the news came that his brother had died. Geshe-la feels that this was a direct result of torture at the hands of the Chinese.

Tibetans Talk: Political Prisoner Profile

I thought it would help you to hear some first hand stories of people in my life. People I work with (almost) daily. People who have changed my life forever. Beautiful people with amazing souls and inner strength that brought them through horrors most westerners can never even imagine.

I want to introduce you to some of the Tibetan exiles/refugees and former political prisoners in my life.

I will start with the first former prisoner I ever met...a man who now plays a special role in my life. I want to introduce you to Sonam Dorjee...middle, wearing glasses. Look at his smile. And then read his story.

Sonam Dorjee is a soft-spoken, studious looking man in his late thirties. He comes from a poor farming family in a Tibetan village. Speaking to our international group at a non-profit event at L.I.T. (Learning and Ideas for Tibet), he recalls how the Chinese arrived one day to mine natural resources from his region for shipment to China, and how their factories polluted the rivers so badly that wildlife and farm animals began to die.

In 1992, he says, the Chinese demanded the people of his village denounce the Dalai Lama and stop any talk of a free Tibet. Restrictions were placed on how many children Tibetan families could have (Tibetan families in the city are allowed one child, while in rural areas they are allowed two). He was asked to “round up” women with more children for forced sterilization. Some women were to be given forced abortions. This, he says, is one way the Chinese control the Tibetan ethno-religious population.

Sonam refused to comply. He took part in a meeting with other villagers, and eventually they made a mutual decision to protest. They sewed and planted a Tibetan flag on the steps of the main local temple and refused to denounce His Holiness. A crowd gathered below the steps to support them. After fifteen minutes, Chinese police arrested everyone on the steps.

The group was taken to a local police station where they were forced to kneel and beaten with sticks. Sonam was beaten until his nose, mouth, and even eyes bled. Afterwards, they were taken to a detention center near Lhasa where they were again beaten, and imprisoned without trial.

Sonam was taken to a room where he was forced to stand on a table. His thumbs were tied with ropes hanging from the ceiling, and the table was kicked out from under him, where he hung and was beaten til he lost consciousness. He reports that the beatings were so intense that the blows made his body feel like it was on fire, but that after a few minutes everything would go numb and he couldn’t see or feel.

His fellow prisoners were tortured with finger vises until they were out of their senses with pain. All of them were interrogated repeatedly for months. The Chinese wanted them to admit that the Dalai Lama and/or foreign nationals (specifically American or British) had organized the protest, but they refused to reveal who had organized the demonstration.

One of the most difficult parts of being in prison, he says, was being unable to sleep lying down because of numerous wounds on his body. Chinese doctors sometimes took blood from prisoners, which was reportedly sold for food or to bribe government officials for favors.

The Chinese told them they would be allowed to take their case to court, but they knew it was a lie. Sonam explains that no Chinese court judge can rule in favor of Tibetans, or he will be punished also. They decided simply to accept their sentence.

Sonam was sentenced to thirteen years. Others in his group who were more active in preparing the demonstration were sentenced to fifteen. After a few months, he was taken to Drapchi, the largest prison in Tibet, near Lhasa. There were separate sections for men and women. He estimates there were about 300 men and 270 women. All prisoners were given a thick rule manual which they were expected to memorize within three months. Those who could not were punished.

He was forced to labor taking human waste from the toilets to the greenhouse, where vegetables were grown. The Chinese did not permit prisoners to bathe or ever have clean clothing. He also had to raise vegetables, which were given to outside vendors for sale. He was supposed to earn 12,000 yuan monthly selling these vegetables, with sales being recorded on receipts from the vendors, but no matter what the actual sales were, the vendors always reported they fell short of their quota. For failing to make the required sales totals, workers were put in solitary confinement.

He describes solitary confinement as being too small to lie down or even stretch. While there, he was given only one glass of water and a tiny bit of bread each day. His feet were shackled with a ball and chain weighing 3kg.. After 10 days, he says, he went delirious with hunger and lost consciousness.

When he woke, he decided to attempt suicide to escape his torture. He says he ate pieces of metal and hit his head against the wall repeatedly, but did not die. Then, he says, he thought about how other political prisoners had survived torture for much longer, and he decided to survive the rest of his sentence. He was held in solitary for two months, even though Chinese law states the maximum solitary sentence is twenty days.

Other prison experiences he describes include being forced to stand outdoors in burning summer sun or freezing ice with no shoes for long hours and sleeping on bare ground with no covers. At the end of every year, each prisoner was forced to write a letter stating that what he had done against the Chinese government was wrong.

In 1998 the Chinese flag was put on the wall and prisoners forced to sing Chinese National Anthem. Seven Tibetans were killed for refusing, another committed suicide. Others protested, and their sentences were increased. A monk near him was shot, and he helped some other Tibetans use their clothes to tie his wound. Another prisoner organized a hunger strike, for which everyone was interrogated and tortured. Sonam says the interrogation room was ankle deep in blood by the time it was his turn to be questioned. After this, surveillance cameras and microphones were installed in the prison room, plus two additional guards who spoke both Tibetan and Chinese.

In spring 2005, all political prisoners were taken to a special new prison. There was one guard for each prisoner. These guards were supposed to get prisoners to confess and renounce Tibet. Guards who were successful received rewards.

In late June 2005, Sonam was released and taken to a local police station, where he was told to write a letter promising never to oppose or protest against China again, but he refused. He says his time in prison made him stronger and more determined for a free Tibet.

He returned to his village, but his home and family had moved. When he finally found them, they didn’t recognize each other at first. His sister, who was only 7 when he was arrested, was now a woman. He says he felt like it was not his home or his family, that everything had changed.

For awhile he was glad to be back and tend yak and cattle on the mountains. But after three months, he grew unhappy and decided to look for work. He had to apply for special permission from the local police to leave the village and go to Lhasa, where he found work in a shop for two months. Then, he says, Chinese officials forced the shopkeeper to fire him. Each time he found a new job, he was forced out by the Chinese, so he went back to his village.

He became ill but refused treatment for a long time. Finally he was allowed to go to a hospital in Lhasa, and it was then that he decided to escape to India. He didn’t tell his family, but sought help from a network of other former political prisoners. He traveled from Lhasa to the border of Nepal in a truck, where the border guard was paid 5500 yuan.

He had to cross a river in the dark, and fell down a cliff, hurting his head. He made it to a Nepali village, where he says everyone stared at him strangely. When he found a mirror, he realized his face was almost completely covered in blood. He was taken to a refugee center in Katmandu, where he was given food and medical help for eight days before being sent to Delhi, then on to Dharamsala.

He arrived in Dharamsala in 2007. Along with 150 other refugees, he got to meet and tell his story to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who told him he should let the western world know exactly what the Chinese had done to him and why. He stayed at the refugee center for one year, where he was interviewed by many international news agencies. Later he went to a Tibetan school, then joined Gu Chu Sum Tibetan Political Prisoner Organization. With other members, he helped create a non-profit school, L.I.T. (Learning and Ideas for Tibet) where Tibetans can study English and other subjects for free.

Sonam continues trying to create a new life and now teaches Tibetan language to people from other cultures on request. He tells his story to international guests every few weeks through a translator. He is also active in cooking for L.I.T. events.

When questioned by the international audience, Sonam softly says that although the best years of his life were spent in prison, he feels it was more than worth it, and that now all he wants is to inform the world about what is really going on.

Candlelight Vigil

After English conversation class yesterday, a group of students and teachers,

myself included, chatted over tea, playing tic tac toe and hangman for til dusk.

As I was leaving, I bumped into another western volunteer, who

asked me if I was going to the candlelight vigil.

I had not heard anything about it, but agreed to join her. We walked in

silence to the town "square", where Tibetans were handing out candles and

info pamphlets regarding the recent death of a young Buddhist nun.

The nun, aged 33, was arrested and beaten by Chinese police after

participating with a friend in a peaceful march where they chanted slogans

asking for basic human rights and freedom of religion.

She was tortured and died this Sunday of injuries related to her

beatings/torture at the hands of the Chinese.

A sizeable group of Buddhist nuns and monks, other Tibetan refugees, and

western visitors and volunteers gathered to light candles.

The walk circled the chorten, a temple in the center of town, three

times while the Tibetans chanted in their language.

Afterwards, the procession made its way downhill, to the main temple at

the residence of H.H. the Dalai Lama (who is currently teaching in

Australia), where we listened to different speakers about the recent

events. Tibetan flags waved in the evening breeze.

I was very moved, although no English translation was offered.

All that kept going through my mind was that if we had held even

this peaceful remembrance vigil inside Tibet, we would have been beaten,

shot, and/or jailed by the Chinese.

At the end of the speeches, the Tibetans sang two native songs, and

several people cried.

Friends, how can we allow our governments to side with the Chinese?

How can we stand by and give permission for one nation, China, to oppress,

control, repeatedly punish another, Tibet, for wanting the most basic

human rights and freedom of religion?!

I implore you, do whatever you can to make your voice heard, that we

know what the Chinese or doing, that we abhore what the Chinese are

doing, that will not permit what the Chinese are doing!

Write to your representatives, even to your President or Prime Minister.

Boycott Chinese goods.

Let the world know what the Chinese are doing is absolutely

unacceptable!

If you would like to make a donation to a non-profit organization here in

McleodGanj, please contact me directly for more info.

I can see that your donation goes directly into the hands of a refugee or

former political prisoner of your choosing, or, if not specified, that it helps

defray expenses for volunteers and non-profit agencies in town.

Thank you for your support and concern!

FREE TIBET!

Himalyan Home...

McLeodGanj is now "home"...as much as I have felt at home anywhere in the

past few years.

Shopkeepers great me pleasantly when I walk by in the morning. There is

no more pressure to buy souvenirs or "just look" at their merchandise.

I am learning how to be a local. Learning where the best prices on fruit,

snacks, and clothing are. Learning how to speak basic Tibetan (there are as

many if not more Tibetans than Indians here, thankfully, as this IS the home

of the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan government and many refugees.

I am volunteering as a conversational English teacher every weekday with

the Tibetan community at L.I.T. (Learning and Ideas for Tibet)...follow the

link to find out more!

Help stop the human rights abuses the Chinese are inflicting on Tibetans!

There is a real community here, both of locals and westerners like myself who

are getting involved with the Tibetan cause.

Actually, I have been selected to choose the topic for Monday's

conversation class, and I am having a bit of a dilemma, but have a few ideas

which I'll run by some other volunteer coordinators.

In other news, I trekked to Triund 2 days ago with a nice girl from Finland

who I met at L.I.T. We started at 7:20am but had a few stops for tea/snacks en

route. The distance is roughly 5 miles one way, starting from 6831 feet

climbing (steeply at times) to 9514 feet.

We reached the summit at about noon, rested and took photos for over an hour,

and started down at about 1:30pm

We made great time coming down until we encountered a fellow trekker who

pointed back the way he had come and told us it was a "shortcut" to

Dharamkot. By this time we were all for shortcuts, so we decided to go for

it.

The slate ledges were steep and loose in many places, and often the trail led

in several directions, so we were never certain we were going the right way.

I was in tremendous pain and on the verge of a panic attack when we

encountered some Tibetan Buddhist monks sitting in front of simple stone

cottages. We asked "Dharamkot?" and they pointed, and a little white dog

sitting with them suddenly bounded off in front of us. Every time we'd lag behind,

the dog would stop and wait. I am pretty sure he thought we were taking him to

town for biscuits, and thereby showed us the way!

We should have been to the village by 3:30pm but the short cut added at least

an hour and a half, so it was nearly 5, the shadows long and leading into dusk,

by the time we came back to McLeodGanj!

I had my first Tibetan language class yesterday afternoon, and today boldly

introduced myself to the assembled group of Tibetan students in their

language, partially to help the girls in my group who had never spoken

English publicly before feel less awkward! If I could say some phrases in

Tibetan...anything was possible!

After class today, I hung out with two other western volunteer

coordinators and a group of Tibetans at the tea shop connected to the

ex-political prisoners association. Somehow the topic turned to relationships,

and everyone wanted to know if we wanted Tibetan boyfriends.

We all agreed that Tibetan boys are very cute, but one of the other girls

boldly said, "Yes, but I have heard Tibetans are very bad lovers!" so I

said, "Well then we just have to teach them!" Everyone loves to joke and

laugh. And now I have three Tibetans playing match-maker for me!

So cute

Well, life is good, and I can't wait to see how things develop.

Stay tuned!