Letters to the Editor
-
I met
an old tibetan fellow once named Palden Gyatso, a monk who had been imprisoned in Tibet in camps for over twenty years for refusing to recognize chinese rule of tibet. Once when they mistakenly let him out, he walked up out of Tibet into India across the mountains. I was his host at my school. He was the kindest and gentlest man I have ever met, and the stories of horror he told me that he saw done to his friends and to him still make me sad. But he told me he did not hate the chinese, for what they had done to themselves in commiting these evils was far worse punishment than anyone would ever wish on anyone. Those poor people, he said: and at first I thought he meant the tibetans. But he was speaking of the chinese, who had twisted themselves in harming others for no good reason.
He was a better human being than me. IF I were tibetan, I think I would be more like those burning the shops. But Palden-la gives me an ideal to aim at. Its good to meet people who are better than you. It teaches you to look up.