Stanley Baker presents his video of Tibet to residents of Place Kensington.
Baker unveils mysteries of Tibet
Well-known Westmounter and world traveler Stanley Baker was the special guest speaker last week at Place Kensington, where he led residents on a virtual tour of one of the world's most remote and mysterious regions — Tibet.
Much of Baker's first-person lecture was illustrated by a video he shot during his visit to Tibet eight years ago.
He gave a brief history of the country, including the Chinese actions of 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled and many Tibetans were killed or became refugees. Now, he pointed out, Tibetans are a minority in their own country, due to Chinese settlers. Baker mentioned that on public signs in Tibet, the words in Chinese have to be twice the size of those in Tibetan, something familiar to the current situation in Quebec. This was seen in the video. He spoke about the Beijing Olympics, problems for those torch carriers, the talk of boycott and the actions of Chinese Canadians protesting the 'media bias' against China.