McLEOD GANJ & TIBET EXILE

As with anywhere, fair or foul, it takes a hile to begin to get under the surface of what’s really going on in McLeod Ganj. Beneath the hippie veneer and the natural beauty, the reasons why people find themselves heading to this obscure corner of a small North Indian state are all to do with politics.

Tibet is omnipresent here, both as an ethnic and cultural presence, and political issue. The staple food is the momo, a dumpling eaten either steamed or fried, on their own or in soup. Chow mein is more common than Biriyani. Chopsticks are standard. Faces are more Asiatic. Women wear striped Tibetan skirts and everyone wears blankets made from yak wool. Tourists and locals alike wander around in Free Tibet tracksuit tops (a big seller), badges and T-Shirts. And whilst in McLeod, the Tibetan and Indian communities appear to live in harmony, the artist Anil Raina, in the Kangra museum in Dharamsala, suggested that immigration was becoming a problem. It wouldn’t be surprising to find resentment when Tibetan culture overwhelms the indigenous to such an extent that local traditions become under-valued as the travelling world pays homage to the Dalai Lama.

However, there’s a reason why the Tibetans are here, a reason which a visit to the Temple’s museum forcibly brings home. Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959, its culture has been systematically persecuted and degraded. Beyond the physical damage to sacred sites and the country’s most ancient monuments, the country has also been subjected to the kind of ethnic cleansing or engineering which was seen to be so abhorrent in a fractured Yugoslavia. Whilst untold numbers of Chinese have been shipped in by the Chinese state, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been forced to flee, risking their lives on mountain passes in order to find sanctuary in India or Nepal.

Tibet seems a long way away, meaning that the full extent of the Chinese hatchet job tends to get lost in the fog of global politics. One of the first things the student Lamu asked me was what I made of Obama’s recent pronouncement which she understood to be implying that Tibet is ‘part of China’. Her disappointment with the new president was acute. The mellow tones of the Dalai Lama himself, his genial image radiating compassion and peace, perhaps doesn’t help in the presentation of the full facts to the world. If he seems so genial, then what’s the problem?

However, the facts paint a stark picture. Since the invasion, up to 80% of Tibet’s ancient monasteries have been demolished. Children in school are taught in Chinese rather than Tibetan, and compelled to wear traditional Chinese clothes rather than their own. Ordinary people live in fear of arrest or torture, and political persecution is an everyday occurrence.

All of which contributes to making McLeod Ganj so distinctive. It’s a political island where Tibetans can express their feelings, something prohibited back home. This is done in a gentle, Buddhist, non-aggressive manner. The exiles’ tools to promote change include the soft-sell marketing and good vibes which attract people to the town. In this retreat, their message is clearly put across, and it’s a surprisingly optimistic one. Tibet survives, and will continue to do so. In time the wheel of fortune will turn, the exiles will return back across the mountains, and Tibet shall be free once more.