As another member previously said, on the one hand, it's a sad story. For example, in the 1960s, along with the destruction of monasteries and nunneries, four things were banned or discouraged—religion, culture, language.... Tibetans were even made to wear suits like those worn by Mao Zedong. They all had to wear Chinese dress.
Now, 50 years hence, the Tibetans in Tibet are wearing traditional dress. For example, we observe every Wednesday—today is Wednesday—a “White Wednesday”. On White Wednesday in Tibet, they all wear Tibetan dress. They think Tibetan, eat Tibetan, do Tibetan. That's going on.
When friends and families call each other, they have a box into which, each time they use a foreign word or a Chinese word, they put a set penalty. A week or two later, they take that box to a monastery or to a school as a donation.
The rich business people have, just as we have American Idol or Canadian Idol, a competition for the best Tibetan writers and best Tibetan speakers. You get cars or bicycles. This is going on at the people's level.
Normally on Wednesday I wear traditional dress in India. Today I am here in subcommittee. so respecting your etiquette, I'm in my western dress, but in solidarity with them, every Wednesday I wear traditional dress.
As I said, Tibetans are a very resilient people. No matter how repressive and systematic the violation, Tibetans fight their way out. We're talking about third-generation Tibetans wearing Tibetan dress and speaking the Tibetan language. As I mentioned, of the 145 self-immolators who burned themselves, many were very young. They know what they are doing, and they are dying for a cause. In that sense, we are fighters with courage.
Martin Luther King talked about once we climb the mountaintop. When I heard his speech, I said we are genetically adapted to climbing mountains. We thought that was easy. That's how we think.
At the grassroots level, we have rebuilt the monasteries; we are wearing our own dress and speaking our own language, so we are recreating the nation, culture, and civilization.
We have been on the Tibetan plateau for thousands of years; we will be there for thousands of years. For the Chinese to settle there permanently will take hundreds of years of genetic adaptation, because they are from the lowland area. In summer, urban areas have a Chinese majority, because many of them come to do business and are subsidized by the Chinese government. In winter now, Tibet has a Tibetan majority.
I believe in global warming, but I'm not a big fan of global warming. We want global warming to slow its pace. As long as Tibet is cold and has a high altitude, fewer Chinese will migrate and settle there.
