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They Died; So That Tibet May Live

Phayul[Friday, March 10, 2006 22:09]

Thupten N. Chakrishar

By Thupten N Chakrishar

Running into the flames with his charred flesh hanging like rags off his limbs, Jampa Tenzin, a monk, was

hoisted by his fellow protesters as he continued to demonstrate. He was arrested the same day, in

October 1, 1987 in Lhasa. Jampa became the emblem of Tibet Independence movement around the

world, his picture being displayed on almost every Free Tibet website. In March 1988, a few months

after his release, Jampa was found dead with a rope tied around his neck.

Similar is the story of Lhakpa Tsering, who was tortured to death at the young age of 20. He was a

member of the "Snow Lion Youth Organization", which advocated for Tibetans' freedom and political

rights. He had boldly refused to tell the foreign delegates, visiting Drapchi Prison, that Tibet had always

been a part of China. He was subjected to intensive interrogations and torture leading to his death. He

had bruise marks on his body, blood clots under the skin and his nails had turned blue. Lhakpa died in

extreme pain. After his death, he became the symbol of resistance inside Drapchi prison, prisoners

distributed and made flags from pieces of his prison quilt and used his quilt cover as a banner.

Jampa Tenzin

Tsering Lhamo (Rangzen Ama), Jampa Tenzin, Lhakpa Tsering, Sholpa Dawa, Dekyi, Dawa Tsering, Hor

Lobsang Tsuendue, Dawa Tsering, Thupten Ngudup and others like them had one thing in common; the

willingness to sacrifice their lives, so that Tibet may live.

They were no ordinary people. They were brave, They were heroes. They could had lived their life

comfortably if they hadn't been involved in any political activities but no, they fought. They

'CHALLENGED' the most atrocious government in the world, They fought face-to-face with the super-

power and risked their lives for freedom, for justice, for Tibet and for us; Tibetans. Even the most evil

regime in the world hasn't been able to silence the Tibetan spirit and the cry for freedom.


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Lhakpa Tsering

One such example is the great risk taken by 14 nuns who sang the following song, inside Drapchi Prison,

the largest prison in Tibet;

"..We sing this song of independence

Yesterday's land of Dharma

Today turned into barbarity

Though prisoner today

We will never be disheartened

How sad

The barbarians are triumphant

Discard the blue prison uniform

Stand up prisoners of Drapchi."

Not surprisingly, each of the nuns had their prison sentences increased by between five to nine years.

Fortunately, their recorded tape was smuggled out of the prison and distributed throughout Tibet and

the rest of the world.

The following figures from Tibet.com briefly describes the mode of death of the 1.2 million Tibetans who

have died following the Chinese occupation;

Tortured in prison : 173,221

Executed : 156,758

Killed in fighting : 432,705

Starved to death : 342,970

"Suicide" : 9,002

"Struggled" to death thamzing : 92,731

Recently I met a newly arrived Tibetan from Lhasa, Tibet. We discussed the current political situation in

Tibet, public opinions, karaoke bars, and the banning of the picture of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan

National Flag. I asked him if he had a picture of the Dalai Lama kept secretly somewhere in his house, he

smiled and pointed his finger towards his heart.

In the Quiet Land, no one can hear

what is silenced by murder

and covered up with fear.

But, despite what is forced, freedom's a sound

that liars can't fake and no shouting can drown.


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- Aung San Suu Kyi

For Tibetans and the Chinese government alike, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is not just a spiritual figure

for Tibet; He is Tibet. Under his guidance, Tibetans have been very patient, peaceful and compassionate.

The Chinese government believes that with the Dalai Lama, the issue of Tibet will die and everything will

be calm some day. But witnessing the frustrations and restlessness of the younger generation of

Tibetans, I doubt it. Some say that the Chinese government is buying time until the Dalai Lama dies and

everything will be okay, but that logic might back-fire. The time they are buying might be the ticking of a

time-bomb.

Heated arguments happen sometimes when our friends meet over a cup of coffee:

"For more than forty years, we have been waiting patiently for the Chinese to go back. We have been

good Buddhist, compassionate and forgiving, but all our compassion and understanding has not seen an

inch of our land returned. We see our population dwindling and the Chinese getting greater day by day.

We are becoming minorities in our own land, yet all we hear is silence."

Some of us believes that whatever happened to Tibet was a result of a bad karma and hence we are

passive, sort of waiting for something to happen. But some are restless and ready to risk another

sequence of Karma;

"We should do something. We were originally the race of the warriors, Buddha came later. We should

go back to our roots and Fight, if it means we are creating bad karma, so be it. We are prepared to be

reborn as pigs and dogs if necessary, if it means our children can enjoy the freedom and dignity that

comes with our own country ."

Whatever the cause and effect or the thing about karma is, the situation in Tibet is getting worse day by

day. Even as you read these lines, another Tibetan is being arrested, tortured or maybe even executed in

Tibet. They continue to withstand and fight risking lives of their own and their families. In exile, though

sometimes busy in their own petty problems, Tibetans have been trying to do all they can and needless

to mention the thousands and thousands of selfless Tibet supporters around the world who have been

together all along, I believe a smooth coordination between all of us is all it takes to start a revolution.


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Having the privilege of personally knowing many young Tibetan leaders, I am certain that a "Free Tibet"

isn't too far.

Everyday I sing to my heart,

A tune of a forgotten land.

Yes, tears do come in my eyes,

Friends come and say their 'byes'.

I stay in a corner and read the walls

Strange, but a history of a nation.

I close my eyes and remember,

The dead bodies, the sacrifices and the cries.

Memories I left behind the Himalayas

Still calling me, following like a shadow.

I see people getting crazy for money,

I see people dying for fame,

But I have nothing to do with them,

I don't even have a complete name.

My dream is simple and my ambition small,

Dream to return and touch my land

Dream to meet my mom.

With this article, I pay my tribute to the martyrs of Tibet who died, and to the brave Tibetans who

continue to fight.

Free Tibet !

Remembering March 10th: Lets insist on Our Culture

Woeser

3/10/2005

Tibet today has gradually become less Tibetan. Tourists from far away are often disappointed; people

have been saying that Lhasa is the clone of Chengdu. I counted once that within the distance of one


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hundred and perhaps a few more meters from my family home in the New Shol Village behind the

Potala to the entrance of the nearest street, I totally ran into 37 Han Chinese and 5 Tibetans. The

increasing immigrants are apparently an important reason for Tibets change.

Can Tibetans resist such a heavy wave of migration? The answer is undoubtedly pessimistic. We live on

our own land but are not the ones in charge of this land. Tibet has been ruled by a supreme power for

the last half century. The difference between us and the supreme power manifests not only through

military and economic forces. Solely in terms of the population, how can 6,000,000 Tibetans compete

with the Han Chinese population which is 200 times larger than us? Therefore, ideas of violent

resistance would not make any more difference than throwing eggs at a rock. It might appear brave and

tragic, but would not help alter the overall conditions we are facing.

However, no supreme power is absolutely irresistible. The power of resistance in fact exists in ourtraditional culture. I have in Amdo seen a mural painting in a monastery. On the painting, the helmeted

soldiers of justice are opening fire toward their enemies. The bullets shooting out of these soldiers

weapons turn into flowers. How should these flowers blooming on the wall of the monastery be

understood? -- They symbolize the compassion and wisdom embedded in the traditional Tibetan

culture.

Yes, our traditional culture is our single weapon.

Historically, the iron hoofs of the Mongolian army conquered a large part of the world. All of China was

defeated; Chinese had to hand over their imperial dynasty to the Mongolian rulers. On the contrary,

why, instead of being conquered or destroyed by the valiant Mongolians, did Tibetans become religious

teachers of them? Why have Tibetans and Mongolians remained brothers to each other to this day?

If our Tibetan tradition had been able to tame Mongolians in the past, why couldnt it pacify the

contemporary Chinese?

It is worth remembering that the Han Chinese have long believed in Buddhism. Although the size of the

Chinese Buddhist population might be smaller than the Tibetan one, and although it is common for

Chinese Buddhism to be mixed with superstitions and mundane motivation of the believers, the religion

has after all spread widely and remains very influential among the Han Chinese.


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Therefore, because of its well-preserved lineages, its rich and colorful rituals, its fully developed

philosophical foundations, and its incredibly attractive artistic expressions, Tibetan Buddhism is able to

convince many Han Chinese. In fact, while it is a common scene in Lhasa that Chinese migrant laborers

worship and make their offerings in the monasteries, the elite population in China has just begun to feeltheir need for the religion.

Tibet has long become a fancy attraction in international society. Under the leadership of the Dalai

Lama, the Tibetans who were forced into exile have brought Tibetan civilization into the larger world.

Tibet Fever and Fever of Tibetan Culture that have been so popular and even become a fashion are

the contributions of the exiled Tibetans. Such a fashion has then turned around to attract the Chinese

elites. While they are hooked up with the international trend, they also have began to be connected

with Tibet. Among the non-stop immigrants who have entered Tibet, some deserve more of our

attention. The interest of these immigrants in Tibet is due to their interest in Tibetan culture; their

expectation for Tibet is because of their expectation for Tibetan culture.

In Tibet, I became friends with many Chinese of this kind. One of my friends wrote about how he felt

after his first encounter with Tibetan civilization: It is a thunderstorm-like shocking and a muteness. It

is a natural reaction when my presumptuous cognition is abruptly overturned by the different

civilization that I have just met. Having heard the laughing coming from the tents of Tibetans on a

stormy night on Mount Everest (Jhomo Langma), another friend concluded: One day when only one

people and their civilization is left on the earth, it has to be the Tibetans and their ancient civilizationthat emphasizes the oneness between nature and culture.

A nations culture begins to gain strength when it can hold onto its own fundamental attributes, when

these attributes are lasting without interruption, and when they are down to earth and not falling into

nihilism. Would such strength be sufficiently respected by others? Would such strength provide us

enough protection and even help us defend against the supreme power? These concerns are relevant to

everyone in the nation.

Lets insist on the cultural tradition of ourselves instead of accepting the authoritarian domination of

the totalitarian regime, instead of running after the materialistic currents of the modern world. A

combination of these two factors would be a strong damaging force which could directly pierce into the

soul of the Tibetan nation.


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Lets insist on the cultural tradition of ourselves. I am neither encouraging ignorance nor promoting

conservativism. Instead, I am talking about a cultural choice particularly among the elite Tibetans. All

of the intellectuals, professionals, monastics, and officials should take upon themselves to become the

role models for average Tibetans, to educate the latter that the benevolent gifts from the supreme

power are not necessarily good, and that running after materialism will not necessarily bring us joy or

satisfaction. Instead, we should walk on our own path.

Lets insist on the traditional culture of ourselves. This principle should be applied to the details of our

everyday lives and to every aspect of our spiritual lives. Although it is not very convenient to go to work

in the Tibetan clothes that have derived from the nomad culture, we should still wear them in our

offices. Although it is not an easy task to communicate in Tibetan in the midst of 1,200,000,000 Han

Chinese, we should still keep speaking the language, which functions to preserve our memory of history.

We live in Tibetan houses. We celebrate Tibetan holidays. At home, we hang thangkas, light butter

lamps, and invite Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and lamas in burgundy robes to accept our reverence. Even

though we do not have the power to hinder the Chinese governments railroad construction and their

mining and other developments, we can at least restrain ourselves from building hotels, restaurants,

and shops of the Chinese style, and from the Chinese way of using gambling, KaraOke, and Han or

Tibetan prostitutes to attract customers and tourists.

We should not use flatteries to exchange immediate economic interests. If the Han Chinese want to

come to our place, sorry, they must behave in accordance with the Tibetan manners. They should

respect what we respect, and honor what we honor. In this way, they would be forced to become

cautious and careful about their conduct. Therefore, even if it might sound very artificial, we should stilltry to produce a thick Tibetan cultural atmosphere.

This is indeed a cultural choice. We dont have other options besides it, because we are on the weaker

side when it comes to a comparison of material power. This is a reality.

We can otherwise be more open-minded in importing foreign formulae, accepting new things, and

nurturing more diversified ways of life in our indigenous land. However, because we are on the weakerside and nothing too much has survived after the damage done to us, we have to insist on everything in

our culture and tradition. No matter how small these things might appear, we have to make efforts to

ensure that they are not going to be washed away by the overwhelming waves.


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In fact, we should be full of confidence, because our cultural tradition remains illuminating after so

many hardships and stormy struggles. As one of my Chinese friends has said, The remedy that can cure

illness and diseases in the world remains hidden in Tibet. Our culture and tradition is exactly the

remedy. If we dont value it, how would it be able to treat the also sickened Tibet? If we ourselves have

given up and only know how to imitate and chase profitable opportunities, Tibet will be saturated with

various clones from inland China. Eventually, we would become strangers in our own land.

There is no reason for us, that is, for every Tibetan, to become just like the Han Chinese or any other

people. Although todays world is undergoing globalization and becoming a so-called global village, if

we want to have a seat in the village, to join the diverse community but maintain our unique character,

to win over our rights, to have our voices heard, and to be ourselves, we have only one choice which is

to insist.

If we still care about Tibets existence, we have to insist on our Tibetan cultural tradition. Under the

circumstances, we might not be able to get rid of Chinese rule. However, it is totally possible for each

Tibetan to insist on our culture. Dont complain about the environment, dont withdraw from our

responsibilities, let each of us start from ourselves to insist. This is the hope we can pass on to future

generations.

Looking Back From Nangpa-La -Jamyang Norbu

Sent by Email[Saturday, January 27, 2007 03:25]

Jamyang Norbu

photo-tibetwrites.org

In 1994 when I was the editor of the Tibetan language paper MANGTSO, an informant from Solokhumbu

sent me a photograph of a Tibetan man, an escapee, who had died somewhere on the Nepalese side of

Nangpa-la. His stiff curled-up form reminded me of the 5,000 year-old body of the neolithic man found

in an alpine glacier in 1991. Scientists have since speculated that the well-preserved mummy wasprobably that of a shaman or a priest. The Tibetan body was bigger. It had, of course, not desiccated as

completely, but the dark leathery skin on both looked about the same, especially when stretched taut

over the skulls producing those unsettling rictus grins and dark empty eye sockets.


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What has always overwhelmed me when hearing accounts of Nangpa-la escapes has not just been the

danger of capture or death involved in the crossing, but the incredible physical and mental pain and

punishment that the journey seems to involve. We have heard, over the years, of people (largely

children) becoming snow-blind, frostbitten and losing their toes and fingers. And that appears to be only

one installment of a greater ordeal where day after day, (about ten days in all) they must endure sub-

zero temperatures, constant fear, and unremitting exhaustion and pain. We must bear in mind that

although it is a pass, Nangpa-la is nearly nineteen thousand feet above sea level, and at such altitudes

every step is a huge and agonizing effort. A couple of months ago American TV channels carried the

account of three experienced American climbers lost on Mt. Hood which is 11,200 ft (lower than Lhasa

city) and the massive but unsuccessful rescue attempts made involving trained personnel, helicopters

and the latest thermal imaging equipment. The rescuers finally had to give up and it is almost certain

that the three climbers are now dead from cold and exposure.

Imagine the anguish and terror the refugees crossing Nangpa-la must have to endure, burdened with

the knowledge that far from anyone coming to rescue them if things go wrong, there are actually cruel

and relentless soldiers stalking them, eager to gun them down like animals. The escapees generally

make the crossing in winter or late autumn (when there are less Chinese patrols in the area) and unlike

Western mountaineers have no gear to speak of: no climbing boots, no high-performance

mountaineering clothes, no sleeping bags, tents, stoves nothing. Many of the escapees wear cheap

Chinese sneakers (some of them wrap plastic bags around their shoes when going through snow).

Practically none of them seem to have thick down jackets and make do with sweaters and coats. One

teenage girl probably taking her cue from the latest in Chinese high fashion even appears to be wearing

a bright red jacket made of PVC material, which, of course, has all the thermal properties of a sheet of

ice.

I remember seeing some of these young Tibetans in Escape from Tibet, the only documentary film that

we have about the Nangpa-la crossing, which was released in 1997. It is a moving and instructive film.

Unfortunately it is unable to give us a true impression of the horrendous difficulties of the crossing, for

the simple reason that the filmmakers were not able to accompany the escapees over the pass. They

shot footage of the escapees when they were just starting their journey on the Tibetan side of the

border, and later got more footage of them after they had crossed the Nangpa-la and were on the

Nepalese side. I am in no way criticizing the filmmakers for this. You would have to be desperate, or at

least unaware of the dangers, to want to make such a dangerous journey.

I know of only one inji, a photographer, Manuel Bauer, who made the crossing, and he told me, quite

frankly that he had not realized how dangerous and difficult a trip it was going to be before he started.

He accompanied a six-year old girl, Yangdol, whose family wanted to have her educated in India. Her

father agreed to take Manuel on the trip if he would sponsor his girl through school since he did not


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want his daughter to be a burden on the Dalai Lamas government. The journey started uneventfully

enough but once they hit the snow line and began to cross some massive glaciers, Manuel realized he

had gotten himself into a situation he had not anticipated. The glaciers were immense and the whole

scene frightening in its near cosmic vastness and hostile bleakness.

After a few days in the intense cold Manuel realized that he was not drinking enough fluids and that his

urine was getting browner every time he peed. The problem was that it was so cold that the usual

expedients like sucking bits of ice or snow were out of the question. Even the water bottle he had under

his jacket, against his body, had frozen solid. Manuel had a small primus stove which he tried lighting

but there was so little oxygen at that altitude that all it could manage was a weak, barely visible flame

that had practically no warmth at all. Then things became really desperate when the father got frostbite

and began to break down mentally. Manuel was now peeing blood. He thought it was the end. What

surprised him, and kept him and the father going was the little girl. Throughout the trip she had not

once complained, cried or asked to be carried. Even now she continued walking slowly ahead of the two

exhausted men. Somehow they made it across the pass and into lower altitude on the Nepalese side.

They rested by a small icy stream. It was slightly warmer here, Manuel noticed the little girl picking the

few tiny wild flowers that somehow managed to grow there in between the rock outcrops. She came

over to him and shyly offered him a small bouquet. Thats when he broke down and cried.

When you think of these tough desperate Tibetan children like Yangdol, and so many others, undergoing

such horrendous trials to find some kind of life of freedom, whether in a school or a monastery in India,

or even a chance to get to Canada or the States, then the shootings last year on the 30th of September,

of the two young Tibetans, a nun, Kalsang Namtso (17) and a young man Kunsang Namgyal (20), atNangpa-la, and the arrest of thirty-two others (including 14 children) fills you with black depression and

overwhelming anger against China and the Chinese people. The killings were so absolutely unnecessary.

So many of these young people die of cold, exhaustion and exposure on the glaciers anyway. Was it

necessary for the Chinese to deliberately gun them down like dogs as one observer put it?

It is important to place the context of the shooting in its correct perspective. Of course only two people

were killed this time around (though we can be certain that, unknown to us, more have been killed

before) and there are, unquestionably, greater massacres taking place around the world. It is the

deliberate casualness of the act that sets it apart. In fact it could be argued that the shooting deaths of

these two young people was far more cold-blooded and criminal than many other cases of killings of

civilians around the world. First of all the Nangpa-la shootings did not happen in conflict area. Tibetans

are not launching Qasam rockets against China. Tibetans are not sending suicide bombers to Chinese

cities. Tibetan leaders are not calling for Communist China to be wiped off the face of the earth. They

are in fact doing everything they can to accommodate Beijings demands.


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The Tiananmen massacre has been rationalized by some Western experts with the observation that the

regimes power was being threatened by the students. But what threat did those young Nangpa-la

escapees constitute to Chinas control of Tibet? The killing of the two Tibetans could not even be

compared to the shooting of innocent civilians by policemen, that sometimes happens in New York or LAwhen policemen panic, overreact or make a bad judgment call. In Nangpa-la there was no threat (real or

even perceived) no panic and no mistake. The shootings took place in bright sunlight and the victims

were many hundreds of yards away with their backs to the Chinese soldiers and moving away slowly;

clearly no threat at all. But the Chinese did not even bother to shout at the Tibetans to stop, or even fire

a warning shot. A Czech climbing expedition leader, Josef Simunek, who witnessed the shooting, stated:

We felt as though it was 20 years ago in our country in the Communist time, when Czech soldiers killed

Czech citizens in their escape over the Iron Curtain. While on the subject of the iron curtain it must

be said that as standard procedure the VoPo (the East German police) always fired a warning shot

before they actually opened fire on anyone attempting to escape across the wall.

The Chinese callously gunned down these two Tibetans because they knew they could get away with it.

They knew that there would be little outcry in the world, and the little there was would be played down

or explained away by the increasing number of media people, academics, businessmen and politicians in

the West who do their bidding. Even though the shootings were most fortuitously caught on video and

appeared as brief news-reports on TV networks worldwide, there were practically no editorials, op-eds

or commentaries from any major newspaper or TV networks condemning the shooting. Even the usually

reliable BBC did just a barebones report. The New York Times carried nothing, but managed to come out

with a full color, front page, tourist attraction piece on Tibet in its Sunday Travel Section, a few weeks

later. The European Parliament and a couple of other heads of legislative bodies raised some formal

objections. Tibetans around the world demonstrated, held vigils and prayers but nowhere on the scale

and fervor as before.

Dharamshala remained silent for well over two weeks. An odd third-person statement was issued only

on the 17th of October, which stated that Kalon Tempa Tsering strongly condemned the shooting, but

which was prefaced by the declaration that the statement was being issued by the exile government

even as it remains committed to the ongoing process of the Sino-Tibetan dialogue. A letter from the

Tibetan Parliament-in-exile to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed that theparliament was greatly saddened by this uncalled for incident. The phraseology of these statements

strongly condemn and greatly saddened appears more suited to a statement coming from a third

party, like the UN or the European Union, rather than from the bereaved and outraged leaders and

representatives of the people who were murdered.


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His Holiness did not make any specific statement about the shooting. Following the days after the

shooting, he made a statement calling for the control of the global arms trade. Some days later he

warned against a clash of civilizations, and prior to his visit to the Vatican he appealed to the world

not to stigmatize Muslims. In Rome, His Holiness in an interview was asked about the border case, and

he told AP Television News on Saturday (14th) that it was very sad. We have been experiencing such

cases for more than fifty years. Very sad, he said. Perhaps his Holiness meant to convey something

stronger or he actually spoke at length on the topic and the AP TV perhaps edited it out. But the

outcome was that his brief response appeared to play down the tragedy. It is sad when your parents

die of old age. When defenseless children are murdered in cold blood by Chinese soldiers, something far

more full-throated, condemnatory and forceful is required by way of expression and action.

Members of the exile government and parliament were probably upset about the shootings as any one

of us. Furthermore, there can be no doubt that His Holiness must have been, more than anyone else,

extremely distressed by the incident. After all, he has been meeting nearly every one of these escapees,

over the years, and hearing their stories directly from them. It is obvious that he was being held back

from expressing his grief and anger by an extremely powerful constraint: to not offend the Chinese

leaders in any way that could adversely affect the long hoped-for, much-hyped (but never actually

taking place) negotiations with Beijing.

Since the eighties I have written about the irrationality of Dharamshalas Middle Way policy and the

futility of hoping for any kind of meaningful negotiations with China and I do not think I could bring

myself to write anything more on the subject. For up-to-date and insightful analysis of the subject the

reader is referred to three excellent articles: Tenzin Sonams Tibet At A Crossroads? - A Personal Viewin Phayul.com, September 18, 2006, Ketsun Lobsang Dondups Independence as Tibet's Only Option:

Why the Middle Path is a Dead End, in Tibetan Review Set. 2006. Professor Elliot Sperlings

"Incarnation: the Tibet Movement Reaches the End of the Line."

What I wanted to do in this retrospective was share with the reader my growing fear that Beijing, by

dangling the promise of negotiations before the government-in-exile, has somehow put itself in a

position of controlling the thinking and actions of the Tibetan leadership, even manipulating and muting

Dharamshalas reaction to such a monstrous outrage as the Nangpa-la shootings. Think back to the time,

in 2002 as well as in 2006, when Prime Minister Samdong Rimpoche appealed to the exile public not to

protest the US visits of the Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao to America. When some

Tibetans and supporters ignored Rimpoches call and carried out small demonstrations, Chinese

embassy officials at the scene, in both instances, reprimanded the demonstrators, shouting at them

didnt your leaders tell you not to demonstrate? Then we have the Dalai Lamas statement of support

for Chinas hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games, which the Olympic Committee and China supporters


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effectively used to discredit the worldwide campaign that Tibetans and International Support Groups

had launched to deny China the Games.

Many of the statements coming from Dharamshala in the last few years give the strong impression that

they have been drafted, or at least instigated, by the Chinese propaganda ministry. For instance, we

have Samdong Rimpoche talking about the benefits of the Chinese railroad to the Tibetan people and

their economic welfare. Very recently we have had His Holiness telling Indian journalists that it was in

the interests of Tibetans for their country to be part of China, since China was a global economic

superpower. He has, on occasions, also compared Tibets position in China to that of a member state in

the European Union. I know His Holiness is well aware that unlike Tibet in China, EU member states

joined the Union voluntarily, and were not invaded militarily like Tibet, or face the threat of invasion like

Taiwan. Furthermore no citizen of the EU has been shot for trying to escape from Europe. So the

question remains why His Holiness says these things he knows are not true.

Aside from the hopes of political negotiations with Beijing, there appears to be another powerful

inducement for His Holiness and Tibetan leaders to propitiate Beijing. The inducement in this instance is

not being proffered directly by Beijing but seems to be coming somewhat circuitously, in discreet

increments, from subsidiaries working from within New Age and Dharma circles connected to the Dalai

Lama. Over the last decade, a delusion has been cultivated in Tibetan leadership circles that Tibetan

Buddhism could become the dominant, perhaps even the state religion of China. An unspoken corollary

to this eventuality is that the Dalai Lama could somehow be accorded the larger role of spiritual leader

of the Chinese people. Some years ago, Samdong Rimpoche in an interview in The New York Times said:

Political separation from China is not important China is not our enemy. China is a people (sic) whoneed our cooperation, who need our guidance, spiritually. It has been so for more than 1,000 years. His

Holiness in an interview with South China Morning Post said that Tibetan culture and Buddhism are

part of Chinese culture. Many young Chinese like Tibetan culture as a tradition of China.

The Dalai Lamas special emissary, Lodi Gyari (who is a former Gelukpa lama), in a two-part interview in

Rediff.com made this claim: One of the most decisive factors in the Tibetan issue is this newly found

interest for Buddhism in China. Thirty years back, for the Chinese, Tibet was the most backward piece of

land of the planet and Tibetans were the most retarded people. Gyari believes that the times are

changing: Today in places like Lhasa, you see young and erudite Chinese walking shoulder to shoulder

with Tibetan nomads. For them, it is very auspicious; they are on pilgrimage. In the same interview,

Gyari claimed that there was a great extent of reverence for the Dalai Lama throughout China, even

among officials in the Chinese government and the Communist Party. Gyari felt that this reverence even

extended to Chinas entrepreneurs and business community who believed that what China really needs

is the presence of His Holiness.


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This is a dangerous delusion, bordering on megalomania, for His Holiness to consider, even fleetingly, or

for his advisors to encourage, even in the most marginal way. The Manchu Emperors were not only

Buddhists, but Tibetan Buddhists, and regarded by many Tibetans as the incarnation of Manjusri. When

His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, the emperors spiritual mentor, came to Beijing in 1906 he washumiliated by the Manchu court, and made to kneel before the Emperor. Immediately following his

return to Lhasa His Holiness was hunted down by Manchu troopers like a common criminal. It is fairly

certain that had they caught him they would have executed him.

Is it necessary to point out that this present Chinese government is a Communist dictatorship,

ideologically opposed to religion in every form, and unquestionably the most murderous regime the

Chinese have had in their history. Is it necessary to point out the genocide and the catastrophic cultural

destruction that took place in Tibet that we are, even now, unable to fully comprehend or evaluate. For

those who think that economic liberalization has changed the regimes view of religion, cast your minds

back to the succession of monks and nuns who have been imprisoned, tortured and sometimes

executed in the last many years. Think of the fate of the Panchen Lama (Gendun Chokyi Nima), Chadrel

Rimpoche, Tenzin Delek Rimpoche, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok of Larung Gar besides so many other

religious teachers. Think also of the reasons why Karmapa Rimpoche, Arjia Rimpoche, and other

religious leaders, who the Chinese were cultivating and treated well, have escaped from Tibet in recent

years.

In May 2006, Zhang Qingli, Communist Party Secretary of TAR, announced his Fight to the Deathcampaign against the Dalai Lama. Tibetans, from the lowliest of government employees to senior

officials, have been banned from attending any religious ceremony or from entering a temple or

monastery. Patriotic education campaigns in the monasteries have been expanded. Tibetan officials in

Lhasa as well as in surrounding rural counties have been required to write criticisms of the Dalai Lama.

Senior civil servants must produce 10,000-word essays while those in junior posts need only write 5,000-

character condemnations. Even retired officials are not exempt.

Those of you who insist that all this is the work of the Communist party but that the Chinese people

themselves have great reverence for the Dalai Lama, I would ask for a comment on the Reuters report

(Jan 13 2007) about a tour group of 125 Chinese Buddhists in Bihar who stormed out of a screening of a

documentary on Buddhist sites in the state, because it contained some footage of the Dalai Lama. We

dont accept the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader, one of the tourists was quoted as shouting. Officials of

the Bihar state tourism government were stunned by the reaction.


15/18

There is a contemporary but informal American expression, reality check, which means coming to

terms with what is actually happening, rather than what one chooses to believe. I would strongly advise

Tibetan leaders to conduct such an assessment, and perhaps also look into the various sources from

which such enticements and fantasies have been coming from.

In May 2000, I attended the Third Tibet Support Group Meeting in Berlin. During a break in the sessions I

was approached by an overseas Chinese, Victor Chan, who claimed he was working for the Canadian

Broadcasting Corporation, and wanted to interview me for a radio show. After a while the discussion

took a very strange turn and I realized that this was no interview at all. Chan began heatedly arguing

with me about my stand on Tibetan independence and began lecturing me on how there was this

amazing renaissance of Buddhism in China and that Tibetan Buddhists could make a tremendous

contribution to this movement. He claimed that he felt sure that His Holiness could become the leader

of Chinas Buddhists, but that in order for that to happen Tibetans had to renounce their demand for

independence, since the Chinese people would never accept an independent Tibet.

Since then Chan has co-authored a book with the Dalai Lama The Wisdom of Forgiveness. He is also

reported to be starting the Dalai Lama Peace and Education Centre with His Holinesss younger brother,

Tenzin Chogyal. Chan appears to be opposed to organizations working for Tibetan freedom and human

rights, and in 2004 described Students for a Free Tibet and Canada Tibet Committee activists as

fanatics to a Canadian newspaper reporter. Chan is most probably just a self-serving ex-hippie, placing

himself close to the Dalai Lama to sell his books and promote himself. Yet at the same time it would be

imprudent for anyone with even peripheral responsibility for the welfare of Tibet to overlook the

possibility that Chan could be an agent of influence (one of many) that the Chinese are using tomanipulate His Holiness and the exile government.

The Chinese government has an extensive track-record of employing such well-placed people to effect

its own ends. In the United States we have a slew of them, many former secretaries of state, defense,

treasury and others, the most well known among them being Henry Kissinger. Nearly all of them have

set up consultancy firms that lobby to influence American policy favorably towards China and in return

receive access to Chinas leaders and government for their corporate clients. I wrote an article in the

Tibetan Review in 1989, about how China was employing such Western politicians and certain Tibet

supporters to influence His Holiness and the exile government to give up Tibetan sovereignty and not

get in the way of business with China. My suspicions have become more pronounced over the years, and

I have been putting together information on such people and other self-declared friends of the Dalai

Lama, for a future report.


16/18

More immediately, what can we do about this sinister influence, this control that Beijing somehow

seems to be exerting over our leadership?

There are many different interpretations of why the 10th March Uprisings took place. Of course the

official Tibetan one and the Chinese one are profoundly different, but even among professional

historians there are significant differences. An unusual and interesting perspective is offered in George

Ginsburg and Michael Mathos Communist China and Tibet; The First Dozen Years. They have

suggested that Tibetans may have surrounded the Norbulingka not only because of fear that the Dalai

Lama was about to be captured, but because of the fear that he would make more concessions to

Chinese demands. The Tibetan Library in Dharamshala has in its oral history project an interview with

kungo Barshi, a junior official who played a major role in fomenting the Uprising, and his recollections do

provide some corroboration to Ginsburg and Mathoss conclusion.

In a broad sense, one could say that Tibetans not only believed that the Dalai Lama was in some kind of

physical danger, but that because of disloyal ministers, his friendship with Chinese leaders and the

Marxist ideological education he was being given by Phuntsog Wangyal and (earlier in China) by Liu Ke-

ping of the Committee of Nationalities Affair, the Chinese were gradually gaining control over his sacred

presence, and getting him to make more and more concessions, essentially on matters of national

sovereignty. What the Tibetan people basically did on that March day in 1959 was declare: We want

our Dalai Lama back. And they took him back.

I think it is time, once again, for Tibetans to take the Dalai Lama back. I disagree with the President of

the Tibetan Youth Congress who recently suggested that the Dalai Lama should retire. His Holiness is not

only the living symbol of a free and independent Tibet but the ultimate resource for the freedom

struggle. We all know what everyone in Tibet from the smallest village in Western Tibet to the

furthest nomad encampment in the Changtang wants, is an opportunity to see His Holiness and

receive his blessings. This is one of the main reasons Tibetans risk their lives to cross the Nangpa-la. It

must be understood that this desire to see His Holiness is not merely a religious aspiration, divorced

from peoples sense of themselves as Tibetans. Feelings of identity, uniqueness and nationalism are

often expressed in different ways, not necessarily aggressively or politically. The more potent and

emotive are often indirect and symbolic. The Dalai Lama may see himself as a simple Buddhist monk

or a teacher to the world, but for his people he is the living symbol of their long hoped for freedom from

Chinese rule. Tibetans must reclaim him to realize this dream.

Tibetans must get him away from his advisors and event coordinators, and divert him from his many

international appearances: the visit to another Benedictine monastery, those well-meaning but


17/18

completely irrelevant world peace conferences and seminars, and get him out on the streets. Try and

imagine a march or a demonstration to protest the Nangpa-la shooting in Times Square, New York, led

by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. That would make news. That would inspire people. That would electrify.

That would shake China.

Some may feel that it would not be dignified for His Holiness to march on the streets shoulder to

shoulder with activists and supporters. But there is an absolutely incontestable precedence for this.

Gandhi marched, demonstrated, went to jail, and ultimately died for his convictions. But he freed his

nation and his people. Many Tibetans worry about what will happen to us after His Holiness leaves us

for the heavenly fields. They should instead concern themselves with what they can do whilehe is

alive, and do everything they can to aid him in his main task as the leader of the Tibetan freedom

struggle. Because in the end that is all that will really matter. That is the legacy by which he will be

judged by posterity. All his other achievements will be overshadowed by the success or failure of his

fundamental mission to free his nation and people.

The first step that all individual Tibetans must take is to come out and make their conviction and support

clearly known to his Holiness unequivocally, as did all those Tibetans in Lhasa on March 10th, 1959.

How do we go about doing that? Well, we could write to him, try and see him personally or start a

signature drive. Or we might use the 10th March event itself, to once again, capture His Holinesss

attention and frustrate Chinese machinations.

10th March observances everywhere have, in the last so many years, been noticeably shrinking in

attendance and in enthusiasm. Perhaps if we were able to make this years demonstrations larger, more

exciting and unusually creative and hard-hitting, so much so that it becomes a phenomenon within the

Tibetan community and gets people excited and talking, it would effectively demonstrate to His Holiness

that his people havent given up their struggle, and remind him of the sacrifices they made for him on

that same day in 1959. In the past many of us bemoaned the fact that the 10th March rallies had

become a tedious annual obligation of refugee existence, something by which we marked our years in

exile. It would in a way be a wonderful paradox if we could use this routine event to roll back the apathy

and negativity of the past years and perhaps even use it as an initial step to reenergizing the freedom

struggle for the critical coming years.

I ask the reader to contact his friends, relatives, community, support groups, political organizations as

the TYC, TWA, SFT, Chushigangdruk, and others and persuade and encourage everyone to work on

making this years 10th March rallies everywhere, exceptionally dynamic and inspiring.


18/18

I am going to be there at the rally in New York City. I have been working on my own placard which reads:

REMEMBER NANGPA-LA! NEVER GIVE UP FREEDOM!

The 1959 Tibetan Rebellion: An InterpretationDawa NorbuThe China Quarterly, No. 77. (Mar., 1979), pp. 74-93.Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0305-7410%28197903%290%3A77%3C74%3AT1TRAI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-UThe China Quarterlyis currently published by School of Oriental and African Studies.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use,available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html . JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, thatunless you have obtained

prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may beobtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/soas.html .Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears onthe screen or printedpage of such transmission.JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to and preserving a digital archive ofscholarly journals. Formore information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]://www.jstor.orgTue Feb 13 18:37:00 2007

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