Interesting Seminar

Today I attended a seminar on Tibet-Taiwan and Olympics organized by the Chinese center, Asian Studies Institute, Chulalongkorn University. They invited me to talk on the present situation of the Tibetan people. I accepted the invitation because I think it's important to provide information on Tibet to the Thai public and media. We know so little not only about Tibetan but also about other nationalities in China. Many people don't even know what a lama is. Any monk with red robe is considered a lama, which is not correct.

Professor Virasak of the Faculty of Political Science did an interesting analysis of the situation. To him, the unrest that just happened wouldn't affect Olympics but instead brought out another problem related to Tibetan-Han relations, as evidenced from a number of negative comments given by Han Chinese. He raised the problem of the increasing number of Chinese bars and prostitutes in Tibet, which upset Tibetan Buddhists.

There's certainly a need to understand and love one another. From the religious point of view, all beings have been our mother before. Whether they are Tibetan or Chinese, deep down they share the same basic needs and the only thing they want is happiness. Hatred wouldn't do any good. I remembered Jamyang Sakya Dagmola's speech in one of the interviews. The interviewer asked her whether she wanted to go back and live in Tibet, she said no. To her, everywhere can be considered home. Everywhere we go, we meet the same kind of people who don't want suffering and seek only happiness.