Tibet

I know that most of you folks follow the news, so you know that there is currently some bad stuff going on inside the increasingly Chinese province formerly known as Tibet. I may have a bit more news than some, through involvement in the Save Tibet movement:

• Reports by doctors in Lhasa of dozens of wounded streaming into hospitals.
• Riots escalate in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa as lay Tibetans join in the protests which began on March 10th, anniversary of the Tibetan uprising of 1959.
• Unconfirmed reports that soldiers are firing on Tibetans in the streets.
• Confirmed reports that the major monasteries around Lhasa have been sealed off.
• Three hundred monks from Drepung monastery and 100 nuns from Chutsang nunnery marched toward the center of Lhasa, stopped by armed police. One was beaten to the ground.
• Unconfirmed reports of scores of Tibetans shot and killed including a 16 year-old girl killed and taken away by Tibetans on Beijing Middle Road.
• Arrest of around 500 students from Tibet University, according to CNN.

  The Dalai Lama has issued a statement calling on the Chinese to show restraint and calling on Tibetans not to resort to violence.

  I am filled with hopelessness as I read about all this, because there seems to be very little that I can do to prevent an entire culture, evolved through thousands of years to a very spiritual and compassionate level, to be crushed beneath the boots of oppression.

  I’m sending a little extra money – earmarked for medical aid to the refugees who make it across the mountains. I’m also doing my own little part to raise awareness – but this feels like a very small gesture mostly intended to pacify my own aching feelings. Money for Save Tibet won’t stop the Chinese oppression, and it won’t help the protesters now in prison.

  The part where I’m finding comfort is that, in my own small way, I’m praying for the world and for both the Chinese and the Tibetans. I know that we all pray in different ways, and that a few of you who read this may take offense at the very idea of “prayer.” To you I say, don’t get wrapped up in the word. Try “hoping” instead if that relieves some of the baggage you bring (yes, evil_genius, I’m looking at you).

  The Dalai Lama talks about a practice in which he tries to find compassion for the torturers and murderers oppressing his people. This is still totally beyond me. However, even as I fail, I find that there is some comfort in the act of trying to feel sympathy for people whose situation requires them to beat monks and nuns, and (if the reports are to be believed) to fire on crowds of civilians. Imagine waking up and knowing that the best you’ll be able to do with that day of precious human life is to beat a nun. Imagine trying to sleep that night.

  Imagine being in a situation so bad that you can’t even realize that this might be a problem.

  Having made that effort, I find it easier to do my small part to make the world around me a better place. I can certainly find compassion for the Tibetans driven over the edge to risk their lives standing up against the oppression that is now more than a generation old and going strong.

  By comparison, the sometimes stressful process of traveling home via two cars and three airports seems downright peaceful.