Support Tibet

Tashi Delek, everybody, and greetings from McLeod Ganj, Upper Dharamsala, seat of the Tibetan Government in Exile (for info: http://www.tibet.com ).

Got here yesterday and already had a fun day wandering about and delighting in monasteries and prayer flags. Also had a visit to the Tibet Museum, which essentially reduced me to tears, although I wasn't the only one.

Which brings me to the point of this email. Having always felt rather strongly about the Tibet issue and the plight of the Tibetans to keep their culture, religion and overall way of life going, despite being exiled for decades by now, I reckon there is much every one of us can do to support their struggle, by either supporting the community in exile or supporting the struggle for Tibetan autonomy. With the summer olympics in Beijing 2008, there's a new wave of action to bring the Tibet issue back into people's minds and get the Chinese government to at least budge a bit on their outlook on Tibet.

There is also a project aiming to bring Team Tibet to the Olympics, essentially Tibetan sports people who are living all around the world (apart from Tibet, for obvious reasons), but won't be allowed to fly their flag at the upcoming Olympics. You can support their cause at http://teamtibet.org by joining a growing number of supporters.

There is also still the rather disturbing issue of the 11th Panchen Lama, who was reckonised by the Dalai Lama at the age of 6 and was subsequently abducted by the Chinese in 1995. Nobody has seen him since, and he is often named as the world's youngest political prisoner. There are many organisations informing about the Panchen Lama, most importantly the new Tashi Lhunpo monastery in India (http://www.tashilhunpo.org ), which would by right be the seat of the Panchen Lama (well, the one in Tibet would be, but that is hardly an option).

In terms of the refugee work, there is outstanding work done by the Tibetan Children's Village here in McLeod Ganj, who have been caring for and educating Tibetan children, who were often sent across the border by their parents, who stayed behind in Tibet. Their website is http://www.tcv.org.in . I have met people here who came over sent by their companies, with computer equipment and the like, to go to Tibetan refugee centres, so in case you work for a company who would ever fancy something like that, keep Tibet in mind. They need all the help they can get. :-)

Many more sources are available under http://www.tibet.org , http://www.tibetsociety.com , http://www.tibetancommunity.org.uk/ (UK based). http://www.tibet-initiative.de (Germany based). Alternatively type Tibet into a search engine and see how many sites spring up.

As it said on a poster I read today about the issue of the Panchen Lama: Write about the Panchen Lama, Talk about the Panchen Lama, Pray for the Panchen Lama. Same goes for Tibet really... sorry about this mildly depressing email, but just thought it is good to keep Tibet in our minds. So keep your eyes peeled for ways to help, it is a worthy cause.

Free Tibet!

Monni