tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64899656409963496262011-04-21T21:13:27.539-07:00Tenzin Dickyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297671968573914741noreply@blogger.comBlogger21100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489965640996349626.post-33214666378835700412008-12-11T08:06:00.000-08:002008-12-11T08:10:15.163-08:00We all wonder. Before China sent the People's Liberation Army to occupy, excuse me, sometimes I forget my newspeak, I mean liberate Tibet, how did the Tibetan Government spend its time? There are only so many picnics a Kudak* can attend in a season.<br /><br />Well I found this nice bit of information in Charles Bell's "The People of Tibet." One thing government officials did to occupy their time was issue a development policy.<br />Yes, a written proclamation known as Tsa-Tsik (Root Word) was circulated to all the Mayors of all the towns.<br /><br />This proclamation proclaimed:During that portion of the summer in which there is scarcity of rain (i.e. May and June) no one is allowed to construct any building.**<br /><br />Because, you know, builders make offerings and pray for dry skies. Obviously if these prayers were answered, farmers who pray for rainfall get screwed.<br /><br /><em>*A civil servant who through service to the government received land grants and titles and became an aristocrat. This process was a little bit like the bureaucratizing of Japanese samurai, except there was no wimpy sheathing of cool samurai swords.</em><br /><em>**Bell, C., The People of Tibet, Delhi, Book Faith India, 1998 </em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6489965640996349626-3321466637883570041?l=tellingtibet.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Tenzin Dickyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297671968573914741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6489965640996349626.post-55447966621038849572008-12-11T08:02:00.000-08:002008-12-11T08:06:00.247-08:00Yuthok Lane<br /><br />This is how it will be.<br />We will take a walk on concrete, not blue tiles.<br />You will pretend to be disappointed.<br />This will have the quality of a ritual.<br /><br />In the morning the sun will fall from the sky,<br />We will protect ourselves against its fire.<br />It is not so unbearable but<br />We have learnt to be wary of arrivals from the east.<br /><br />We are unbeautiful here.<br />Our stay in the plains has made us so.<br />But whispers now carry endearments.<br />And we would not have it any other way.<br /><br />Outside the chapel we will collect ourselves,<br />Then enter the bowels of its benign shell.<br />Nothing in here threatens us.<br /><br />We will pull out our offerings, crisp and new.<br />This time they will go where they are intended.<br />The pilgrims are less urgent now<br />And slowly, the shadow of the deity gains its substance.<br /><br />In the temple's deep<br />I will speak my name for you.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6489965640996349626-5544796662103884957?l=tellingtibet.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Tenzin Dickyihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297671968573914741noreply@blogger.com1