Post-Tushita Musings

While Australia has venomous snakes and deadly spiders, Dharamasala has scorpions. I've only seen two so far, one small, the size of a dime on a window sill, the other larger, the size of a fifty cent piece squished on the road. There's also a lot of monkeys. Alison was nearly attacked by one of the fearless red ones the day we moved down the mountain. They're so cheeky, they'll take food your eating right out of your hand if you're not careful. WE saw a couple of the more peaceful black lemurs at Tushita as well. The nearly human sized lemurs are even bigger than the red dog sized monkeys. I liked to eat my meals at Tushita out on the patio watching the monkeys and gazing at the distant snow capped mountains.
The other day we wandered down to the Dalai Lama's residence. We couldn't find him, but the temples were neat. Such intricate paintings and so many food offerings, you'd think the Tibetans were Idolaters. It really is strange the emphasis they put on images of the Buddha, but that may well be our Western minds having difficulty seeing that the material Buddha can not be separated from the ideals of Buddhism, if that makes any sense. We had a great walnut tomato pizza at the cafe there and got down to the museum, too, which was informative about the Chinese occupation and thus depressing. If there is anything we can do as free people for the world its to not but products made in China.
The little old married Tibetan women here are so cute. They wear these dresses that are a bit kimono like, but with colorful striped aprons. They have a very American Indian presence.