After a few days in Dharamsala, what the Dali Lama has put together is impressive. It’s literally an active library of culture, full of all the seeds to build a nation if it ever finds a permanent home in
Academies of music, art, dance, philosophy, history. Advocacy and media and educational NGOs to serve its people. The reality is that all this depends on the financial support of outsiders and foreign governments.
The Tibetans have a great deal of pride and integrity and it shows in everything: discipline to religion and practice, tradition, living with self-reliance, schooling, the leadership of the Dali Lama to appeal to the world for his people and befriend influential leaders in government, media and entertainment.
The museum at the Dali Lama’s temple and residence is sobering. The devote Tibetans are pawns at the hands of a humiliating Chinese, who themselves were shamed by the Japanese and nineteenth century colonists. Oppressive and oppressed. It all depends on what side of the fence you’re on.
The situation appears intractable.
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