Advertisement
Published: September 22nd 2008
Edit Blog Post
another week in india
this one has seemed to go by rather quickly. the routine of school helps with that, considering we are in class all day five days a week. i am enjoying my monday off, sitting in a cafe watching the rain coming down outside, finishing a cup of gingerlemonhoney tea. i just bought a bunch of techno/electronic music on itunes and am definitely jamming over here in this dimly lit corner. one thing that i have to make note of that i'm noticing in terms of cultural differences is that here it's apparently ok to stand over someone's shoulder and and look at what they're doing on their computer. example: the guy that works here just stood over my shoulder for a good couple of minutes just chilling and watching me. i hope he doesn't come back now and see what i've written, that might be awkward...
another difference that's been brought to my attention this week is that tibetans don't celebrate birthdays. i found this out when i mentioned to my homestay family that it was my sister's birthday (holla sittah) and my homestay brother told me that they never celebrate, let alone remember when their
birthdays are. that sounds alright to me. children in our culture get so greedy around their birthdays and develop a sense of entitlement when it comes to receiving gifts. they make lists months in advance then experience extreme disappointment if they don't get everything they wanted. and even if the lists eventually get phased out when adulthood settles in, there is still this pervasive covetousness that seems to linger within us all. i think the buddhists have it right. i would much rather be celebrated a little everyday than have it all concentrated into one day a year.
this week we had many interesting speakers come to our class to talk with us. the president of the india chapter of students for a free tibet came at the beginning of the week. this is a non-profit that started in 1994 in newyorkcity and now has 650 chapters all over the world. as a tibetan support group, it's main initiatives are to promote political and economic freedom in tibet, and to ensure that tibetans in tibet have proper human rights (like freedom of religion, speech, assembly, mobility)- which they currently don't have. the organization comes up with innovative ways to
bring people together to raise awareness for the tibetan cause. they train people on how to effectively demonstrate and how to deal with police/not get arrested hopefully. their main goal at present is lobbying for the release of political prisoners in tibet. this organization was even successful in stopping the worldbank from giving money to china to further develop tibet. (and "nobody" stops the worldbank.)
a few days later a man from the information and international relations department of the central tibetan administration spoke with us about the structure of the tibetan government and the dalai lama's middle way approach. this is the term used for his holiness' stance on tibet's independence. as a leader, he is not striving for a free tibet, but an autonomous one. his goal is to resolve the issue through dialogue and to reunify the 5 tibetan regions (these areas have been divided by the chinese and the maps have been changed so that about half of what originally was tibet is now labeled with different names, existing in chinese provinces.) an autonomous tibet would mean that all internal affairs would be handled by a local tibetan government, leaving defense and foreign affairs to
the chinese. from time to time tibetan and chinese diplomats meet to discuss this issue, without making any headway. the chinese see the dalai lama's "middle way" as a mask for tibetan national unity, and are not willing to concede.
this causes a split among tibetans. there are many supporters of the dalai lama's approach, people who genuinely believe it to be right. but there are many who do not (like the march 10 protestors inside tibet that set chinese businesses on fire.) what should not be ignored is that no one ever cries for or dies for an "autonomous tibet". it seems to be that people are fighting for FREEDOM.
a man named lhasang tsering spoke to us yesterday. he is an extremely influential tibetan nationalist, served in the guerilla army, was the principle of the tibetan children's village in dharamsala, and the president of the tibetan youth congress. today he owns a book store in town. he is very outspoken and people in the community seem to give him mixed reviews. sometimes what he has to say is hard to swallow because he is not in support of the middle way approach. he told us that china
is making a hole in the roof of the world and that there must be a global movement to patch it up. he believes in direct action inside of china, does not support violence, but feels that some sabotage must take place to disrupt china's economic control and to draw world leader's attention to this atrocity. i have never heard someone speak so passionately about ANYTHING. he cried to us, he completely opened up, he made us all jump in our seats as his voice would all the sudden raise and jolt. when he was finished speaking i was in tears and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening in that state.
up until yesterday i hadn't met a tibetan who was sad or angry, but i see now that it's possible. it's real. and as much as i try to take this experience in slowly, day-by-day, yesterday it hit me hard and fast, in a way it never has before. the clarity was almost too much for me to handle but i quickly realized that it was not something i wanted to run away from. tibetans cannot run away from this harsh reality, this is their life. i understand
now more than ever and am appreciative of the rights that are guaranteed to me as an american citizen. these rights include being granted a passport to travel around the world and learn about REAL LIFE TRAGEDY that people live through everyday. (tibetans in tibet are rarely issued passports by the chinese government, and if they are, are only permitted to go as far as nepal.) it is a situation they must risk their lives to escape from and those that have made it to exile will be risking their lives if they decide to go back.
i understand that this is heavy. this may be depressing. you may not want to think about it. this is what i'm learning about, this is what the family i'm living with deals with everyday, and if you want to understand me at all you've got to understand that this is real.
i hope you all at home can realize just how free you are,
and if you don't then go dance around in the streets and yell "george bush is a dumbass". i promise, it won't get you shot.
love,
helen
p.s. just wanted to add that the
sun has come back out and is now shining, like it always was, only it was hiding for a while.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.137s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.093s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb