“Center of the universe”

My dad sent me this article today with a note that said “Amy, see… you’re at the center of the universe!”

I knew that a lot was going on here and I’ve been immersed in the Tibetan situation simply by my proximity to it. It’s bizarre to think that I’m living in the middle of world news, that the sights and sounds of the protests I experience in Dharamsala are relevant not only to my Indian experience but to the world arena.

Yesterday I was sitting on my bed, writing postcards when I thought I heard the roar of a crowd. It had been so quiet and my New York brain is not used to quiet, so I thought perhaps it was SO silent that I was hearing things. I went outside the front door and the roar became louder, and I could make out some chanting. My friend Josie came back from the market and yelled for us to get out on the balcony. We looked out and there was a stream of people flowing down the hillside. Just a part of my afternoon spent at home.

And then, from the article: “No sooner had he finished speaking that protesters outside the gate of his compound torched a Chinese flag, shouting “Hu Jintao Murdabad,” which in Hindi is literally “death to Hu Jintao,” the Chinese president. Two hours later, they burned more Chinese flags. Earlier, monks chanted prayers and walked in thick columns through the hills. Gory photographs were pasted across town, of Tibetans allegedly shot and killed by Chinese forces.”

Josie was out buying pasta sauce and Nutella and was handed a poster of these photographs. I just can’t grasp the magnitude of the idea that the quiet mountain town I’m staying in is being followed by the eyes of the world!  Surreal.

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