Tibet, Education, Cricket

This has been a busy week! On Monday, we went to hear an official from the Tibetan-Government-In-Exile speak about the "Middle Way" approach the Dalai Lama advocates. It was really interesting! The official, who is in charge of International Relations, gave us a history of the conflict between Tibet and China, which goes back to the Communist Revolution in China. The Chinese communists, in their fervor to "liberate" other cultures, invaded Tibet and made that country part of Communist China. I could go on... the Chinese government promised autonomy for Tibet but then interfered with the monasteries and placed many restrictions on Tibetans. The Dalai Lama and his officials fled to India, where they set up the government in exile, making many reforms to the Tibetan government in the process. The rest of the story is really about how Tibet has tried to negotiate with China so that the Dalai Lama and his government can return. The Tibetan government wants, not to be an independent country, but to be what it was originally promised: an autonomous body in China. Things improved for Tibetans in the 70s and 80s, when people were able to come and go more freely and monks were restored to monasteries, but now it is more difficult again for Tibetans in Tibet and outside Tibet to communicate with one another. One of the things that seems so frustrating is that Tibet and China have totally opposite perspectives, and even though the proposal the Dalai Lama gave to China last year stated point by point how their middle way proposal adhered to the original treaty (that China violated), the Chinese government rejected the proposal as "illegal" and as independence-in-disguise. One good thing that is happening is that the Tibetan arts and learning are being kept alive in Dharamsala and other areas of India. So, John, if you are reading this--I'm right about Tibet :-)


On Wednesday, we had the head of a local school, Father Joseph, come to the homebase to lecture on the history of education in India. Again, very interesting. He is a Carmelite (sp?) priest who has set up a very successful school here in Palampur. It has computer labs and physics labs, et cetera, and his students go on to become doctors and engineers. Much different from the schools where we are volunteering, where we are lucky to have chalk for the chalk board. He told us how the ancient Indian education system revolved around memorizing orally transmitted knowledge--and this knowledge all came from ancient Indian religious and philosophical texts (I won't attempt to spell the name). The education system was based on caste, unfortunately (only the two upper castes were able to go to gurus for knowledge, while the lower castes learned trades), but it was egalitarian regarding boys and girls--either could seek out a guru and become learned. It was when British rule came that the education system really changed--and from what we learned, not for the better, because the British system of teaching English and administration didn't take into consideration traditional village schools and other cultural differences--the system seems to have been basically to train Indians to work in the British administration. Ghandi was particularly critical of the newer methods of education, which left many children without any education at all because it was expensive and because traditional schools had to close because you couldn't advance in society any longer with a traditional education. I'm really simplifying what I learned from the lecture, but what it boils down to is that the education system in India is very complicated and even more so because of the post-colonial issues.



On a less serious note, after the lecture, I played cricket for the first time. It's a really fun game! Why hasn't it caught on the U.S.?



We also had tandoori food for supper because it was the last night for three of the volunteers, and the cook always makes tandoori for the farewell dinner. The tandoori oven is this tall cylindrical thing that sits outside and is heated in the bottom with coals. Chicken, paneer, and veggies are cooked on rods, and naan is cooked by slapping the dough (while holding a pot holder) to the sides (inside). The cook very kindly let some of us try putting in the naan. It is really, really hot inside a tandoori oven! My new favorite foods: tandoori-cooked naan and paneer (cheese).



More later!