Maybe Not So Idyllic

Today I took a trimmer, cut my hair and shaved off the beard. Looking more like lama than a professor now. The kids were amazed to see my face after four years and so was I. Yesterday I went out to a Tibetan village called Porong. They call it Mini-Swiss because of its beautiful location by a dam. But the idyllic peacefulness of the place is deceptive as the inhabitants have to fight off their Indian neighbors. At night the Indians come across the filed to steal whatever they can find on the Tibetan fields. They also let their cattle graze there. Some Tibetans even sleep in huts on the fields to secure their property. The local police is passive. Now the Tibetans have erected barbed wire fences that will at leastkeep the cattle and pigs out. This animosity is a long story that has been going on since the early 60's when the Tibetans first came here. Thinley, whose family has land in this area, told me that they eventually had to give up, demolish their farm house and move back to the camp. As soon as they left nearby villagers moved in and cut hundreds of fruit trees and sandalwood trees.