Tibetan connection

Nima is my travel agent.

He’s also Tibetan—one of 40 Tibetan exiles in Tokyo. That’s a pretty small community—a slim .00033% of Tokyo’s population. When the Dalai Lama comes through Tokyo on his travels, all of the Tibetans know it and go to see him.

Talking with Nima over dinner last night, I discovered that he lived in Pittsburgh for a while when he was a kid. His sister still lives there. She runs an Indian/Nepalese store in Oakland and a few years back she had a restaurant called Himalayan Tibetan Restaurant.

I ate there quite a few times. In fact, it was from pamphlets there that I first learned about Tibet, its plight and the movements to save Tibet. And, of course, its food.

Who’d ever think that I’d do business with the brother of the Tibetan woman who owned a restaurant I’d eaten in 6,000 miles away and ten years ago?

Discoving quirky connections among people makes me grin from ear to ear. I love being an expatriate in this truly small world.

Posted by kuri at March 06, 2003 10:01 AM