tibet and other places

i bought these traditional tibetan bone beads. yes they are made of bone and i hope the animal did not suffer too much. what a great reminder of impermanence.

zoë and i are developing plans to see one or two more places in india and then go up to nepal for two weeks while we wait on chinese visas. a chinese visa should take 3 days, and a tibet visa should take no longer than 10 days. then we will go into the T.A.R. zone (tibet autonomous region) which is roughly half of tibet. the remaining land has been absorbed into each of china's neighboring states.

currently the border into tibet is closed to all tourists for the month of march due to the violent protest three years earlier. the borders should open again in april. tibet has been terribly destroyed by china: 6,000 monasteries have been leveled and 1.2 million tibetans killed since the 50s, not to mention their spiritual/political leader has been kicked out. on march 10th of this year his holiness the dalai lama handed over his political status to the tibetan government to become simply a spiritual guide for tibet and the world.

zoë and i went to the tibet museum in the dalai lama's current (temporary) residence. right before we went to the museum we both agreed that we had a strong desire to see tibet. after seeing the museum it only grew, though we both got a pretty good idea what we are in for. tibet is in absolute ruins, and then the chinese build modern buildings on top them. 


my stomach was doing flips as we went into the section on torture, the stains on this shirt are blood. It is pretty unbelievable, it is almost a hidden history, china has been so much more brutal then I though they were. there are posters all over dharamsala showing the most mutilated bodies after the chinese tortured them in 2008, all of them dead. it is common practice for china to release their torcher victims on the brink of death so they do not die in their hands.

on the way out we picked up a free travel advisory book for tibet. it explained several of the monasteries are intact only due to the tourism they pull, and the donation box goes straight to the chinese government. they said hand your money straight to the monks, and be discrete. any family you stay with is likely to be immediately put under surveillance. all phone calls and emails are monitored -- it really is big brother to the maximum. i took this video on the way out of the museum, you can here the monks chanting, an incredible experience, you can feel them shake the earth.

so why go to tibet? the dalai lama actually encourages it for whoever can possibly go. if one goes to tibet it's encouragement for the suppressed citizens that the world is taking interest in their land. if you can make sure the majority of your money go to the locals, it really can be a help. it is also important to see what is going on in this country and to tell others when you get back. very little information leaves tibet. lonely planet recommends to cover the book; otherwise you will lose it at the boarder because it mentions some pro-dalai lama things.

it is also pretty safe, except in march, to go to tibet. really the worst that could happen is they kick you out of the T.A.R. zone back into nepal or more likely to some other chinese state to spend more money there. i really doubt the chinese government is keen on imprisoning americans. further more i do not plan on breaking any of the laws, at least not publicly, of course i support the dalai lama!

several books have mentioned that it is possible to get out of the chinese developments and see some parts of tibet that are still tibet. this is what we will try to do. i will be researching the best thing to do with my time to benefit the locals. i hope to learn as much as possible from the people. we will probably end up trekking to the more remote locations, a common practice among visitors. 

my goal is to find these answers to these questions:

-what has fueled the tibetans for 52 years? 

-what aspects of buddhism support the effort to survive?

-how can the world best support tibet?

-will tibet ever achieve it's independence with in this generation? if not when?

-how can we support the effort for independence, in and out of tibet?

-and how can we do it peacefully without trouble from china?

-what changes have the tibetans seen throughout their lifetime?

-how have their homes changed? -has things become more restricted? 
                 -how have things changed since 2008?

-what do the tibetans think about the dalai lama handing over his political status to the tibetan government in exile?

-how do the tibetans develop the heart to deal with such tragedies?

-how do you develop compassion for people attempting to get rid of your culture?


i have to be really careful to ask these questions beyond the ears of the chinese, i could really endager a tibetan. i am partially on a spiritual quest to find motivation for my own life and to reach my full potential, whatever that might be. it is likely i may leave my computer behind if i go into the T.A.R. zone, there may be a gap of communication. I have too much buddhism and pro-dalai lama things and pictures to get it through the border.


i plan on being completely open to whatever comes to me in tibet, spiritual enlightenment or not, i am bound to learn something.


there are more questions, that is what we came up during breakfast, this is what we were looking at this morning:

that's enough for now!