Drug abuse and life-altering spiritual epiphanies often seem far from everyday life. Instead, they sell out theaters and are found on the shelves of popular bookstores. But occasionally, one exists in real life.
The strange thing about discussing Tibet is the reactions of passersby who overhear key phrases. "Dalai Lama," "free Tibet" and "Buddhism" catch people's attention, and sometimes they stop to offer their own stories.
One day in the basement of Newcomb Hall, as students discussed the Dalai Lama, they were overheard and recognized by Victor Wills, a Newcomb maintenance employee, who said his life was changed forever after hearing the Dalai Lama speak for the first time.
"In my younger days, I did a lot of drugs and a lot of drinking," he said. "I can't even remember if it was Richmond or D.C. I was in, and we turned a corner and there [the Dalai Lama] was, and I thought, 'I spent $1,000 on drugs, and this man ain't spent a dime, and he's happier than I am. Something's wrong.' Not long after that, I pretty much gave up drugs and drinking."
Although Wills was taken to a Buddhist temple as a child, he said he was not an observant Buddhist until he heard the Dalai Lama.
"I guess I was always a Buddhist and never knew it," Wills said. "I like Buddhism. It helps you become a better person."
Although acquaintances have tried to take him to church, Wills said he is happy with the local Buddhist community, specifically mentioning one key component of Buddhist life in Charlottesville -- the Jefferson Tibetan Society.
JTS was founded in 1982 by Sandy Newhouse and three friends when the four were graduate students at the University. Newhouse, who currently serves as JTS president, said she first became interested in Buddhism when she studied it at Antioch College as an undergraduate. She eventually became Buddhist and consequently learned more about the situation in Tibet.
Although her three friends were studying Tibetan Buddhism while at the University, Newhouse was studying psychology. She currently practices psychology locally and said her Buddhist background helps her to better serve her clients, who primarily come from Christian backgrounds.
"I find that I'm sensitive to the importance of religion in people's lives," she said. "Also, the Buddhist teachings on compassion and understanding and how things happen in life help with understanding suffering and struggles of the human condition."
The purpose of JTS, according to Newhouse, is to provide Charlottesville's general public and surrounding areas with access to Buddhist philosophy and practice. One of the ways in which this is accomplished is through the teachings and leadership of Geshe Jampel Thardo, a distinguished Lharampa Geshe, which is the highest level of learning in Buddhism. He is from Lhasa, Tibet, and studied at the Drepung Loseling Monastery.
Thardo left Tibet with the Dalai Lama and approximately 100,000 other Tibetans in 1959, following the Chinese occupation, Newhouse said.
"That was the time the Chinese started the massive genocide and starting putting Tibetans in prison and killing large numbers of them," she said.
He came to the United States in 1973 and has been an intricate part of the Charlottesville Tibetan Buddhist community since 1983, at the request of the Dalai Lama.
"He's a traditional practitioner so he has a very great wealth of knowledge and wisdom, and he's been able to share the richness of the tradition with large numbers of Americans," Newhouse said. "He's a very authentic practitioner -- very committed to daily practice and very much lives his life in the ideals the Dalai Lama has for Buddhist monks."
Thardo is supported financially by donations from members and friends of JTS, but his expenses are minimal because of his monastic vows.
"He doesn't have a car, and he cooks his own meals, lives in a very simple way and devotes the majority of his time to religious study and Buddhist practice," Newhouse said. "That's been the major thing he's done in his life."
In addition to leading Buddhist prayer, meditation and teaching every Wednesday, Thardo also participates in interfaith dialogue when he's invited by different churches and centers.
Since the purpose of JTS is educational and religious, Newhouse said the organization does not promote any particular political agenda and Thardo does not make political statements.
"He follows the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama that it's considered an important part of Buddhist practice to have compassion for your enemies," Newhouse said.
Thardo's weekly sessions are attended by Charlottesville community members, students and local Tibetans. Although there were no Tibetans in Charlottesville when JTS was founded, there currently are about 30.
One of these community members is Nawang Thokmey, a library assistant in Alderman Library, specializing in Tibetan books.
Thokmey grew up in India after his parents escaped from Tibet in the 1960s, and he earned a masters degree in Buddhist philosophy at the Central Instituate for Higher Tibetan Studies in India in 1992. In 1993, he was offered the opportunity to come to the United States by the Dalai Lama's headquarters in New York with 999 other Tibetans. As part of the resettlement project, local donations provided Thokmey $50 per week and rent money until he found a job. After making salad at Miller's on the Downtown Mall and working as a banquet server at local hotels, Thokmey taught Tibetan language for a few years and began working in the library in 1996.
"[The Tibetan collection] is very extensive -- some say it's one of the best in the United States," he said.
With a background in Tibetan language, history and philosophy and some knowledge of Sanskrit, Thokmey is fluent in Hindi, English, Tibetan and Ladakh, a dialect found near Kashmir. Despite his Tibetan upbringing, he said his identity is sometimes confusing.
"Of course I'm Tibetan, but I was born and grew up in India," he said. "I've never seen Tibet. ... Now I'm in the United States, but I'm still Tibetan."
Although he thought it would be dangerous to go back to Tibet while living in India, Thokmey said his U.S. passport makes visiting Tibet a distinct possibility.
Unlike Thokmey, a man named Tenzin, who requested his last name be withheld to protect his family members who remain in Tibet, grew up in Amdo, Tibet. Tenzin completed his graduate education last May and plans to apply for his Ph.d. in Buddhist philosophy. Although Tenzin used to be a TA, he now is working for the Law Library.
Tenzin said he came to the United States because of the danger associated with being engaged in the underground free Tibet movement in Tibet, which caused the imprisonment or disappearance of several of his friends.
"I consider my identity as Tibetan and not Chinese," he said. "I did and I'm still doing lots of anti-Chinese free Tibet movement [activities], so there is no way for me to go back to Tibet without fear and without any problems from the Chinese."
He said he deeply appreciates and admires "the essence of the spirit of the United States of America -- to protect human rights and to introduce democracy and that of great value represented by America."
The U.S. has a crucial role to play in the movement to free Tibet because the community in Tibet is unable to act and Tibetans in exile have little power, Tenzin said.
Additionally, Tenzin suggested that young Tibetans may lose patience with Chinese occupation, causing dangerous results.
"After the Dalai Lama, who knows?" he said. "Maybe we'll lose the patience. Terrorism right now is the world fashion, so the young generation of Tibetans might lose patience and do the same thing to gain their freedom."
He said he thinks peaceful and nonviolent protests are best, but they seem to be largely ineffective. And although he acknowledges the better living conditions China has brought to Tibet, he says the improvements are not worth the sacrifices to Tibetan culture.
"How would you feel if somebody cut off your head and put beautiful clothing on your body?" he said. "That's exactly what the Chinese government is doing to Tibet. They're cutting off the Tibetan head and putting on Chinese clothing. ... It's like they cut off the head of Tibet and bound up the legs and arms and fed it with Chinese food. Which way is better? You don't want to be poor, but [without the presence of the Chinese] you feel free, you feel yourself, you have no fear from others"
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