A mantra begins
A murmur
Beads move through fingers
A man without thumbs
In a crimson robe
Hidden under another

The mantra continues
Other voices join in
They rise and fall
Bodies sway
A blessing is made
A protection

Voices fall away
Leaving only one
The gompa is gone
But not the will
Not the spirit
It will not die

(Besides bombing Gompa’s (monasteries) and forbidding Lamas from wearing their robes, the Chinese cut off the thumbs of some Tibetan monks to prevent them from working their rosaries.)