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Pilgrimage to India
November 1 - 20, 2007 - 20 Days Ex-New Delhi
During the month of November Drolkar undertook a Pilgrimage to India, one of the holiest and most devout countries in Asia. Despite India being a predominantly Hindu nation, Buddhism is well supported in its country of Origin.
16 of us, including the Venerable Ngawang Tashi from Drolkar joined us on a 20-day adventure through Northern India taking in some of the Buddha’s sacred sites, as well as enjoying some of India’s most famed destinations. Travelling like the locals we immersed ourselves in the country and the culture and for 20-days forgot what it was like to sleep in a soft bed or enjoy a quiet stroll down the street without being asked if we wanted to buy something.
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Delhi was our first destination arriving in the dead of night it was hard to know what to expect as the sun rose on our first day in the capital of this bustling country. Being in India is an assault on the senses in more ways than one and our first day was nothing short of amazing. We journeyed to Old Delhi, dotted with relics of a long almost forgotten past. Towering forts and mosques of red sandstone surrounded crowded streets and bazaars. We visited a Sikh Gurudwara (temple) and enjoyed a samosa (Local pastry filled with curried stuffing) from a roadside vendor. |
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In Delhi we also visited the Tibetan Refugee settlement in the north of the city before boarding our first of four train journeys. We travelled overnight n our air-conditioned sleeper car arriving at the country’s holiest city Varanasi. We stayed in a lovely hotel and enjoyed a busy three days most of it down by the Holy Ganges river. A dawn boat ride and an evening boat ride on the river, watching the magic of the devotees bathing and making offerings was nothing short of spectacular & moving. Truly amazing.
We also took a side trip to Sarnath, the place of the Buddhas first sermon and home to the Tibetan Institute where Tashi La spent 14 years of his life as a student. That was a real highlight having such unfettered access to a beautiful piece of history there at the Institute. We saw some beautiful texts and works of art, some of which had been smuggled from Tibet with the first of the fleeing refuges in 1959.
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Bodhgaya was our next stiop and probably the penultimate stop for most of us. It was here more than 2500 years ago that Siddartha Gautama meditated under a bodhi tree & attained enlightenment. The Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya is teeming with devotees and pilgrims here to pay homage to that event so long ago. We awoke at 5am every morning and made our way to the temple to pray and meditate in the grounds of this powerful place. We certainly were not alone. Bodhgaya was home for 5 nights and the time seemed to disappear quickly. After morning prayers we spent our time visiting local mediation caves, schools that were in desperate need of help, nearby pilgrimage sites of Nalanda and Rajgir, places the Buddha visited during his life, and took the time to enjoy the slow pace before a few days of long travel. |
Leaving Bodhgaya we had a long journey to Agra, home to possibly the most beautiful building in the world, the Taj Mahal. We were lucky not to miss our train due to a horrendous traffic jam but as usual the train was late so it all worked out as planned.
The Taj Mahal is every bit as beautiful as the hype surrounding it suggests, and the place was humming with local tourists who were enjoying their own holidays. Our 5 star hotel in Agra also made for a nice treat before we departed for the mountains. Another overnight train took us to the foothills of the Himalaya and a relatively short 3 hour drive brought us to our final destination, Dharamsala.
Home to Hi Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dharamsala sits in the Himalayas at an altitude of just over 1700metres. It was a bit cooler at night but, like the rest of the trip, the weather could not have been better with bright sunny days a clear crisp nights. Once again we availed ourselves of the special location and arose early every morning to have morning prayers and mediation at His Holiness’ Namgyal Monastery. Following which we would normally walk a kora (holy pilgrimage circuit) with numerous locals around the hillside encircling his residence.
| We visited the Tibetan Children’s Village in Upper Dharamsala and saw how the refugee generation is gaining an education. We also visited the Norbulingka institute for an insight into some of the cultural arts & crafts and how they are being preserved to benefit future generations of both Tibetans and non-Tibetans. During the trip we indulged our senses in many ways. Spiritually we were exposed to numerous faiths and developed our own Buddhist practices, we shopped to our hearts content and ate like kings. We drank more chai (sweet milk tea with spices) than we care to remember and I am sure all of us were challenged at least once during the trip, and probably much more. |
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We returned to Delhi by train (thankfully during the day. I think we’d al had enough of overnight sleeper trains) and had one full day in the capital before departing the capital on a late night flight.
India is a fascinating land that can be beautiful, frustrating, magical, irritating, mesmerising, breathtaking, spectacular, chaotic and charming and all of these emotions can be split between days, or sometimes moments. I look forward to returning soon.
