A Week of Learning: Culture and History of Tibet

Shopa Delek! Good morning! It’s Shani again. After arriving back to McLeod Ganj from our exciting and adventurous pilgrimage to Spiti Valley, we have completed one week of settling in. This week was filled with classes and homework, as well as quality time spent with our host families. 

During our classes we had guest speakers from a variety of fields. We invited Mr. Tenpa Gyaltsen from the Tibet Policy Institute to speak about the climate crisis happening in Tibet. To learn more, visit tibet3rdpole.org! 

Students learn about the climate crisis in Tibet.

We also invited Dawa Lokyitsang who is a PhD student at the University of Colorado. She has published fascinating articles. One of her articles is titled “Who is Pure Tibetan”, which discusses the concept of purity in Tibetan identity and touches on topics such as Tibetans with mixed parentage, salvage anthropology, etc. What interested me on this topic was the debate about what makes a Tibetan pure. Who is to say that biology determines pure ethnicity? 

On Wednesday, we celebrated the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) 59th anniversary with our host families. Several of our host families either went to TCV when they were younger, taught at TCV schools, or had family members who had gone. We went to the lakeside by the TCV school to have a picnic and sit out in the sun. The students from TCV performed dances, and even stand up comedy!

TCV students performing for the 59th anniversary of TCV.

During the afternoon on Thursday we went to visit Tenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan activist who performs protest stunts. He recently came back to his home in Dharamsala after serving 16 days in prison for the protest stunt he did during president XI’s visit to south India. Tenzin Tsundue spoke to us about how even though His Holiness the Dalai Lama wants autonomy for Tibet, Tenzin will always and has always fought for complete independence. He also notes that his red band is a symbol of the promise he made to himself at 11 years old that he would focus on nothing but fighting for a free Tibet. 

On Friday we welcomed three nuns that have obtained their Geshe Ma status after years of studying. In Tibetan Buddhism, nuns fought for equal rights to gain equal status as monks. His Holiness the Dalai Lama could not speak for Buddhism around Asia (in Thailand nuns do not receive as much education as monks), but he granted equal education for both monks and nuns in Tibetan Buddhism. These nuns have provided us with insight and advice about Buddhism. One noted that compassion is one of the most fundamental things we can do in order to progress in the path toward enlightenment. 

This week was insightful, inspiring, and exciting. The guest speakers have provided us with insight on Tibet and its people from an anthropological, environmental, and political perspective. Our host families have been very welcoming and kind. I will also not forget the delicious homemade food! 

Thenthuk: a traditional Tibetan noodle soup.