My friends from the Seattle-area Tibetan community recently marched in Seattle’s huge, annual celebration-of-summer, the Seafair Torchlight Parade. It was a warm evening and the downtown city streets were lined with Seattleites in shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops. The Tibetans, meanwhile, were dresed-to-the-nines in costuming they might wear for festive events in their homeland, a high, cold plateau surrounded by snowy mountains.
The Tibetans were wearing long sleeves that night and must have been roasting in their robe-like chubas. Some were wearing hats with fur trim. Nevertheless, they enthusiastically pounded on drums, blew ceremonial horns, and danced their way along the parade route, proud to share their culture with Seattle.
And though their volunteer photographer -- yours truly -- did not dance his way through downtown Seattle, I did walk, backwards, the entire 2-mile-long route in order to document the procession moving forward.
So that I’d fit in with the costuming of their group, my Tibetan friends gave me a Tibetan shirt to wear, but fortunately they didn’t ask that I wear a fur hat.
