Film Screening At TISS

Students for a Free Tibet will hold the Screening of the Film "Compassion In Exile" at the Tata Institute of Social Science at 6pm.
Discussions and general questions about Tibet and the Olympics Campaign will be held after the screening.

Contact- Karma Tshering Yangzom , Sangeeta Chatterjee
Mobile- +919833591547
Email- sftbombay@gmail.com

Bowing to the Inevitable

(By Lhendup Bhutia, August 07, 2008)

The Chinese may be defying the weather gods by shooting rockets into
the air to clear up the skies; spending millions so that every
signboard and restaurant menu reads in English; and officially asking
its citizens to not pick their noses in an attempt to ensure that the
Beijing Olympics a success.

But as people from all over the world wait in excitement for the Games
to open on August 8, to feast their eyes on what China has promised to
be the most magnificent opening the Olympics has ever seen, there is
one community that is not revelling in the action - the Tibetans.

Theirs is the discordant voice, which they say, few are paying heed
to. The scenario is no different in Mumbai. "We are not against the
Olympics, but against China's right to hold such an event," says Eden
Bhutia, a Tibetan studying in St Xavier's College. "The Olympic Games
celebrate the spirit of humanity, and everyone knows of the Chinese
regime's gross human rights violations." Disillusionment, anger and
bewilderment are some of the sentiments that come across. But many are
glad that they at least got the chance to grab the attention of the
world.

"Unfortunate as the March uprising this year at Lhasa was, it was able
to show the world how everything is not all right in China," says
Sethu Das, founder of Friends of Tibet, a support group, which is
sympathetic to the plight of Tibetans all over.

"The important aspect is that such a large uprising took place within
Chinese-occupied Tibet and not elsewhere in the world and thus China's
usual accusation of people outside Tibet fermenting trouble falls
flat," he says.

However, after the intensive media coverage received during the
Olympic torch run across different nations, everything now seems to
have come to a standstill. The Games are just a few days away, but the
protests have died down. "The fault for this lack of action lies among
the Tibetans and their various organisations residing in India and
abroad," says Das. "After the lead taken by their brethren in Tibet,
they should have done more to highlight the issue."

Kesang Bhutia, a college student, looks visibly shaken when asked why
Tibetans have failed to let people know what a grave injustice has
been done to their community. After thinking silently, he asks, "What
could I and people like me have done?" As a young boy living in a
Tibetan settlement in the North-East of India, he took part in various
demonstrations, but he looks helpless as he sums up the predicament of
Tibetans all over the world. "I am expected to study and take care of
my family. I'm alone in a foreign land. What can I do?"

In Das's opinion, this sudden silence after a spate of protests is
eerie. "You never know what can happen or what is being planned by the
various groups in China," he says.

Come August 8th, as people wait with bated breath for the Games to
begin, the people of Tibet, many of whom have not been to their
homeland, will have one question on their minds: How will they keep
the promise they made decades ago of returning to their homeland?

It’s like hurling bodies against bullets’

(By Vijay Crishna, The Sunday Indian Express, August 2, 2008)

In August last year, I was in Nakchu, 500 km north of Lhasa, for the Horse Festival, which is the most important folk festival in Tibet. To my horror I discovered that the horse festival, which is about Tibetan horsemen displaying their prowess in archery, horsemanship and racing, turned out to be a run-up to the Olympic Games. So, in this huge field, the Chinese army did a march past, which was followed by folk dances, much like the Republic Day parade in India.

Suddenly, near the end of the parade, some monks from a nearby monastery were brought in carrying the Chinese flag. The crowd turned silent. Later, I was told that the local Chinese cadres of the Communist Party of China had decided to celebrate the festival in their own way and used this crude method of imposing the country’s domination by forcing the monks to carry the flag.

What I have noticed on my visits to Tibet is the deep resentment against the Chinese. You could feel it everywhere. People are scared to show it, because Chinese security personnel are all over the place. They are all in plainclothes and have infiltrated the monasteries. Most of the monasteries have a Chinese person in charge. Among the monks, there are some Chinese. That is why it was so amazing the riots took place in March.

The unrest spread rapidly, as a result of the use of mobile phones. When I was in Tibet last year, I had been amused at the way the monks were carrying two or three mobile phones. However, now I realise that these mobile phones were used as a potent tool to marshal the protests.
I am amazed at the Tibetan people. They have no weapons. Yet they continue to protest. It is like hurling bodies against bullets. As far as the Chinese are concerned, it is an internal matter of their country. Six million Chinese have been re-settled in Tibet. Very soon, there will be no Tibetan way of life.

Tibet is an extraordinarily beautiful place. The air is very clear and you rarely see such natural beauty: the vast expanses, the mountain ranges, the lakes, and the skies.

However, the people are very poor. There is nothing more disconcerting than to suddenly come across children wearing ragged clothing, and families living in pathetic conditions. Over the last 50 years, out of a population of six million people, more than a million Tibetans have been killed. This is similar to the Holocaust, but nobody knows about it.

The Tibetans also endured a massacre similar to Jalianwala Bagh, when in 1904 Sir Francis Younghusband led an army into Tibet.

At a place called Guru, the British asked the Tibetans to lay down their muskets, but the latter resisted. The British opened fire with their Maxim machine guns. Around 700 people were shot dead in 20 minutes. The Tibetans do not have anybody to highlight their history and, sadly, there is no nothing to mark this horrific tragedy.

The question I am asked often is whether Tibetans should resort to violence. This is a complex question and there are no easy answers. The Dalai Lama, an incredible man whom I have met, has stuck to the concept of non-violence, at what must be at huge personal cost. Even when riots were taking place, he stuck to what he believes. China should now talk with him about the future of Tibet.

At this moment, the future looks bleak. However, there are game changers along the way. There are huge forces building up in China, born out of frustration at the terrible degradation of the environment and the quality of life. People are angry and might revolt. Democracy might eventually come to China. There may be a sea change in the attitude of those who rule Tibet.

(As told to Shevlin Sebastian)

Vijay Crishna has practised theatre for many years and is a keen trekker. He has made several trips to Tibet. Recently, in Kochi, he made an audio-visual presentation, Tibet Of Our Minds: A Journey’s End? organised by Friends of Tibet.