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Other entries in Dharamsala

The Norbulingka Craft Village & Palm Reading!

This is part 2 of my 2 part update on Dharamshala, enjoy!

Tuesday November 8th 2005
Today we got up and had breakfast at the restaurant of our hotel.  I had curd (yoghurt) with honey and banana and also some Tibetan bread and butter.  Sarah was feeling much better so we decided to go to the Tibetan Craft Village (its proper name is Norbulingka).

This first involved catching the local bus from Mcleodganj to Lower Dharamshala.  The fare was just 7 Rupees (about 8p) and took just over half an hour.  The bus followed the steep winding roads down and was just as scary as any of the other Indian bus rides I have taken.  The bus dropped us off and we jumped straight on to our next bus towards Palamphur (although not going that far).  We told the driver that we needed to get off at the 'Sacred Heart High School' as per our guide books, but he obviously forgot and by the time he remembered we were a good walk past it.  No bother though as we found yet another Buddhist monastery which was very grand indeed.  On the bus we got talking to a Canadian guy named Barry who we had seen in town a couple of days before, and he was heading for Norbulingka as well.

Anyway, back to the monastery!  It had a gorgeous backdrop of mountains and trees and the temple was at the top of a flight of concrete steps.  Inside the temple were huge statues of deities and Sarah said it was the most lavish Buddhist temple she had ever seen (and she has been to Tibet and seen the 'real deal'.

Arriving at Norbulingka - at last!
After some more looking around and a few photographs, we resumed our search for Norbulingka.  We walked for quite a while and were pointed in quite a few different directions by the locals.  Eventually we found Norbulingka and it was well worth the walk.  Norbulingka is where they teach Tibetans the crafts handed down throughout generations.  This ensures that the skills are not lost as they are an important part of Tibetan culture and heritage.  These skills include wood carving and carpentry, sewing and clothes making, and Thangka painting.

We first took a look around the doll museum, which is not a museum of antique dolls as the name suggests, but dolls that have been dressed in traditional Tibetan and Buddhist clothes and placed in everyday scenes of Tibet (in miniature of course).  It was very interesting and attached was the Norbulingka gift shop (very convenient).  There were some very gorgeous things in the gift shop, which were a little expensive, but hand-made so worth the money.

There was also a temple at Norbulingka (of course) and you could go on to the roof and look out over the whole craft village.

After this we then went to the main attraction (for us anyway) which was the Thangka painting workshop.  A Thangka (pronounced Tong-ka) is a piece of silk that is hand painted with amazing intricate designs of deities and scenes from the Buddhist faith.  Back in the UK and in the USA they are very expensive (and rightly so), and here in India (even though it's cheaper) one can still easily set you back over £150.  You can appreciate why they are so expensive when you see the amount of time and work that goes into them.  One guy had spent 3 months painting just one Thangka and said it would take another 3 months or so to complete.  We took some photos of the guys working and the workshop area, before going to have some lunch (where I had my all time favourite - Noodle Soup!).

Sometimes the poverty in India is hard to deal with
After we left Norbulingka we took a walk to the main road to catch the bus.  On the way to the bus stop two children were begging for some money.  They must have only been 7 or 8 years old and really were persistent as they followed us for quite a while.  I have not really written much in my journals so far about the begging in India, but that is only because it is such common-place.  The Indian society truly believes in the caste system (which is hard to understand), but they believe that everyone has their place in this life including the poor.  They believe that the poor are so due to their own fault and that's that. 
Sarah gave the kids some candy (polo mints) and they seemed very happy at this.  The children begging did not bother us so much (and I do not mean that in a cold way at all), but the mothers sending them out to beg did bother us.

A funny bus ride back to town!
We then got to the local bus stop and waited for the bus back to Dharamshala.  In true Indian fashion the bus arrived completely full with barely enough room to 'swing a cat'.  We squeezed onto the bus though and were packed in like sardines.  It was quite funny as the bus driver was a complete lunatic!  He drove at such a high speed and then constantly slammed on his brakes flinging us poor passengers forward.  He was driving like he was in a video game and I was left wishing that he didn't also think he had three lives!  Sarah's guide book gives a funny description of buses in India.  It says that Indian buses are the worst thing that can happen to a tourist in India, and apparently Indian bus drivers cannot get life insurance.
We got off the bus in Lower Dharamshala unscathed to then get the local bus back to Mcleodganj, so more praying followed as we drove close to the edge of the road on many an occasion!  On the way back up we passed through the Cantonment area (CANTT) and there was a sign that said ''This is your beautiful Cantt, please keep it clean'.  Both I and Sarah thought the same thing and found this highly amusing (how childish!).

Does my palm really say that?!
Once back we returned to our hotel to collect Sarah's astrology report which she had ordered yesterday.  It was all written in Tibetan, but the astrologer sat with Sarah and explained it all.  I then had my palm read for 100 Rupees (£1.25p) which was quite interesting!  Apparently at some point in my life I am going to have to choose between three women!  Hmmm, don't think that's going to happen!  Also I have been told that I love nature and am a very honest and open guy.

In the evening we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant.  We both love Indian food but it is good to get a 'taste of home' sometimes.  A very busy day indeed!

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