Ben left us today for Gujarat. It is sad that we wont be seeing him again until January. It is strange how good friends we have all become, but then, when you have so much shit to deal with (real and metaphorical), you cant help but form a bond. He is actually going on a pilgrimage with his monk friend before he goes back to UK as well. The monk is taking him to a chanting festival. I am not sure what it involves, and nor does Ben, but he thinks it could be interesting, or at least, weird enough to be a laugh later. A week of quiet contemplation or chanting isn’t my thing though. My grandfather was on the phone to me and I told him Ben’s plans and he had a minor panic as to whether I was engaging in such foreign activities.

AIM café has put up Chriistmas decorations. They are quite cute. We will need to give them a card I think. They have been the thing that has kept us sane throughout this year. The cute boy with the pony tail that giggles every time we come near him has been MIA for a wee while though. I hope he is ok. I would enquire, but I think it would lead to miscommunication and too much confusion while they tried to work out what food I meant…

This afternoon we went to a conference on the development of the study of Tibetan history and culture. It was very interesting, and very much pro Free Tibet. But the thing that made it special was that we also saw and heard His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is a smiling man, with large eyes and a strange way of speaking that is very measured and slow, as if he is considering every phrase very carefully. He said that the conference and the participation of so many Tibetan, and non-Tibetan, scholars and students was proof that there is a consensus of a separate Tibetan state with a separate culture and history to China. He made the joke that he was the Dalai Lama of Tibet, and never of China, despite the current geographical reality. He was actually quite funny, his happiness came out in his speech. He spoke for some time in Tibetan as well for the benefit of the Tibetan students, and finished the section with “And all of that is Top Secret!” and started laughing. It was a good experience. Just to be in the same space as one of the most influential men in Asia and the world was quite overwhelming in its own way. I have never before been in the presence of a World Leader like that. He stressed the need for a finding out of the truth of Tibetan heritage and culture, as people needed to know what Tibet really means, and not just some abstract idea. He also talked about Buddhist scholars developing Tibetan Buddhism as a more authentic Buddhism. It was very interesting for the essay Lauren is currently writing on Buddhism. We met our friend Sunni afterwards. She has seen His Holiness several times, but this is the first time she has ever heard him speak in English. The last time she saw him, she was with a Thai monk who took her along to meet the Dalai Lama, who she said would bow to the monk every time he saw him. She had become emotional during his speech. I wish I knew what he had said in Tibetan. It had sounded less measured and restrained. More a call to arms as it were for the scholars in the room than mere observations. I remember he came to Glasgow when I was 11. Apparently my friend Gavia went to see him speak. I remember the advertising for it: lots of a blurry photo of him in a meditative posture and a mic. I was maybe thirty feet from one of the most powerful fugitives in the world. Quite a claim in itself. 

Had to buy a jumper on the way home. It is getting cold in the mornings here. You don’t want to get out of bed at all. It must be like 10 degrees in the mornings and at night now. Not pleasant in a place that has no insulation and no heating facility. The walk to the shower in the morning is getting harder every day. A good fifty feet to walk soaking wet and wrapped in a towel having had a lukewarm shower.