TIBET

Two days ago, I stayed up late into the night watching an episode of a new BBC documentary series, “A Year In Tibet” , whose advert, featuring an excerpt from the song “Ordinary People” by John Legend, I had been seeing in the last few days.

According to its producers, “the documentary follows a calendar year inside the secret confines of a Tibetan monastery and charts the lives of those living in Gyanste, the small town which surrounds it and surrounding villages. The series examines the reality of life today for Tibetans living under Chinese rule. The filming crew has gained unparalleled access to one of the most isolated and spiritual parts of the world and their cameras were the first ever allowed to follow members of the community, offering the Western audience a rare insight into their lives, religion, servitude and family.”

Yesterday, as I started following reports of the protests in Lhasa and other locations in Tibet and India, all I could think of was whether the people – the woman and her three husbands who, after being refused a state student loan, partly thanks to the year’s bumper crop of barley still managed to make their son the first person from Gyanste to be sent to a University in “China proper”; the young 11-year old student monk who, during his home holiday, finally learns to drive his father’s tractor, having crashed it on his first go; the mother who could only smile at her daughter’s uncontrollable crying all the way to her new husband parent’s home for a wedding she was not supposed to know anything about beforehand; the monks who had a special day out to indulge in gambling, a little beer and bathing in the river - all those ordinary people, part of whose lives I had followed in the previous day, could have been involved in the protests, or victimised by the brutal repression that ensued.

Is any of them in these pictures?

Could any of them be among the now dead?

Is any of them dreaming about this year’s Olympic Games?

Is any of them praying for next year’s crop?

Two days ago, I stayed up late into the night watching an episode of a new BBC documentary series, “A Year In Tibet” , whose advert, featuring an excerpt from the song “Ordinary People” by John Legend, I had been seeing in the last few days.

According to its producers, “the documentary follows a calendar year inside the secret confines of a Tibetan monastery and charts the lives of those living in Gyanste, the small town which surrounds it and surrounding villages. The series examines the reality of life today for Tibetans living under Chinese rule. The filming crew has gained unparalleled access to one of the most isolated and spiritual parts of the world and their cameras were the first ever allowed to follow members of the community, offering the Western audience a rare insight into their lives, religion, servitude and family.”

Yesterday, as I started following reports of the protests in Lhasa and other locations in Tibet and India, all I could think of was whether the people – the woman and her three husbands who, after being refused a state student loan, partly thanks to the year’s bumper crop of barley still managed to make their son the first person from Gyanste to be sent to a University in “China proper”; the young 11-year old student monk who, during his home holiday, finally learns to drive his father’s tractor, having crashed it on his first go; the mother who could only smile at her daughter’s uncontrollable crying all the way to her new husband parent’s home for a wedding she was not supposed to know anything about beforehand; the monks who had a special day out to indulge in gambling, a little beer and bathing in the river - all those ordinary people, part of whose lives I had followed in the previous day, could have been involved in the protests, or victimised by the brutal repression that ensued.

Is any of them in these pictures?

Could any of them be among the now dead?

Is any of them dreaming about this year’s Olympic Games?

Is any of them praying for next year’s crop?