Monday 16th April

Today we had the enormous privilege of attending a public audience given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Tibetan Buddhist Temple.

We had already pre-registered but still had to join queues of people to get to the inner sanctum where he would come and speak to us all. It was entirely for ‘foreign’ or international people rather than Tibetans.

There was strict security and no phones or cameras allowed. We were properly searched before going in! Once inside the canopied temple area, we were marshalled into different nationality groups. This was so the Dalai Lama could be photographed in front of each of them for Tibetan promotional PR purposes.

When he emerged from his inner sanctum, diminutive and beaming in his red robes, he was gently moved around the groups by his entourage. Although stooping slightly, for his 83 years he had a sprightly air of amusement about him and was quick to build rapport with people and crack jokes.

For the brief report on what he said go to

http://tibet.net and look for Monday 16th April.

Amusingly, if you go to the fifth photo down, you will just make us out standing at the back with the European contingent. Jeremy is in the white shirt and I am three people to his left. Otherwise see below!!

He then sat on a dais and spoke to us all. It was difficult at times to tune into his speech pattern and his accent, but everyone listened intently.

While he spoke, the heavens opened and beat down on the canopy roof. It felt pretty cold.

However, his words had a warming ring of truth about them.

He spoke about compassion, self confidence and the need to get away from destructive emotions such as anger and hatred. Do please click on the link briefly to read a decent summary. I loved his straight talking. He turned to the Indian contingent and said he was not impressed with the caste system!! Amongst many other things he said

• Our brains are all the same irrespective of skin colour.
• There are no barriers between children. Our education starts to create division.
• We need to cultivate inner peace through the discipline of meditation which will build self confidence and reduces aggression
• Violence is born of fear and possessiveness

Afterwards we repaired to a cafe to shelter from the rain and spent a happy two hours doing nothing at all apart from watching the world go by.

McLeodganj was full of visitors, naturally, making it feel cramped and touristy. But later the crowds subsided and we had a gentle wander down Temple Street looking at the many stalls.

Pashminas, woolly hats, socks, momos, you name it. Everything and anything was available to buy. We passed a few prayer wheels too.

A sleeping dog was chilling out big time in the sun,

next to this stall holder.

The tuktuks and cars were all still shoving their way through, making progress slightly hazardous, so it was a relief to escape.

We cabbed it up to Daramkot and then walked up the raggedy road for the last 50 mins home. We then drank copious quantities of lemon ginger tea on the Point. I felt quite broken down after it all but also reconstructed in some curious way. Much to think on certainly!