Thursday, February 23, 2012

Tibetan New Year


Tibetans celebrated New Year yesterday. However, "the Tibetan government in exile has called on Tibetans in the country to boycott any celebrations." - check the BBC video.
Friends of the Free Tibet movement gathered in Lisbon to write supporting messages on paper prayer flags to be sent to Dharamsala, the centre of the Tibetan exile world in India.

17 comments:

brattcat said...

excellent images for this post. i've never seen paper prayer flags before, only cloth.

Olivier said...

un long combat;(

Sharon said...

Sounds like a beautiful event!

Halcyon said...

I like the idea of sending messages on the colorful papers. It's really too bad what happens in the world these days. I heard there were more self-burnings in protest yesterday as well.

Sylvia K said...

I love the colorful papers and the messages they carry!! There is so much horror in the world today, it certainly doesn't say a lot about our "civilized" society. Great post for the day, JM! Thank you!

Sylvia

Leif Hagen said...

I was in Dharamsala in January and saw the Dalai Lama's government building - even took a photo!
All the best wishes to the Tibetans!

joo said...

Great idea and I love the images!

cieldequimper said...

Maybe one day...

VP said...

Thank you for reminding us of the pacific Tibetan struggle for freedom. Your photos are magnificent!

theconstantwalker said...

Wonderful...

Lowell said...

It's always good to see people working toward worthwhile goals. Nice shots!

Kate said...

Suppressed peoples need support from the world community. Thanks for the photos.

Melbourne Australia Photos said...

Great post, well illustrated! There is so much suffering around the world at the present time :-(

Bob Crowe said...

We visited Tibet a couple of years ago. Hopeful messages and prayer flags are meaningless. The Chinese government is crushing Tibetan culture under its boot heel. They are in control. Lhasa now has a majority Han population. It would take a miracle to change the situation.

There is an ethical question about whether Westerners should visit Tibet. Our tourism supports the Chinese government but encourages the local people. We say yes, go if you can, but it is a physically and emotionally hard journey. We are glad we went once but we don't think we could bear it again. I've got pictures from that trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobcrowe/sets/72157622116001661/detail/ .

Louis la Vache said...

GOOD! «Louis» is happy to see support for the Tibetans against the ChiComs in Portugal, too!

Unknown said...

@Bob: I also visited Tibet so I know exactly what you mean and couldn't agree more with you. It was an unforgettable overwhelming and heartbreaking experience and I'm glad I did it.

Joan Elizabeth said...

In Australia our government is going through a stage of extreme silliness at the moment but I glad we have our own government.