The India Adventure Part 3: Dharamsala

After a 14-hour overnight bus trip on winding mountain roads, we finally arrived in the small town of MacLeod Ganj, perched in the Outer Himalayas above Dharamsala. This part of my trip was mostly an internal experience, as I learnt about meditation and Buddhism at Tushita Meditation Centre in nearby Dharamkot. Fortunately, the surroundings were also quite amazing and provided a great backdrop to my internal adventures.

For those of you who aren't aware, Dharamsala (or more accurately, MacLeod Ganj) is the location of the residence of the Dalai Lama, and perhaps 30,000 Tibetans also call it their home. This gives it a very different feel to other parts of India.

After attending a ten-day silent meditation retreat, I was fortunate to attend teachings by the Dalai Lama at his residence, along with many other foreigners, Indians and Tibetans. It is a remarkable place and I am very glad I made the journey there, even despite the long and arduous bus trips!

 Amazing scenery of the Outer Himalayas, near Bhagsu

Chalet-style house, Dharamkot

 Views of MacLeod Ganj

A Buddhist temple in downtown MacLeod Ganj

The remarkable Norbulingka Institute, Dharamsala

A temple in Bhagsu

The forest near Tushita Meditation Centre

Getting to know the locals

My travel buddy, Vicky, and I, after we finished our ten-day silent retreat

More happy post-retreat faces

Travel stories

What an amazing gift travel is. Those of us who have the time and money to explore a bit of the world are so very lucky. I have come back from my three month trip refreshed, confused, excited and a bit bewildered. And I have seen lots of amazing things along the way.

I'm going to start my travel story with Beijing, the city where I began my travels. Beijing is big and busy but with a friendly small-town feel, and it is shiny and new, and amazingly old, with so many beautiful buildings tucked in between the sky-scrapers and multi-lane highways.

One of my favourite things about Beijing was the contemporary art scene. Some years ago some 1960s red brick factory and warehouse buildings just north of the city were transformed into the fantastic 798 District.

As a contemporary art fan I was really spoilt for choice - with great architecture, fascinating artwork and interesting commentaries on Chinese politics and culture everywhere I looked.

There were some great exhibitions there, including one by Wang Mai using recycled materials from industry to create fantasy landscapes.

Another thing I really liked about Beijing was the hutongs. These are like little villages strung along narrow backstreets in behind the big busy roads. You see people pushing carts, selling fruit, stopping to chat to their neighbours. And because Beijing is so flat and bike-friendly, you can see all of this as you stop your bicycle behind the cart-pusher who is stopping to talk to his neighbour...

Beijing is also remarkably close to the Great Wall, which is really one of those sights that you have to see in person. I will try to recreate the experience for you below...

Of course no visit to Beijing would be complete without a trip to Tiananmen Square...

I even got a bit of culture in at the Lama Temple:

But then it was time for me to catch a flight to India... for the next chapter in my adventure...

Going back to India

Some of you may recall that I spent a couple of weeks in India - eleven days in fact - at the start of this year for a wedding. It was an amazing, crazy, stressful, overwhelming, exciting visit. India is one of those places that doesn't do well in short visits. You spend a lot of time sitting in traffic, looking at your watch, or at the airport waiting for a delayed internal flight. Not to mention that trying to understand such a new and different place as India in less than two weeks isn't very realistic. I saw some amazing things, but I also felt bewildered a lot of the time.

The upshot of it all is, that after taking a break from my studies after one hectic semester of textile design, I have decided to go back to India. It has been more an impulse than a carefully considered plan. I feel like I need to go somewhere that is completely not like Melbourne, that will take me out of my comfort zone and throw me into some challenging and unexpected situations. And I like the idea of going somewhere that values introspection and meditation as a new (for me, anyway) way of approaching life.

India is also an amazing place to see textiles. The birthplace of paisley and so many other motifs that are part of our everyday attire these days, last time I was there I saw so much colour, and pattern, and cloth, everywhere I went. If this doesn't inspire me to return to textiles, I don't know what will!

I'm heading off on my big adventure in just a few days time. I'll try to post blogs when I get a chance, and in the meantime I wish you all success and enjoyment in your creative endeavours! I'll be back in December.

Why collaborate?

I find my best creative ideas come when I interact with others. Creativity doesn't happen in a vacuum. It is about bouncing ideas about with your creative friends, getting inspired by something completely unrelated that you can just see will help your idea with something else. Like the colour and texture of a dying Singapore orchid - what a great fabric idea for a dress!

I'm going to give myself a big dose of creative collaboration. On Saturday I'm off for three weeks of travel through the USA, and I can't wait. While the States has created a lot of stuff (pertaining to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch of my last post) the country is also stuffed full of wonderfully creative, innovative people with great ideas of how to collaborate creatively.

One place I'm really excited about going to is 3rd Ward in Brooklyn, New York. They have a big warehouse space with spots for artists and artisans to rent, great woodworking facilities and lots of courses. They also have exhibitions and provide a real hub for artsy New York folk to get together and collaborate. Another place is SCRAP in San Francisco, which sources waste materials and end products from factories and companies and sells them cheaply for reuse in creative projects. They also run courses and programs for schools.

I'll certainly blog more about my finds once I'm back. And I haven't forgotten to blog about my recent simoneandginko jewelry workshop, which was a great success! As soon as I get my photos together I will get you up to date with all my news.

 

(Photos are from SCRAP and 3rd Ward)