Filling in the blanks

I guess the photos give away what comes next, but I thought I'd try for an intermission since I feel like I'm writing an essay. I'm reading a book by a Professor of Vedic Studies, written in the 19th century. It's a collection of lectures he gave at Cambridge to a group of students who were soon to graduate and fill positions of rulership and administration in the British colony of India. It's a fascinating peak into the minds of the British at the time. For example, he simply takes it for granted that the reader assumes all Indians to be immoral, backward people and never hopes to try and convince anybody otherwise, but only to try and persuade the students that there are some positive aspects to Indian culture, etc. Anyway, the reason that I mention it is that I think the super-formal, lecture style writing of this book has seeped into my own writing. I spent the intermission trying to break out of it, but I apologize if I didn't quite kick it. I'm trying!

In Bodhgaya, too, I was soon on intermission. The Dalai Lama was due to be in town for a five-day series of teachings. I wanted to stick around for the his arrival but the price of a room in town had begun to skyrocket so I took a quick trip back to the mountains then came back for the last few days of the DL's talks -- including a special audience for Westerns, spoken in English. The contrast between seeing him here and trying to see him in Berkeley but being kept on the other side of a wall by security (and forced to pace, not stand and listen) was absolutely astounding. In a security guard's worst nightmare, after a special address given in English for the Western attendees, he invited people to come up to the stage for a souvenir group photo in which I stood some fifteen feet from him. Tragically, I didnt have my camera with me.

First on my Bodhgaya interlude was a stop Darjeeling and then I was quickly off to the tiny state of Sikkim, wedged between Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal. You need a special permit to go there (luckily, free) so the culture has remained notably distinct from the rest of India. The dominant language is Nepali, the culture is heavily Nepali/Tibetan influenced and the people even look more Mongolian and Tibetan than Indian. All in all, I felt more like I was back in Nepal than anywhere in India and I was glad for the break. Back in the cold. But it's easy to bear the cold when returning to the beautiful and mellow Himalaya.

I'll leave off there since this has gotten so wordy. I'll try and reply to the few individual emails that I have. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond -- I haven't been able to email anybody, partly because finding internet has been such a bear and partly because I've spent what time I was able to get online filling out different applications and trying to rebuild a two-year-old resume for a deadline that only passed two days ago. Maybe I'll write about it later. For now I just feel like I'm in grave danger of some serious rambling and side-tracking!

If you're interested you can see thirty-some beautiful photos of the teachings that I attended by the Dalai Lama in Bodhgaya at http://dalailama.com/gallery/album/0/34