The Annual Tibetan West Coast Picnic was held in the East Bay
this Year. It was the ninth picnic that the Tibetans have had
for the celebration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and fortunately
we have the 4th of July weekend which it makes it easy for Tibetans
here in the west coast to be able to attend the picnic. This year
it was a pleasant group of Tibetans from all over West coast as
well as from East and from Canada too. We had a soccer team representing
New York and that was a nice surprise. We are hoping in future
the West Coast Picnic will be more diverse and every state in
the US having our Tibetan brethren will participate making it
the Annual Tibetan Picnic.
| "...The
scenario of a typical Tibetan party is women dancing in a
group and men just standing in the corner with either a bottle
in their hand or just standing." |
The Tibetan Association of Northern California had organized
the picnic and on the whole it turned out well but the venues
for the different events were a bit scattered all over the East
Bay like the games /cultural programs/food/dance were a bit of
a driving from each other. There were few complaints from families
who had to lug their kids around from one venue to another, other
than that I think it was o.k. For just the fact that we the Tibetans
are able to do all this in a foreign land makes me feel proud
and I would like to encourage all future Tibetan generation to
keep this thing going on. We learn a lot about our culture and
it is a nice place for Tibetans to meet each other. I saw a lot
of ABT i.e. American born Tibetans and I'm glad that they have
a lot of patriotism among them. A lot had Tibetan tattoos on their
arms and the younger ones spoke fluent Tibetan or understood it.
Parents are encouraged to speak Tibetan when they are at home
by his holiness and I see they are doing a good job.
Then I saw most of the teenagers who came here around the young
age are today very much influenced by the Hip Hop culture because
they had from head down to their toes fascination for this music
era. I feel it is not something the older generation should be
negative about because I guess for these teenagers Hip Hop is
their thing at the moment; like in Sixties I'm sure we had some
Hippy Amala and Palas. I know they kind of look like they are
wearing ten times their size with pants dragging and shirts that
could fit three, four people in them, with du-rags on their head
and bling bling earrings but I know with age these phases will
pass too. So it was an interesting group of Tibetans that were
in the picnic, but what I don't understand most of the times among
a Tibetan gathering is people who come in a group will only stick
to their own group. I feel the sense of networking hasn’t
hit a lot of the Tibetans till date cause every time you walk
into event/gathering/parties; Tibetans are comfortable hanging
around with their own small group that they came with or live
with.
I feel if we went out and mingled with each other, I'm sure the
gathering would be more fun and alive, other than people just
staring at when you are on the dance floor or having a picnic
away from the real picnic. There were a lot of single men/ guys
in this picnic as well women/girls but I doubt if any got introduced
to each other. The scenario of a typical Tibetan party is women
dancing in a group and men just standing in the corner with either
a bottle in their hand or just standing. Once or twice you see
a bold one make a step in a group where he knows one of the girls
but he ends up alone after few dances. I personally think this
should change, we all should be more socializing and more open
because we are in another man’s land and chances are we
will not see Tibetans flock to one place all the time (Jackson
Heights in NYC is an exception) hahaha.
Well I feel like I can go on and on about this but then I will
stray away from the main topic “THE WEST COAST PICNIC”.
Well it has been decided that next year picnic i.e. the tenth
annual west coast picnic will be held in Los Angeles, the city
of angels and every Tibetan all over America and Canada are invited
to join us. Make sure you keep your 4th of July weekend free and
fly down to sunny beach of California, where not only the people
but also the weather will make your trip worthwhile. One more
thing before I end here, about the games that were played there
were many male teams but female team were just Los Angeles and
San Francisco Basket ball team. So personally I request all the
sisters, mothers, girl friends to represent the female sex from
your state and come up with at least a team if not two. Well see
you all in Los Angeles next year and I must add the Migyul team
in NYC you guys have done a great job and please keep it up.“...The
scenario of a typical Tibetan party is women dancing in a group
and men just standing in the corner with either a bottle in their
hand or just standing.”
