My Life in Forbidden Lhasa
Since Beijing is hosting the Olympics this year I keep seeing more and more protests calling for the freedom of Tibet from Chinese rule. I agree. What’s more surprising to me, however, is the abundance of Chinese nationals around the world holding counter-protests. Maybe surprise is the wrong word. Incredulity is probably better. How, China? How can you possibly imagine that Tibet is yours? It would be the same as Germany still claiming Poland. Just because the people that occupy the country can’t physically fight back doesn’t mean that you can take it. I know that these kinds of actions go on all over the world, and they have for thousands of years, but proliferation doesn’t make something right. Especially not in a world that is becoming an unbounded global economy (or should be at any rate). National Geographic, in an effort to not let China’s actions be forgotten, have reprinted the essay of Heinrich Harrer, a German living in the sacred city of Lhasa in the middle of last century. Harrer’s story, which you might know as Seven Years in Tibet, is probably one of the best accounts of the Chinese invasion of Tibet. He was an Olympian who later became the tutor of the current incarnation of the Dalai Lama. I can’t imagine a more fitting Olympic protest than the tale of an Olympic athlete who witnessed the horrific actions of this year’s Olympic host not so long ago.
