Volunteering in Daramsala, part four

My final post on the volunteer work I was doing in Daramsala. I was there for just over two months total, not so long, but long enough to get a few things done. My work at Lha culminated in running a workshop which was very successful and will hopefully continue to build some expertise in the Tibetan community in India. It was the second Joomla course in McLeod Ganj and everyone from the first course is currently using the system to manage fairly sophisticated websites. I’ve only done a little teaching in the past but this class was a dream to teach, the students unbelievably keen and motivated, and friendly to boot. I think that most of the foreign teachers who volunteer in the Tibetan community find that too. 

As an IT professional I think that there are a lot of opportunities to make a little difference in the world these days, as helping with websites and systems helps spread information and education, two of the most important things for many causes, and especially so for diaspora communities like the Tibetans. Free (open-source) software makes this very cheap for the organisations too. I didn’t choose the Joomla web content management system; it was already being used by several NGOs in Daramsala/McLeod Ganj. But it is quite impressive. Much quicker and easier to use than commercial products I’ve worked with and with a lot of features. And free! Great.  

It was sad to leave McLeod. I’d made good friends there and got to like the place. It is a very touristy town and on arrival feels like there’s nothing to do except eat, but there is more to it than that. A good mix of Tibetans, Indians and Westerners, good vibes, things going on often enough and a good amount of nothingness is part of its appeal. Was getting a bit cold as winter came though.

These pics are all from the hills nearby: 

Volunteering in Daramsala, part three

Another few weeks of volunteering/working in Daramsala have gone by. I won’t bore you too much with the details, like I would never write about ‘real’ work in the ‘real’ world. I’ve installed this, upgraded that, found a new component for X, explained how Y works, fixed something else, blah blah blah. Almost all with the joomla and joomfish web content management and translation management systems. I’ve been working with a number of different organisations, lately a lot more with The Tibet Express newspaper and some other new sites.

Far more interesting have been some short trips around Daramsala. First up, Amritsar! Home of the Golden Temple, that most sacred site in Sikhism. Here it is, and it appears to be making me contemplative:

The temple is beautiful and very impressive. But far more impressive for me were the logistics of the whole operation there. There is a free (well, by donation) kitchen running 24×7, free (by donation) accommodation for any and every pilgrim and tourist who turns up there, and despite all the hustle and bustle everything is efficient and of a good standard. Everyone is friendly and hospitable too and sitting in the communal dining room or tea-drinking area it is impossible not to make friends. Often more than enough friends, like many places in India. Here are a few:

Near Amritsar is the famous Attari-Wagah border with Pakistan. There’s a border closing ceremony every evening in which the two countries try and scare each other by marching around, kicking higher than their own heads, and generally being boisterous in front of cricket-style cheering crowds. Drinks and popcorn etc are on sale and its a great laugh. Just the kind of organised madness that I enjoy. No photos from me but you can check out Dan’s from the Pakistan side a few months back.

Not far from Daramsala is the Norbilinka Institute. It is a place in which the exile Tibetans try and preserve their artistic culture, something that’s not possible freely in Tibet and wasn’t possible at all for a long time. My colleague Marco and I got lost on the way there which provided a great opportunity to wander through the beautiful countryside:

And watch some good old-fashioned ploughing:

The Norbilingka Institute itself is amazing. Everything is perfect there. Beautiful art, a big brand new temple, everything bright and shiny and clean. There’s a shop with lots of very nice handicrafts and wall-hangings and woodworking and all sorts of beautiful stuff, all of much higher quality than the mass-produced souvenirs sold on the streets of McLeod Ganj (less affordable though). It is a breath of fresh air, almost literally, compared to much of India and if I were sticking round for longer somewhere I’d definitely return to. Highly recommended. Here are a few photos:

Thanks Marco for all these photos. I can’t finish without just a little politics… One of the major challenges for the Tibetan movement is to raise awareness of their plight in the west. The presumption behind this is that if people knew what was going on there they’d care and maybe do something about it. I guess we must all hope that’s true, that those of us from the western world have retained enough humanity and compassion in our busy capitalist lives to still care for others… anyway, one very simple way to raise awareness is through the Raise Tibetan Flags Campaign. If anyone’s interested I can bring a flag back to NZ for you, just send me an email in the next week or so. Cost approx NZ$8 each. That is all. Peace.

Volunteering in Daramsala, part two

Kia ora. One Sunday last month I hired a taxi with three Scottish friends for the day and went to visit Kangra fort and other nearby attractions. Kangra fort is a castle near Kangra town, not too far from Daramsala. The Scots were less impressed by the fort than I was, since they probably all have castles in their backyards, but we all agreed on the fun to be had exploring the surrounding jungle. We came across some ruins and monkeys and a spider bigger than my hand.

Ruin outside Kangra Fort

Me!

Jungle

Ruin in jungle (look closely, it is like a giant bath but all overgrown). Also outside Kangra Fort.

Next stop was… I can’t remember its name. But it was a big, old (13th Century?) ruined temple somewhere nearby. All carved in sandstone and looking quite out of place in the surrounding jungle and hills, but impressive nonetheless.

The nameless next place

… in detail

Anyway, work. You know how when you start a new job you’re all enthusiastic, everything seems great, you can see all the things you’ll do and you’ll change, fast progress you initially make, etc, etc. Then a few weeks later, you start to get disillusioned: you’re doing less really important things than you expected, things go slower, there are other problems and delays, the novelty wears off, etc, etc. Well, it seems that that happens with volunteer/NGO work too. I’m still glad to be here, and still doing useful things, but already it is not as exciting as before. One frustrating thing has been a delay to the workshop I’m (hopefully) going to be teaching, but it is delayed for a very good reason and I can’t really argue that WCMS is more important for the Tibetan community than the China issue…

There is another round of Sino-Tibetan talks coming up soon, and some debate in the Tibetan community on what their long term goal should be. Since the invasion and occupation of 1949 the Dalai Lama has been working on a ‘Middle Path’ strategy, even acquiescing to a lot of Chinese policy and rule in the hope of saving the Tibetan culture before it is entirely overrun and destroyed. To this end he hasn’t been asking for freedom for a long time, although it is probably what the bulk of Tibetans want. So now he has made a vow of silence while a special meeting of the Tibetan community in India takes place to decide what they – the whole Tibetan exile community – want to do, before the talks with the Chinese take place. I certainly don’t have any insider info or anything, but rangzen, independence, seems to be back on the cards. There’s an interesting argument for it here on phayul.com. What matters for me personally is that while these talks are taking place there are less people around and interested in their websites.

Working here so far has provided a few novel problems that I wouldn’t get elsewhere. A lot of what I’m doing is setting up systems for the NGOs to manage their multilingual websites. Many want to publish in English and Tibetan, and sometimes in Chinese too. The product I’m using is called joomfish and by default shows the various languages available on a site by showing a small flag icon, you know, the Union Jack for English, tricolour for French, whatever. So I created a small Tibetan flag icon to designate the Tibetan language editions of websites, but had to remove it immediately because anyone unlucky enough to view that image in Tibet or China would be breaking the law, since the image of the Tibetan flag is illegal in China and its colonies. We replaced it with text saying ‘Tibetan’ in Tibetan instead. I since found out that most of the sites I’m working on are blocked by the great firewall of China anyway, so it probably wasn’t really an issue, but still, I never came across anything like that in Wellington/Sydney/London!

For a blog on the whole China-Tibet situation from another volunteer here in Mcleod Ganj, check out Letters to the West.

Volunteering in Daramsala, part 1

McLeod Gang is home to the Tibetan government-in-exile. It is also home to large numbers of Tibetan refugees, and is the home of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The refugees and community is not as you might picture it, having been here for some time now and being fairly established, and not destitute thanks to the generosity of the Indian government, their own work, and international aid.

I arrived in Daramsala planning to spend a few days, attend the Dalai Lama’s teachings, and do another meditation course, and generally be a normal tourist and see something of Tibet and the Tibetan government and community in exile. Plans are there to be changed however, and now I find myself living here. I’ve even bought a little appliance to boil water and make tea. How domestic. So much for claims of owning nothing! (which like much of this blog, was something of an exaggeration. Apologies. (But the calculations of that post still stand.)) I work through an organisation called Lha, largely helping with their Web Content Management System (WCMS) called Joomla, and some other bits and pieces like fixing internet connections, understanding MS Excel, practising English conversation, etc. The WCMS stuff is with a number of Tibetan associations and NGOs here, not just Lha.

Some years ago I was looking for volunteer opportunities but googling revealed little that you didn’t have to pay extortionate fees for. Talking to people who had done volunteer work all round the world I got pretty cynical about it – most cases it seemed to be to make the volunteer feel good rather than helping solve the world’s myriad problems – or people complained of corruption and other problems. It is complicated too, what is actually doing long-term good and what is not… So in the end I did nothing constructive for a long time. However the opportunity here is something in which I could help immediately, I am not a burden in any way since I’m accommodating, feeding myself, etc, and in a very small way is helping save Tibet and their culture. I’m not going to convince you here (this time at least) of the worth of this issue, there are plenty of resources out there, but suffice to say it is a real life-and-death issue for many many people and not just some fashionable cause célèbre.

As well as helping some people who need it, I also enjoy it here. I avoid thinking about the traveling I’m not doing, but enjoy the work most of the time. McLeod Ganj is a tourist town but the mixture of Tibetans, Indians and foriegners is a nice one and the vibe is good. I live in a village called Gamru where I rent a room in an Indian family’s house and am getting a close-up of normal life here. I do yoga in the mornings, read a lot, work 6-7 hours a day, hang out in traveler cafes, tell myself to practise meditation more but mostly procrastinate, make friends and lose them again when they leave town, and walk in the Himalayan foothills in the weekends. A good life.

PS. McLoed Ganj village is just above the town of Daramsala and the two names seems to be used interchangeably… sorry for any confusion…

Volunteering in Daramsala, part 1

McLeod Gang is home to the Tibetan government-in-exile. It is also home to large numbers of Tibetan refugees, and is the home of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The refugees and community is not as you might picture it, having been here for some time now and being fairly established, and not destitute thanks to the generosity of the Indian government, their own work, and international aid.

I arrived in Daramsala planning to spend a few days, attend the Dalai Lama’s teachings, and do another meditation course, and generally be a normal tourist and see something of Tibet and the Tibetan government and community in exile. Plans are there to be changed however, and now I find myself living here. I’ve even bought a little appliance to boil water and make tea. How domestic. So much for claims of owning nothing! (which like much of this blog, was something of an exaggeration. Apologies. (But the calculations of that post still stand.)) I work through an organisation called Lha, largely helping with their Web Content Management System (WCMS) called Joomla, and some other bits and pieces like fixing internet connections, understanding MS Excel, practising English conversation, etc. The WCMS stuff is with a number of Tibetan associations and NGOs here, not just Lha.

Some years ago I was looking for volunteer opportunities but googling revealed little that you didn’t have to pay extortionate fees for. Talking to people who had done volunteer work all round the world I got pretty cynical about it – most cases it seemed to be to make the volunteer feel good rather than helping solve the world’s myriad problems – or people complained of corruption and other problems. It is complicated too, what is actually doing long-term good and what is not… So in the end I did nothing constructive for a long time. However the opportunity here is something in which I could help immediately, I am not a burden in any way since I’m accommodating, feeding myself, etc, and in a very small way is helping save Tibet and their culture. I’m not going to convince you here (this time at least) of the worth of this issue, there are plenty of resources out there, but suffice to say it is a real life-and-death issue for many many people and not just some fashionable cause célèbre.

As well as helping some people who need it, I also enjoy it here. I avoid thinking about the traveling I’m not doing, but enjoy the work most of the time. McLeod Ganj is a tourist town but the mixture of Tibetans, Indians and foriegners is a nice one and the vibe is good. I live in a village called Gamru where I rent a room in an Indian family’s house and am getting a close-up of normal life here. I do yoga in the mornings, read a lot, work 6-7 hours a day, hang out in traveler cafes, tell myself to practise meditation more but mostly procrastinate, make friends and lose them again when they leave town, and walk in the Himalayan foothills in the weekends. A good life.

PS. McLoed Ganj village is just above the town of Daramsala and the two names seems to be used interchangeably… sorry for any confusion…