The dream come true..Chandragiri!!

I was planning to visit Chandragiri since 2010, as the history of Indo-Tibetan and the Tibetan refugees have always ignited my mind. Finally after a long wait I could make it to the refugee camps in Chandragiri in 2015. It was long journey by bus, train and car from Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Bharampur-Mohana-Chandragiri. One of my senior Ph.D. colleague joined along with me to the place.

Both of us were excited for the trip and carried all necessary things that we would require for two days stay in the camp.  It was breath taking experience traveling to the place and seeing the colorful Tibetan flags in their entrance to the camps. Finally after a tiresome journey both of us reached the place. We stayed in a guest house called the 'Ripa house' which was clean and tidy. There was one small eatery where we used to take our food. On our post arrival we quickly visited the Rigon Monastery which was quite popular lately as Dalai lama had inaugurated it in 2010. The beauty of the monastery was scintillating. Each and every part of it was depicting the tradition and culture. The wall painting of the god were trying to say many things which was tough for both of us to decode it. The usual evening prayer had already started in the monastery, there were around eight young boys who were offering prayer to their lord. They were sitting in two lanes and two of them were beating the drums, one was playing the instrument called khanjani and another one offering some sort of holy water during the entire prayer session. We were asked not to click any photos or videos during the prayer session although we were allowed to see it. The camps were looking deserted due to business season for the primary occupation of selling woolen sweaters and shawl in the cities. The secondary occupation for them was selling sweet corn, other small business or jobs.

In our stay at monastery we try to gather information from the lamas about the teachings and the library. Surprisingly the young boys were from Nepal and not the Tibetan refugees. It was little strange to know that the monastery and the library was taken care by the Nepalese. We were latter not allowed to visit the library, as the higher authority were at Nepal. None of the boys were ready to spare more time with us. We assumed that that it would be the higher authority instruction not to share any information with the visitors. As we were walking around, we also found another  interesting place for the meditation called the 'mind doodling'. The beautifully revolving doodlers which has some prayer engraved on  it. We spend little time to observe the men and women meditating there. There are total five camps out there and we were living in camp-4. While walking down to the camp number three to talk to the female scholars in the monastery. We saw beautiful corn field on our way. We also crossed the lane that covers with colourful flags with some alphabets on it. Upon enquiry we found that the Tibetan believe on evil eye. To protect themselves from evil eye they use the flags with written prayers on it. The prayers were written in Sanskrit which was not read by all the young Tibetan. We found another small monastery in camp 3 where the female scholars were staying . We talked to them and found that they joined the monastery out of their own interest. Most of the scholars were from Nepal.

Question keep coming to my mind that how a 3 year old girl would find interest to join the monastery? There must be some political interest to bring these small kids into such teaching. As many of them would continue to stay in the monastery after the teaching is completed or they will be shifted to some other monastery to teach other fresh scholars. It was quite strange to know that the Nepali scholars are majority in number in the monastery than the Tibetan. What really strike my mind that the Tibetan refugees in the camps do not share any kind of information to the visitors. The refugees do take the advantage of doing government job especially in the Indian army which was again a political question of why joining Indian army? We also came to know from the local that they have a Tibetan PM for all the Tibetan refugees in India. They would collect vote from each destination to the head quarter at Dharamsala to decide the next PM. The only big social gathering for the Tibetan refugees is the new year in February. Most of the weddings are also conducted during that time of the year. It became a opportunity for the Tibetan refugees to integrate with other refugees living in different location in India. One of the fascinating thing that I noticed was the well preserve tradition and culture, nationalism and having that sense of belonging among themselves. I also felt that there are many other things I need to explore. But may be with frequent visit and interacting more with the Tibetan about their entire journey from Tibet to Chandragiri, political movement, economic migration, structural changes etc. Perhaps I can wait till February to go on their new year eve.

 

Being ethnic...

It took me month to sort out my travel plans to Washington D.C. I was fully prepared to deliver talk on my topic in one of the international conference. Mind full with academic works and excitement to meet different research scholars and academicians such as Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. First day in DC went on strolling around the street and checking out some of the tourist attractive places. The best part of it was the well organized museums, memorials, US capitol and parks. One can never get bored, as each step has something to checkout and wonder about. The most interesting museum among all was the US Holocaust and the American Indian Museum. The

conference started on the 2nd day, heart full with excitement to see Georgetown University. The most beautiful and interesting  was the old Gaston hall building of 1782. The campus was looking lively the students was seen busy organizing small events and cheering each other. It was wonderful to meet so many scholars from different parts of the world. After having a full academic session, I used to return to the place where I was put on called Westfalls church. I was staying with the Odiya family I know from my child hood days. The 3rd and 4th day went on attending lectures, plenary session, networking with different scholars. The conference end on the 4th day paying good bye to all scholars and professors I was interacting for constant 3days.

Every evening after the conference we used to visit different families for some social gathering. I never thought that I would meet so many Odiya families in the US. The huge Odiya gathering in a house-warming party was giving me a feeling of Odiya diaspora in the US. It was amazing to see all Odiya delicacy and traditional attire worn by each and every female present in the function. There was Indian music  and kids giggling and playing with each other just like how it is in India. I was betting within myself the perception carry by most Indians living in India. Its a common perception among those people who live in India, that people who immigrate out of the country forget their culture and language. They assimilate with foreign culture and people to get themselves diffused with other culture and leaving their own. Spending few days in Washington DC and meeting so many Odiya families proved those common perception wrong. It was amazing to see family keeping themselves update with each and every Odiya festivals. Each of the family has some plan for the gathering and celebrate the festival with whole hearted. The Ganesh Chaturthi was round the corner I

could able to smell the festive feeling in each and every family.

It was more like an diaspora where people  have the sense of belonging within themselves. It is so very important to have that feeling of ethnicity within ourselves that keep us lively and cheerful in a foreign land. I would like to thanks some of the beautiful Odiya families I came across during my visit to the US. Most importantly I would like to thanks a friend with whom I was staying at and who introduce me to so many Odiya families.