Demonstrators wore Mandala beads religiously coiled around their wrists, and carried colorful national Tibetan flags in one hand and pictures of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the other.

“We pray so that every human being would have a mind of enlightenment, which means have wisdom and have a deep understanding of the nature of mankind,” said one of the parade participants.

“We pray so that everyone can awaken from this state of ignorance.”

The parade began at the Indian Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue. The group marched by the Nepalese Embassy to object to that country’s police response against Tibetans.

“Recently, in the last few weeks, we’ve seen an unprecedented response by Nepalese police as far as arresting Tibetans on request of the Chinese government,” said International Campaign for Tibet ICT campaigns manager and pro-Tibet activist liaison Jacob Colker.
“And they haven’t been very friendly to the Tibetan people. So it was important for these Tibetans to walk past the Nepalese embassy to remind them that we are paying attention to what their actions are, that people all around the whole world are paying attention to their actions.”

The procession ended at the Chinese Embassy on Wisconsin Avenue with protesters showing solidarity and understanding of the Tibetan people’s plight and pain while voicing disagreement with the Chinese government’s repression of Tibetan rights.

“China lies and people die; free Tibet now; Shame, shame, shame, China, shame,” they chanted throughout the march.

“The situation inside Tibet is not good. We are here raising our voice against what is happening in Tibet, because we want to tell the American people to put pressure on the Chinese government to stop this crackdown on people and let them have freedom of expression,” said Namkha Tenzin, director of the Capital Area Tibetan Association CATA , a nonprofit organization that fosters supports to the Tibetan-American communities and the organizer of the march.

“There is no law in Tibet, this is Chinese repression. What we demand is not illegal for our country,” he said. “We demand the Chinese government to talk to the Dalai Lama to start negotiation between China and Tibet for the resolution of our problem.”

Among the participants was Tenzin Lhamo, a Buddhist nun of the Gelugpsa tradition who was ordained by His Holiness the Dahlia Lama years ago. She felt the need to step up for her religious counterparts in Tibet. They are asking for peaceful coexistence but are getting only violent responses.

“I am here to support all the monks and nuns who are standing up ready to give their lives, their health, their security,” said Lhamo. “They are not asking for independence, they are asking for the ability to pray and practice and preserver their culture.”

Lhamo said the fact that the Dalai Lama feels “helpless” in front of the intransigencies of the Chinese government, as she read in the New York Times, is a good measure of how things really are and how they need to change to safeguard Tibetan traditions.

“His Holiness has offered peace initiatives and all sorts of accommodation to the Chinese government for years, but he is recognizing that for the Tibetan culture to survive things have to be taken into a new level now,” she said.

Her predictions are that if dissent rages in enough places, the Chinese government is going to show its true face — their disinterest in dialogue and negotiation and their interest in brutal repression.

A more optimistic prediction came from Victoria Dolma, an American writer from the D.C. area who spent 13 years corresponding with prisoners who wanted to learn Buddhism all over the country. She is passionate about the Tibetan cause because she feels indebted to the teachers of the Buddhist creed who changed her life. She does what she can to support them, hoping that the religious belief that “everything flows” will prevail, bringing violence to an end.

“I feel I owe the Lama and the other teachers an un-repayable debt, so one of the ways that I can do that is by helping support their cause,” she said.

“What is happening is absolutely despicable, but one of the great tenets of Buddhism you might say is the understanding that all things are impermanent, so I know this cannot last, but when it will end is anybody’s guess,” she said.

According to BBC news, “UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on both Chinese forces and demonstrators in Tibet to show restraint after days of rioting. Mr Ban urged “a peaceful resolution”, but made it clear there were no plans for UN intervention.

The International Campaign for Tibet, guided by Lodi Gyari, the Dalai Lama’s Special Envoy in the United States, has been engaging in dialogue between the Tibetan people and the Chinese government, according to Colker.

The weekend protest was the largest demonstration in Tibet in more than 20 years, and Colker said some have likened it to Tiananmen Square. According to information released from the Tibetan Government in exile in India, 80 to 100 people were shot dead in the streets on Friday and Saturday.

“It is very serious. There have been tanks rolling down the streets of Lhasa and complete lock down of the streets,” he said. “It is very similar to what happened in Burma, but what is interesting is that this is within China. In Burma it was a government supported by China. This is directly China, their government, their military services, their police officers beating people in the street, not a military hunt down.”