McLeod Ganj - A Piece of Tibet

The main street and the gompa (temple)

Ever since he fled Tibet back 1959, the Dalai Lama has called McLeod Ganj his place of residence (it is never referred to as his ‘home’). From here the government in exile campaigns for true autonomy – a struggle that seems to be increasingly and tragically futile. Although there is support coming from various world powers, the stubbornness and greed shown by the Chinese government prevents any fair resolution from being reached.

McLeod Ganj

Along with the tragic history of Tibet, the Tibet Museum has some amazing photos of the Dalai Lama riding a donkey through the Himalayas on his way to India; eventually a quarter of a million Tibetans would make a similar journey to escape persecution in their own country. It is a highly risky journey – twenty-two days of hiking over the highest mountain passes in the world, suffering frostbite (most of the refugees do), and reaching India or Nepal does not guarantee that they wont be sent back to Lhasa and severe, inhuman punishment.

Typical weather in McLeod Ganj

Rain became a big part of our lives in McLeod Ganj

Many of them came to McLeod Ganj, and there is a strong Tibetan culture here. Every shop and hotel display ‘Free Tibet’ posters and Tibetan flags (which the Chinese government has banned in ‘Tibet China’, as they call it officially. They have also ‘banned’ the Dalai Lama from being reincarnated in Tibet). There are Buddhist prayer flags flying from most of the buildings and Tibetan stallholders selling jewellery and Tibetan food.

Tibetan flag and prayer flags

Badminton time

The Tibetan refugees seem to be doing well here, but it is sad to think that they’d probably rather be at home in a free Tibet, without fear of persecution.

Prayer wheels in the Gompa

Monks protest for a free Tibet. If they did this in Tibet, they'd be in prison for years.

The Magic Garden

This is the kind of thing that a person can do when they acquire a house, a bunch of tiles, glass and mirrors and a couple of decades to put it all together

Museo San Francisco

This musuem is a cute collection of random artifacts, artworks and displays housed in a building far too large.

These are papier-mache people performing a kind of game played by the indigenous people around the area of Granada. Disturbingly, they don't have faces, and they hang stiffly in a featureless beige room like Francis Bacon paintings caught in 3-D.

Little Granada from above

The Botero Museum

These guys are a constant worry here. This painting is The Thief.

This is a city we recently visited, Popayan.

Angie getting silly with Miro

Warhol in Quito, Sort of

The Centro Cultural Metropolitano had a Warhol show on. Most of the works on display were inkjet prints on vinyl, which I'm pretty sure weren't original works of Andy's.

MALBA: Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires

Malba is a big white gallery full of fantastic art from the 20th/21st Century. It houses mainly work by Latin-American Artists, but there is also a mezmerising collection 60's and 70's of Op-Art, the biggest single collection I've seen on display anywhere. Grooooovy! No photography allowed inside, so Angie only managed to sneak in one photo (from the permanent collection I think):

Everyone loves Che

Outside the gallery a towering VU meter flashes in reaction to the level of ambient noise.