Week 4: The Picnic

31/05/09

One of the great things about Lamdon School is their inter-house competitiveness. On the last school day of the week they dedicate the afternoon to inter-house games. On Friday we arrived just before lunch to see the I.T. teacher and a group of students chalking out the last of the basketball court lines - the court was being prepared for the first ever Lamdon inter-house basketball competition. After lunch all the students from class 6 to 12 sat around the court in their respective houses to watch the event. It was great fun to watch and there were plenty of ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahs’ from the crowd. Basketball has become a very popular sport at the school since it started there a year ago and especially after school the students always like Tom to play with them so they can improve. I also join in sometimes which is fun but still tiring at this altitude! During P.E. time and after school the girls hostel students like to come and talk with me and this week a few of them have told me about their home villages and places which we should see in Ladakh before we leave. A few of the girls are from Nubra which is where we’re hoping to go and Tsiring is from Biama, a town at lower altitude than Leh were lots of fruits grow and where the ladies are known to wear a lot of beautiful jewellery. We have been to a few trekking agencies and have found that one of the easier treks from Likir to Temisgam is about an hour away from Biama by bus so we might be able to visit Biama if we decide to take that route.

At the hostels we decided to see how the students would do with making up a short play instead of doing debating all the time. We split them into groups of four or five and gave them two topics to choose from: honesty or jealousy. The boys thought it was a great idea and immediately got into animated discussion within their groups and came up with some great skits – they have become less shy around us and aren’t afraid to try using new language. After this success we were very surprised the next day when the girls cringed at the idea and said they would rather do debates!

On Saturday we planned to go for a day walk to Sabu, a small town just to the east of Leh. However, at dinner on Friday Mr. Tundup asked us if we’d like to join a picnic with all the teachers to celebrate the most recent Lamdon School graduates’ good exam results. Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity, we got in the jeep after breakfast and tea the next morning with Yung Chen, Lamdon’s dentist-in-training and Jason who is in Leh for 5 weeks to give her training. Once out of Leh we travelled south through 15 minutes of grubby edge-of-city settlements on the way to Choglamsar. I was wondering where, among the lengths of road-side mechanic shops and general stores we’d find a pleasant picnic spot when we turned into a narrow dusty road with a sign to the Indus Hotel. A little way down the road we came to large grassy courtyard surrounded by the empty rooms of the Indus Hotel. At the far end was an embankment, beyond which was a stunning view of the braiding, glacial Indus River, lined with tall green poplar trees. On the far side of the river was a grand mosque and the ever-present breath-taking mountain backdrop. To the right of the courtyard was a forest of poplar trees, in front of which the picnic had been set up – sitting carpets, music system and all – enclosed on two sides by brightly coloured cloth strung between the trees. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was the perfect picnic spot. We spent the day sitting on the embankment looking over the river playing cards with Jason, skimming stones on the Indus, drinking tea, eating, dancing and playing karem – a game I saw in Nepal once which involves a 1m2 wooden board with pockets in the four corners into which you have to shoot round chips by flicking them.

When we’d been at the picnic for about an hour Yung Chen asked us if we’d like to visit the monastery over the wall to the left of the courtyard. Of course we said yes so us and about ten others literally went over the wall and jumped down into a large open expanse of land, at the river edge of which was an empty monastery with a small one-person speech tower in front of it. This is the place where the Dalai Lama comes once a year to give a speech to tens of thousands of devote Buddhist Ladakhis. In fact his next visit is scheduled on 6th July for the celebration of his birthday. Walking to the other end of the large field we reached another wall – this time with a gate which we went through. We were surprised to find that it was only half-heartedly kept shut by a loosely slung rope because it led to the compound of the Dalai Lama’s Ladakhi summer home! He wasn’t there at the time so we followed Yung Chen into the compound. On the left was a yellow-painted block where the monks – who look after the place – live, and on the right, beyond an open gate and a rough garden full of trees, was the summer house. It was quite modest in size but of course had all the necessary golden trimmings and decorations. To our surprise Yung Chen told us we could have a look inside so we followed her and the rest of the group through the front door where they all immediately performed their blessings to the set up of statues and other ornaments and pictures in the hallway. We went into a room to the right which was like a waiting room and had yet another shrine. Along one wall was a long glass cabinet full of photos of the Dalai Lama, dolls and more ornaments. Along the bottom ledge of the cabinet was a long row of silver bowls which are constantly kept full of water by the monks as offerings to the gods. Visitors had also placed 10 rupee notes all along the ledge and, as in the rest of the house, everything was covered in white silk scarves which are gifts of respect. Upstairs was a study and at the top of the house a room with a huge central cabinet full of carefully wrapped Buddhist scripts. We walked back to the picnic via eight huge chortens, reflecting on how lucky we had been not only to have seen the Dalai Lama’s Ladakhi summer house but to have had a look inside.

About an hour before the picnic ended, Mr. Tundup rounded everyone up to come and sit in a large square in the picnic area. One of the teachers, who had been teaching Montessori at Lamdon School for 23 years, was leaving and so he and a few other people gave a speech and gifts were handed over to her. After the speech she was showered with white scarves by all her colleagues – in the end she had so many around her neck that you could hardly see her face! At 5 o’clock a convoy of picnickers drove to her house (this time about 15 minutes south-west outside of Leh) where everyone was ushered into the living room where we sat around the edge of the room on carpet-covered mats with snacks of dried apricots, nuts, fruit and biscuits – and our 7th cup of tea for the day – served on the same small beautifully painted tables as in Mr. Tundup’s living room. A typical Ladakhi tradition is to do dzangs – insincere refusal – which we found entertaining to watch. It’s considered polite for the guest to refuse what the host offers at least 2 or 3 times before accepting. Although we were getting pretty tired (and full of tea) by this point we really enjoyed the atmosphere and the experience of Ladakhi hospitality – something they’re particularly good at!