Save the date: March 10th

Someone's got a big anniversary coming up and the country is buzzing with excitement. That "shady, dishonest, double-dealing separatist" fled Tibet 50 years ago on March 10, 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. In anticipation of the big day, Beijing just released a white paper called, "Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet" that outlines how China's developed Tibet's economy and improved the human rights and living conditions of its residents. Instead of gratitude over these past several decades, the Dalai Lama and his peeps have been gonn 'round spreading "anti-China sentiment in an attempt to restrain, split and demonize China." Those ungrateful beyotches.

The Chinese side of the story is that Tibet has officially been part of China since the mid-13th century, so it should continue to be ruled by Beijing. The Tibetans, on the other hand, say that the Himalayan region was an independent kingdom for many centuries, and that Chinese rule over Tibet hasn't been constant. So why can't they get along? The Chinese government, after all, has consistently said that it would be willing to open up dialogue with the Dalai Lama if he would simply:

"abandon his advocate of Tibet independence, stop his activities to split the motherland, openly declare that Tibet is an inalienable part of China, acknowledge Taiwan is a province of China and the Government of People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate government to represent the whole of China."

Easy, right? Meanwhile, foreign tourists aren't allowed into Tibet until the beginning of April. And to add salt to the wound, the government cancelled an upcoming Oasis concert because, evidently, that grimy Noel Gallagher appeared at a Free Tibet benefit concert in 1997.

(These are pics I took about two months ago when visiting a Tibetan refugee center in Kathmandu that's got micro-enterprise program where Tibetan women make and sell rugs.)