This completely altered my view of reality that I had grown up with in the U.S. I began to see that living in the U.S. is sort of like Going to Disneyland. It is unbelievable compared to just how bad it is other places on earth. I realized most Americans just don't have a clue just how bad it is other places where people are just trying to survive one more day by begging or whatever they can to get a scoop of rice so they don't die. This changed forever how I saw everything on earth and motivated me to think and act in different ways. I was still compassionate towards everyone but this culture shock made me much more pragmatic in all aspects of my life after seeing this. Because I never wanted to experience what most people were experiencing then in India which is near death every day.
However, the good thing about all this is people were more alive than anywhere I had ever been on earth simply because they could die at any moment from anything because of no money, no healthcare, no place to live and even no clothes or no food. So, the amazing aliveness of those who had survived all this was refreshing where people are much more pragmatic and less feeling sorry for themselves than here in the U.S. So, the worst culture shock of all strangely enough was coming back to the U.S. where people hide in their Apartments and cars and don't seem to talk to each other enough to psychologically be okay.
There then you might see fist fights on the streets or really intense arguments but people were talking and together more than here where people go hide away from everyone wherever they live and in their cars. Most people didn't have cars in India then so hiding away isn't possible when you don't have a job or food or a place to live. So, this makes people much more alive and in the moment knowing they could die any moment of their lives.
I'm very hopeful that things are better there now than they were in 1985 and 1986 for the average person there. I haven't returned since then mostly because I was getting my kids through high school and college and being successful in their lives and then I got too old to safely go because I almost died from Giardia and other complications when I returned to the U.S. and we spoke to a foreign disease specialist doctor who had us not take medications because she said that it would kill our children's livers. in other words the medicines for our children were worse than the disease so we let it slough off like she recommended (the Giardia) because that type of Giardia cannot live in the U.S. where we have a different type of giardia from polluted water here than there.
So, though it was an amazing 4 months there we all got pretty sick for 6 months or so even after returning to the U.S. I was still seeing black spots before my eyes from malnutrition from the Protozoa in our intestines. So, 4 out of 5 of us got sick with Giardia likely from the feces in the dust of Kathmandu, Nepal then when many roads were not paved and people and animals were pooping anywhere they could including on roads or near roads there. Bathrooms often didn't exist much in India and Nepal so people relieved themselves literally anywhere then.
I think the worst culture shock was this one fact for me when I went there starting in December of 1985 with my family. Though we went on a big JAL 747 in First class we didn't have to pay for first class seats simply because they just put you where seats are available on a plane to Narito Airport first in Japan. The entire trip Air Fare for 5 people (two adults and three children 10 to 14 (our children) cost only 6000 dollars round trip. So, most of the expense of traveling to Asia then was the airfare. However, Japan was way to expensive for us to stay there for 5 people. However, Thailand was 40 Bahts to the dollar So, I could feed my whole family on about 5 dollars to 10 dollars for a meal then at Sweety's Guest House in Bangkok Thailand before we took a bus and a boat to Koi Samed Island off of the Bangkok Area and rented a place for 4 dollars a day on stilts with a wood floor where we placed our sleeping bags. The stilts were to keep crawling things and insects out away from us. Then we rented a Wind surfer which is basically a surf board with a sail or more like today's paddle boards with a sail. So, you stand up on the board and hold the sail and the wind blows you forward as you put the sail in the way of the wind.
We also rented masks and snorkels for a nominal fee for the 5 of us and ate garlic prawns that had been caught right there so this was an interesting experience too. and single or couples from Germany especially had discovered that they could rent a Grass hut there for $2.50 a day which was amazing too and snorkel all day and still get out of the sun and be together in their $2.50 a day grass huts. We didn't do this because they only were good for one or two people and that's all.
Then we returned to Bangkok where it was incredibly noisy and the air was brown then because there were no mufflers required on any of the cars then so the sound of motors in the city was literally deafening then. And it was so hot even in December that big fans spinned above us and we only needed sheets on the bed of our penthouse room looking out on the city with a miniature Thai Budhdist Pagoda there with us on the terrace of our room.
Eventually we flew from Bangkok to Kathmandu Nepal. we wanted to meet a Tibetan Lama we knew from Santa Cruz California who was there to help Lama Yeshe pass away and reincarnate as a Spanish boy we also met eventually when he was 2 or 3 years old in Santa Cruz when Lama Yeshe's Stupa was dedicated at Boulder Creek then I think it might have been in 1987? around there when Geshela we had moved him to the U.S. along with his 25 year old Translator who was his nephew I believe. We met his parents who owned a Bus company in Darjeeling and they gave us Tibetan Tea because they knew we were helping Geshela and their Son go to the U.S. for awhile or permanently. Geshela stayed in the U.S. but Lobsang his nephew eventually moved back to India within 6 months or a year after coming to the U.S. He likely went back to Darjeeling where he was from. Geshela and Lobasang and his family were all Tibetan Refugees by the way living in India. Geshela actually walked out of Tibet with the Dalai Lama and his group that physically escaped while Chinese planes strafed them and some of them were killed or wounded on the way to India by boat and horseback and on foot. Geshela was about the same age as the Dalai Lama but passed on in the early 2000s. I think the Dalai Lama is now in his 90s? I looked it up and he turned 90 July 6th 2025 in India (likely in Dharamshala, India given to him by the president of India around 1959 or so. The Dalai Lama with Geshela and many other monks and friends left Tibet on March 17th 1959.
begin quotes:
- The Escape: Disguised as a soldier to avoid detection, the 23-year-old Dalai Lama fled the Norbulingka Palace (his summer residence) on March 17, 1959, crossing the Kyichi River and traveling by night, say Wikipedia and Reddit/AskHistorians.
- The Journey:He traveled through the Himalayas on horseback and on foot, enduring dangerous weather, according to Facts and Details.
- Arrival in India: He crossed the Indian border at Tawang and later established hisbase in Dharamshala, which remains the headquarters of the Central Tibetan Administration, notes Time.
- Reason for Leaving: The flight occurred amid a violent uprising (the 1959 Tibetan Uprising) sparked by fears that Chinese authorities intended to arrest or kill him, say History.com and WTOP.
No comments:
Post a Comment