The Plan

This year is dedicated to the study of Tibetan language at Thosamling nunnery in Sidhpur, a little village just 30 min by taxi down the mountain from Mcleod Ganj (Upper Dharamsala), the home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.


The course begins on 29 January 2007 and runs through to mid December. There are breaks for His Holiness' teachings (in March and later in the year) as well as a break sometime in June or July. All in all, this course runs for 10 months of the year and the general schedule is 4 hours of classes and conversation each Monday to Friday.

Dharamsala is tucked up in the foothills against the Himalayan range and is about a 12 hour bus ride north of New Delhi. Mcleod Ganj was an old British summer hill station and sits on a little 'saddle' or ridge amongst pine tree forests at around 1800m and there lives a large Tibetan community as well as tourists and some locals. Lower Dharamsala is a larger town that is placed closer to the base of northern foothills on the edge of the Kangra Valley which abuts the Himalayas at this point.

Sidhpur is just below Lower Dharamsala and slightly further to the east along the Himalayan range. It is a semi rural string of villages and houses which is home to the Norbulingka, a Tibetan cultural centre which has been built as a replica of the Dalai Lama's summer residence in Lhasa, Tibet.

But more about all this when I actually get there!