GESHE Sonam Thargye values the simple things in life.
He values the freedom to practise his faith.
The freedom to assemble.
The freedom to speak from the heart.
These are things the dedicated Tibetan monk has not always had.
These are the things that forced him to leave his friends and family behind to find a life in exile.
Geshe Sonam was one of two refugees invited to Mt Ousley Public School yesterday to teach the children about the lives of refugees.
He told the attentive students his life story – beginning with his earliest years with his large, farming family high on the Tibetan plateau.
When Geshe Sonam was a young boy he decided to study Buddhist philosophy.
However, since China occupied Tibet more than 50 years ago, freedom of religion in his country has been severely curtailed so the young novice’s opportunities to pursue his faith were cut short.
Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama had fled into exile. Monasteries were destroyed. Monks and nuns were persecuted, tortured and imprisoned.
To follow his dream, Geshe Sonam had to follow in the footsteps of the Dalai Lama and leave his family for a life in exile.
For 23 days he walked across the Himalayan peaks, first to Nepal and then to southern India where he found a place in a Tibetan monastery.
“I never, ever thought I would go to a western country but in 1996 I went back to Tibet and I changed my goal because I saw so many kids in the streets, not studying or anything,” he said. “I wanted to do something for those kids.”
Soon after Geshe Sonam returned to India he was given the opportunity to come to Australia.
After 18 years in India, he settled in Geelong, Victoria, where he continues to teach and practise Buddhism.
He has taken advantage of his new freedoms to raise awareness of Tibet – he is in Wollongong this week with a group of monks who are creating a sand mandala.
He has also used the opportunity to help a group of Tibetan children by setting up a school which educates, feeds and shelters 152 children in eastern Tibet.
Geshe Sonam Thargye will give a public talk at the University of Wollongong’s Hope Theatre at 7.30pm tomorrow night.
