Word: returns
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...faithful parade from town to town in religious "long marches" celebrating localized Taoist gods. Tai Shan, a holy mountain south of Beijing, is one of the country's most popular tourist sites--especially among would-be grandmothers, who trudge to the top, drape red strings over trees and then return home to wait for the grandson this ritual is supposed to guarantee. The searching need for faith is written on the faces of the Chinese who pace each day, by the thousands, through the "Confucian forest" in Qufu. There, among the 600-year-old birch trees, are buried 77 generations...
With China's future in the balance, Yang, a wealthy landowner with three wives, is breaking up his family. Yang Peiyuan, the older twin by half an hour, is to return to their hometown and join the communists. Yang Peiji, the younger twin, is to go south to join the Kuomintang (KMT) and fight in their Nationalist army. The train is about to leave. Peiji tells his brother to try to persuade their father to escape to Hong Kong. They hug, and Peiyuan boards the train...
...already started inside Tibet. There was open revolt and bloodshed. It spread from village to village. While I was in India, some of my officials advised me to remain and take care of the freedom movement from India. Another group, including Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, advised me to return. He said it was better to struggle from within Tibet...
...palace in Lhasa. It was very pleasant there, and I was very happy. I remember everything was fresh, calm and peaceful. There were lots of flowers. But when I remember these things, it makes me very sad to realize that it has all changed. Even if I were to return, all of that is permanently gone. It has been destroyed. Older Tibetans used to say that the communists were destroyers of dharma (divine law). Perhaps, in the end, they were right...
Then we will go back. But even if I return, I may not remain. For the rest of my life, I want to travel around like a bhikshu, or Buddhist mendicant. I have received many invitations. Monks come here from monasteries all over Tibet, and they invite me to come and stay with them. But I feel it's better just to visit these places. So I will wander about. And from time to time, I will even come back to see my friends outside Tibet. Some genuine friendships have developed during this very difficult period. That is really precious...