McLeod Ganj, home of the exiled Tibetan Government

From Amritsar, we took a 6 hour bus north to McLeod Ganj. During the six hours we moved from the smotheringly hot desert to the cool, green mountains and streams of the Himalayan foothills. All of a sudden we were up in the clouds, wrapping ourselves in beautiful kashmiri shawls, and enjoying the relief of the drizzling rains.





McLeod Ganj is the home of the exiled Tibetan government. We happened to be there on the day the Dalai Lama was arriving home. We stood on the side of the road with the many Tibetans of McLeod Ganj and bowed to welcome His Holiness as he drove down the street to his house. All he did was drive by, smiling, with his hands held up in a blessing, yet it was amazing how much compassion we felt emanating from him even in those few seconds.








Two Tibetan women waiting to greet the Dalai Lama. This also happened to be the last day of the Olympics and so the Tibetans had organized a large rally and march to protest the Chinese occupation of their country.





Tibetan monks at the rally. Three women spoke, all of whom had spent multiple years imprisoned in China for peaceful resistance to the occupation.



The city was full of protest signs:

McLeod Ganj is an interesting city, because although it is in India, the population seems to consist almost entirely of Tibetan refugees, foreign tourists, and the Kashmiris who own the tourist shops.

We can't help that Kashmiris are really good salespeople. When a disconcerting number of the shopkeepers knew us by name by the time we left we started to worry . . .

Signs like this are essential symbols of seriously touristy areas.

The view from our guest house.

Another view.

And another.

While in McLeod Ganj, we hung out with a wonderful crew of friends: Jackie (a Social Work major at NYU who is originally from the Bay Area) and her boyfriend Paul (who is originally from Great Britain; he is in the navy blue t-shirt). We also ran into Lee, a former IHS student from South Eugene Highschool. What a small world!

On our second night in McLeod Ganj, we realized at about 10pm that the Lord Krishna's birthday was that night at midnight. We wanted to celebrate but, given the Buddhist nature of McLeod Ganj, we happened to be in what is probably one of few cities in India not having a big celebration. We had to make plans fast. We asked around, found a very kind Hindu shopkeeper, gathered a crew and took a taxi to the nearby city of Dharamsala. And then we celebrated Baby Krishna's birth like nobody's business. Above, Alisa (in blue) dances to the beautiful Hari Krishna tunes being played by the live band. The temple and the street outside were absolutely packed with families waiting for the clock to strike midnight.

At the exact stroke of midnight the real live baby Krishna was brought into the temple! We had no idea it was going to be a real baby. He was so cute! They laid him in a cradle and all the Hindu families waited in line to rock the little lord Krishna. The little children were particularly excited and crowded around to get a closer look. After a few prayers, more music was played, women and children danced, and the priests even threw candy into the crowd!

As the festivities died down, baby Krishna's father came to meet us and let Tessa hold Lord Krishna! Tessa felt really special.

The priest is holding the sleeping baby Krishna next to statues of the adult Krishna and his wife Rada.