Cultural, sociological and ethnic diversity

Acceptance of diversity, and isolationism: two concepts that have been at the forefront of my mind, given the current situation in our state, our country and the world. I’ll not discuss world history or politics, but rather look at those concepts as they relate to my own past experiences and my current concerns.

The first half of my life, as a child and young adult, I did not have much experience outside my immediate environment. I was isolated from diversity, had little exposure to people who weren’t like me. That changed in 1984 when I made a sudden decision to accompany a climbing expedition in the Mt. Everest region of the Nepali Himalayas.

On arrival, a defining characteristic I immediately noticed was how “linear minded” were the majority of Europeans and Americans: unload at the Kathmandu, Nepal airport, hire porters and sort gear and quickly get to base camp for the climb. Their return trip was the reverse: pack gear and quickly head back to Kathmandu for their flight home.

But I immersed. While maintaining my identity of who and what I am, I left the trekking and climbing route as often as possible to visit Sherpa* villages well off the main path. I wanted to experience and learn from another culture, a different societal structure, where the welfare of the entire village was paramount. Individual identities were not lost but rather were woven into the fabric of the whole, and each village depended on and supported other villages ~ a quilt of villages blanketing the region. And though I looked different and did not speak their language, I was welcomed and treated as if I belonged.

Back in Kathmandu I met many people from Tibet, all refugees due to China’s 1949 illegal invasion and subsequent illegal occupation of Tibet, which was a fully sovereign country. After two more Himalayan trips and meeting more Tibetans, I became actively involved with a Tibetan refugee organization.

In 1990 I was invited to an international conference on that Chinese invasion and subsequent occupation, held in Dharamsala, India. At that conference I summarized for the other attendees why the Chinese government wanted Tibet: 1. Population expansion for Chinese people, 2. Resource extraction – Tibet’s eastern forests for massive logging operations, much of their wildlife exploited for the black market, and rivers for damming, and 3. Tibet’s strategic location in Asia.

I stayed in Dharamsala over three months volunteering for the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and was given a room that belonged to a Tibetan woman who had traveled to Lhasa, Tibet and was being held there under “house” arrest by the Chinese. Every morning during my stay an elderly woman who lived next door would bring Tibetan tea and Tibetan bread – freshly made and still warm. Just as with Sherpas on my multiple Himalayan travels, I was welcomed and treated as if I belonged.

Removing barriers between us and them

For all Montanans, and yes that includes me as a “transplant” having moved here from Nevada in 1974 and leaving periodically when I worked for the federal government, we need to find a way to help us understand and deal with the current dynamics that seem to be pulling us apart. We all have a place here and we all share responsibility for this divisiveness. We need to find a way to help us respect and accept our political, sociological and cultural differences. What I’m writing here isn’t about politics. It’s about acceptance of diversity.

An extreme of non-acceptance is isolationism. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is being driven by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin who is an isolationist on all levels: national, sociological and personal. Given what is at his disposal I currently consider him to be the most dangerous person on our planet. And the timing of that invasion coincided with my unpacking old journals and letters detailing my experiences in the Himalayas and Tibetans’ plight, their devastation, their loss. That heightens my sorrow over the horrors now inflicted on Ukraine.

From one of my previous Place for All submissions: Differences should never divide us but rather spark discussion of our common ground, finding the common good and working from there. “United we stand...Divided we fall”…Our greatest strength comes from being united and serving something greater than our individual selves and ideologies.

My immersion now involves my canine companion and me getting boots and paws on the ground every day on our treasured Forest Service lands. But even my local immersions are balanced by maintaining a global perspective. Our Earth is a vast ecosystem dependent on diversity for planetary wellbeing, that wellbeing dependent on avoidance of isolationism.

And that linear-mindedness

A journal entry March 1, 1986, “More important than the ‘arriving’ is the traveling to get there – the route along the way. That’s what builds us. It’s the actual climb to the summit rather than the summit itself that makes us what we are. If we were to be instantly transported to that destination, given the attainment without the attempt, it’s an empty experience. The attempt, the journey, is what provides sustenance and substance to our lives. Achievements are hollow without the accompanying attempt, the effort it takes to get there.”

And now, it’s that movement, that attempt of gaining acceptance, that can bring healing and wellbeing.

*Sherpas – The name of a group of people who migrated from east Tibet to the Mt. Everest region of the Himalayas over 500 years ago where they established their villages and participated in international Asian trade.