Ok, so after unrelenting pressure from my fans (Hi, Mom!) I've decided to write a blog about my travels to India. As you might remember, I was pretty funny when I wrote about my travels in Japan. Unfortunately I need to warn you that I'm 3 years older/more mature... which means I have lost much of my humor (also, I'm quite nervous that I won't live up to ya'lls literary expectations). This is where I will document the important memories so that I won't forget them when I get old and sloppy (beta.amyloid.protien?!). Anywayyyy- I hope you enjoy all this.
Here is what's (supposed to be) happening on this trip: Fly from Atlanta & land in Delhi, India. < That is the key step. From Delhi we go to Agra, India to sight-see (Taj Mahal). From Agra, back to Delhi. And from Delhi we depart on a 12-hour drive north to Dharamsala, the home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This is where we will spend the bulk of the trip. There's an illustration below for you curious people.

Oh, Delhi doesn't look like it's 12-hours away from Dharamsala, you say? Good point. I will now introduce an anticipated major theme of the trip: ROAD CONDITIONS. And then comes the work/enlightenment. Here's the website for the group I'm going with and what it's all about: http://www.tibet.emory.edu/scienceandspirituality/ETSI.html So, to sum up that website: His Holiness thinks it is important for his/all Buddhist monks to be educated in science among other topics. Therefore, he has requested that a group of Western thinkers come teach the monks. So, that's that. That's what Dad and I are doing.
At this time I will now give a brief brief brief brief history of the Dalai Lama and Tibet/China/India.
So here he is just chillin' and being thankful. Like I said, this will be brief and in some serious Layman's terms. Brief.

>>The 14th Dalai Lama is like the Pope to the Buddhist people. You know how the Pope is situated in Rome? Well, until 1959 His Holiness was situated in Tibet (which was/is between India and China). In 1959 the Chinese booted His Holiness out of Tibet for fear that he would stir up some religious trouble in their communist state. So, he and thousands of his monks traveled on foot to Dharamsala where they have lived ever since. Now, Tibetans want to be Tibetan but China says that Tibet is just part of China- so everyone is arguing. This is what has influenced several Buddhist monks to set themselves on fire in protest: ( http://caribflyer.com/carib/eighth-tibetan-sets-himself-on-fire-in-southwestern-china/ ) Big Big Conflicttt. Ok, so that's all I really wanna say about this. It's just so complicated and Dad is trying to get me to go to the Verizon Store to get our phones to work in India.
Oh, our flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam is at 5pm. We have 3 hours there, then we fly to Delhi. Dad said that's 20 hours of flying. At least I have banana chips from Whole Foods.
***Update: I will not have a phone in India; Verizon is stingy. Skype/Facebook/Blog/Tumblr/YouTube/Google+/Tweet/hLIgfihkhg me though!***
No comments:
Post a Comment