Ahimsa and stories of courage

Dharmasala has brought me to tears every day I have been here. Almost each person I meet tells another story of incredible courage and bravery about escaping the repression in Tibet.

Sangye (23) and his 19 year old buddy, simply left their village in Western Tibet, took a bus to Lhasa and then pretended to be 'businessmen' buying nomad artifacts so that they could get near enough to the Nepal border to risk the crossing over a pass near Mt Everest. Today he taught me how to cook Tibetan soups and as we rolled noodles together he told me a tale that if I saw it in a Hollywood film I wouldn't believe. They were surrounded by Chinese soldiers with guns and escaped through the wiles of a clever monk, they stumbled into one of the only safe homes near the border where the owner has a secret room dedicated to the Dalai Lama. (It is against the law and punishable by prison to even have his picture in your home in Tibet.) He was able to give them some directions that helped point them toward the right pass. They almost froze to death on the mountain passed, bluffed group of Chinese soliders with their businessman story when they were stopped for an identity check. After crossing the border into Nepal, frozen and starving and still in danger of being captured by Nepali police and sent back, they happened on two traders with yaks who formerly had traded with Tibet and sheltered and fed them. This retelling doesn't even capture the amazing events. Sangye said, "I don't know if we were stupid or brave, but we had to leave because we couldn't get an education, we couldn't speak about our beliefs or practice our religion and we wanted to see the Dalai Lama."

Kelsang at 23 walked out of Tibet into Nepal with her 11 year old brother. Her mother had died (and her brother, returning from India to see his dying mother had been put in prison). She left a career as a nurse, which she said was a good job, but distressing because she witnessed discriminatory treatment of Tibetan and Chinese patients in the hospital.

Every single refugee I have talked to says that, whatever else motivated them to leave, they have come to see the Dalai Lama. His power move people to risk their lives and leave everything behind - family, friends, work - to come to a country where they have no passport, no chance for employment, but do have the chance to be fully Buddhist, is astonishing.

The commitment of the Tibetan people to ahimsa, to non-violence and compassion, is also moving, especially in the face of the kinds of discrimination and repression they have faced in Tibet. Today we listened to a former monk who was imprisioned and tortured for over four months in Tibet because he raised his voice in protest about the restrictions on religion. After he was finally released, he happened to meet two of the guards who had tortured him on the streets of Lhasa. He actually greeted them and invited them to have tea with him. He lives the value of compassion, even for those who have harmed him, in the very core of his being, but I also heard similar stories and the reiteration of the commitment to non-violence and compassion for the Chinese people from every refugee I have talked with, although many speak of the Chinese government as cruel.
These stories are humbling; terrifying and courageous, heartbreakingly sad and breathtakingly inspirational. They are stories full of love - love for faith (and the man who symbolizes it), love for country and culture, and a love for the human spirit that refuses to be broken.
I'll end this post with a quote from Arundhati Roy that my friend Molly sent me yesterday. It seems appropriate.

"To love, to be loved
to never forget your own insignificance
to never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you

To seek joy in the saddest places
to pursue beauty to its layer
to never simplify what is complicated
to complicate what is simple

To respect strength, never power
above all, to watch, to try to understand
to never look away
and never forget."

M