Bylakuppe

We were doing yoga in Mysore, India. That's where the Ashtanga people go. Most of these people are vegetarians, as are most people in India. Actually, most of these Ashtanga yoga people that go to Mysore, they're not from India, but they're still vegetarian.



Bylakuppe's Golden Temple -- a slice of Tibet in tropical South India



Anyway, one of these vegetarians told us of a place nearby called Bylakuppe. Bylakuppe is a secret hide-away resort for Buddhist monks who like to eat beef. Tsk tsk. Ok, seriously... Bylakuppe is one of many Tibetan refugee villages in India.

We were getting all ready to go there when we were told it was closed to visitors because the week before, the Dalai Lama and his groupie, Richard Gere, had been there to do a speech, and there has been some vague threat. We're not sure who would make a threat like this, hmm? Then, on our last week in India, we received the good news that Bylakuppe had again been opened to visitors, but that I should bring my passport. They didn't check it...



There's about 10,000 Tibetans living in the Bylakuppe area. They've got these really cool Tibetan temples there, and Tibetan monks walking around, ironically surrounded by coconut palm trees. And if you walk down the village street, there are shops with all sorts of tourist trinkets (Fr33 T!bet shirts, I heart NY hats, Che Guevara posters, incense) and ... beef momos!

Now here's the thing. Buddhists don't eat meat. I wrote a college paper about this years ago: The Buddhist Diet. But, and you can ask the Dalai Lama himself, the Tibetan Buddhists don't have access to many vegetables up thar in them hills, so they kinda gotta eat meat to survive. That's why, when you walk down this village street in the middle of holy-cow country vegetarian South India, you see all these dudes dressed in saffron and burgundy robes, chowing down on beef beef beef.

What's a momo? A momo is the national dish of Tibet. Well, if it were a nation, that is. When in Bylakuppe, it feels like a nation. Almost. Anyway, a momo is a steamed dumpling. They do make some vegetarian momos, but the ones filled with beef are the famous ones. We tried several of the momo shacks on the street, and there was one restaurant that was way best, it's the one in the pic below.



We've had momos in other countries, but the Bylakuppe momos were really yummy, and after several weeks without any meat, the beef was like a protein mainline hit that got us all goofy and giddy and ready to rock, but admittedly we felt a twinge of guilt.



We'd grown fond of our neighbor's cow in Mysore, and enjoyed her milk. We also liked the cute pigs that came by to eat our trash every afternoon. Pigs in India? That's what we thought at first, and then we learned about the Coorgi people, who eat pigs, unlike the Muslims and Hindus. Everybody's gotta have their thing, eh?

Here's a question -- in India, what happens to the male cow?



Tibetan monks watching a cricket match on TV in Bylakuppe, India



You see these signs around the village