Remember Tibet

“Free Tibet” is an appealing notion; but honestly, it's a lot like saying “free America”. The place is still there on the planet and on a map, but it's no longer the Tibet that existed before the Chinese invasion and occupation. The culture is trying to stay alive by sustaining traditional practices, both in Tibet and among Tibetans, now displaced into other countries. But the government that once spent over 80% of its resources on education, and prioritized the welfare of its people and environment, has been replaced. The current rulers have turned the place from a haven for higher thinking into a tacky tourist trap, and decimated the surrounding country side for minerals and monetary gain. Each passing year leaves fewer left, who lived in that alpine Eden. And much of the art and literature that represented the culture was “cleansed” as a part of China's assimilation.

There are now two Tibets. One is the “should be re-named” monastic mountaintop metropolis, that's now another nook of China. The other is a memory – a recollection of a people, a philosophy and an ideology that still echos from the society that shouted its prayers into the Himalayas, many years ago.

And it's a memory worthy of passing on. All peoples and governments should aspire to the nobility that Tibet once exemplified. Each culture would do well to embody the spirit of universal brotherhood that was woven into the genome of its population of yore. Everyone who proudly thinks that their society is the apex of civilization needs the heaping helping of humility that would come through reflecting on the priorities and values that Tibet used to espouse.

So while “Free Tibet” makes a marketable bumper sticker, “Remember Tibet” is a motto that could potentially lead to societal evolution on a global scale.