January 18, 2005

Darjeeling

Excerpts

A. Trek in the Himalayas: Darjeeling, at 7500 ft, looks out at hills of tea and up at the tallest mountains in the world. I met some guys, one a trained guide, and off we went to walk in and above the clouds for six days. Hiking together is a really wonderful way to connect and share with people.

B. A Young Village Prostitute: In one village on the trek, I had a close (but not that close) encounter with a 19 year-old prostitute. It really effected me, and back in Darjeeling I found an organization, the Nepali Girls' Social Service Center, that was focusing on the root cause of this problem: economics. I gave Rs. 3000 ($70) to go towards a village vocational training school they run. I also found a clever use for a handkerchief I'd been given (funny story).

C. Tibet's Tsunami of 1950: what was my reaction to the recent tsunami? How did it find me learning about weaving, and visiting Buddhist monasteries? There are three parts to the answer.
C1. History Lesson
C2. Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Center
C3. Monastery Walking Meditation


D. Tribute to the Cow: I went to a neighboring hill town, Kalimpong, to honor what, in my opinion, is the Mother of India. From the Darjeeling Goodwill Animal Shelter, Dr. Naveen Pandey walks miles to neighboring villages to help sick or pregnant cows, never charging a rupee. Although I missed seeing him assist a birth, I gave him Rs. 5000 ($116) on behalf of my cow-loving American friends.


a hill of tea. They've been all-organic here for 150 years, and there was a little shop run by and for the workers. I bought some 'super fine tippy golden flowery orange pekoe 1', which takes 5 seconds to brew.



Elaborations

A. Trek in the Himalayas:
As for the mountains - I'm not good at describing that type of experience. As usual, it was a lesson in respect and awe. We visited remote villages on the India-Nepal border, above 12,000ft; watched majestic weather move through dramatic valleys; saw Everest (#1), Kanchenjunga (#3), and sunrises; walked through monkey-full jungle; drank 7-8 mugs of chai daily; and always ended the day huddled by a fire in a village hut, usually making music. The Himalayan mountains seem so young and vital. The young mountains and old culture tell a very different story than the worn mountains and headstrong culture of the east coast of America.

Amar and Suraj, my companions, seem straight out of a Jack Kerouac or Hermann Hesse novel. Amar, a professionally trained Himalayan guide, is half man-of-the-mountain wisdom and half playful child. Suraj spent ten years addicted to heroin and brown sugar, and now passionately plays guitar in a gospel band. For six days we were in step, and had a blast. In villages we would make music for chai - singing, guitar, and 'body percussion'. I taught them yoga each morning, and they adapted my litter-collection habits. Amar taught us about the mountains, including cardamom growing (my favorite spice). Everyone helped everyone, but no one did it intentionally. I started to think that maybe anybody can meet anybody on common ground, and create a positive relationship. But then we met Pallav, who joined us for a few days. He was an India-born electrical engineer, working on his PhD at Princeton, and his and my worldviews were painfully incompatable. Oh well.

Because the three of us on the trek were so balanced, Amar lowered his already-lowered fee to Rs. 200/day. In the end, though, I gave him Rs. 500/day as we had agreed. Thinking of my American hiking friends, I wanted to introduce these guys to Trail Magic, so I also paid for their food and lodging on the trip. The total for them was Rs. 3477 ($81). The favor was returned when we got back to Darjeeling - Suraj let me stay in his father's hostel, and arranged all meals for me.


playing cricket with the border police, Suraj at bat


deserted shepherds hut, lunch stop


at 11,000ft, looking at Kanchenjunga, third highest in the world at 26000+. Amar, Suraj, and I, and Pallav's guide Baje




B. A Young Village Prostitute:
In Rammam, a village on our trek, we met some young, attractive women while huddled by the hearth. After some time, one older woman offered us the girls, for Rs. 500 ($12). I felt like I had been stabbed. It's one thing to see a tired, old woman on a city street at night, with too much makeup and a sad face - you just look the other way. But it's much harder to befriend an attractive, 19 year-old girl, thinking of her as your younger sister, and then learn that she's a whore.

Back in Darjeeling, Suraj helped me find the Nepali Girls' Social Service Center. His uncle, Subba, worked there. For 30 years, they've been running a school for disadvantaged girls (and some boys), and have undertaken various other projects (providing medicines for TB, building toilets, women's empowerment). I was most interested in the vocational school centers they had set up. I thought that maybe if the village girls had the opportunity to learn a trade, they would have another option in front of them. The NGSSC has training programs in tailoring, weaving, typewriting, etc. I gave Rs. 3000 ($70) for these purposes.

Having put in some chips for systemic change, I was still thinking of the girl I had met. Then I remembered the Austrian handkerchief I had brought along, with a strange (and mildly imperialistic and sexist) HKE request. So I packed it up with a note, and gave it to Amar to deliver on his next trek through Rammam. The message:

"I'm sorry but I won't be able to return to Rammam to meet you. Please take this handkerchief as a gift. It was given to me by an Austrian man, on top of a mountain in America. He had also received it as a gift. He told me to give it to the most beautiful woman in India. Please take it, and keep it safe and clean. Someday, give it to the most handsome and caring man you meet. I urge you to also save yourself - your body and heart - for only the most caring and devoted person."


your typical village hut kitchen


C. Tibet's Tsunami of 1950:
On the trek, I thought about the recent tsunami - all the destruction and pain. I haven't heard any desperate calls for volunteers, and it seems they're getting a lot of money for relief causes. I'm not going down to help. Instead I thought of all the other disasters our world has seen, which have gotten more or less international attention. The Himalayas are dotted with Tibetan shrines and prayer flags, which in my opinion complement and uplift the nature in a way that few human endeavours do. So I started thinking about Tibet.

C1. History Lesson:
On the 15th of August, 1950, there was an earthquake in southeast Tibet. Robert Ford, a British radioman, said, "This was no ordinary earthquake; it felt like the end of the world. Mountains and valleys exchanged places in an instant, hundreds of villages were swallowed up, the Brahmaputra river was completely rerouted..." On the 7th of October, the 'wave' hit - China invaded Tibet. Since then, over 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed, 6000 monasteries have been destroyed, and horrendous human rights violations have been documented. Since then the Chinese have continued 'population transfer' - bussing in Chinese to make Tibetans a minority in there own land. A 1965 UN resolution described "acts of murder, rape, arbitrary imprisonment, torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Tibetans on a large scale, thereby completely destroying their liberty and freedom."

Unfortunately, the world's response to this disaster was very different than our recent tsunami. Politically, the world was tied up in the Korean War. Tibet made a plea to the UN for help. It was ignored, until tiny El Salvador finally brought it up. However, the UN Steering Committee deferred, indefinitely, putting it on the agenda. Thousands of Tibetans, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, were forced to leave as refugees. Many came to India.


a frosted-over Tibetan shrine on the mountain. In the background is Everest.


C2. Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Center:
Darjeeling shows obvious signs of this immigration, and many of the older generation are still alive to tell the stories. Searching stories and faces, I went to this refugee center, set up in 1959 by the sister-in-law of the Dalai Lama. They run a collection of workshops in traditional Tibetan crafts, as well as a small home for elderly and a school for orphans (I think). I met Tenzin Wangmo, a recent college graduate whose parents and grandparents had fled Tibet. She was born in the TRSHC, and, unlike most of her friends who want to move away, she's planning on staying there for her family and people. She wants to visit her homeland, but can't. I got a thorough tour of the workshops, seeing each step from sheep to yarn to dyeing to knitting, and also weaving and rug-making. The center survives only on what is sold in their store; they don't accept donations. I wished I had use for a large, beautiful rug, but instead bought a hat and gloves for Suraj, who had lost his on the trek (Rs. 110 - $3). I also put Rs. 300 ($8) in a box for 'Tibetan orphans'.

C3. Monastery Walking Meditation:
As I said, I find Tibetan religious art internally and externally harmonious. It's something about the circles and squares. There are many Tibetan monasteries in Darjeeling, and I decided to visit them on a walk. I was thinking about the parallels between our current tsunami disaster, with overwhelming destruction getting the full force of the world's concern, and this disaster in the past, from which people and families are still suffering. Also, the philosophy of Buddhism has a lot of insightful things to say about pain and suffering (just skim one of the Dalai Lama's books). My walk was a silent walking meditation on pain and suffering - about the difference between the two and the space they leave for joy. In each of five monasteries I left a Rs. 500 donation (to acknowledge the wisdom at the source and to honor Tibet's painful past). In between, walking on the only road along the mountain ridge, hugged with shops and homes, I saw many aspects of life and death, pain and suffering and joy. I even happened upon a Tibetan funeral procession, and with horns, drums, and tears was joined in my contemplation.

D. Tribute to the Cow:
Anyone who wonders why cows are sacred in Hinduism needs only to visit an Indian village. Milk provides precious protein and fat, as milk, yoghurt, butter, or clarified butter. Manure is used as fertilizer, but is also collected into patties and dried. These patties are burned for warmth in the winter (similar to the old european way of burning coal's predecessor, peat moss). Being surprisingly antiseptic, the patties are also used in the walls and floors of 'mud' huts. In most villages, oxen still work the fields. Sometimes you can even see, in a field with weak soil, a streak of healthy crop where a working ox peed on-the-go, depositing needed nitrogen via urine. A few times I've seen underground manure piles that are sealed to collect the gasses, which are then used in cooking stoves!

The Indian government doesn't provide vetrinary services to most villages. Transportation to and from many villages is still by foot, and few city vets are willing to make the trip. Being employed by the government also has the tendency to promote apathy and a sizable Rs. 2000-3000 vet fee. In reality, most problems require less than Rs. 100 of medicine.

The Darjeeling Goodwill Animal Shelter is an NGO on the outskirts of the small town of Kalimpong. Until recently, there was no road to the shelter. Even now, most village calls require the vet, Dr. Naveen Pandey, to tramp 15 minutes to two hours through fields, carrying whatever equipment is needed. Naveen is no ordinary vet. He was top of his class in each of the ten semesters of vet school, and received three gold metals from the governor. While his fellow, 'mediocre' vet graduates all headed to the US for fame and fortune, he headed to the villages. I visited on Sunday, his day off, but earlier that morning he had been called to help deliver a calf that was positioned incorrectly. It was Sunday morning, but he knew that if he didn't go, the cow and calf would die. It was a 30-minute walk, and took 45-minutes and Rs. 60 of medicine (a shot of anaesthetic and a shot to help with contractions). He didn't charge a rupee, and left the village family with a newborn calf.

Naveen told me how he uses cleverness and a holistic approach to minimize costs and to make up for lack of diagnostic tools. Hopefully this month he'll get a microscope and centrifuge, to allow him to do bloodwork. Sometimes he sends animals to the city elderly nursing home for an X-ray. He's a very loving and intelligent man. His one regret is that, as he lives on site and is on call 24-hrs/day, he has no time to visit friends or look for a wife.

I explained my Human Kindness Experiment to Naveen, and told him that some American friends had given me money to help a cow. Although I wasn't exactly buying a cow, the Rs. 5000 ($116) I gave could help heal dozens of sick cows, or allow successful delivery of many calves.

Occassionally the shelter organizes a week-long village trip, when they visit half a dozen villages and go door-to-door, checking on and treating all livestock and animals. This gives them the opportunity, also, to educate the villagers about ways of keeping themselves and their livestock more healthy. On the 27th of January, Naveen and staff will set out on one of these trips, and the cow-loving money he received will be very helpful.

I wanted to stay in Kalimpong, to get to see an assisted delivery. That would've made me very profoundly happy. But politically the area is a little unstable, and I was advised to leave before the next day, when the local leader would declare whether or not he would allow elections to take place. There were more men with guns than I'm comfortable with. So I headed back to Calcutta.


a yak on our trek


Dr. Naveen Pandey, holding a puppy he had recently neutered

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I too have had the honour of meeting Dr. Naveen Pandey, when I stayed at the animal shelter in Kalimpong last year. Naveen is not only a brilliant vet, but he chooses to do his work with those who would never have veterinary help without his efforts. He is also a deeply caring person - recently on one of his trips to help animals in a remote village, he was sitting in his car in the evening, with a coat on, and it was very, very cold. He looked out the window, and there were two little village children looking sadly in at him - they were wearing only little ragged t-shirts and shorts. He asked them why didn't they go and put jumpers on, and they replied that they didn't have any. So Naveen went back to the Help in Suffering shelter and told my sister (who is Trustee for this shelter) and together they went to the markets and bought a lot of clothes, which Naveen then took to this village. But this is a drop in the ocean - only one tiny remote village out of thousands. And these villages are so isolated that they never receive the funding from international welfare organisations that is poured into the beggars in the cities. Yet these beggars get a lot of assistance - from international aid and their own government - while the TRUE poverty is seen in these remote villages.
If there were more people in the world like Dr. Naveen, it would be a better place.

6:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I too have met Dr. Naveen and find him to be an extraordinary human being. For people who want to help him to help the animals, I am posting, on my own, his address. People can feel secure helping him to continue his work, his help for all of us in this remote and beautiful part of the world:
Vet-in-Charge
Darjeeling Goodwill Animal Shelter
Kalimpong, Distt.Darjeeling
West Bengal, India . PIN 734301
Phone +91--98320-27208


E.M.

11:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

grate man

2:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Das glaubst du ja selbst nicht

12:46 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home