Volunteer Work in Tibetan Bir

Bir is our last stop volunteering in India. This small town is located in Himachal Pradesh State and is about two hours on road from Dharamsala. There are four villages in Bir: Upper Bir, Bir-Billing, Tibetan Bir and Bir Road. My sister and I are staying in Tibetan Bir, which is mostly populated by Tibetan refugees, like Dharamsala.  Here we will teach English for four weeks to young monks in a Buddhist Monastery.

Chokling Monastery

Chokling Temple

According to Dawa, our Volunteer Project Coordinator, the Chokling Monastery was built about 30 years ago. He said that most of the young monks living in this monastery are orphans and were brought to Chokling by their family members. Others were brought by poor parents, who had no means of supporting them and thought that life in a monastery would give their children a better start in life, with food, education and a decent roof over their heads. I felt to me that the monastery is pretty much like an orphanage, with the difference that here the kids wear red robes and follow a different religion.

Young Monks outside the School Building 



Although the Monastery and the Temple look beautifully decorated on the outside, with vibrant colours and drawings, it’s a different story inside the classroom. As soon as we open the door there is an awful smell of damp  and the walls look very dirty. It’s in desperate need of some TLC! Dawa explained to us that the school has no existing sponsorship. He said that the money people donate to the temple has to be spent on the temple and not in the school.

Classroom



Dine and I are teaching English to an average of 25 students, between the ages of 6 and 16 years old. The young monks have a great sense of humor. Just like the children in Kenya, here they go nuts to have star stickers stamped on their notebooks, after copying the lessons from the blackboard. On our first day, we joined Grace, a volunteer from Australia, who brought her laptop to the classroom  to play the ‘Monsters INC’ cartoon to the monks. Most of the monks, small and big, couldn’t take their eyes of the small screen. J

Monks watching cartoon 'Monsters INC'

On Grace’s last day in the monastery, a week after we had arrived, she organized a farewell party with the monks in the football field. When we arrived, the party was well under way, with the monks enjoying themselves playing a football match. This was the first time we saw them without their red robes.

Football Match

Some others, like young Tenzin, 6 y.o., preferred to play with their mobile phone! On the photo below Tenzin was showing me a video of a football match with Ronaldo, a famous Brazilian football player. He also showed me his favourite music video clip of Justin Bieber and took a photo of me. He could use his mobile better than I do with mine!

Tenzin and I watching Justin Bieber video clip

TIBETAN HOST FAMILY HOUSE

Our new home in Bir is a huge three story house. We are staying with Dawa’s family (our project coordinator and now host-brother!).  His elderly father and elderly brother don’t speak much English, so we get to interact very little with them. Yeshi, his older sister, can manage some English, which is very handy since she helps out the volunteers when Dawa is not around. She is very caring and cooks delicious meals! Currently, we are in 8 volunteers in the house, from Brazil, Australia, South Africa, England and Canada.

Host Family House in Bir 

TIBETAN FLAGS

The Tibetan flags can be seen everywhere in Dharamsala and Bir. The great shot below was taken by Dine from the rooftop in our new home in Bir. According to our host brother Dawa, these flags bring good luck to the Tibetan families.

Tibetan Flags on the Rooftop

PARAGLIDING IN BIR-BILLING

During our first days in Bir we found the town packed with foreigners. We were told by another volunteer that apparently Bir is one of the best places in the world to go paraglinding. Who would have thought, in such a small town in the middle of nowhere! We met some nice paragliders, who are renting out some rooms in the house, to join in a paragliding competition happening in Bir at the moment. One of them, to our surprise, could speak very good Portuguese! These paragliders are most welcome by the Bir residents, as they bring a good income to this small town every year.

Paraglader in Bir-Billing

One afternoon, Dine and I went to the Paragliders Landing Site, which was a 10 minutes’ walk from our house. It was so peaceful watching them landing. They all looked like they knew what they were doing. Although we heard from other volunteers that some paragliders have a very rough landing and have to cope with the embarrassment of everyone laughing around them. J They also seemed to be very fit to be able to carry their huge backpacks with their paragliding gear inside them. 

Paragliding Landing Site in Bir-Billing