Many People Would Say That A Tibetan

For Me The First Great Joy Of Traveling Is Simply The Luxury Of Leaving All My Beliefs And Certainties At Home, And Seeing Everything I Thought I Knew In A Different Light, And From A Crooked Angle.

When I'm Wandering Around The Himalayas, Most Of The People That I See Are Westerners From Germany, California, Or The Netherlands, Who Are Wearing Sandals, Indian Smocks, And Are In Search Of Enlightenment, Antiquity, Peace, And All The Things They Can't Get In The West. Most Of The People They Meet Are Nepali Villagers In Lee Jeans, Reeboks, And Madonna T-shirts Who Are Looking For The Paradise That They Associate With Los Angeles - A Paradise Of Material Prosperity And Abundance.

The Dalai Lama, These Days, Encourages Westerners Not To Take Up Buddhism, Partly Because He Feels That Our Roots Are Deep In Other Traditions, And We Should Go Deeper Into Our Own Traditions Rather Than Just Acquiring The Surfaces Of Others.

Death Undoes Us Less, Sometimes, Than The Hope That It Will Never Come.

I Wanted To Bring The Book Out Right Now Because I Think Anyone Who Cares About Tibet Knew There Would Be Disturbances In The Run Up To The Olympics [2008]. Many Tibetans Feel It's Their Last Chance To Broadcast Their Suffering And Frustration And Pain To The World Before The Olympics Take Place And China Is Accepted As A Modern Nation And The World Forgets About Tibet.