Dharamsala

I've been in Dharamsala for over a week now. Today is a beautiful sunny day with crisp fresh air but warm rays. Kunga left for Delhi a couple days ago, trying to find a way to book an airplane ticket without actually buying it, we may have found a contact... There are big protests here everyday and the people are extremely dedicated. I'm taking traditional Tibetan painting lessons with Tashi, one of Kunga's cousins who is an AMAZING artist. He paints tankas, buddhist paintings sown in silk frames. He studied for years with the Dalai Lama's official painter, so you can imagine. Apart from painting, we are also very dedicated to informing people about what is going on in Tibet, or with the Olympics, etc. Dozens of people were shot by Chinese army again in a small village in Kham the day before yesterday. Tashi is a very active guy in the cause, and as soon as something happens, he gets calls, and he takes care of writing bills, posting them distributing them, and sending them off to Delhi, the south and other parts of India. So I decided to help him out, sometimes the papers come back with awful translations, they need major cleaning up, so thats easy. Also, I don't know if people know this, but Coca-Cola is huge among the Tibetans, they consume alot of it, you can often see the monks lined up outside after a long puja, bottle in hand... Now, Coca-Cola is one of the major sponsors of the Olympics, and the Tibetans don't know this. So they are unknowingly sponsoring something they are protesting against. I try to inform restaurant managers and shop keepers when I notice Coca-Cola has exclusivity in their shops, but its not enough. So when I told Tashi and asked him to call the paper here to inform them, he also suggested we make a bill. So we went to the internet, looked up all the sponsors, and listed them and their logos along with a short note explainig peoples responsibility in the sponsorship. Lets hope we see real action and boycott of these products, especially the very addictive Coca-Cola. I think people will really check what they consume, this is so important to them. I have a painting lesson to go to now, and a protest to attend later. I'll post pics soon.