Tibet

[Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema]

I know similarly diddly about Tibet, but my encounters with the misty-eyed Tibet
enthusiasts I've met leave me with a strong suspicion of them as a particularly
typical American irrationalist phenomenon. They seem to know hardly more about
Tibet than I do, but for them it seems to be the land of transcendence, simple,
pure, etc. The reviews of Orville Schell's book seemed to support this
impression as I recall.

This goes back a long way. That sappy TV movie Marco Polo had a scene where
Phagspa, a Tibetan monk at the imperial court of Peking who, at first, was
deeply suspicious of Marco P, said worriedly that he was going back to
experience the "purity" of Tibet. And the sun shone gently off his ascetically
shaven pate.
Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema

Michael Pugliese wrote:


>   I know next to diddly on Tibet, Kevin, but for a look at the Western
> projections about what it's "about" see Orville Schell's newish book.
> Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood
> Another book by Lee Feignon, "Demystifying Tibet, "s/b good too.
> China's Tibet Policy by
> Dawa Norbu
>   Heard him (Schell) on the radio. Took  days for him to arrange a interview
> with Brad Pitt, during the time of the filming of the Bertolucci movie.
> Michael
> P.S. A leaflet posted on a telephone pole a few blocks away quotes from the
> Dalai Lama's anti-homosexual utterences. Given the urban legend about Lama
> fan, Richard Gere and gerbils, this is ironic.
> http://www.google.com/search?q=Tibet+Human+Rights
>
> http://www.google.com/search?q=Tibet+China+Relations