McCloud Ganj - I woke up to the monks and faithful chanting.

I woke up early this morning to the sound (there it is again....the SOUNDS I associate with this trip) coming from H.H. The Dali Lama's Temple, which is down the hill from where I am staying in McCloud Ganj,Hinachal Pradesh. Before I start talking about my stay in McCloud Ganj I'd like to play catch up and write about the days prior to getting here.
Going to Amristar, Punjah.....

I was surprised at what I perceived to be the lack of beggars on the streets of Delhi. Mind you,there were beggars, but not hordes of them which was my preconceived perception of what the street's of Delhi would be like. We left The Singh Son Hotel early around 6:30 in the morning as the city was just beginning to wake up....and what I hadn't seen before was evident; squatter's in their make shift homes, individuals asleep on the pavement and the beggar's...they were all there. The distance we traveled was from the Karol Bagh neighborhood to Delhi's North Railroad Station which did not take us through any slums, but nevertheless it was hard to see human beings and especially children living under these condition's. Inside the station there were also people sleeping.....were they stranded traveler's or homeless, I'm not 100% sure, perhaps a little of each. The train station itself was old, crowded, yet I assumed that the people walking, running and just sitting (or as they often do in India, "haunch'] all knew where they were going and what they were doing. After it all....it was a train station and station's all over the world lend themselves to that kind of organized confusion. Yesterday, I read in the newspaper that two people were trampled to death at the Delhi station when a track change had been posted and a stampede occurred as passengers were trying to get to the newly posted track. I think I need to revise my previous statement about "organized confusion" and go with "the station is utter chaos". Doug had purchased first class Air Conditioned (at this point in time you might wonder why I mention AC or Air Conditioned Taxi's all the time .....not all taxi's, hotels, restaurants and trains are air conditioned...when you have AC you pay a higher fare or rate. Air conditioning is still a luxury even when you live in a climate that has temperature's in excess of 100 degrees months on end.) tickets for us to travel five hours to Amritstar in the Indian state of Punjab. In Hindi, Punjab means "the nectar of the Gods". Punjab is the richest state in India and it's inhabitants are 56% Sikh. Punjab is also the the bread basket of India.
The train was old but clean. When the train left the station a bearer appeared dressed in clothing which I associate with the British Raj; complete with a turban type hat. He offered us a choice of newspapers in either Hindi or English (the majority of papers are printed in English and many of the Indian's in the train choose the English paper's). Next, a woman appeared and gave each passenger a rose and offered hard candy. Again, as if these two server/bearers took turn taking care of us the man appeared again giving us bottles of mineral water. Later we were offered coffee or tea with biscuits followed by a breakfast of corn flakes served with warm milk which DFO says is the morning cereal norm), omelets, and a side dish of peas, green beans and cheese. This was followed by more tea and coffee. Later we were given apple juice. The breakfast service took about two hours and was really nice and the attempt at offering "first class" was probably very Indian because the food was plated on plastic, and the tray the server's used looked like an old beat up oil pan.
When we arrived in Amristar I was finally in the India I had imagined! It was total chaos: people shouting, constant motion, beggars, Sikh's not only wearing turbans but wearing knifes or small looking sabers belted around their cloaks, men dressed in clothing I had never seen before, men dressed in the dhoti (I associate with pictures of Gandhi when he lead the struggle for India's independence from Britain), women dressed in colorful clothing adorned with sparking appliques that blinded you in the bright sunlight, sounds of horns constantly blowing and voices competing to be heard......it was what I was looking for and here I found it ALONG WITH A TEMPERATURE OF 114 degrees! It made me absolutely delirious with excitement. Doug quickly found us a three wheeled motorized open-air taxi and off we were to our hotel OR at least we thought! The driver stopped and said he could go no further (in retrospect we think he didn't know where the hotel was) and said we needed to get a rickshaw. We were out on the street and Doug quickly found a rickshaw driver to take us the rest of the way. We piled ourselves, my two bags and D's two small pieces of luggage into the rickshaw. We went down streets that were just wide enough for the rickshaw and lined with what once must have been beautiful wooden buildings with carved ornamentation which time and lack of proper maintenance has made look as if they would fall down any minute. The street level floors were occupied by merchant's sitting crossed legged on rope cots and the upper levels were house or apartments. Merchant's of the same kind are lined up on the same streets next to each other.....one street which was particularly interesting to me housed fabric merchants......colors, patterns and all types of fabric made the gray-brown shabbiness of the street dance with life! We did encounter a problem along the way.......along with having a driver who had to walk the rickshaw a great deal of the time (Doug said next time he would be sure NOT to hire an old guy) this driver, also did not know where the hotel was. He stopped twice and asked for directions, the third time Doug got out of the rickshaw and went with him (we were staying across from The Golden Temple....how hard could it have been?} I would like to have complained about the heat but one look at that exhausted, dripping in sweat old man made me resolve not to complain.
Later that afternoon Doug hired a driver and an AC car and we drove to Atari to watch the boarder closing. If you go on YouTube and do a search for Atari Border Ceremony you can see what we saw...........and to think that this happens each night, 365 days a year, even during the heat of the Indian-Pakistan problems it is amazing. The security was very tight..you could not take anything with you, not even a camera case (although cameras were allowed, purses and packs were not). You had to separate into male/female lines and were patted down by Indian soldier's (male/female). Because we were foreigner's we were directed to a V.I.P. seating area to view the ceremony. Before the ceremony started, Indian women and children were allowed to run up and down the street right up to the boarder gate car ring the Indian flag. Music started pouring out of a loud speaker.....it was Bollywood JAI HO sort of music and Indian women, children and a hand full of young western women began dancing.......I felt like I was watching a Bollywood movie.....everyone was smiling, having fun and the several thousand people in the stands were all cheering. This euphoria was enhanced by the 118 degree temperature, I had never seen anything like it. The music stopped and a tall man dressed in western civilian clothes came on to the street with a microphone (he reminded Doug and I of Bernie Botheryod he was tall,looked like him and he had the same commanding voice). He began shouting out things like VICTORY TO MOTHER INDIA and the crowds would repeat it and then he would encourage them to be louder and louder.........all this with a nuclear power, the country's resolved enemy less than fifty yards away. I could have never imagined this sort of nationalism. Being patriotic and proud of your country is one thing but this sort of behavior, which by all appearances was sponsored by or at the very least sanctioned by the military is terrifying. When I came to India I vowed that I would not make any value judgement's...
When we got back to Amristar and the evening cooled down to around 100 degrees we walked to The Golden Temple......hundred of people were sleeping on the cold marble for the evening (Doug and Kristen stayed in a private room there three years ago as guest of the Temple). The temple feeds about 40,000 people regardless of race, creed or color each day at no charge and they do not ask for donations either. We were asked on several occasions where we were from and if it was OK if we were photographed. When we went back to the temple the next morning we were once again asked the same questions. Before going back to the temple we walked over to the site of a massacre (I should remember the date of it, I'm sorry I don't . British soldier's under the command of their general opened fire and over a thousand Indian's were killed. A park is now memorializing the site and India's eternal light is placed in this park. In this somber setting we were asked multiple times to be photographed by young Indian's who obviously like westerner's.

A quick word about Sikhism.......there are approximately 26 millions Sikh's living around the world. In English the word SIKH translates to student or disciples. The basic tenant of Sikhism advocates the pursuit of salvation through disciplines, medication on the name and message of God. Sikh men are easily identified by the turban's covering their hair (which a true believe does not cut), his beard. At the Golden Temple, the holiest site for Sikh's you also see some of the other signs of their religion: the sword or saber worn on their person and a gold, silver or brass bangle bracket which is worn by Sikh men. Sikh's have a reputation for being fierce soldier's and it was two of Indira Gandhi's most loyal Sikh bodyguards who assassinated her. This assassination was a direct reaction to her sending Indian troops and occupying the Golden Temple.


Late in the morning we left via a hired jeep and driver to make the five hour drive to McCloud Ganj. The ride through the Punjah state via car as the day before via train took us through farming areas. We could see sunflowers in the fields, corn (vendors on the streets in Armistar selling corn on the cob and even pop corn),beans and crops that we didn't recognize. It appeared that the larger farms had one tall chimney structure were they fired bricks and all over the landscape you would see thatched beehive looking structured which apparently sheltered dried dung used as fuel.
We did see some chicken farms (large barrack like structures) but other than that the only livestock we saw was on the road......cattle cows, water buffalo. Irrigation trenches were everywhere and in the distance you could see some farmers with tractors (Daddy.....a few Fords) and of course plows being pulled by donkeys and buffalo. Time went by quickly with so much to look at.....then we left Punjab and the landscape and roads began to change. Hinachal Pradesh is the Indian state where McCloud Ganj is located. During the raj, the British established hill stations to escape the summer heat of Delhi and other Indian cities where the English were established. The roads up to these towns are narrow, winding and not for the faint of heart (more about Indian roads/drivers and horns later). I have to admit that I had my eye's closed a great deal of the time and often thought about Kristen's comments about driving in India...."I thought I was going to die".
Doug telephoned Kristen as we left Dharmasala and climbed to McCloud Ganj, she was already at my guest house anxiously awaiting our arrival. When our car pulled up to the Pema Thang there she was...her smile as bright as the sun and happy to see both of us.
My room here at Pema Thang is perfect. The room itself is simple, clean and most importantly for me....has a western toilet and shower. The plus is the balcony which over looks the Kangra Valley, the Dali Lama's Temple and Residence. Above the balcony and projecting out for the next fifty or sixty yards are prayer flags (Lung-Ta, literally meaning wind horse) which flutter in the wind (another SOUND I won't forget) The other sound which I can hear is the monks chanting, a deep throat ed sound....ummmmmmmm. In the distance I can see monks and faithful Buddhist doing the Kora (Circumambulating the temple)and spinning cho-kors (prayer wheels) as they make their way around the temple.
I will write more tomorrow...for the past half hour I have been writing in the dark and I want to post this before the battery on my computer runs out. This is the second night we have had a big lightning and thunder storm and the rain coming down on the tin roof is even louder than the sound of monkeys running on it during the night. The monsoon's are not suppose to begin for several weeks......I wonder if they are starting early?