Somehow, this image reminded me of what Tibet would feel like as a free place, with freedom of speech and religion, sort of floating up into the blue like a sky flower.
Do you know why His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama calls for peace? He understands cause and effect. When you can recall your last 13 lifetimes it will change your perspective too. That alone would give one a broad view.
The foolish attempt at control continues in Tibet, and it's just painful, in the face of the world's honor of H.H. the Dalai Lama.
You may ask - why don't the Tibetans still in Tibet just leave their ancient homeland, leave their farms and houses, and friends? They can not do so under fear of death. This fall far fewer Tibetans snuck across their southern borders to nations such as Nepal. There is real fear ... and as we now see with the deaths in Lhasa it is justified.
Why don't the Tibetans come here? Why when they do come here posing as non-resident workers at factories why do they 'defect' en masse? The US does not recognize them as refugees, and therefore they can not obtain passports or visas in most cases except illegally, purchasing phony documents in the 3rd world; it is easy but expensive.
China is trying to paint her face like an old lady to appear young, or in this case from brutal ruler to a forward thinking host of the Olympics. It appears the effort has backfired.
From the Tibetans living in Nepal, and foreign business people on my last trip there in Oct-Nov, if you travel just 30 KM outside of the Olympic Games area, you will find extreme poverty exists and is easy to see. One Tibetan refugee, a woman whose husband works as a trader, told me "In the Himalayan borders the soldiers shoot first, never ask questions."
What is less obvious is how China's invasion of Tibet has colored my life for good and bad. 29 years of studying the extraordinary lamas' revered methods, seeing our world through their eyes, a long term patient global view, within a completely universal framework. They love ruthlessly.
But I lucked out because the Chinese invaded Tibet. I benefited because China was power hungry. I am better off because of the highly placed Tibetans who landed here.
Among other things I was warned not to discuss religion - one lama told me that Americans have freedom of religion, but we don't believe in freedom of religion.
Long live HH The Dalai Lama, and anyone else who is a member of his "clique" hen hen he. I am completely in awe of him, I humbly and respectly bow as an American with a million billion visualized unique bodies to him.
How I made this image= a couple of weeks I've been waiting for my software to arrive. So I made this, in stages as I learned another graphics package. Easy when you take an evil mad scientist approach to learning graphics tools. They almost always have something hidden.
Tibetan freedom can not be eradicated, it is not possible.
