Since uprisings began in Tibet on March 10, the anniversary of the first uprising against the Chinese invaders in 1959, the country of snows has been in the media more than ever before.

That is pretty much the only good news.

The bad news is that Tibetans have had to endure severe restrictions of their religious freedom, exploitation of their environment, an influx of hundreds of Chinese settlers every single day and so many culturally devastating measures of “modernizing” from the hands of their invaders for more than 60 years. Although China expelled all foreigners and foreign reporters from Tibet several weeks ago, messages seep out.
According to a posting by the International Campaign for Tibet on April 29, “mass detentions of monks, suicides and despair (prevail) as enforced condemnation of Dalai Lama provokes dissent.”

Here in Telluride we have long felt a strong connection to the people of Tibet, our fellow high-mountain dwellers. Over the next few weeks there will be numerous free opportunities to learn more about Tibet and do more than pay lip service to our concern for Tibetans.

Today at 7 p.m., Tibetan monk Geshe Phuntsok will lead a meditation and talk about the situation in Tibet at the Telluride Yoga Center. Geshe Phuntsok moved to Montrose last summer to become the head of the Asanga Institute there. He has already gathered a sizable community of devotees. Tibetan Buddhism interprets the world in a way much different from our materialistic, selfish and insecure approach.

On Tuesday at 6 p.m. will be the first in a series of films on Tibet at the Wilkinson Public Library, the widely acclaimed “Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion.” This film is a moving account of the state of Chinese-occupied Tibet and its history of oppression and resistance. Finished in 2002, after 10 years of production, the film has haunting footage from the 1987 Lhasa uprising, images only too similar to the pictures we saw of the demonstrations in the past weeks. “A more concise and affecting summation of the Tibetan crisis would be hard to imagine,” said the New York Times.

“Daughters of Wisdom,” the intimate portrait of the nuns of Kala Rongo, a rare and exceptional Buddhist Monastery exclusively for women situated in Nangchen, on the remote and rural Northeastern Plateau will follow on June 16.

On May 20, Allyn Hart and Elisabeth Gick will show pictures and tell stories from their journey to Tibet in the fall of 2007. They trekked to sacred Mt. Kailash in western Tibet, then traveled overland to Lhasa; monasteries, landscapes, the all pervasive Chinese influence, and the amazing inner and outer beauty of the Tibetan people will be among the topics.

If you are aching to write a letter, sign a petition, or make that phone call please visit www.savetibet.org for direction. We will also have sample letters and forms, along with pretty bumper stickers at the library events. See you there.