FREE TIBET

Today I giggled with a senior Tibetan monk as we watched a monkey lounging in a nearby tree.  I don’t know if I will ever forget that moment.
Dan and I are currently in Dharamsala, staying at a guest house just outside of Mcleod Ganj, the home of the exiled Tibetan Government.  I will see (if all goes as planned) the Dalai Lama himself speak for tourists and excited Tibetans, among others.  While I do this, awestruck by the opportunity, Tibetans are suffering without access or opportunity of their own to see their exiled leader.  This puts me in a strange state of mind.  It makes me think- am I just a spoiled tourist who gets the honour while others less fortunate than I suffer for their beliefs and basic freedoms?  Yep!
Today we spent the afternoon getting to know the town of Mcleod Ganj.  We visited the Tibetan Museum- where we learned about the struggle to FREE TIBET.  The history behind the fall into Chinese occupation and assimilation, to the current struggle and censorship of Tibetans today.  Now, I have seen the FREE TIBET stickers and such around my city and I have read newspaper articles and watched news stories on T.V but it is an entirely different experience being here.  We are in a town where refugees arrive, coming to escape the bonds of Chinese rule in their homeland.  They come to India to practise their own beliefs in freedom and to educate their children in the Tibetan way.
I walk past monks in the street- they could have made the 40+ day trek, through the snowy mountains to reach freedom in India.  Their families may never know that they made it safely.
I complain that I don’t have hot water or a comfy seat on the train.  This place puts things into perspective for me.  So I ask one simple thing… research the struggle to FREE TIBET and talk about it.  Knowledge is always the first step to real change.

This is the monkey we were giggling at :)