Today is my birthday. I haven’t been expecting anything special and the day started out somewhat badly as I woke up to a power outage. This meant no shower.

The lack of power also meant no computers so we had to quickly change the game plan. Instead of working on our projects we went over to the cultural center. We looked at the displays on every aspect of Tibet which were mostly created by students. Subjects included religion, geography, history and culture. The kids grabbed our hands and pulled us from display to another singing to us Tibetan songs as they proudly share their culture with us.

We then went to visit classroom 7D, Choeppel’s class and met our students’ classmates. To my great surprise, they greeted me with a rousing chorus of “London Bridge is Falling Down” in honor of my birthday. I’m the lone Brit here and the students took full advantage of grilling me on the finer aspects of European football.

Later that afternoon, we finally got a back-up generator working and were soon asked to return to the Peace Center for an important meeting.

Again, I was completely blindsided by the students, teachers and Bridges crew singing “Happy Birthday” to me in Tibetan: Tashi Dalek! They had secretly planned a Tibetan birthday party for me, complete with a huge cake and traditional butter lamp (instead of blowing out candles here, you light the butter lamp to make a wish).

But wait, there’s more! Everyone lined up and ceremoniously gave me a white Kata – a silk greeting scarf that Tibetans use to honor Lamas and, apparently, birthdays! All of the students gave me letters and a few also gave me small gifts of hairbands and notebooks. It was all very overwhelming. I tried, unsuccessfully, not to tear up.

Somehow I managed to cut the cake, without getting all of the katas in it, and we all enjoyed a large piece before the students left for the evening.

After a quick dinner, “our” monk Kunkhen, joined us again and entertained us for over an hour with stories from his work in NYC at the Tibet House, and his thoughts on a local boy, the Dalai Lama decreed “Monk Incarnate,” which he said “is 6 and rather stupid.” He ended the conversation by letting us know that he was rather well-known for his multi-phonic throat chanting, and he asked if we wanted to hear it. He started with a low throbbing chant, not dissimiliar to the sound of a didgeridoo. It is amazing to hear it up close!

After this rather bizarre, but fun turn, I definitely fancied a beer to end the day. We walked into town and into the first bar we could find (apparently this turned out to be the favorite local spot for Pierce Brosnan) and drank some of the largest and strangest beer I have ever tasted.

Over a glass of Thunderbolt (!) I looked back on my day. This has been one of the most emotional, absolutely amazing and also, the most sober birthdays I have ever had. Maybe my butter lamp wish will come true – to spend my next birthday back here in Dharamsala.

Digg This!   Tweet This!   Share on Facebook   Stumble It!