flag flying free

Posted by e. (New York, NY, United States) on 26 October 2007 in Documentary & Street and Portfolio.

On Wednesday, October 17, the 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in honor of his efforts for peace, nonviolence, and universal acceptance. The next few photos will be of that event. Go here to start at the beginning.

In Tibet, there are a couple things that are banned by the Chinese government. One is having any sort of image of the Dalai Lama. Another is having this flag up. This used to be the flag of Tibet and is still used as the emblem of the Central Tibet Administration in Dharamsala, India, where His Holiness is currently living in exile. If you want to know all about the symbols and images in the flags, go here to read about it.

I can only imagine what a relief it is for the people of Tibet to be able to wave their flag proudly without having to worry about the Chinese police coming down on them and arresting them. There were a lot of people, including this man, who had brought their flags.

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Photo taken at the Capitol on October 17, 2007.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. - Albert Einstein

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. - Shawshank Redemption

Comments (8)

Lorraine from Gatineau, Canada

Oh e. what a fantastic series, love people photo especially in such a peaceful setting. It's good for the soul!

26 Oct 2007 10:26am

Illuci from Netherlands, Netherlands

The only thing China is worrying about is their economic growth, without polluting the air and water too much. If they would let religious and spiritual movements operate freely within China (including Tibet, which would then certainly not demand complete autonomy but will be satisfied with the status they had before the "Cultural Revolution") it would surely improve economic progress combined with sustainability and goodwill. It looks as if they are simply afraid to loose mere power, their hysterical persecution of a totally innocent movement, namely Falun Gong, is not understandable, they also want to appoint Roman Catholic bishops by themselves, and manipulate Internet to prevent "false information" entering the country (apparently only China is right). Every form of free discussion and thinking must be eradicated, that's also why Chinese students are so good at finance and mathematics and other calculation disciplines, and accept without any criticism teacher's authority on whatever area you mention. They don't need to think about social and people matters. Thanks for this photoseries, e.!

26 Oct 2007 11:16am

@Illuci: I agree with you. Just one note though, the Chinese are a lot less conscientious about the environment than you think. In fact, American environmentalists have studied the air there before, and they say that people who live in China will actually have shorter lifespans because of the harmful air. Also, another aspect of the Chinese attitude towards Tibet that often isn't publicized is the way China treats the land there. They act as if it is a landfill and often dump waste there.