If anything good can come out of oppression and loss, I may have just witnessed it in Dharamsala. This steep, sprawling town in the Himalayan foothills of northern India is home to thousands of exiled Tibetans -- including the Dalai Lama, who lives at Namgyal, a yellow and red monastery perched on the crest of a hill and surrounded by prayer flags. I stayed in a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery at the lower edge of town, and witnessed a transformation of lives that was not just visible but palpable.