Tibet Protests at Golden Gate Bridge (3)

This Tibetan family, pictured above left, living in the Bay Area took part in a peaceful protest walk across the Golden Gate Bridge today as China celebrated the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics....see first reports and pics in earlier blogs

Life as a third generation refugee is hard, says mum Tashi pictured far right.

'The hope and the effort to gain our own country, I feel it more strongly than my mother feels it,' she said.

She has never seen her homeland. 'I would love to see it,' she said.

Tibet is still her home country even though her family have not lived there for so many years. Her grandfather was the first refugee in her family. He fled to India, his wife - Tashi's grandmother - having died in Tibet.

Tashi is pictured with her mother, Yangkar, sister Jampa, daughters ten-year-old twins Kunsang and Lhamo, and 11-year-old Yiga, and ten-year-old nephew Tsepal.

She was born in India but left the country in 1988 at the age of 19 years to come to the States to do a nursing degree.

Today she has no direct contact with anyone in Tibet, but has friends whose parents still live there. Communication is difficult, she said. As a member of the Tibetan Association of Northern California, she is in touch with fellow countrymen.

'People are so excited about the 2008 Games but the thing is, people in Tibet are so afraid to practice their religion or to keep a picture of His Holiness the Dalai Llama in their home,' she said.

'They don't have the freedom to pray or express their pain. We know that Tibet was a free country. China is so big and powerful people think we should give up. We don't want to give up,' she said.

Pictured are from left to right, back: grandmother Yangkar, nephew Tsepal (10), sister Jampa, mum Tashi; in front: twins Kunsang and Lhamo (10), Yiga (11)