Festival, Celebration, Meeting, and Candle Light

This week I have so much to write about! I don’t know how I’ll get through it, but here we go.

Saturday was a big celebration for the founding of TCV- Tibetan’s Children Village, one of the big schools. There were seriously hundreds of people- maybe thousands, at this ceremony. It started with the marching in of the different houses. There are four houses in this school- and yes, just like Harry Potter. It struck me as funny, watching them march in. Marching is a huge part of every culture. Why is that? But it was quite fun to watch these kids come march in, proud and excited.

The motto of the school is “Come to learn, Go to Serve.” Those of you at BYU, isn’t that quite funny? I thought it was, and if you don’t think its funny, you need to learn BYU’s motto. After the marching in there were speeches, including one by the Dalai Lama. For those of you that follow the China/Tibet thing at all, you may have heard remanants on the news about this speech, because in it he said he’s starting to think nothing will come of these talks with China. He’s starting to think maybe the Middle Way won’t work- which is HUGE. The people here, as mentioned before, adore him and seem to be willing to do whatever he thinks is best. There will be a meeting here in November, where Tibetans will all get together and discuss what they want to do. The Dalai Lama is now trying to get the people to decide, because he is tired of the situation. He is not giving up on Tibet, like many news sources were quoting. He’s simply trying to get the people to decide, not just follow his way. But anyway, I was there when he announced it, and although it was in Tibetan, so I didn’t understand, it’s still fun to say, “I was there!” It may not seem like a big deal, but this was a huge announcement.

After the speeches they did song and dance performances and a kinesthtics performance. As odd as it may sound, it reminded me of the opening ceremonies to the Olympics. Just the sheer numbers of people, all moving and performing as one… It is amazing to see. It’s something that we don’t do often in the west and just I don’t know…. Leaves me in awe. We in the west just don’t’ tend to work like that, so to see a culture where sheer numbers can move as one, it’s quite the site.

On Monday they had a big celebration at the other school, the one my “nephew” goes to. They played all kinds of games- 3 legged race, relays, musical chairs, alaphbet and number races, etc. Many of the same things you’d see at school activities at home! But the funnest one to watch was where they had bread tied to a string and the kids had to eat it without using their hands. Absolutely adorable! Oh, and bragging rights, my “nephew” got second place on the number race.

So those were the two schools celebrations. This week I also attended two political events as well. The first was a Rangzen meeting. Rangzen is the Tibetan word for independence, so this is a group of people who want full independence for Tibet. The meeting was quite interesting: 4 ½ hours of a couple 100 Tibetans speaking about an issue that they all care about. The sheer passion and intensity that was so often displayed in people’s faces and voices as they spoke about what they wanted for Tibet… I could never begin to describe to you, at least not to do it justice. You would have to see if for yourself, hear it straight from their mouth. Even with a translator sitting behind me, and not understanding the words directly from their mouths, I still could not miss the intensity. At one point, the man right in from of us spoke, and as he did he was just shaking with intensity. I have been here over a month now, and it wasn’t until then that I think I even began to grasp just want this means to some of these people.

I still don’t know what I think is best for the Tibetans. I’ve been fighting with myself since I got here. For those of you that know my more recent love of Chinese history and culture, you know it must be hard for me. I still don’t’ know what I tink should happen, what would be best for China and for Tibet. There is no easy answer. But the thought that I had was that when challenges come, people become so much more through those challenges. I’m really beginning to see that it is our challenges, and what we choose to do with them that define us.

Ok, so last experience to add to this everlastingly long blog. The second event was a candle light vigil. I don’t know what it is about these… but I actually really enjoy them. The idea of a group of people coming together, lighting candles and discussing things in a peaceful way… its just really claming and yet endearing. It’s only my second one, and first one in India though, so maybe I’m still romancing with the idea of it. But there were at least twice the number of people at this candle light vigil, in favor of the Middle Way, an autonomous region. And even though it was "calm and peaceful," they still seemed to have a deeper fervor than those at the Rangzen meeting...