Here We Go Again!

I should have started this blog awhile ago.  It is a continuation of the research I began in Ghana, Africa with the field studies program at BYU experimenting with different mediums and methods in travel writing while exploring the authenticity of experience.  My time in Ghana was amazing, and that project can be found here.  This time, however, I am continuing my research in a very different part of the world.
McLeod Ganj, a suburb of Dharamsala, India.

This is a town nestled between the ridges of the majestic Himalayas.  It is the home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama along with the Tibetan government living in exile, still trying to win their homeland back from China.

After completing my first field study I recognize just how much I do not know about this community.  Going as a field facilitator also makes that experience a little more interesting.  I am, however, anxious to learn more and to have yet another great experience abroad while exploring my topic of interest.

Here is where I am at so far... just to document the exploration phase of my project.  I am going to stick to my avatar approach where I looked at how different mediums and viewpoints altered the my experience as a single traveler.  My framework will essentially be the same (except I will polish it up based on my conclusions from Ghana), but this time I am exploring a different topic while in the field.

At first I wanted to look at how both Tibetans and Hindu's maintain their religious identity while in a tourist community.  After reading the book Nine Lives In the Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple, however, I am looking at two other topics that could be of interest.  First, what is the literacy culture like.  So many of the stories found in this book looked at poetry, ancient texts, and story telling, and I am curious how those play a role in raising awareness for the Tibetan cause.  Another idea, based on the format Dalrymple wrote this book in, would be to have a creative writing project as my final product in addition to my blog.  What I think would be interesting would be to get a kind of portrait of Dharamsala-just talk to different people and hear their stories and get a sense for this community.  It was only after reading the chapter on Dharamsala in this book that I was really able to stop objectifying the Chinese invasion of Tibet.  It made it more personal, more real, and it ignited something in me that I would like to take a part in.

So that is where I am at the moment.  Stay tuned, because like field work, the project always tend to evolve the more you dissect it and put it back together again.