Wednesday morning, a friend who heads up the Louisiana Himalayan Society called. Tibetan monks had been invited to Tulane University's campus for the week and had some strong reactions from the 300 Chinese students on campus. The Chinese students had torn down posters, protested that the monks were saying nothing but propaganda and at a lecture on Tuesday night, there had been some fairly hostile talk that wasn't handled well by the pro-tibetan lecturer.  So my friend asked me to help him structure a dialogue between the monks and the students - to be held that evening at 6 pm - and it could only last about 1.5 hours.  Within about twenty minutes, this is how we decided  to structure the gathering: six tibetans and six chinese students were invited (the groups made their own choice about who attended). They were asked to sit in a circle, alternating tibetan and chinese.  There were two rounds of talk. In the first round, each person had two minutes to talk. In the second round, each person had one minute to talk. All comments were translated Tibetan/English.  Surrounding the inner circle were two more circles of chairs for those who wanted to listen. These folks were asked to hold comments to the end of the dialogue.

It was a good experience in the power of slowing down a conversation (especially with the translation). The Tibetans told their story - how they had left Tibet because they could not freely practice their religion; one told of arrests of his friends.  The Chinese clearly pointed out that Tibet and China are one country and that they are all Chinese. Several also made the point that life in Tibet is better now than before the invasion and the monks agreed.  Both groups were generous to each other, with the Tibetans expressing thanks for the dialogue and the Chinese expressing respect for the monks. Several of the Chinese had been to Tibet and said how kind and friendly the Tibetan people are. There were certainly poignant moments from both groups.  One Chinese woman seemed in near tears as she said how confused she was about the whole issue. At the end she said we are the new generation of Chinese - we are studying all over the world - and we will go back and make sure that you can come back also.

One of the questions from the audience was "what is good in Tibet now?" The Tibetan monks began to talk among themselves and then one of them said, "well, since the Chinese came, there are a lot more vegetables - and they are good. And in Lhasa, there are a lot more bars, and the young people really like that!"  We all laughed as the evening came to an end. After, the 12 took a group picture.  We could have gone on longer, but instead encouraged everyone to continue the dialogue.