Friday, November 23, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Free Tibet!
Hello out there! I realize its been a long time since I last wrote... So its been two weeks of independent study, and we have three more to go. Its a totally different pace from the rest of the semester where every second was planned for us. For all of ISP time we're completely on our own doing research. Of course, there are 15 other students who came to Dharamsala with me, but we're all doing our own things. Its a nice change of pace to be able to schedule myself and really enjoy this experience. Needless to say that we've been watching a lot of movies and I'm halfway through season 3 of Scrubs :)
Anyway, my project is on activism and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Lhadon and Tendor from SFT HQ in New York were here for a while but they're gone now. Its been a lot harder than I thought to do this project. I'm looking at basically profiling the Olympics, why they are historically political, why it is so important for Tibet, and then ultimately trying to figure out what needs to be done to make it a catalyst for Tibetan independence. I don't know how great its going to turn out, but I'm working on it..
I really like this portion of the program, its really cool to do two months of intense academics and then have 5 weeks to just experience the culture and live in this part of the world. Its also nice that I still have a month and a half left in India!
Happy thanksgiving!
Sam
Anyway, my project is on activism and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Lhadon and Tendor from SFT HQ in New York were here for a while but they're gone now. Its been a lot harder than I thought to do this project. I'm looking at basically profiling the Olympics, why they are historically political, why it is so important for Tibet, and then ultimately trying to figure out what needs to be done to make it a catalyst for Tibetan independence. I don't know how great its going to turn out, but I'm working on it..
I really like this portion of the program, its really cool to do two months of intense academics and then have 5 weeks to just experience the culture and live in this part of the world. Its also nice that I still have a month and a half left in India!
Happy thanksgiving!
Sam
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
I'm back in India!
Hey friends,
So I am sitting in Majnu Ta Kila, the Tibetan refugee settlement in Delhi, India. We arrived from Kathmandu yesterday afternoon and we're heading to Dharamsala by overnight sleeper bus tonight. It's been quite a journey, these past few weeks...
Tibet is a crazy, hard, scary, beautiful, repressive, incredible, complicated place. The entire issue of Tibet is more complicated than I ever imagined. What is development? Is development good or bad? Is Tibetan culture better preserved in Tibet or in exile? What is culture? What is Tibetan culture? Everyone agrees that Tibetan is better preserved in Tibet than exile. There is almost no english in Lhasa, and all signs by law have to have Tibetan on them in addition to Chinese. The Chinese is always bigger, however.
When we first arrived in Lhasa many of us commented that it didn't really seem as bad as Tibetan exiles would have you believe. I eventually saw how wrong we were... What we came to realize after spending time in Tibet was that what we were seeing was the surface, the superficial Tibetan culture that is being preserved. The repression exists just as strongly today as it did ten years ago. Only now it is more subtle, an underlying tension that keeps everyone on edge. Tibetans are allowed to wear traditional clothing, eat Tibetan food, and practice a very limited form of Tibetan Buddhism. But even such simple things as circumambulating important sites--while allowed in general--is restricted on important dates. Just before we arrived ten monks at Drepung monastery were arrested for attempting to celebrate HHDL's recieving of the congressional gold medal by whitewashing his former residence. They were beatan, and the monastery was surrounded by the People's Liberation Army. Our group was not allowed to go there. Because of the gold medal a Chinese flag had been posted on top of the Potala palace, usually there is only one on the square in front. More Tibetans had been arrested before we arrived for chanting slogans at a karaoke bar.
Tibet is a hard place. Tibetans and Chinese don't interact, Lhasa is an incredibly segregated city. There is almost no intermarriage. There are police everywhere. Where there aren't uniformed police, there are undercover. Sometimes they are spottable by the way they act, or that they have earpieces. It was very difficult to be in Lhasa by the end, I was very sad.
Sam
So I am sitting in Majnu Ta Kila, the Tibetan refugee settlement in Delhi, India. We arrived from Kathmandu yesterday afternoon and we're heading to Dharamsala by overnight sleeper bus tonight. It's been quite a journey, these past few weeks...
Tibet is a crazy, hard, scary, beautiful, repressive, incredible, complicated place. The entire issue of Tibet is more complicated than I ever imagined. What is development? Is development good or bad? Is Tibetan culture better preserved in Tibet or in exile? What is culture? What is Tibetan culture? Everyone agrees that Tibetan is better preserved in Tibet than exile. There is almost no english in Lhasa, and all signs by law have to have Tibetan on them in addition to Chinese. The Chinese is always bigger, however.
When we first arrived in Lhasa many of us commented that it didn't really seem as bad as Tibetan exiles would have you believe. I eventually saw how wrong we were... What we came to realize after spending time in Tibet was that what we were seeing was the surface, the superficial Tibetan culture that is being preserved. The repression exists just as strongly today as it did ten years ago. Only now it is more subtle, an underlying tension that keeps everyone on edge. Tibetans are allowed to wear traditional clothing, eat Tibetan food, and practice a very limited form of Tibetan Buddhism. But even such simple things as circumambulating important sites--while allowed in general--is restricted on important dates. Just before we arrived ten monks at Drepung monastery were arrested for attempting to celebrate HHDL's recieving of the congressional gold medal by whitewashing his former residence. They were beatan, and the monastery was surrounded by the People's Liberation Army. Our group was not allowed to go there. Because of the gold medal a Chinese flag had been posted on top of the Potala palace, usually there is only one on the square in front. More Tibetans had been arrested before we arrived for chanting slogans at a karaoke bar.
Tibet is a hard place. Tibetans and Chinese don't interact, Lhasa is an incredibly segregated city. There is almost no intermarriage. There are police everywhere. Where there aren't uniformed police, there are undercover. Sometimes they are spottable by the way they act, or that they have earpieces. It was very difficult to be in Lhasa by the end, I was very sad.
Sam
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)