In this spoken excerpt, the presenter reflects on the deep resilience of the Tibetan people, attributing it to communal cultural practices such as Tibetan New Year celebrations, butter tea rituals, and collective chanting. He emphasizes that viewing hardship through the lens of impermanence and dignity enables individuals to transform adversity into an opportunity for practice. Personal anecdotes about his parents, monastic workers, and the tragic losses at the Kulu Pass illustrate how cultural habits sustain hope and humor even amid suffering. The speaker also highlights the pivotal role of His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) as a compassionate, non‑violent leader who sets the tone for a dignified, steadfast struggle. Finally, he offers a geopolitical observation that the unresolved Tibet issue poses a long‑term stability risk for the People’s Republic of China, underscoring that oppression cannot be a sustainable solution.
Chapters
And those are really powerful examples from the culture where, you know, they never gave up. They never chose the path of dejection, you know, and depression. They maintained hope, they maintained joy. I remember they would have Tibetan New Year's parties and incense burning outside and you know, drinking homemade chang. And it's— and all of this are what makes people resilient. And it's very communal. And I think, you know, we sometimes forget that human beings are quite strong, you know, if we choose to allow our mind to be our friend. We are actually quite strong. And examples of these, you know, my parents were just uneducated. My mother was even illiterate, Tibetans. But then there were monastic members who were working on the road, and they were even more resilient. You know, they saw what was happening as an opportunity to practice. So I think the resilience, I think, has to do with actually how you see the situation you are in. If you see it as a state of being where you are stuck, of course it's going to be depressing, especially if it is a difficult situation. But if you see it as part of human reality, with a healthy dose of recognition of impermanence and the potential for change, and never forgetting to respect your own dignity of being a human being, then I think we have the capacity to cope with quite a lot of challenges. That, I think, is a simple lesson that I learned from my parents. You know, I mean, at the time, as a kid, of course, But then looking back, I can now see aspects of— because I remember waking up in the tent, my mother getting up and making a Tibetan tea, which requires churning in this kind of big churner, bongo, making butter tea, and then chanting prayers in the morning. And it's actually these aspects of the culture that probably helped sustain the resilience of a lot of Tibetans because thousands of them really worked. Quite a lot of them actually lost their lives behind the Kulu Pass, which was, you know, this, I remember as a kid hearing about so-and-so was lost in the other side of the pass. Because it turns out that when you work there in autumn, before a certain snowfall, you have to get back. But if you're stuck there, then there's no food. So sometimes a massive snowfall strikes early, and then there have been quite a lot of casualties. And I remember this, hearing this phrase, "So-and-so was lost at the side of mountain, at the side of pass." But even then, I think the Tibetans never really gave up and they never really lost their sense of humor and joy, which You know, because even with relation to Tibetan struggle, the struggle is going to go on. Because it's the struggle of the people, generations after generation if needed, will go on. But while you carry the struggle, you do it with a sense of dignity. And that's what His Holiness has taught us. You know, not to go into the extreme of dejection or the other extreme of violence. And animosity towards the other side. I think His Holiness has really been an amazing teacher and leader for the Tibetan people, setting the tone for the very nature of our struggle, which is resilient, firm, compassionate, but never giving up, and clear. And the issue is gonna go on. Even from the Chinese perspective, unresolved issue of Tibet is never good for People's Republic of China as a nation. You know, if they're serious about, you know, long-term stability, you can't have an entire people oppressed and unhappy. It doesn't work like this. It just isn't possible. So it's a simple fact. And so I think His Holiness has been an amazing leader, and we were lucky. You know, we are unfortunate that we suffered tragedy as a nation, but at the same time, we were lucky to have His Holiness as our leader who really set the tone and has put us on this path where we are going to go until the issue is resolved. It's going to go on, you know, no matter how long it takes.
