Tsuglagkhang Complex, McLeodGanj, Dharamsala, India                   Click here for photos of McLeod Ganj town ...

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The seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile is in McLeod Ganj (upper Dharamsala), a picturesque town overlooking the Kangra valley, below the snowy peaks of the Dhaula Dhar range in the Indian Himalayas. At one end of the ridge in McLeod Ganj is the locus of the Tibetan community, the Tsuglagkhang complex, their Potala Palace-in-exile, though this is a rather modest affair by comparison. It contains the Dalai Lama's residence, a monastery, temples, and stupas. For visitors there's also a café, bookshop, and the Tibet museum.

Visitors are free to roam except to the monks' residential quarters.  The ambiance is warm and collegial.  Wistful sketches of the Potala Palace hang beside paintings that depict scriptural stories and fierce Tibetan deities. Most monks are refugees from Tibet (rather than born in India) and speak only a smattering of Hindi or English; their monastic education is entirely in Tibetan. Each day they study philosophy, tantra, history, geography, Tibetan, etc. (but not Hindi or English, forcing an additional state of exile on the monks, some mere kids drafted into the order). Few among the Indian-born Tibetans—or Tibetan-Indians, depending on how they see themselves—choose to become monks.

Student monks gather each day in the courtyard and, in small groups, debate nuances of Buddhist thought, even as other monks and pilgrims in the complex indulge in the un-Buddha-like practice of mechanically turning prayer wheels. The monks also perform Buddhist rituals and learn the art of making tormas (butter sculptures) and sand mandalas. As they approach adulthood, monks are free to quit the order and join the laity, as many do; a few proceed to get the monastic equivalent of Ph.Ds; fewer still become rinpoches, or precious teachers. The monks don't study science—surprising, given the Dalai Lama's own interest in and openness to science, and the lack of an inherent conflict between science and Buddhism—but then Buddhist philosophy too is preoccupied with using a (different) set of disciplined, rational techniques to understand the nature of reality (I've discussed this topic further in section 3 of this essay).

When not traveling, the Dalai Lama gives occasional public audiences. Over 140,000 Tibetans (including those born after 1959, the start of the exile) live in India as refugees, 80% of whom have not applied for Indian citizenship, hoping one day to return to Tibet and regain their theocratic state. Oddly enough, their largest strength outside the Himalayan belt is in Karnataka. Each year, about 3,000 refugees still make perilous journeys across the Himalayas to come to Dharamsala (a good recent documentary is Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion). Given the Dalai Lama's emphasis on nonviolence, compassion for the adversary, and peaceful negotiations, their hopes for Tibet rest entirely on a more enlightened Chinese government coming to power in their lifetimes. Meanwhile, smart money is not betting on this outcome. [—May 05; Comment?]

Tsuglagkhang complex	Tsuglagkhang Temple	Sakyamuni Buddha (more)	Padmasambhava (more) ▒
Avalokiteshvara (1, 2) ▒			Sakyamuni Buddha
Dharmaraja Tri-Ralpa-Chen (806-841 CE) The 40th king of Tibet			Monks immersed in study
Doctrinal disputation	Language game or reality?	You call that an illusion?	Advantage nothingness
Hmm, a trick of the ego			Because all is impermanence!
He called me full of emptiness			Distraction in blue?
Melting pot	Central compound	Two women	Dharamsala from above
Elderly monk	Walking monks	Talking monks	Elderly monk
Laughing monk	Gazing monks	Gazing monks	Monks in the bazaar
Chatting monks	Supplicating women	Teacher	Scene on the Kora
Bull horn exercise	Controlled blowing	Posing monks (1, 2)	Group portrait (1, 2, 3)
Stupas	Skull-studded architecture	Snowy backdrop	Home, sweet home
Prayer wheel (more)	Wall painting (1, 2)	Wall painting (1, 2)	Where is the Panchen Lama?
Spinning tourist (1, 2)	Elderly monk (1, 2, 3)	Teacher & students (1, 2)	Memorial, Tibet museum
Doctrinal disputation	Heated argument	Disagreement (more)	Mixed gender debate
Kalachakra temple (1, 2)	Kalachakra temple	Prayer time (1, 2)	Earth moving woman
Dalai Lama's summer view	Elderly monk	Bored looking monk	Elderly woman (more)
The Kora	Dozing man	Earth moving women	Chopping wood
Dhaula Dhar range	Tibetan woman	Young Tibetan-Indians	Poster on a wall