Harrowing Journeys

Last week we watched a film called "Blood in the Snow". It consisted of interviews relating to a video shot by climbers in the Himalaya that shows Chinese Border Guards gunning down fleeing Tibetan refugees as they cross a pass toward Nepal. Yesterday we joined a volunteer conversation group with local students, mostly Tibetan refugees. Three out of the four people in my group had taken the same journey across the Himalaya as depicted in the film. One of the young men even had his group scattered by approaching Chinese Police and was left alone with his cousin to make the journey. They walked for 29 days, suffered frostbite, and were so uncertain of reaching Nepal that they thought they might die. But they did make it to Nepal, and then to Dharamsala, where they will study language and live with their own community. When they arrived they were granted, as all new arrivals are, an audience with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. They cried and he told them that there was no need, they were free.