Day Off

Today (Sunday) was a day off for the teachers and the monks and nuns.  Some of the monks and nuns left the college campus to explore local villages while others stayed behind to relax.  I decided to go to upper Dharamsala as a tourist.  The drive up the hillside takes about 40 minutes on narrow, twisted and sometimes dirt roads.

We first toured the temple where the Dalai Lama holds an audience.  In fact, he will be speaking there tomorrow and people where setting up mats for several thousand people.  Different parts of the temple were roped off by country (e.g., Taiwan delegation, Japanese delegation, etc.).  The temple grounds are also the residence of the Dalai Lama and we walked an outer circle path around the grounds passing many prayer wheels.

Although it was much cooler in upper Dharamsala, it was still warm and humid.  Bryce Johnson, Science for Monks program director, and I got a cold drink and then headed up the hillside on a hike through the forest.  We must have walked a few miles until we found ourselves in a small village.  After dinner in the village (pizza and Tibetan momos), we found a taxi and made our way back down the hill (see video below).