[swarthyguy]

I met some Tibetans in Ladakh - contiguos to Kashmir on the border with Aksai Chin, a chunk of Ladakh that China grabbed in 1959 or 1962.

As we drank Tibetan tea, regular tea with a dollop of butter, in truly exotic, medieval surroundings, a hut in a hillside village, the husband and wife told me stories of how they as children, along with their parents and assorted friends and relatives fled the Chinese troops with literally no belongings leaving all their possessions to be expropriated by the Chinese.

The only items they brought over were hundreds of statues of Buddha, approximately 2-3 feet high, made of gold, that they carried on their backs over the mountain passes to the safety of India. Got to see some of the statues in the local monasteries.

They weren't too enamored of the Chinese.

[andysandmikesmom]

You are correct, the Tibetans have no fondness for the Chinese...my son recounts how at one of the checkpoints, they were really being hassled by the Chinese guards...their transport was being driven by a Tibetan...

When they had finally crossed the checkpoint, the Tibetan driver, said "F--K You, China" and flipped them the finger, grinning the whole while...

When my son stayed with the nomads, he of course, had the traditional foods that they shared with him, a tea with a dollop of butter, and their traditional noodle soup....he, in turn, shared his stash of sweets and candies with them...which they quite enjoyed, as evidenced by their what my son called their 'infectious Tibetan smile'....