Thursday, March 29, 2018

I Love Tibet Shirt




Coinciding spring break, the Capital Area Tibetan Sunday School organized a White House tour for the Sunday Bodyi Lapta students. The registration for the tour was required a month in advance and every details of the person going for the tour had to be furnished as demanded.

  This thoughtful tour to the most powerful symbol of American democracy and power house of the administration was the brainchild of Bodyi Lapta headmaster, a self-less man who genuinely cared for the Tibetan children’s Tibetan language education for a long period of time. And he continues to dedicate himself for this cause of making the Tibetan born in the US molded into a person of character and discipline laced with their own Tibetan identity. 

 Usually the Tibetans protestors are seen on March 10th, rallying for support outside the White House. This time Tibetan American youth and their parents took the message inside the White House. A benign and yet conspicuous and powerful message, was their I LOVE TIBET T-shirts. I LOVE TIBET screaming loudly from their white T-shirts was the most noticeably things, and most the effective message that they all carried during the entire tour.

 School headmaster Tenzin Lhundup la procured the shirts for the last minute for the students thanks to his perseverance and hard-work. As the kids put on the T-Shirts, our team of 41 people for the first day White House Tour had unified identical look and cohesiveness as we walk to the White House. Pedestrians notice the message on the TV shirt, loud and clear react their approval and flash up thumb up signs, others vocally express their admiration for the message that the kids are projecting innocently on their chest.

 Waiting for a bee lines for the 10:00am White house tour, our group of elder and younger children with their symbolic white TV shirts with the I LOVE Tibet written in green was inescapable to the eyes of other visitors, who came every corner of the United States.

They are school students group, adults and so on. After passing through layers of security checks, finally we are ushered into a beautiful marble white building. The presidential history lays out in bare, with the sights of priceless China porcelain that the first ladies and presidents received from foreign dignitaries.

Furnishings and interiors are renovated dates back to many years .The existing interior and furnishings date back to as early as 1902 during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, when it underwent renovation.

 Like a museum, there are beautiful portraits of former president Ronald Reagan and pictures of past presidents and first family adorned the hallways. There are antiques and handmade carpets beautifully decorates the numerous rooms. In this majestic building, which is called White House, after workers hundreds of years ago white washed the walls from decay. There are rows after rows of rooms, for dinning, for guest reception, for library and so on. For every rooms you look into, you get a sense of the finest of the most luxury and royal appearance, that each of West Wing portrays to visitors. They are state dining room, which can seat as many as over 140 people.  There are libraries, the red room is parlor since the early 19th century is often used by first ladies to receive guests, and the elegant oval room has long been a reception room.  

Every piece of articles in this towering building shares a history, and symbolizes something larger than life. The visitors are all amazed by the grandeur of the finest furnishings on display. The tour is a treasure hunt for arts collectors, history buff, political avid and peoples of all trade.  It is comfortably said the building is for the American people, except that only the elected president can occupy it.
All visitors don’t want to pass up this rare opportunity by capture their moment in the White House by pose and poses to photos, but I would have spent hours appreciating the beauty of the White House and its symbolism. It was a most memorable tour, and not only that we feel enriched by the depth of this short tour experience. Our students with I love Tibet Shirts are being admired and noticed by those visitors.