Black Hats and Sub Divisional Magistrates

Hello again! I am now in McLeod Ganj once more, though only for the night. I've just informed a slightly dischuffed, but still helpfully friendly, hotel owner that I'm leaving tomorrow morning. At 4am. Why? Well, as he guessed straight away, I'm off to Amritsar tomorrow, taking the 5am bus from Dharamsala bus station (and I have to walk down there). So, expect lots of fun soon enough.

Anyway, Monday and Tuesday passed off without much of note happening. We have been invited to spend Diwali with an Indian student of Mike's, and then to go to a relation's wedding for three days after that. It's not confirmed for sure yet, but if it does happen, it will be pretty amazing, I imagine.

Wednesday was good fun. In the morning, I had no class. Instead, the monks were busy practicing for the Black Hat Dance on Thursday. I watched them dancing - it involved lots of twirling about and waving of hands. More on the dance later. I also went up on the prayer hall roof to watch some of the monks making the coloured powder they use to make a mandala - a large picture made using this coloured powder. They mixed up dyes and water and fried up the powder (which I was told the day before was sand, but it was very fine and white). Interestingly, the brand of dye they were using was 'Ganesh'. Fitting for a Buddhist monastery, ey?

After all this was over, Choepal Sangpo, the monk who runs the monastery guest house and who I have given a few ad hoc lessons to, asked me if I was free to go off to Baijnath (about 10km away) with him. It was 11am, my next lesson was (probably, but no one knew for sure at this point) at 2pm. I went with him and he explained on the way (as he was driving) that we were going for his driving test. Interesting, I thought. He explained, though, that he'd been driving his motorbike for about 14 years or so (he didn't say about the car, but he was a decent enough driver), and that whenever he got pulled over he'd slip the cop a Rs50 note, or do a runner. He said they only bothered pursuing once, and he got summoned and fined Rs500. So that's a fine of £6.25, or a bribe of 62p, for driving without a license. He said, however, that the fines and the punishments are going up, so it's not really worth it any more.

So, we turned up at the Baijnath e-Governance Office, the office of the Sub Divisional Officer cum Sub Divisional Magistrate. A rather grand title for someone whose duties include overseeing driving tests... Choepal had to go and sort out papers, get his file submitted, etc., etc., and then we waited for a little to be told various times for the test, before going and having some lunch from a roadside thali place.

Then came the test itself. And what a challenging test it was! About 40 or so people (all men) were taking a test today. The SDM and another official came out into the car park (I use the term fairly loosely) and sat at a low table with all the relevant files in front of them. Then one by one, the potential drivers were called out, and had to reverse their car back about 10m, and stop between (not even between, really) four bricks set out on the ground that formed a parking space. And, er, that's it. If you can't do it, or touch the stones, then you fail. Some people, amazingly, did fail. And quite spectacularly so, in some cases. A few people had trouble starting their cars, stalled a few times, then careered off into the waiting crowds of people to one side. These crowds of people were the others waiting to do their test - they watch while you have your half minute test.

Choepal passed. This was his second time, having scraped one stone the first time. He said that the first time, he'd brought along his car, which is far larger than a normal car, and that the gap between the stones had been narrower (perfectly believable, by the way, because the stones were laid out arbitrarily and the gap wasn't measured at all, nor was any of this checked by the officials in charge), so he didn't have a chance really.

Anyway, all went well this time, and we were soon off on our way. We made our way back to Tashi Jong, stopping to make a mysterious Rs5000 payment to someone. Choepal explained it was for the gas at Tashi Jong, before saying something about it being hard to get, the deal being "black" and needing a certificate of some sort... I didn't question further, but he hurriedly added that this guy was their "friend" at Tashi Jong, so they paid him extra. These monks, ey?!

The whole adventure took over 3 hours, and I was a little late for my big lama lesson. We had a short lesson and they finished off their talks that they have been doing recently.

And so, finally, to today. Thursday. Today was the Black Hat Dance for real. Like many good days (such as the picnic last week), the day began with tsampa (and about 4 cups of tea before it was 8.30am). I was up early and spent some time hanging around the monastery and the kitchens with the lamas. When I got up to the temple, a large number of the monks were outside the prayer hall, which opens out onto the square, in a semi-circle, with the rinpoche in the middle, dressed up in an elaborate costume. They were performing a puja (complete with drums, cymbals and horns). As often happens when I watch pujas, the lamas got a little distracted, and started waving at me, when really they should be being holy. I'm a terrible, terrible influence on them. Some of the lamas had been up at 2am this morning for their puja, but were thus freed from doing this one.


I also got to see how the puja system works a bit. While hanging around the kitchens with Choepal and, later on, Ngawang from the incense factory, various people came with requests and money to have pujas said for them, their friends, their families, or even their business ventures. All very interesting.

Not long after that, I headed over to the prayer hall, where the monks were putting on the costumes for the dance. They wear magnificently colourful robes, inlaid with patterns, and the eponymous Black Hats, which are black, in the style of a Mongolian sheep herder's hat (so I decided) but with a larger brim, and massive coloured ribbons hanging from the top, upon which there is an ornament that, on some hats, is surrounded by peacock feathers. Most of the monks' costumes were predominantly dark blue, but the leader of the dance wore a lighter blue robe with a lot of coloured pictures on it, whilst four others (representing North, South, East and West, though I can't remember which is which) wore red, blue, green and yellow. Pictures will come soon enough.

The dance is divided into two parts (separated by lunch). The first is a lot less active and a bit longer. They spend a lot of time walking in a circle and spinning slowly, saying a few lines of Tibetan here and there. The second half is much more active, with fast spinning, stomping, jumping and all sorts of fun stuff. The whole event was watched over by the rinpoche, who was also controlling it, as he was armed with the cymbals. He plays those and the dancers and drummers respond to that. It was very impressive, but was the sort of thing that really has to be seen.

The dancers were mainly guys from my advanced class, and monks no longer in the school, those there was one (only one, I think) exception. The younger monks were either not involved, or had more minor roles. Some of them played the drums (whilst making faces at me - the rinpoche didn't see...), others helped carry the larger horns, and three had the strangest role of all. Two tiny monks wore a maroon robe each, a middle lama wore a creamy coloured one. The three of them all wore very strange masks which were of random Tibetan faces - sort of like those masks people wear at political demos to mock whoever they are mocking (usually Tony, Gordon or Prince Charles). The rest just watched. It was really interesting to watch.

After the dance I left Tashi Jong for McLeod Ganj, hitching a lift to Palampur with some monks and getting a crowded local bus on from there to Dharamsala. There were no more buses up to McLeod Ganj, so I had to get a taxi there (which was a few times more expensive than my bus fare). I got a hotel and then had dinner at Taste of India, which was fantastic.

Tomorrow morning, like I said, I'm getting the 5am bus with Patrick (an Aussie GAP teacher at Nechung monastery here in Dharamsala) and possibly Hugh (who is likewise an Aussie in Dharamsala, he's at Kirti monastery) to Amritsar. There we will see the Golden Temple (Sikhism's most sacred site, and a fairly awesome sight, I'm assured).

Anyway, more about that, as well as pictures of everything, will appear very soon (I have the card reader now, I just need to remember to bring my camera and reader to the internet café next time). Until then, goodbye!