SNOW LION ORDER from OUR NEW TOLL FREE NUMBER NEWSLETTER & CATALOG INTERNATIONAL YEAR of TIBET 1-800-950-0313 Summer Supplement See Pages 7-10
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BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID ITHACA, NY 14851 Permit No. 746 Deliver to current resident SNOW LION ORDER FROM OUR NEW TOLL FREE NUMBER NEWSLETTER & CATALOG INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF TIBET 1-800-950-0313 summer supplement See pages 7-10 SNOW LION PUBLICATIONS PO BOX 6483, ITHACA, NY 14851, (607)-273-8506 VOLUME 5, NUMBER 2 A POLICY OF KINDNESS THE DALAI LAMA Sidney Pibum and other staff of is a living Buddha to roughly four- much calmer." Snow Lion Publications have com- teen million people gives a public It was twenty-nine years ago last piled and edited a wonderful book audience. By eight A.M. the line week that the Tibetan uprising about the Dalai Lama that is quickly of petitioners stretches for half a against China's occupying forces MY TIBET becoming very popular. Published to mile along the winding mountain propelled the Dalai Lama into In- honor the winner of the Nobel Peace road outside his airy bungalow- GALEN ROWELL dian exile. Yet the spirit of his an- Prize, it contains a careful selection leathery mountain men in gaucho cient, fairy-tale, theocracy is still of addresses, interviews and bi- hats, long-haired Westerners, lit- very much alive in Dharamsala, a ographical sketches that present the tle girls in their prettiest silks, all former British hill station 250 man and his views on the issues that the six thousand residents of the miles north of New Delhi. Here, lead to the award. The Book-of-the- village and thousands more. Later, attended by a State Oracle, a rain- Month Club is offering it this sum- thirty dusty visitors just out of making lama, various medicine mer and several excellent reviews Tibet crowd inside and, as they set men, astrologers and a four-man have appeared. The book is 150 eyes on their exiled leader for the Cabinet, the Dalai Lama, at fifty- pages in length and sells for only first time in almost three decades, two, incarnates all he has done $4.95 (see catalog section for details fill the small room with racking since first ascending the Lion on this and also on Nobel Peace sobs and sniffles. Through it all, Throne in Lhasa at age four. Prize and the Dalai LamaJ. We are Tenzin Gyatso, the absolute Yet even as the "Protector of the sure you will enjoy it and want to spiritual and temporal ruler of Land of Snows" sustains all the give it to others as a gift. Here are Tibet, incarnation of the Tibetan secret exoticism of that other- some selections: god of compassion and fourteenth worldly kingdom reimagined in Dalai Lama in a line that stretches the West as Shangri-La, he re- Chapter 2—Tibet's Living back 597 years, remains serene. mains very much a leader in the Buddha, by Pico Iyer In Tibet, he explains later, Lo- real world. Since the age of fifteen, Dogs bark in the Himalayan sar used to be conducted on the he has been forced to deal with his night. Lights flicker across the roof of the thirteen storey Potala people's needs against the compet- hillside. On a pitch-black path Palace, with cookies laid out for ing interests of Beijing, Washing- framed by pines and covered by a the masses. "Every year I used to ton and New Delhi. That always bowl of stars, a few ragged pil- be really worried when the people inflammatory situation reached a grims shuffle along, muttering rushed to grab the cookies. First, kind of climax last fall, when ritual chants. Just before dawn, as that the old building would col- Tibetans rioted in Lhasa, their the snowcaps behind take on a lapse, and second, that someone Chinese rulers killed as many as deep pink glow, the crowd that has would fall over the edge. Now,"— thirty-two people, the Dalai Lama formed outside the three storey the rich baritone breaks into a held his first major press confer- MY TIBET Namgyal Temple in northern In- hearty chuckle—"now things are Conlinued on page 2 dia falls silent. A strong, slightly By H.H. the Dalai Lama & Galen Rowell stooping figure strides in, bright In the opinion of the Snow Lion book. A few months before His eyes alertly scanning the crowd, editors, this is one of the most impor- Holiness's proposal, I traveled ex- smooth face breaking into a broad tant books to appear on Tibet. The tensively through Tibet, often giv- and irrepressible smile. Followed combination of Galen's 108 stunning ing out photos of the Dalai Lama by a group of other shaven-headed photographs with the words of His as gifts to devout Tibetan Budd- monks, all of them in claret robes Holiness both describing the scenes hists. That same year a friend do- and crested yellow hats, the new- and discussing various aspects of ing a Tibetan survey with a comer clambers up to the temple Tibetan life make this a truly fabu- Chinese forestry official was told roof. There, as the sun begins to lous book. Here are some selections by him to bring along photos of rise, his clerics seated before him from the introduction by Galen the Dalai Lama as gifts to ease re- and the solemn, drawn-out sum- Rmvell. For book information, see lations with the local people. I mons of long horns echoing across catalog section. happened to travel with the same the valley below, the Dalai Lama official the following year, 1988, leads a private ceremony to wel- The (Dalai Lama's) Five Point when I returned with Barbara come the Year of the Earth Peace Plan—and the extreme Chi- (Rowell) on assignment for the Dragon. nese reaction to it—inadvertently National Geographic magazine. On the second day of Losar, the set me on the course of doing this Continued on page 4 Tibetan New Year, the man who TIBETAN U.S. RESETTLEMENT PROJECT UPDATE Readers will recall from a previ- the House. Finally it must be ap- cluster site sponsorship plan. The ous article that in March of 1989 proved by a House-Senate Confer- Project seeks local sponsors for in- the Tibetan U.S. Resettlement ence, and voted upon again in its dividual Tibetans to be settled in Project at the Walker Center in- final form by both bodies of cluster groups of 50 or more with- itiated a legislative proposal for Congress. in an average radius of 25 miles. 1,000 immigrant visas for Tibetan The Tibetan U.S. Resettlement Sponsors are asked to return refugees in India and Nepal. A bill Project is asking its supporters to preliminary sponsorship applica- was accordingly filed in Congress write members of the House Ju- tion forms, knowing that such ap- by Representative Barney Frank in diciary Committee, to request plications are conditional on the November 1989, designated as them to support continued inclu- passage of the pending legislation. "The Tibetan Immigration Act: sion of the Tibetan amendment in Thus far almost 100 sponsorship HR 3705." The legislation was section 202 of HR 4300 (see Judi- applications have come into the unanimously approved in April ciary list). Letters advocating in- Resettlement Project office. Exten- 1990 as part of a larger immigra- clusion of the Tibetan amendment sive cluster site preparations are al- tion bill working its way through should also be sent to one's own ready in progress in Boston, San the House Immigration Sub- Senator and District Representa- Francisco, St. Paul, and Ithaca, Committee. Now found in Section tive in anticipation of the House NY. Other sites being considered 202 of "HR 4300," the Tibetan and Senate vote. are Providence, RI; Washington, amendment must go through the To bring credibility to the legis- NJ; Missoula, MT; Madison, WI; full House Judiciary Committee lation, the Tibetan U.S. Resettle- Seattle, WA; Kansas City, KS; San and then be ratified by a vote of ment Project has launched a Continued on page 3 SNOW LION 1990 SUMMER SUPPLEMENT NEWS A Policy of Kindness young ruler set up a projector by see everything exactly as it is. I the title of his 1984 book, may simply be a diversion from Continued from page 1 which he eagerly devoured Tarzan think all politicians need this kind Kindness, Clarity and Insight (Snow the real problem. The problem is movies, Henry V and, best of all, of patience. Compared with the Lion Publications). "My true re- still there. The approach by way ence in Dharamsala, and the U.S. home movies of his own capital. previous Soviet leaders, for ligion," he has said, "is kindness." of reasoning is not a diversion. You Senate unanimously condemned Often, he recalls, he would take a example, Gorbachev, I think, is It is, in fact, the peculiar meet anger, negativity and so the Chinese actions. Riots have telescope onto the palace roof and much more calm. Therefore, more misfortune of the Chinese to be up forth, and because of your mental erupted in recent weeks, but even wistfully gaze at the boys and girls effective." against one of those rare souls it preparedness the influence of the before that, the modest man in of Lhasa carelessly going about Pacifism, however, does not is all but impossible to dislike. anger is lessened. monk's raiment had found himself their lives. mean passivity. "Ultimately," he Beijing has felt it necessary to call * * * not only the spiritual symbol link- In 1950 the isolation of the continues, "the Chinese have to him a "political corpse, bandit and When you pass through a diffi- ing 100,000 Tibetans in exile to the "Wish-Fulfilling Gem" and his realize that Tibet is a separate traitor," a "red-handed butcher cult period, you can react by losing six million still living under Chi- mountain kingdom was shattered country.