March 31st – International Day of Action for Tibet

Yesterday marked an International Day of Action for Tibet, with actions in 80 cities in 27 countries around the world. I unfortunately wasn’t present at any of them, but here are some of my favorite accounts:

In Washington D.C., Tibetans and supporters became quite mob-like in front of the Chinese embassy, throwing rocks, water bottles and flags. Then…

…an amazing thing happened. The Drepung Loseling monks, who had earlier performed ritual for the dead in Tibet and had led the march to the embassy, calmly walked, chanting, to the very front of what I would have pretty much called a mob at that moment; people enraged at the torture and murder of their familes and friends in Tibet, looking quite prepared to smash their way into the Chinese embassy as we have seen happen elsewhere recently. But no - within a few seconds all of the defiant roaring that had been echoing off the buildings died down, and virtually everybody sat down on the ground and joined the monks' chant. Many police cars were descending on the scene by that time, but the officers emerged to find no riot at all but a large group of people mostly sitting and chanting. After a final singing of the Tibetan National Anthem, with their backs turned to the embassy, the crowd began to disperse.

Chalk one up for the monks.

The Tibetan Youth Association in Europe painted this beautiful graffiti in Zurich, Switzerland: