In the late 1980s for example, my then wife and I both decided we would try to become Anthropologists in order to save Tibetan History and Tibetan Buddhism from being destroyed by the Chinese at that time because we saw how valuable Tibetan Survival both physical and spiritual techniques actually were for the world.
In some ways it was like the value of Native American Cultures also were overlooked by most ignorant Americans as they colonized America in the 1600s through the early 1900s which caused such great death and suffering to Native Americans. They had and have so very much to teach us about living here in America.
Even if you take it back to the Pilgrims, the Pilgrims wouldn't have survived without Native Americans showing them how to survive better where they were. The Virginia Colony didn't survive because they likely didn't have Native American help to survive here.
But, the Pilgrims benefitted from the Native Americans in their area and so they survived when others didn't.
The same is true of both Tibetan History and Tibetan culture and Tibetan Buddhism which are unique because of learning to survive at 8000 to 15,000 feet in altitude. We realized this as we both were studying at UCSC during those times around 1989. However, for us, we wound up getting divorced which ended this dream for both of us at that time. Also, We spent (our 3 kids and ourselves) a lot of time in India and Nepal in 1985 an 1986 with Tibetan Lamas and monks in places like Bodhgaya, India and Dharamshala, India (where the Dalai Lama lives) and in Kathmandu, Nepal. And then we got a Tibetan Lama friend his Green Card here in the U.S. so he stayed here in the U.S. the rest of his life. He was in his 50s when we brought him to the U.S. for a second time and was a Geshe called Geshe Lobsang Gyatso who had traveled with the Dalai Lama to India on foot and horseback while being strafed by Chinese fighter planes and many were killed during this journey to the Indian Border. Geshe means "Spiritual Friend" (to all beings). It is a Gelukpa Tibetan Buddhist delineation. Gelukpa is what the Dalai Lama is.
However, understanding the inherent and intrinsic value of individual cultures here on earth is very very important for future human survival here on earth.
So, this is why both culturally and scientifically as well as religious cultures that are now being wiped out worldwide by Covid and by not being medically scientific enough to survive these times need to be saved and not lost so we can survive our future much like the Pilgrims did with Native American Help in the 1600s.
By God's Grace
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