Dharamshala Arrival

I went to India and Nepal for the first time on a Buddhist pilgrimage led by Shantum Seth in 2007. The following is from my 2008 trip, about a year later.

Entrance to our room

During our drive through the mountains or rather Himalayan foothills, Shantum’s car had a flat tire, so we pulled over on the left, in front of what I guess was an auto repair shop. We had to wait for a bit. I wasn’t bored. Some boys out front were attempting to fix a bicycle. We probably made some jokes I neglected to write down. While we waited and chatted in the car, a couple of Hindu guys walked by along the right side of the street. They were dressed identically in white kurtas and dhotis and bright blue Sikh turbans, and they had identical bushy beards. Jamie commented on them; maybe they were brothers.

After this interlude, we rode up and up and up. We passed, of all things, an amusement park under construction. The U. S. doesn’t seem like a fabulous influence on other parts of the world; you know, malls, guns, nuclear weapons. But I digress.

The amusement park is for tourists visiting Dharamshala, although it’s hard to believe that people interested in Dharamshala would seek an amusement park; they’ve never amused me. Furthermore, this amusement park doesn’t improve the scenery. Did the Dalai Lama approve of this? Who knows? Maybe the park will include a haunted house shaped like a mandala with…