commercialism

My friend Kim has written this from Tibet:

The temples are very elaborate and we have taken lots of pictures. The saddest visit was to Norbulingka, which was the Dalai Lama's summer home/palace. This is where he went the night before he escaped into exile in India in 1959. He and his followers walked in winter over the treacherous Himalayan mountain passes. This is what many Tibetans do today when they want to try for a better life in India or Nepal. We met several people who recounted these journeys to us. They had to carry yak butter and a barley (like kasha) called "tsampa." Along the way, they'd mix the barley with the butter and eat it. The butter helps the body stay warm. These travelers also would find sympathetic villagers and offer them some butter to make "butter tea," which Tibetans drink constantly. To me, it tastes like popcorn soup. But this is what Tibetans rely on to stay warm in such high altitudes.

Anyway, Norbulingka, was incredibly sad. Many Tibetans go there and cry, thinking about the exiled Dalai Lama, their spritual and political leader. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has made it into a sort of museum, where they charge quite a fee for entry. Outside the palace, on the gardened grounds, there was the annual, traditional yogurt festival, and guess who was one of the sponsors?? Budweiser beer. So there were Budweiser posters everywhere with pictures of half naked models all over the grounds of the Dalai Lama's summer palace.