Yesterday my youngest son and his wife took me to hear Mr. Lobsang Nyandak from the Office of Tibet. Mr. Nyandak is His Holiness, the Dalai Lama’s Representative to the Americas. This nice young man of about 50 gave a plain-spoken talk called “Future Prospects for Tibet.” (The Office of Tibet has a website at http://www.tibetoffice.org/en/index.php where you can check out Mr. Nyandak’s credentials and see what this organization is all about.) If you want all the details, you’ll have to talk to my daughter-in-law: As a privilege of old age, I retain only what’s important to me (which is whatever sticks to these dried-out synapses that give “grey matter” an entirely new meaning).
The gist of Mr. Nyandak’s talk was that since the communist invasion, the Tibetans have done a remarkable job of preserving their culture, growing their population in the western world, organizing politically, and earning international support. HOWEVER, none of that has made a whit of difference. “Nothing has changed in Tibet,” he said, thanks to the “hard liners” among China’s current leaders, who are “not at all sincere” about finding a solution to the Tibetan problem. Worse, they don’t even recognize that there IS a problem. And so yes, the Dalai Lama has “almost” given up trying to work with the Chinese government.
His Holiness’s hope, he said, rests with the Chinese people.
As proof that this hope is well placed, Mr. Nyandak points out that thirty years ago, ordinary Chinese men and women would have nothing to do with the Dalai Lama (They were raised to believe that if he caught them, he would eat their flesh and suck the marrow right out of their bones!). Today, however, they consider meeting him a great honor. A Chinese group was responsible for organizing this year’s Tibetan National Uprising Day, Mr. Nyandak told us. And as I’ve already mentioned here, Chinese scholars from the Open Consulting Initiative were the ones who absolved His Holiness of responsibility for the 3.14 riots. “We believe if we have strong suport within the Chinese community, there is hope for Tibet,” Mr. Nyandak said. And so The Office of Tibet is reaching out “quite aggressively” to the Chinese people– to scholars, to intellectuals, to Buddhists. . . .
But what about people who like musicals?
I ask because one of my other grand-daughters—whose name I am not allowed to reveal now that I have outed my grand-daughter Rose– is what is known as a “RENT-head.” She has seen the musical RENT thirty-five times now. And she does it on the cheap, camping out on the sidewalks of cities all over America so that she can be first in line to put her name in a hat and (hopefully) have it drawn out so that she can buy a $20 front row ticket to see her favorite Broadway show. “Except, who really needs to see a play thirty-five times?” I keep asking her. And she has tried to explain it to me. After the first couple of times, it’s less about the play than about the kids in the line, she says. They come from all over the country, big cities, small towns, all colors, all kinds. They bond. They share. They text message and facebook and blog– about RENT.
You see where I’m going? In a fraction of the time it will take to convert a hundred million Chinese people to Tibet’s cause—or in a fraction of the time it will take for the current Chinese hard liners to die out and be replaced by more reasonable people—these kids can tell Tibet’s story about a trillion times. So why not let them do it?
Why not produce a contemporary musical about Tibet?
Tibet– The Musical! Music and lyrics by Sir Elton John! Produced by Richard Gere! A plot that’s part West Side Story, part Les Mis: Tibetan girl, Chinese boy, feuding families, political intrigue . . . .
Here’s an excerpt, contributed by my grand-daughter, who plans to continue to remain anonymous until someone with a big checkbook wants to talk to her about something she calls “optioning.”
Scene I. Lhasa. Below the Potala; Several buses have converged. A crowd of people; among them TIBETAN GIRL and CHINESE BOY.
BEAUTIFUL TIBETAN GIRL: Excuse me, but I can’t read this ticket—it’s written in Chinese. I don’t which bus to get on.
SCENESTER CHINESE GIRL: (Looking disgusted) Get away from me, loser.
BEAUTIFUL TIBETAN GIRL: Please. (Turning to CHINESE BOY, handing him her ticket) My grandmother’s in the hospital. I’ve traveled a very long way to see her.
REALLY HOT CHINESE BOY: (Points nonchalantly to her bus)
BEAUTIFUL TIBETAN GIRL: (Smiles gratefully, her hand lingering on his.) Thank you.
SCENESTER CHINESE GIRL: (Shuddering) Don’t let her touch you. Whatever she’s got might be contagious.
REALLY HOT CHINESE BOY: (Looking incredulous) Whatever she’s got? She’s Tibetan, you idiot. The last I knew, that wasn’t a disease.
SCENESTER CHINESE GIRL: (After mouthing the words, Oh yeah?, shrugs and pulls him into an Internet café.)
REALLY HOT CHINESE BOY: (Pretends to look for an open computer while he tries to calm down)
BEAUTIFUL TIBETAN GIRL: (Climbing into the bus, she tries to catch someone’s eye, anyone’s eye. Everyone looks away.)
Opening Number:
Alone, Together
(Sung by TIBETAN GIRL and CHINESE BOY)
Most of the time I feel more like a hungry ghost
than a precious human.
I’m not myself–
I’m not who they think I am.
I’m not who they want me to be.
What’s the point of living your life
Where no one speaks your language,
Where nobody calls the name that you were given,
Where nobody writes to you — speaks to you — sings to you
Using the words your heart was trained to hear . . . .
This is far as my grand-daughter was willing to humor me. But trust me, after this point, plenty of stuff happens. March 10th rolls around—Tibetan National Uprising Day! There’s a scuffle, and TIBETAN GIRL saves CHINESE BOY. They escape to a secret cave in the country side. There’s romance! The lovers are discovered! And so on. It’s Tibet, so there could be dakinis and dharmapalas and Chinese tanks. Hu himself could show up, if the cave is not at too high an altitude. There will be treachery and sacrifice but also a happy ending!
Tibet—The Musical! It will break hearts, change minds, make money, flood twitter, and turn the new Apple iPhone into a puddle of molten plastic that morphs into . . . well, petroleum.
But I hear the price of that is pretty high right now.
