By Lobsang Namru
Minnesota, April 19 – Tibetans held Khatas (traditional Tibetan wellwishing scarves) as Lhakpa Tsering arrived here after more than a month of journey that he calls the ‘Free Tibet World Tour’. He began his ride on his BMW motorbike from New York city on March 10 this year coinciding with the 51st Tibetan national uprising day.
Surmounting difficult terrains, thunderstorm, icy roads, and harsh weather, Lhakpa stopped by in major American cities and spoke about his country generating awareness about Tibet. It took two years for Lhakpa to raise money for the dream to travel around the world with his message of Free Tibet. Last summer, when a friend told me about Lhakpa’s plans of riding a motorcycle across the world for Tibet, we burst into hysterical fits of laughter”, says Lobsang Namru, a Tibetan resident here.
This time, no one is laughing. Whenever I hear of daredevil- with-a- cause, I try to dig deeper into an intricate web of details to find the makings of that great being. What I unearthed of Lhakpa Tsering resembles lot of children born in exile. Lhakpa’s parents escaped into India in 1969 while his mother was still pregnant. His mother died mysteriously when Lhakpa was just six months old. His father was compounded by all kinds of miseries; seven children to feed and yet, no money to buy food and clothing. I can vividly imagine what Lhakpa’s father went through; loss of a country, wife and to add insult to injury, now seven children to feed. Driven by desperation and poverty, Lhakpa and his siblings were offered to the care of the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) School in Dharamsala in northern India.
Displacement, poverty and alienation were curses as well as blessings endowed on Lhakpa who left his school to join a vocational training centre in Pokhara, Nepal where he lived for six years. A year after his immigration to the United States in 1995, Lhakpa walked for three months in the ‘Peace March for Tibet’ from Washington DC to New York City. In 1998, he walked for three months from Portland, OR (USA) to Vancouver, BC (Canada). Putting aside the trappings of a new immigrant to the North American shores; education, job security, and family reunion, Lhakpa answered only to the call of his nation. By his own admission, he lives his personal life frugally with a Jewish wife and a four year old daughter in New York City. But for the cause of Tibet, he seems to live in constant urgency. When nationwide protests broke out in Tibet two years ago Lhakpa thought “enough is enough”. He decided to embark on a lone journey on motorcycle through 22 countries in 4 continents for 8 months to raise awareness about the plight of the Tibetan people and their lost country.
When he spoke to an audience of the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota it was a spontaneous eloquence of his deepest self which surely awakened lot of us from our self-gratifying complacency. Our youths were inspired to dream big and follow their instinct as each of us is a piece of that puzzle that could solve the Tibetan issue. Likewise, he will continue to inspire as his rides his motorcycle across the world until the final destination, Dharamsala, India on October 23, 2010. With a semshook (determination:Tibetan) like Lhakpa’s, Tibet’s destiny seems to be in good hand.
For Lhakpa’s itinerary, visit www.freetibetworldtour.com. Email inquiries can be sent to freetibetworldtour@yahoo.com
The writer is a Tibetan-American residing in Minneapolis, MN. He can be reached at lt402tl@yahoo.com
