Tibetan Dawn

One of the stalls on the Buttermarket for the Thursday market is called Tibetan Dawn - they sell clothes and bags and jewellery and so forth which look very nice quality stuff. I think I took more notice that I would normally have done because I've been reading a series of mystery novels by Eliot Pattison, in which the Chinese Inspector Shan is taken out of the labour camp where he's been imprisoned in the first book because he is the only person with the skills to solve a local murder. The books are full of fascinating detail about Tibetan Buddhism and how the Chinese run Tibet now. The people running the stall are also raising awareness about the situation in Tibet, which has been occupied by China for over 60 years. That's why the Dalai Lama lives in a refugee community in India. I remember Adele, who took over the Nepal Bazaar shop which was at the entrance to the Castle some years ago, talking about her visit to Tibet. Just to see what would happen, she tried looking up the Dalai Lama on a computer in an internet cafe - and the police arrived within minutes. She was able to talk her way out of it by acting the innocent tourist, but Tibetans can't do that. A few years ago, a group of Tibetan monks performed traditional dances and music at Hay Festival - that was a fascinating evening. There were several leaflets available on the stall. Locally, there is the Cardiff and South Wales Tibet Support Group, with a website at www.CardiffTibetGroup.wales and a Facebook page called Cardiff Tibet Group. The Tibet Foundation supports Tibetan communities both inside and outside Tibet with practical help such as the Yak for Life project, which donates yaks to nomad families in Eastern Tibet, and assisting the Tibetans living in India with healthcare, education and poverty relief. They are also responsible for the Tibetan Peace Garden in London, which was opened by the Dalai Lama in 1999. They also work in Mongolia, and their website is www.tibet-foundation.org There is also the Tibet Society, at www.tibetsociety.com and a Facebook page at Tibet Society, and a Twitter account at @tibetsociety. They are campaigning for a fair and just solution to the situation in Tibet, focussing on the lack of basic human rights to freedom of religion in Tibet, the right to freedom of expression and the right to a nationality (the Chinese government claims that Tibet has always been a province, rather than an independent country in its own right.) And Free Tibet reports news from Tibet, where the international media are banned. They can be found at www.freetibet.org and are on Facebook as freetibetorg and Twitter as @freetibetorg [Edited to add: I'm having a bit of trouble with the new Blogger interface at the moment - I wrote this in paragraphs, but it keeps coming out as a solid block of text....]