4TheRcrd Mag.

Til recently, this slogan was, in my mind, no more than another exploited fashion stamp seen around Vancouver, similar to the Keffiyeh. Having a mild aversion to reading newspapers and a shameful tendency to remain blissfully ignorant of the troubles of the global community, I knew only vaguely that China had seized Tibet, which had previously been its own nation. This past weekend, however, I had the privelege of traveling to Dharamsala and Dharamkot in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, where His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama remains in exile from Tibet and has his base. I stayed in one of the many charming guest houses in the area, which is a haven for hippies and yoga-practicers.

When I was walking around McLeod Ganj, the market that’s always bumpin, I saw many posters with a picture of a boy’s face artistically rendered, and I even saw a train of buddhist monks and nuns, marching together and wearing this image as paper masks - an image that stuck with me, though I couldn’t capture it with my camera. The boy depicted is the 11th Panchen Lama, the son from “the triumphant father and son” pair, where the Dalai Lama is the father. The boy was born in the same year as me, I discovered at Namgya Temple; this, I found, particularly caught my attention. He was kidnapped on May 17th of 1995 (we were just six years old then) by the Chinese government, and was cut off from his roots - all this, a mere three days after his announcement by the Dalai Lama. According to tibetanwomen.org, he has since not had contact outside the Chinese government, despite pleas from the United Nations. In November of 1995, the People’s Republic of China apparently then installed a young Chinese boy as the new Panchen Lama, though according to tradition, only the Dalai Lama can endow the title. I had to wonder: what is in this kid’s head? Does he even understand everything that has happened to him? Would he want to return? It would be such a George Orwell/Big Brother tragedy if he were to be released only to denounce the tradition that has been longing for his release!

Another attraction in the area was the Tibetan Museum. It was a mere 5 Rupees entrance (about twelve cents) and was basically two rooms with information, photographs, and a few old tibetan artefacts brought by those who have escaped Tibet. Posters and video footage (I have no idea how it was preserved, let alone captured) detailed the brutalities that took place and allegedly still take place in Tibet at the hands of the Chinese government. The whole of McLeod Ganj was buzzing with inspiration and determination. Behind all the aloofness of the yoga tourists and venders, patient conviction radiated from the monks and the nuns. I was engaged. So while that is quite the extent of my knowledge of the details, I feel I now have the right to say: Free Tibet!