Tashi Dele

The view from my homestay house in
Dharamsala, India

I wanted to shed a little bit of light on the issue of Tibet and what the Chinese have been doing to this incredible culture and country over the past 60 years. I had the exceptional opportunity to live with a Tibetan family in Dharamsala, India which is the home of the 14th Dalai Lama as well as the Tibetan exile government. I lived with a family of four in a room of about 400 square feet (including the kitchen). The Ama and Pa (mother and father in Tibetan) had two gorgeous girls,  Kelsang and Pema, 4 years and 6 months old respectively. The parents of both the Ama and Pa had fled Tibet into India during the Chinese invasion, therefore neither of them had ever been.

In short, the Chinese started to slowly infiltrate Tibet in 1949. They started by coming into rural communities and lending a helping hand. They helped with farming, creating a bit of infrastructure, and basically made sure that the Tibetan trusted them. By the early 50’s the Chinese had made their way into the center of Tibet and began their brutal take over of the country and the people. Mao (everyone should know who that is) had decided that Tibet should be a part of China, in fact he argued that Tibet had historically always been a part of China and therefore the Chinese government should have complete control over the country and the people. If you know anything about Tibetan language, culture, and religion there are very few things similar to the Chinese language, culture, etc. Over just a couple years in the early 50’s Mao’s regime killed over 3 million Tibetans and destroyed over 90% of the monasteries. During and following this mass genocide the Chinese government ban Tibetans to openly practice Tibetan Buddhism, which is ultimately the center of Tibetan culture, consequently engaging in culture genocide as well. Ever since the invasion of the Chinese into Tibet the Tibetans have lost almost all their rights and are either jailed, brutally beaten, or killed if they step out of order or even hit at engaging in a revolution. This includes speaking of the Dalai Lama, anything relating to democracy, India, or even being in possession of a picture of the Dalai Lama.

As I entered into the country I was heavily searched in order to see if I was in possession of anything that had to do with Dalai Lama. The only thing that I was in possession of that had to do with His Holiness was a satchel of a couple hundred Tibetan medicine pills that were blessed by him. Blessed medicine from the Dalai Lama was one of the most sacred things that you could offer to a Tibetan in Tibet. They no longer had any connection to their political and spiritual leader so these pills represented that lost connection.

As you were not allowed to mention the Dalai Lama’s name when handing out the pills to the people, you just told them that they were blessed by a high Lama in India. They individuals receiving the pills automatically knew that coming from a Westerner that the medicine was blessed by His Holiness. Most of the time when I handed them out, the individual became silent and tears just started pouring from their eyes and they would mutter quietly, Tu chey na, Tu chey na, meaning Thank You.

One day while visiting Sera monastery in Lhasa I came across I group of young Tibetan monks who found it astonishing that a westerner had addressed them and spoke to them in Tibetan. After conversing for a few minutes one of the younger monks pointed to a pray cord that I was wearing, which was indeed blessed by His Holiness and asked me in Tibetan if I got it in India from the Dalai Lama. Absolute terror spread across the faces of the other monks and within seconds each one of them had run away including the one who questioned me. All the monks started yelling at the individual and pushing him a bit, clearly angry about him mentioning the unmentionable. At any point in time they know that there is a possibility that they are being watched or that anyone they speak to could be a spy for the Chinese. You never take that chance in Tibet and you never mention “that” name to anyone you do not know.

Although the history of Tibet is brutal and depressing, the landscape is everything but that. Tibet is by far one of the most stunning places I have and will ever see. I had the opportunity to drive, hike, and horseback ride all over the country. I got to see how rural villagers live, ancient monasteries, hermitage sites for devout Buddhists, and of course all the unbelievable mountains and lakes of the country.

After a month of trekking and visiting the countryside of Tibet I headed back to Dharamsala. This ended up being one of the toughest parts of the trip. My Tibetan family and friends were eager for me to come back and show them all the pictures that I took of their country. Their country, that they have never been to and most likely will never see. Showing them the pictures and seeing their response was heart wrenching. Because I am an American I was able to easily go in and out of their country that they, Tibetans, are not allowed to travel to. The first time I set eyes on the Potala I just started crying knowing that the family that I had grown so close to could not be there to see it with me.

For all of you who do not know much about the issue, look it up because the oppression and the Chinese take over of Tibet is still in full force. The country is being developed quickly and the Chinese are now out numbering Tibetans. When I was in China this last June I learned that the Chinese government is paying for Chinese students university if they go study in Tibet and then promise to stay and work for 8 years following there undergraduate studies. Just enough time to get a job, start a family, and never leave. Easy way to get more Chinese into Tibet and weed out Tibetans and Tibetan culture.

All the photos that go along with this blog I took while in India and Tibet. Hope they give you an idea of what an incredible country it is.

If you are interested in reading a book about the war and what Tibetans had to endure then please read, Sorrow Mountain: The Journey of a Tibetan Warrior Nun by Ani Panchen and Adelaide Donnelley.





Monks sitting at the Dalai Lama's Monastery in Dharamsala

Mons debating, Dharamsala, India

Tibetan women at Sera Monastery Lhasa, Tibet

Two Tibetan sisters at Sera Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet

Sera Monastary in Lhasa, Tibet

The Potala in Lhasa, Tibet

Tibtan women in Eastern Tibet outside of Nyingchi, Tibet

Yak in Western Tibet at about 17,000 feet above sea level

Young Tibetan boy at a rural village we visited

Crowd of Tibetan children who had never seen a camera or a white person before

Bason Lake in Tibet

Small village outside of Nyingchi, Tibet

Hermitage site for Shakyamuni Buddha outside of Nyingchi, Tibet

Monastery not far from Bason Lake

Drepung Monastery

Sera Monastery

Why Even Care?

By: Me, Dried up Riverbed near Sixaola, Coast Rica

As I wrote in my profile I have had an incredible opportunity to see so much of the world in the past five years. My passion for exploring and protecting the environment started in High School when I was taught some basic ecological concepts that made me realize the intricacy of the natural world but also how everything is connected. There are fundamental reasons why the natural world functions as it does and those reasons are critical to the survival of wildlife and subsequently for us humans. My interpretation is that there would be far fewer natural disasters if we had maintained the conditions of ecological systems as close as possible to their natural state.

I was able to accompany a University of Redlands Conservation May term course in 2009 as a teaching assistant. The course was meant to help students recognize all that goes into conservation, from a community grassroots facet to government instated rules and regulations.
While we were visiting the South East corner of Costa Rica we were told a story about a town in the area. This story solidifies my reason for caring about the environment and wanting to protect what is left.

Costa Rica has been taken over by fruit production companies for years and years. Dole has been one of the major stakeholders in the Costa Rica fruit industry and unfortunately they have caused a lot of harm to the environment and subsequently to the people.

There is a town called Sixaola and it is situated downstream on the Sixaola River on the border of Costa Rica and Panama. Sixaola has it local trash dump just upstream from the town center but it is fairly unregulated and not taken care of. In most developing countries trash disposal is not up to the standards that we see in developed countries. Hospital refuse goes to the town dump as well as mechanical parts and other hazardous material.

Upstream from Sixaola is where United Fruit (previously owned by Dole) has many of their plantations, mainly banana plantations. Years ago Dole had completely clear cut all the forests in the area to plant banana trees. The clear cutting also took out the forests along the Sixaola River. There is a crucial reason for why trees and vegetation in general rest along rivers. The roots grow deep into the ground and keep the soil in place. As rivers flow the water slowly erodes the riverbank, carrying the sediment and soil down stream. Tree roots protect this from happening. An increase in sedimentation (soil being eroded and taken down stream) along the river bank, decreases water quality but also makes the riverbed more shallow. Combining the issue of no longer having the appropriate amount of vegetation to soak up the water and a shallower river bed, the river will consequently overflow.

This is exactly what happened in Sixaola. No longer were the river banks covered with vegetation and trees to protect the soil from eroding, so when heavy rains came the river overflowed and severe flooding occurred in the area. The river water quickly filled the Sixaola dump and carried all the refuse into the town. Not only did the flooding destroy the town but the amount of trash, syringes from the hospital, and other hazardous material also flooded the town. It took months and months to clean up and still to this day the town is dealing with the repercussions of upstream deforestation.

The point that I am trying to make is that the trees were there for a reason and should have never been cut down along the river. Wetlands protect coasts from oceanic forces such as waves and hurricanes, but we have destroyed those and put up cities. Wetland plants clean the water and keep it purified for us humans to consume but we have dredged them and covered them up with cement.

Trees exist to protect river banks, soak up water, provide shade, take in CO2. Birds exist to eat insects and keep an equilibrium, bees pollinate most of the plants we grow and without them our food chain could easily collapse. I am guessing that you get the point by now. Nature functions the way it does for a reason and we have to help keep it intact. Nature is intelligent and we need to listen and watch it much more carefully. We could learn a lot.

Eliminating Reactivity

The most important thing that I have learned so far in my few weeks of working at 18 E. Elm is that if you are nice to people, it gives them no reason to be angry with you. Simple concept, but most of us become reactive when someone approaches you with a problem, especially when they put it on you.

I constantly have people coming into my office with a problem and they are ready to put up a fight over it. I can sense their agitation and I can sense that they want to take it out on me. Of course I don't ever take this hostility personally. I was not the one you who installed a dysfunctional oven or the fire alarm that goes off for no reason. So all I have to do is respond in the most compassionate and helpful manner. There is first an immediate sense of confusion from the complainer because I think they thought I was going to respond in an "I don't give a shit" fashion, then a sense of relief, and then gratitude. All within a couple seconds the energy in the room plummets back to a calm place free of agitation.

Obviously this is the basis of customer service, helping when help is needed and adhering to the demands of the needy. But the idea of eliminating reactivity will solve more dispute (or stop them from ever forming) than you would believe and brings your stress levels down dramatically. And this does not mean being passive aggressive. It means allowing yourself to react to a situation in which you do not give the other person an opportunity or reason to respond in a negative manner. Both parties win. Stress levels calm down for both people and you can get on with your life (but first make sure that the oven actually does gets fixed).

Just Think Of A Calm Place
Little Glen, Glen Arbor,  Michigan

Eating Apple Pie In India

To start off, I should probably explain the title of my blog. In 2005, I spent a semester of undergrad in India, Nepal, and Tibet. While in India one of the cities that I visited was Varanasi. Varanasi is situated on the Ganges and as the legend goes, the city was found by the Hindu deity, Shiva, about 5,000 years ago, making it one of the holiest cities in India. The photo above is one that I took while boating down the river at around 6am.

At sunrise and sunset the river becomes congested with people washing their clothes, brushing their teeth, and bathing in the holy waters of the Ganges. As a foreigner the mere thought of touching the water is mortifying. It is highly polluted with trash, human waste, and ash from the cremation ghats, but locals are immune to the pollutants and nothing will deter them from remitting their sins by means of bathing in the Ganges.

At the time that I took the above picture I was taking a boat ride, which to my surprise was headed straight for the cremation ghats. The boat docked right at the edge of one ghat in which the only direction I could walk was straight through one of the cremation sites. I of course felt extremely uncomfortable doing this but a man grabbed my hand and led me straight through stopping me just a couple feet from a burning body. The mans intention was to bring me on a “tour” of the site in which I could then pay him for his services. I found this “tour” and my presence at this holy event to be unbelievably disrespectful so I quickly dismissed myself.

In the couple minutes that I was standing in front of a human body being cremated my mind went blank. I was not disgusted. I was not sad. I was not really shocked in any way. All that really came to mind was the idea of impermanence. We really are just flesh and blood.

I somewhat numbingly found a rickshaw to take me back to my hostel and then I decided it was time to eat after that unforeseen adventure. I walked down the riverbank to a restaurant that I was told about that had great pizza and surprisingly, had fantastic apple pie. Usually, when you want a slice of home (no pun intended) in a foreign country and it is in the form of food, don’t do it! The idea of eating apple pie in India was so bizarre to me but I thought, “oh what the hell I am not going to be here forever, right?”

So as the sun was setting and what seemed like the whole city poured into the river to practice their daily bathing rituals, I sat and ate the best apple pie I have ever had.

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