February 25th, 2009
Wednesday – First Day of Losar
Today is the first day of Losar, the Tibetan New Year. It’s the biggest three days of the year. Most Tibetans consider it their birthday and don’t pay attention to when their birthday really is. My friend, Wobar, from Ladakh says he's 21, but he made that up a few years ago. We think he's actually 24 or 25 but no one actually knows. Its so weird how age-obsessed Americans are when it SO doesn't matter. Losar is usually filled with dancing and drinking and celebrating and prayers and games. It’s the only time that the students here really let loose and stop working. It starts the day before when you turn your house inside-out cleaning and purifying for the new year. Its not at all like the American New Year, where we have one night of partying, one day of hang over, then its back to work on Monday. They really view Losar as the beginning of something new, a real reason to celebrate. The first day is family day where everyone stays home and drinks chang, a Tibetan beer. The second day is going around to peoples houses (at school, houses = dorm rooms), and drinks chang, and the third day is communal celebrations, where everyone gets sloshed with more chang and plays.
Unfortunately, the exiled community has cancelled Losar celebrations in memory of those who died in the March 10th uprisings last year. Last year was the most brutal and violent year in Tibet since HHDL fled in 1959. Thousands were killed, burned alive, arrested and tortured by the Chinese government. The Tibetans wanted to take advantage of the attention China would get during the Beijing Olympic Games to bring their situation to the world’s notice. They started their campaign with the annual protests that have taken place on March 10th since 1959, but last year it turned into a weeklong ordeal with hundreds of protests popping up independently of each other all over Tibet. Canceling the Losar celebrations for this year was an idea originating in Tibet, but the Chinese government has ordered the Tibetans in Tibet to celebrate or be fined – way to be immature, China. The Tibetans in exile have decided to carry out the canceling of the Losar celebrations in respect for those suffering in Tibet. We still have the week off and we still have prayers and offerings (in fact, we woke up at the butt crack of dawn to stuff ourselves into chupas, the traditional Tibetan dress, to go to Pooja, or prayers, this morning) but there are no performances, dancing, or drinking – however I just played volleyball for two and a half hours, had a jam sesh with Tawni and our German friend Lina, and sunbathed on the roof, which is a party enough for me. Instead of chang we drank “appy apple juice” and called it chang.
Fun story time! So 2 and a half hours of volleyball equals some crazy sunburn..but thats not the story. Tawni and I were peppering with a Tibetan monk, who everyone was calling "Rimpoche." All day I was thinking "what an odd name, who names their kid Rimpoche?" Because (in laymen's terms) in Tibetan Buddhism, a Rimpoche is a recognized reincarnated high scholar or Lama (priest) who is usually head of a school or monestary. So, for simplicity, I'd been calling this guy "Rimpi" all day - less of a mouthfull. He and I hung out a lot, played basketball, ate dinner with some mutual friends...and then I find out he's ACTUALLY a Rimpoche (big deal, p.s.). I freak out b/c my new bff is a freaking Rimpoche! Score! He's now tied for first on my favorite monk list. The other #1 is Sakya, an adorable 18-yr-old monk from Bhutan who never fails to giggle uncontrollably as he takes off his robes to play a pick-up game of basketball.
Anyway, back to Losar: originally, we were all pretty bummed we’d be missing out on the real Losar that everyone talks about and gets excited about. But Elinor put it well when she said she respected and was moved that everyone was so willing to give up their only three days of debauchery and fun whereas in America, we look forward to Memorial Day because of the sales. And so, this afternoon, we’re going to go up to Mcleod to hang out with the hunger strikers and meet up with our roommates at their various nunneries.
So apparently, our new Tibetan friends refuse to let us not experience the "real" Losar. It started out as just a few of us on the roof watching the sun set...then someone brought some speakers, then someone else brought a backpack full of whiskey, then our teachers showed up and all the Tibetans freaked out because they are afraid of authority figures...but the teachers obviously didn't care that we were partying, joined in, and everyone relaxed and we ended up playing until 4 in the morning dancing on the roof. Quality. A strapping young man, who happens to be a Tibetan pop star (youtube his breakthrough song, Tenzin Dolma) by the name of Lobsang Delek drunkenly confessed his attraction to me and I got first-hand experience of the sleezy overly-forward Tibetan flirting culture. Next day I found out that everyone was talking about it and I'm automatically his girlfriend...guess I don't really get a say in this one so I'm just gonna go with it.
Tonight I also received my Tibetan name. Tawni was trying to introduce me to one of the Tibetan students, who just couldn’t get my name down. So she said the name “Tsomo” is the closest Tibetan name to “Stacey”. “Tsomo” means Goddess of the Ocean. Lobsung Delek (henceforth referred to as “LD” to distinguish him from the other ten hundred Lobsungs I know), then gave me my second name “Yengchen,” which means Goddess of Music…because, he says, I inspire him. PUKE!
February 26th - Losar Day 2
Woke up and trekked up to Mcleod for an audience with Dema Loche Rimpoche. He told us to study hard and care about what we do and to not be late to lunch at the IBD. Josh, Becky, Elinor, Norsung, Choenyi, Karma-la, Wobar, and I drove into Dharmakot for lunch #2 because they (our Tibetan friends) said that the best pizza in northern India was there….it was ok pizza, I guess.
Becks and I later went back to McLeod and met up with Ani Choezin (my roommate) and her friend Ani Deki, who has tuberculosis…we call her Ani TB-la. She really likes having a nickname. I was sooo happy to see Choezin. She’s been gone all of Losar and next week she’ll be in Delhi with her brother.
That’s two weeks without a roommate! I honestly didn't want to let go of her hand - espeically because it distanced me from all the other Westerners that have shown up in McLeod almost overnight. I've found that I'm racist against other Westerners and nothing makes me more pissed off that someone coming into ANY foreign community without the proper respect or knowledge of what is and isn't acceptable. I saw a girl in a tanktop with her bra straps out and I've never been so offended or felt so incited to violence in my entire life. Its just so easy to judge...I gotta work on that one.
Tonight the party in LD’s room and moved to a dance party in the foreigner’s guesthouse. Love confession #2 came my way from Wobar…awkward. They really love the foreigners. Becky has a new boyfriend also named Lobsung – but her relationship is slightly more two-sided than my own.
February 27th – Losar Day 3
Apparently, only girls were at Pooja this morning. All the men were too hungover.
Not too much happened today except we all decided that we’ve never been more happy or more at peace than when we are here at Sarah. I woke up at the very late hour of 9AM and just chilled all day. I saw LD at lunch today and blatantly ignored him. I really don’t know how to handle this situation. We’re in middle school.
Tonight started out at Pa-la’s (father) room. Pa-la is the (very) old groundskeeper and rides around on a scooter. He feeds the cats that hang around campus and they follow him everywhere. He doesn’t speak a word of English, which is understandable as he only has a few teeth left. Anyway, the third day of Losar is meant for communal celebration to Pa-la invited us all to his house and got us sloshed. He really knows how to throw a party. Our glasses were never empty but seemingly refilled themselves magically of whiskey. We had our first taste of REAL chang which was DELICIOUS and tangy and fruity and surprisingly not very alcoholic. Tawni was impressed by how Becky and I could pound the whiskey – props to sorority life!
Later we met up with our friends, hiked behind school and had a mini-Losar-style bonfire. LD snuggled up next to me and was watching me all night creepy-Bollywood-style. I told him was creeping me out. “What is creepy?” was all I got out of him.
February 28th - Losar Day +1!
A few of us foreigners and some Tibetan friends trekked up to Bhagsunag, a “waterfall” above Mcleod Ganj. As you can see, it was more of a trickle down a
rock than a waterfall – bloody draught, bloody global warming. There was minimal snowfall this year in the Himalayas, snowfall people rely on here for water. Usually the mountains are completely white almost down to Mcleod, or so I’ve been told. But the mountains are still mostly brown. My roommate clicks her tongue in disapproval at them often.
We decided to hike up beyond the waterfall and found a sick little hippie café, called Shiva Café, with a natural swimming pool thing, drums to bang on, and a dijerydoo (sp?). 2 hours later we decided we’d been bum enough so we trekked back down.
Becks and I met up with the Ani-la’s again and went to Lhasa Café for dinner – never again! Becky and I were on the floor in anguish most of the night. Oops. We then accompanied our roommates and the rest of Mcleod on a circumambulation of the temple during a candle light vigil remembering a monk that was shot by Chinese officials today in Tibet during a protest against celebrating Losar. More tongue clicks from Ani-la.
Becky has confessed she wants to bring Lobsang back to the states. I’m obsessed with Rimpoche…I hear he’s a Kague sect monk! That means he can marry!!! Score!
March 7th – Amoebic Dysentery!
So I’ve had the plague the last three days. It was pretty much awesome. A few of us came down with some crazy stomach bug and we had fevers peaking at 102, shakes, and crazy diarrhea - I won’t bore you with the rest of the gory details. Everyone has been great though and really helpful and understanding. More than once I woke up to bottles of water and plates of rice next to me. I quarantined myself in the library where I could lay unmoving underneath the fan for 36 hours straight. It was actually a quite pleasant sickness, all things considered.
Tonight was also the goodbye talent show put on by the Emory students. We had two days to throw together a show for our Tibetan friends and it was STRESSFUL. Probably the most stress I’ve felt since I’ve been here. Some of the girls really wanted to put on an a cappella song (in two days…unheard of) so I threw together a half-done arrangement of Always Be My Baby by Mariah Carey. Everyone picked it up really fast but forgot every note by the time we were on stage. Whatever. It was still fun.
Wednesday – First Day of Losar
Today is the first day of Losar, the Tibetan New Year. It’s the biggest three days of the year. Most Tibetans consider it their birthday and don’t pay attention to when their birthday really is. My friend, Wobar, from Ladakh says he's 21, but he made that up a few years ago. We think he's actually 24 or 25 but no one actually knows. Its so weird how age-obsessed Americans are when it SO doesn't matter. Losar is usually filled with dancing and drinking and celebrating and prayers and games. It’s the only time that the students here really let loose and stop working. It starts the day before when you turn your house inside-out cleaning and purifying for the new year. Its not at all like the American New Year, where we have one night of partying, one day of hang over, then its back to work on Monday. They really view Losar as the beginning of something new, a real reason to celebrate. The first day is family day where everyone stays home and drinks chang, a Tibetan beer. The second day is going around to peoples houses (at school, houses = dorm rooms), and drinks chang, and the third day is communal celebrations, where everyone gets sloshed with more chang and plays.
Unfortunately, the exiled community has cancelled Losar celebrations in memory of those who died in the March 10th uprisings last year. Last year was the most brutal and violent year in Tibet since HHDL fled in 1959. Thousands were killed, burned alive, arrested and tortured by the Chinese government. The Tibetans wanted to take advantage of the attention China would get during the Beijing Olympic Games to bring their situation to the world’s notice. They started their campaign with the annual protests that have taken place on March 10th since 1959, but last year it turned into a weeklong ordeal with hundreds of protests popping up independently of each other all over Tibet. Canceling the Losar celebrations for this year was an idea originating in Tibet, but the Chinese government has ordered the Tibetans in Tibet to celebrate or be fined – way to be immature, China. The Tibetans in exile have decided to carry out the canceling of the Losar celebrations in respect for those suffering in Tibet. We still have the week off and we still have prayers and offerings (in fact, we woke up at the butt crack of dawn to stuff ourselves into chupas, the traditional Tibetan dress, to go to Pooja, or prayers, this morning) but there are no performances, dancing, or drinking – however I just played volleyball for two and a half hours, had a jam sesh with Tawni and our German friend Lina, and sunbathed on the roof, which is a party enough for me. Instead of chang we drank “appy apple juice” and called it chang.
Fun story time! So 2 and a half hours of volleyball equals some crazy sunburn..but thats not the story. Tawni and I were peppering with a Tibetan monk, who everyone was calling "Rimpoche." All day I was thinking "what an odd name, who names their kid Rimpoche?" Because (in laymen's terms) in Tibetan Buddhism, a Rimpoche is a recognized reincarnated high scholar or Lama (priest) who is usually head of a school or monestary. So, for simplicity, I'd been calling this guy "Rimpi" all day - less of a mouthfull. He and I hung out a lot, played basketball, ate dinner with some mutual friends...and then I find out he's ACTUALLY a Rimpoche (big deal, p.s.). I freak out b/c my new bff is a freaking Rimpoche! Score! He's now tied for first on my favorite monk list. The other #1 is Sakya, an adorable 18-yr-old monk from Bhutan who never fails to giggle uncontrollably as he takes off his robes to play a pick-up game of basketball.
Anyway, back to Losar: originally, we were all pretty bummed we’d be missing out on the real Losar that everyone talks about and gets excited about. But Elinor put it well when she said she respected and was moved that everyone was so willing to give up their only three days of debauchery and fun whereas in America, we look forward to Memorial Day because of the sales. And so, this afternoon, we’re going to go up to Mcleod to hang out with the hunger strikers and meet up with our roommates at their various nunneries.
Tonight I also received my Tibetan name. Tawni was trying to introduce me to one of the Tibetan students, who just couldn’t get my name down. So she said the name “Tsomo” is the closest Tibetan name to “Stacey”. “Tsomo” means Goddess of the Ocean. Lobsung Delek (henceforth referred to as “LD” to distinguish him from the other ten hundred Lobsungs I know), then gave me my second name “Yengchen,” which means Goddess of Music…because, he says, I inspire him. PUKE!
February 26th - Losar Day 2
Woke up and trekked up to Mcleod for an audience with Dema Loche Rimpoche. He told us to study hard and care about what we do and to not be late to lunch at the IBD. Josh, Becky, Elinor, Norsung, Choenyi, Karma-la, Wobar, and I drove into Dharmakot for lunch #2 because they (our Tibetan friends) said that the best pizza in northern India was there….it was ok pizza, I guess.
Becks and I later went back to McLeod and met up with Ani Choezin (my roommate) and her friend Ani Deki, who has tuberculosis…we call her Ani TB-la. She really likes having a nickname. I was sooo happy to see Choezin. She’s been gone all of Losar and next week she’ll be in Delhi with her brother.
That’s two weeks without a roommate! I honestly didn't want to let go of her hand - espeically because it distanced me from all the other Westerners that have shown up in McLeod almost overnight. I've found that I'm racist against other Westerners and nothing makes me more pissed off that someone coming into ANY foreign community without the proper respect or knowledge of what is and isn't acceptable. I saw a girl in a tanktop with her bra straps out and I've never been so offended or felt so incited to violence in my entire life. Its just so easy to judge...I gotta work on that one.Tonight the party in LD’s room and moved to a dance party in the foreigner’s guesthouse. Love confession #2 came my way from Wobar…awkward. They really love the foreigners. Becky has a new boyfriend also named Lobsung – but her relationship is slightly more two-sided than my own.
February 27th – Losar Day 3
Apparently, only girls were at Pooja this morning. All the men were too hungover.
Not too much happened today except we all decided that we’ve never been more happy or more at peace than when we are here at Sarah. I woke up at the very late hour of 9AM and just chilled all day. I saw LD at lunch today and blatantly ignored him. I really don’t know how to handle this situation. We’re in middle school.
Tonight started out at Pa-la’s (father) room. Pa-la is the (very) old groundskeeper and rides around on a scooter. He feeds the cats that hang around campus and they follow him everywhere. He doesn’t speak a word of English, which is understandable as he only has a few teeth left. Anyway, the third day of Losar is meant for communal celebration to Pa-la invited us all to his house and got us sloshed. He really knows how to throw a party. Our glasses were never empty but seemingly refilled themselves magically of whiskey. We had our first taste of REAL chang which was DELICIOUS and tangy and fruity and surprisingly not very alcoholic. Tawni was impressed by how Becky and I could pound the whiskey – props to sorority life!
Later we met up with our friends, hiked behind school and had a mini-Losar-style bonfire. LD snuggled up next to me and was watching me all night creepy-Bollywood-style. I told him was creeping me out. “What is creepy?” was all I got out of him.
February 28th - Losar Day +1!
A few of us foreigners and some Tibetan friends trekked up to Bhagsunag, a “waterfall” above Mcleod Ganj. As you can see, it was more of a trickle down a
rock than a waterfall – bloody draught, bloody global warming. There was minimal snowfall this year in the Himalayas, snowfall people rely on here for water. Usually the mountains are completely white almost down to Mcleod, or so I’ve been told. But the mountains are still mostly brown. My roommate clicks her tongue in disapproval at them often.We decided to hike up beyond the waterfall and found a sick little hippie café, called Shiva Café, with a natural swimming pool thing, drums to bang on, and a dijerydoo (sp?). 2 hours later we decided we’d been bum enough so we trekked back down.
Becks and I met up with the Ani-la’s again and went to Lhasa Café for dinner – never again! Becky and I were on the floor in anguish most of the night. Oops. We then accompanied our roommates and the rest of Mcleod on a circumambulation of the temple during a candle light vigil remembering a monk that was shot by Chinese officials today in Tibet during a protest against celebrating Losar. More tongue clicks from Ani-la.
Becky has confessed she wants to bring Lobsang back to the states. I’m obsessed with Rimpoche…I hear he’s a Kague sect monk! That means he can marry!!! Score!
March 7th – Amoebic Dysentery!
So I’ve had the plague the last three days. It was pretty much awesome. A few of us came down with some crazy stomach bug and we had fevers peaking at 102, shakes, and crazy diarrhea - I won’t bore you with the rest of the gory details. Everyone has been great though and really helpful and understanding. More than once I woke up to bottles of water and plates of rice next to me. I quarantined myself in the library where I could lay unmoving underneath the fan for 36 hours straight. It was actually a quite pleasant sickness, all things considered.
Tonight was also the goodbye talent show put on by the Emory students. We had two days to throw together a show for our Tibetan friends and it was STRESSFUL. Probably the most stress I’ve felt since I’ve been here. Some of the girls really wanted to put on an a cappella song (in two days…unheard of) so I threw together a half-done arrangement of Always Be My Baby by Mariah Carey. Everyone picked it up really fast but forgot every note by the time we were on stage. Whatever. It was still fun.
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