Tibet Culture
October 18 2010

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- His Holiness the 14th Dalai
Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, spoke yesterday morning with
Marcella Adamski, Ph.D., founder and director of
the Tibet Oral History Project (TOHP), thanking
her for the organization’s contributions to the
preservation of Tibet’s history and culture.

"This is good. This is very good," said His
Holiness as he looked intently at the photos of
Tibetan elders that Dr. Adamski and her team
included when updating him of their progress in
fulfilling his request to document Tibetan
history for the world before the last of the
elders pass away. The materials given to His
Holiness also included video footage taken during
the interviews with Tibetan elders and the entire
collection of transcripts of the interviews completed by TOHP to date.

"His Holiness is very pleased that the Tibet Oral
History Project is fulfilling his request to
document and preserve the histories of Tibet’s
oldest people,” said Tashi Wangdu, Former
Secretary of the Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai
Lama, New Delhi. Wangdu, a Fulbright Scholar,
serves as an advisor to the Project.

The Tibet Oral History Project is making its
transcripts and videos available free of charge
on its website, including an interview of Tsewang
Khangsar, owner of the Little Tibet Gift Shop in
Walnut Creek. He speaks of how, thanks to his
Buddhist beliefs, he was ultimately able to let
go of his anger toward the Chinese for the
invasion of his country. In another video,
Tsering Wangmo fondly recalls the days when the
people in her village sang and danced during festivals and weddings.