My Spiritual Journey by Dalai Lama (good books for 8th graders txt) 📕

were quickly uploaded to the Internet and broadcast on television, provoking protests in several countries.

Far from the cameras, beneath the cloak of silence imposed by Chinese authorities, Tibetans have been experiencing such tragedies for the half-century of their country’s occupation. To give their children a Tibetan education and allow them to escape forced sinicization, parents place their babies into the arms of older children, whom they entrust to smugglers. They make the sacrifice of separating from them so that the children can grow up to be proud of being Tibetan.

The fleeing children must ascend the highest mountains in the world, through barriers of snow and ice that reach 7,000 or 8,000 meters. To cross the passes, they must travel in temperatures that can fall to 20 degrees below zero, without the protection of suitable clothing, without adequate nourishment, and at the risk of being suddenly discovered by Chinese patrols. Some die of cold. Some die of hunger. In these icy solitudes, they fall and cannot stand up again. Others reach the end of their journey at the cost of unheard-of efforts.

Tenzin Tsendu, a poet and freedom fighter, is the author of Border Passage, a text that evokes the ordeal of a Tibetan mother accompanying her children to freedom in exile:

Silently threading our way by night and hiding by day,

In twenty days we reached the snow-covered mountains.

The border was still many days away by foot.

The rocky ground scraped our bodies, bent from effort and pain.

Over our heads a bomber passed

My children shouted in terror

And huddled against my chest.

I was so exhausted I felt as if I had no limbs,

But my mind was watchful….

We had to press ahead or we would die on the spot.

One daughter here, one son there,

A baby on my back,

We reached the snow fields.

We climbed up the side of monster-like mountains

Whose snowy banks often cover the bodies of travelers who

ventured here. In the midst of these snow-white fields of death, A pile of frozen corpses Awoke our wavering courage. Drops of blood were scattered on the snow. Soldiers must have crossed their path, In our own country they had fallen into the hands of the

Red Dragon. We pray to the Wish-fulfilling Jewel, Hope in our hearts, prayer on our lips, We have almost nothing left to eat And only the ice to quench our thirst, We climb together, night after night.

But one night, my daughter complained her foot was burning.

She fell and stood up on her frozen leg.

Her skin was tattered and gashed with deep, bleeding cuts,

She curled up, shivering with pain.

The next day, both her legs were lost.

Assailed by death on every side,

I was a powerless mother; “Amala, save my brothers, I’m going to rest a little.”

Until I no longer heard her moans lost in the distance,

I looked behind me, through my tears and the torture of this pain.

My legs carried me, but my mind remained with her.

For a long time afterwards, in exile, I continue to see her

Waving her frozen hands at me.

The oldest of my children, but barely a teenager,

Leaving our country was an ordeal.

Every night I light a butter lamp for her,

And her brothers join me in prayer.22

Tibet, Sanctuary of Peace for the World

My people’s contribution to world peace

THE WORLD HAS BECOME more and more interdependent, so that a lasting peace on the national, regional, and global levels is possible only if we take the interests of all people into account. In our time, it is crucial that we all, strong and weak alike, contribute our share. As the leader of the Tibetan people and as a Buddhist monk, I am devoted to the principles of a religion based on love and compassion. Above all, I am a human being, since it is my fate to share this planet with all of you, my brothers and sisters. As the world is growing smaller, we need one another more than we ever did in the past. This is true for all parts of the world, including the continent I come from.

These days, in Asia as well as elsewhere, tensions are high. There are open conflicts in the Middle East, in southeastern Asia, and in my own country, Tibet. To a great extent, these problems are the symptom of underlying tensions that exist in the major powers’ spheres of influence.

In order to resolve regional conflicts, we must take into account the respective interests of all the countries and peoples concerned, large and small. Without global solutions that include the aspirations of the peoples most directly concerned, half-measures or expedients will only create additional problems. The Tibetans want keenly to contribute to peace, both on a regional and a world level, and they think that they are in a unique position to do so. Traditionally, we are a nonviolent people who love peace. Ever since Buddhism was introduced to Tibet over a thousand years ago, Tibetans have practiced nonviolence and respected all forms of life. We have extended this attitude to our country’s international relations. Tibet’s highly strategic position in the heart of Asia, between the great powers of the continent, historically confers on us an essential role in maintaining peace and stability. It is precisely for this reason that, in the past, Asian empires have taken care to stay out of Tibet by mutual agreement. The value of Tibet as an independent buffer state was perceived as an ingredient for stability in the region.

When the newly formed People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet in 1950, a new source of conflict emerged. This was brought out when, following the national Tibetan uprising against the Chinese and my flight to India in 1959, tensions between China and India increased, which resulted in a border war in 1962. In 1987, once again, large military units massed on both sides of the Himalayan border, and tension was once again running dangerously high.

What was actually in question was not the boundary line between India and Tibet, but the unlawful Chinese occupation of Tibet, which