The Tibetan society is undoubtedly a very diverse culture hidden in the simplistic cover of buddhism. The prevalent signature activities of Tibetan people are such as going for Kora (circumambulation of Religious buildings), reciting prayers, portraying the lamas and deities in their homes. Today these have turned into some habitual routines or necessities in their lives and they are today bestowed upon of such a responsibility I perceive. The real complexity lie in the depth of our culture and the classifications within. I have curiosity of the fact whether the next generation Tibetans have any clues of this actual depth.
The next gen youth today are coming up from extremely contrasting environments among themselves as well as from the environment their parents have come from. They constitute of the youth inside Tibet and the diaspora in exile spread across the world. The fact that these environments are contrasting is that they live among completely different communities.
In the exile community, Tibetans are on a large scale dissolving into the larger sections of the foreign communities they are growing up from. I think this is taking us to a very dire situation as far as preservation of cultural and traditional values, national identity etc. are concerned. In particular, the new generation of Tibetans growing up in such communities across the world though adorn with good modern education but are exhibiting a new face of Tibetans. For a very simple instance, the marriage ceremonies being held today more or less does not carry much of Tibetan traditional identity be it in India or somewhere in the western countries.
The most significant advantage of the wider spreading trend of Tibetan population across the world is the sharing of Tibetan cause and propagating the message for the right of Tibetan people inside Tibet. But when this significance is coming at such a price, I am personally concerned about it. This should not come at a price against the hope of His Holiness the Dalai Lama who wished to build a complete Tibetan generation equipped with both the modern education as well as the traditional values just as two sides of a coin. When this situation is actually happening, I consider this kind of situation as dividing ourselves in the free world and letting them rule over us because the simple question here will be how much can we as individuals achieve and how much can we as a community achieve for the cause of Tibet? This is still not considering the impact from this trend of exile community to the preservation of our cultural and traditional values in the diaspora.
The young Tibetan population studying in various educational institutions across the world today excelling in their fields of studies engage into their professions in various multinational companies and organisations. This is though a good turn of fortune for these Tibetans but I think this is not the purpose behind the setting up of separate Tibetan Schools and Tibetan communities in the exile world. Working merely for the livelihood of the ourselves in the exile world grown up from Tibetan schools is what I call the imploding youth of Tibet. This youth of Tibet do not lack in the spirit for the cause of Tibet but their daily routines they are involved in draws them into a position which is not at all healthy for the cause of Tibet. It is very natural to be carried away by the current of our profession for any person but taking into consideration of the Tibetan people, this natural happening is an enormous set back and undesirable.
The very necessity I think today is that the youth of Tibet should look at living in a Tibetan community especially together with their senior family members and engage within the Tibetan community as much as possible with their profession too. This should not just prosper the very individual at the least but the community and the Tibet cause at large.
The primary projection of the mindset of the youth today who venture into the foreign world is that they feel this is a sort of platform to gain experience and exposure which would benefit them when they redirect into the Tibetan society later on. However, I have observed that when they thrive well in the foreign environment, rather than returning into the Tibetan society, they become a path way for more such Tibetans to venture in the vast foreign world where rather than being able to contribute something for the Tibetan cause, they start shedding off their own identity!
We Tibetans sometimes tend to lose our minds of the fact that we are at a critical juncture which does not allow any experimentations. As soon as a Tibetan youth is ready for practical field, they should engage into anything but Tibetan cause and there is no better source of experience for Tibetans than this. This is because we are in a state of national cause and not merely livelihood.
Thus in the very short run I expect the Tibetans held together in every twists and turns of our struggle, available whenever cases of need be. This will also bind each and every individual Tibetan spread across the world by a community of our own and not left out. The imploding youth of Tibet can then explode and explode in a very powerful manner for the very cause of our own.
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