Summer Vacation Travels: Dharamsala - I get a glimpse of the Dalai Lama!

My first vacation trip. We went to Dharamsala to escape the heat in Delhi. It was supposed to be 115 F which is 45 or 46 degrees Celsius. This is a nice mountain range in Dharmsala, because it is near the Shivalik range which is the lowest range in the Himalayas. I learned that in Social Studies class in school. This was also the view from our hotel

This is our hotel sign. It's called Hotel Pong View. I took this picture because I thought it was funny that the sign was upside down.

Our hotel was also on the side of a mountain.

This is a Buddhist temple in McLeod Ganj, the town near Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama lives.

These are Tibetan prayer wheels outside the temple. You spin them with your hands. Each spin is like saying a prayer.

  

Inside the temple is a stupa, which looks like a teapot.

On the top of the temple is a statue of Buddha.

He's holding a bowl.

All around the Buddha were tiny bowls full of oil, known as tel in Hindi

We met a Buddhist monk at the top, and he said we could see the Dalai Lama the next morning. He was giving a talk at a local school.

These are tiny clay statues of Buddha. This woman was making them in the temple.

Here she's painting the statues.

This is a dragon on the side of the temple.

This is a guy selling cotton candy. Here they call it candy floss.

This is a giant prayer wheel. It has a bar on the side of it which hits two large bells hanging from the ceiling when you spin it. They ding really loudly.

After, we had lunch across the street. I had sweet chicken corn soup with bones in it. "Yuck!"

This is Victor mama showing his face and being rich.

We took our first walk, which was awesome. We walked almost 3 kilometers downhill and then 3 kilometers back up.

This was Tibetan secretariat that we went to. This is one of the buildings. The government from Tibet is now in India.

This is a temple with Buddha in the center He is very popular because Tibet has a lot of Buddhism

This is a monk sitting behind large Tibetan horns. He was praying but I asked him if I could take a picture of him and he said yes.

  

This is the butter house where they put the oil in the lamps.

The next day, we went to the second largest Buddhist temple in the world. It is where the Dalai Lama goes. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside. But outside is a museum and statue. The statue commemorates the self-immolation of Tibetans because China took over and they are protesting.

This is Victormama's picture of one of the stalls selling conch horns and tea pots.

The next morning we got up really early to try to see the Dalai Lama. These are the kids lined up to welcome the Dalai Lama as he enters the school.

Here are some of the child monks goofing around while waiting.

In the window of the car (top right hand corner of the window), you can see the nose and head and hands of the Dalai Lama.

Under the left side of the red umbrella you can sort of see him. His neck is yellow and the top of his head is covered in shadow.

This is me and mommy standing on the walking path down the mountain from where we saw the Dalai Lama. We hiked 5 kilometers back to town.

This is a goal eating leaves off of the wall.

That afternoon we walked another 3 kilometers to this waterfall. This is me standing right in front of it.

 

On the way, there was a Shiva temple. From the temple we saw a pool. This is me with my sacred thread coming out of the pool. The water for the pool came from the stream from the waterfall. It was freezing!

This is Victormama and me in a Tibetan restaurant.

So, in the beginning of this trip, we went to a hotel in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, and mommy found out about this really awesome shampoo called Sunsilk, Jasmine and Reetha. Unfortunately, they don't have it in bottles and only in tiny packets. Even more unfortunately, they don't really have them in Delhi. Later on in the trip, when Victor mama came to visit on his summer holidays and for my Janeo, our first trip was to Dharamsala. In the hotel, there were packets of the Sunsilk shampoo. Victormama felt the awesomeness of the shampoo and wanted to find them. Fortunately, they had the packets in Dharamsala, and we sort of "pigged out" on them. We ended up with 750 packets of Sunsilk shampoo. This is a picture of him buying about 400 packets at this one shop.

Here are about half of the shampoo packets. I'm laying on them because they feel nice.

My Brahmin Ceremony: Watch My Head Get Shaved!!!!

This is the ceremony part of my Janeo. This is the puja. I felt like a grown up during my Janeo, and later as well.

This is me playing with a leaf, daddy sitting there, and mommy in a weird red scarf that was from her wedding.

In the puja, we had to do certain things. One of them was holding rice.

We also had to wear the sacred thread. This is daddy tying my sacred thread around my wrist.

Daddy is currently holding rice and I am holding his wrist while the priests reads Hindi prayers.

This is daddy tying my saffron dhoti around to see if it fits for the later activity, which is exiting.

There are also many tools recommended for this ceremony - p.s. we only used two sticks and a wooden yoke.

For my future, I will have to wear this sacred string around my shoulder and under my arm and all the way back around.

This is me doing the namaste to the god.

Right now, I will do the exciting activity - beg! I have to wear a saffron colored dhoti (piece of cloth), and another dhoti around my neck and drooping down both arms. You'll see it in the later pictures.

This is Santosh cha-cha putting the sacred thread holding up the sacred thread to put on my body.

I am presently wearing the string.

This is daddy tying my dhoti.

I'm now doing puja, and I gave flowers and rice to the priest to put next to the god (a.k.a. bhagwanji in Hindi)

Now this is me with my sacred stick, my saffron dhoti around my neck and arm, and my dhoti for pants, and my sacred thread and a begging pot.

This is me holding my pot making an awesome Indian face.

I have to say "Bikshan dehi" which means I'm begging, please give. People give money to me in my pot.

I am having a stick and a pot with a very serious look in my eyes.

This stick is actually a bow.

This is me holding out my pot for tons of money.

Now they will start the fire puja.

This is Sheila Phua giving me some food.

This is the barber who will be shaving my head. I was not scared, actually.

This is a tiny slit he's cut in my hair (not my head)

This is the half point of my head shaving.

Now it's almost done, but I have an annoyed look on my face.

Finishing touches

They actually left a small pony tail p.s. they shave it completely off a little later

The women gave me some laddu, an Indian sweet, mixed with yogurt to eat.

This is Guddu cha-cha showing me a picture of what I look like with my head shaved

This is me touching my bald head for the first time! It felt spiky!!

This is mommy seeing me for the first time with no hair!

This is me sitting next to the puja fire with my bald head.

Now everyone is showering marigold flowers on me, and I'm wearing a marigold garland.

Now the women are rubbing yogurt all over my head. Boy, did it feel cool!

Now it's time for the bath!

This is Muna cha-cha and Sheila Phua giving me my first bath.

After the bath, the women are giving me more plain laddu to eat.

This is one of the priests giving me laddu too!

I look half American and half Indian with my San Francisco cap and my Indian kurta pajama!

Now another blessing with rice

This is some of the family in a group picture

After the temple we had a big lunch in a restaurant called Candle Light.

This is Kullu, me, Santosh cha-cha and daddy in a group photo.