There are as many 12,000 dead in China after the quake, plus hundreds of thousands injured and homeless, and there may be more quakes to come in the region. Those suffering here are not the ones who ordered troops into Lhasa or tanks into Tienanmen Square, but even if they were, in a previous life, whether you take that literally or not, each one of them was your mother, and in yet another life, your child.

Terrible death and suffering in Sichuan Province.

Not to brag or anything, but I think The New York Times may have a bit of a crush on us. Hot on the heels of columnist Wendy Johnson’s profile last week comes an article about artist/author Lynda Barry, whose drawings of meditating monkeys, along with an original essay, are featured in our Summer 2008 issue. Sure, Lynda Barry’s an extremely successful cartoonist with multiple books and an off-Broadway play under her belt, as well as a weekly comic strip, “Ernie Pook’s Comeek.” And it’s true that she’s got a new book on her creative process, What It Is, coming out this month. But still! Did you see the way The Gray Lady was looking at us? It’s flattering, really. I think we may ask them out for a milkshake sometime.

Lynda Barry’s Tricycle profile, “Monkey Business,” is available–for free!–here.

Five days after the storm, Burma’s main city of Rangoon is paralyzed and lacks basic services, but the death toll there was small, 400 or so, compared with the Irrawaddy Delta. Food, water, and other necessities are desperately needed on the delta, which was slammed by the incoming storm, and aid teams are stuck waiting in Thailand for permission to cross the border.

Meanwhile, with very little fanfare outside the Chinese media echo-chamber, the torch summits Everest.

We’re a week into the month of daily videos from celebs such as Will Ferrell, Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Silverman, and Eddie Izzard on Burma from the U.S. Campaign for Burma. Go to their website to see them all so far, and to read updates on the disastrous cyclone.

Should’ve linked to this earlier but Konchog at Dreaming of Danzan Ravjaa has a great post on feeling sympathy for the young Chinese people who are vigorously defending their country from what they see as unfair attacks from abroad. Some good mythbusting info on the office of the Dalai Lama among other things in there too.

And Danny Fisher linked to a Washington Post article on the Tibetan writer Woeser, who was profiled in the New York Review of Books and elsewhere some months ago. She bravely lives and writes in Beijing, along with her husband, the activist Wang Lixiong.

What a shame.

Radiohead staged a Tibet protest of their own in Florida, on the first day of their tour.

The numbers for this terrible tragedy keep rising. Lack of media access means we really don’t have a clear idea of what’s happening there. All we know is that there is intense misery and suffering, and more to come. It seems clear the government was not prepared and the people were not warned.

More than 22,000. The junta allows aid to trickle in.

The Karmapa’s visit to the U.S. is coming up. His schedule is on this site. At Tricycle we’re obligated to mention the controversy over who is the 17th Karmapa, and that there are duelling Karmapas, but this site, which of course has an agenda, says it’s a non-issue. It is true that the Karmapa who is coming to the U.S. has a bigger following here, which may explain why he is coming. This is not to stoke controversy or push an agenda — this visit is a big deal for Buddhism in America.

Beijing says the Tibetan Youth Congress has ties to Al Qaeda. They must be angling for funding from teh Department of Homeland Security. Of course, our government would have to borrow the money from Beijing to pay Beijing anyway

Will Burma let aid-workers in post-Tropical Cyclone Nargis?

Burma’s constitutional referendum is due to take place next week.