The trees are alive with spirit in the hills around Palenque, as are those that grow straight out of the temples which haven’t yet been fully cleared or excavated. They say that it is the former occupants of the sacred site that are standing there still, guarding it by sinking roots deep between rocks and that their voices rise up on the steamy air as the shrill reverberations that scream from the birds and insects when an intruder approaches.

I remember when I once saw children climbing over the top of crumbling ruin rooftops and the alarm sounding from a site guardian’s whistle. He yelled at them to hurry down to where their mother called out in German looking quite embarrassed and angered by her children’s transgression. Other visitors looked up disgustedly and I must admit that I was in amazement myself as to how much damage must have be done by the thousands of tourists who clambered over those worn and weathered stones year after year.

I remember being laid out under an almond tree on the grassy floor of the plaza in front of the three stepped temples which looked out over the wide rolling green expanse of the Usumacinta river basin to the north. Further down that river a couple of days by raft on the Guatemala side of the border lies the almost totally unexcavated and pristinely unaltered ruins of a city that was once contemporary with Palenque. It is now called Piedras Negras. It is still almost completely enveloped in vegetation, the calls of spider monkeys and toucans sounding out from above, and is where the great Russian archaeologist and Mayanist scholar, Tatiana Proskouriakoff's ashes are buried. She is the one credited with helping to break the Mayan glyphic code and with bringing the knowledge of generations and thousands of years of history back to the contemporary Mayan people. They adored her for her efforts so much that they allowed her ashes to be buried atop one of the most sacred places to them, a place which lay inside the sacred precinct of Piedras Negras atop a structure overlooking the river below which passes with serpentine smoothness straight through the heart of the Mayan universe.

In Guatemala the resources available for the protection of archaeological sites are miniscule even in comparison with those of Mexico. But even there, deep in the heart of one of the last remaining rain forests lying between the two countries are the ones who guard the sacred sites and they come out of nowhere and when you least expect it to check on things and to make sure that at a minimum no vandalism of any sort is being done by those who have come so far afield in search of the wisdom of the ancients. Some are guides and you can tell that they were chosen long ago to impart the wisdom that is held beneath the stones. Others are simply paid to stand watch and it is obvious from the lack of signs and guardrails that the pay couldn’t possibly be much.

It's been more than fifty years since one of the most peaceful and enlightened cultures on Earth was outlawed by the Chinese communist government, and the Dalai Lama forced into exile. When will this momentous wrong be made right? Does anybody care? The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people have not given up. They wait, with the kind of spiritual patience unknown to the western psyche. Oh yes, we could all learn a lot from Tibet. Why aren't governments like Canada doing something? Because there are no votes in it, that's why. It's time to change that, and let our governments know that we do care. To learn more about the culture and history of Tibet, and what you can do to help, visit The Government of Tibet in Exile.