Road News from Tibet

A satellite passes. It dips lower in its orbit to have a closer look at Central Asia. The sweep of its vision glosses the Celestial Mountains and the Mountains of Chaos. Its prying lenses probe the Taklamakhan, the Himalaya and the headwaters of Asia's greatest rivers. Mother Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Yellow River, the Salween, Yangtze and Mekong all lie exposed beneath its arc. It's focus is Tibet. At least a few satellites pass over Tibet these days. Their observations are crisp and hard, terse and digital. Statistics are collected while hardy people sleep softly on the land below. Most of the Tibetan people have never heard of satellites. They revere the sun, the moon and the stars, while respecting the harsh winds that can change the temper of a day in moments. Although some of the stars are seen to move very quickly now, the Tibetans' spiritual centre remains Lhasa, around which their lives gravitate no matter how far away from it their homes might be.