Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Bylakuppe - Tibetans in India

I found out after this trip that Bylakuppe house the largest Tibetan settlements outside their homeland. There are about eight thousand Tibetans smacked right in the middle of India but we couldn't find anyone who speaks Kannada, Tamil or English.

Namdrolings Golden Temple. Me, Ar and M.


Inside The Golden Temple

Ar shouldn't be touching the paintings. M is in awe.


This is new to me - painting of a nude female straddling a praying Buddha.


For a somewhat-poverish community who has been forced to make this their home, this area is impeccably clean. Drying laundry?


I've never been to Tibet nor China but I sense that Tibetans are not to keen on becoming Chinese. Free Tibet.



Each color on the roof symbolizes something, which I have yet to find out.

"Tibetans are like pandas; so cute, always smiling and you just wanna hug 'em", says Ar.

We saw some people eating this...

So we ordered as well. (I cannot remember the name! Ar, do you ?)

Tukpa. This would be my first bowl of noodle soup (that is non-instant-ramen) in India and it was heart-warmingly satisfying.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

those nude females... u sure not buddhisatva? Those are males. Was the noodles good?

Po said...

I thought they were boddhisatvas also, but can tell the buddhas are male, the nudists have boobs. Ar said that there are some local influence in the paintings.
The noodles were pretty good to me, but maybe cos I haven't had noodle soup in a while. It was nothing spectacular, was simple and clear.