Geshe Lobsang Gyatso I first met in Santa Cruz. He was born in Tibet in Kham Province around the time of the Dalai Lama (within a couple of years). When the Dalai Lama left Lhasa and escaped the Chinese by going to India, Geshe Lobsang Gyatso walked out with him. He said he wore dress leather shoes to walk out not boots because of the emergency situation.
Geshe Lobsang Gyatso I'm going to refer to as Geshela (which is an endearment for Geshe) which means spiritual friend.
He was born in Kham Province and and his father took Yaks with Tibetan Pink Salt to China on their backs to sell to make money. Geshela said his father and mother died in their early 50s. At the time Geshela came back to the U.S. with my wife and I in Spring of 1986 he thought he was going to die then because he was already in his early 50s.
My wife and I told him that people live longer in the U.S. usually. Geshela lived another 10 years which is pretty good after living a somewhat austere life in Tibet and as a refugee in India. He went to Dharamshala in 1959 with the Dalai Lama and his retinue which was given to the Dalai Lama by India as a place of refuge and for the Tibetan Government in Exile.
To understand better the Tibetan predicament it is very similar to how Native Americans were treated by the American people and government from the 1700s until maybe the 1970s and 1980s when they were allowed to have their own religions back once again. So, what has happened to the Tibetans is very very sad indeed in regard to being forbidden to continue their culture in Tibet by the Chinese government sometimes on penalty of death.
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