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Celebration: Dancing in the Streets of

Tibet

s we approached the Tibetan Children’s Village, we could feel the
excitement of the children even before we could see it in their faces.
It was a rare occasion for the Dalai Lama to have time to visit the school,
and the fact that he was bringing his honored guest made the event a
landmark in the school’s history.
When we had come in January to plan the trip, we had asked if we
could throw a small birthday party for the Dalai Lama. We had met with
two of the leaders of the Tibetan Children’s Villages, Tsewang Yeshi and
Ngodup Wangdu Lingpa, who served as both administrators and surrogate
parents for the children, as did all the teachers. They did not want any of
the children to miss out on this opportunity, so soon the small gathering
had grown to a party of over two thousand. They had kindly offered to
bake the birthday cake (we weren’t sure how we’d get cake for two
thousand in our luggage). We agreed to bring trick birthday candles from
America.
The children had been studying how to find joy and happiness in the
face of adversity for many months, exploring it in their own lives. They
had written about their own wrenching journeys from their families in
Tibet, often as young as five. Many had traveled for weeks with family
members or strangers over the snow-covered mountain passes out of
Tibet, the same dangerous journey that the Dalai Lama had taken a half
century before. Because an education based in the Tibetan language and
culture is suppressed or severely restricted in many parts of the country,
their parents, often poor and illiterate farmers themselves, had sent their
children to be educated by the Dalai Lama. After delivering them safely,
the family members or guides needed to return to Tibet. Often these
children would not get to see their families again until they were adults,