Professor Robert A.F. Thurman at the Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association. Image from The Asian Reporter.

“Look, Dalai Lama says no one can be free until everyone’s free,” Professor Thurman repeated. Meaning, China’s not free until Tibet is. Meaning, of course, civic and religious freedom; China can only be as democratic as Tibet is allowed to be. But meaning at a more profound yet even more practical matter that so long as Chinese soldiers are filled with fear so are Tibetan civilians. So long as Tibetan kids on their way to school and mothers on their way home from market are angry, so too will Chinese occupiers.

And herein lies the Dalai Lama’s revolutionary theory and His Holiness’ ethical directive. Why the Dalai Lama Matters furthers that message, setting out a plan that obviously resonated with Northwest Tibetans, like an old relative returning from far away. Professor Thurman was taken in as family. Easy to love.

“Most important for us,” said Tsering Choephel, president of the Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association, “was for our younger generation seeing and hearing a believer and friend of His Holiness; a gray-hair Westerner who wrote so many books and knows so much about Tibet history and culture.”

Read the full article at The Asian Reporter.