Thursday, April 02, 2009
Dear reader,
i wish you can be here for the Tibetan trunk sale this weekend. our Tibetan friends were recently given asylum but the rest of their family is still in Nepal. backtracking a bit - this family fled Tibet when China invaded Tibet more than 50 years ago. the grandfather, who was also a village elder, was killed by the Chinese.
three months ago, father and daughter fled Nepal because the Chinese government had entered into an agreement with the new Nepali government to extradite the Tibetans in Nepal. for sure any returned Tibetans will be subject to prosecution.
with their asylum granted, they still need to bring the rest of the family here (wife and 5 children) and start all over. in Nepal they have a store...hence the trunk sale.
beautiful handwoven carpets, blankets, jewelry, hemp bags, antiques...plus there will be music and food - both Tibetan and Filipino.
listening to their story the other night, can't help but feel how little we know about this history. while the Dalai Lama is much beloved in this country, we hardly know about the politics between Nepal and China and India and how this is affecting the lives of ordinary Tibetans living in exile...in India, Nepal, in the US.
"we are stateless," said our friend.
my heart sinks...and expands...
just a small gesture - this opening our home to host a trunk sale for them.
i think: we are all refugees.
i wish you can be here for the Tibetan trunk sale this weekend. our Tibetan friends were recently given asylum but the rest of their family is still in Nepal. backtracking a bit - this family fled Tibet when China invaded Tibet more than 50 years ago. the grandfather, who was also a village elder, was killed by the Chinese.
three months ago, father and daughter fled Nepal because the Chinese government had entered into an agreement with the new Nepali government to extradite the Tibetans in Nepal. for sure any returned Tibetans will be subject to prosecution.
with their asylum granted, they still need to bring the rest of the family here (wife and 5 children) and start all over. in Nepal they have a store...hence the trunk sale.
beautiful handwoven carpets, blankets, jewelry, hemp bags, antiques...plus there will be music and food - both Tibetan and Filipino.
listening to their story the other night, can't help but feel how little we know about this history. while the Dalai Lama is much beloved in this country, we hardly know about the politics between Nepal and China and India and how this is affecting the lives of ordinary Tibetans living in exile...in India, Nepal, in the US.
"we are stateless," said our friend.
my heart sinks...and expands...
just a small gesture - this opening our home to host a trunk sale for them.
i think: we are all refugees.
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