Exposing the truth behind China’s occupation of Tibet
China has brutally occupied my homeland for over 50 years but my people continue their courageous resistance. Follow this blog, as I share what I see, feel, and experience... leaving Beijing wide open.
I got a call early this afternoon from a Tibetan with an eyewitness account of another protest at a monastery in Amdo, Ngaba (Aba). This monastery is just a few kilometers away from Kirti monastery where the other protest took place on the 27th. It took all day to piece the following story together:
This morning hundreds of monks at Sey monastery managed to gain entry into the monastery’s main prayer hall by saying that they had to get their belongings from inside. Once inside they sat down and began theMonlam Chenmo (New Year prayer ceremony) even though the monasteries have been ordered not to hold any religious gatherings in the month of March. They are not even supposed to open up the prayer halls. » Read the rest of this entry «
A Tibetan monk from Kirti monastery named Tape was shot by Chinese police in Tibet yesterday when he self-immolated at the crossroads of the main market in Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) town. We don’t know if he’s alive or dead, but we assume he is dead. Reports indicate that hundreds of Tibetans have already gone to his home village to conduct prayers.
This is the first time that I have ever heard of a self-immolation protest in Tibet although it has happened in India a number of times. In 1998, a Tibetan man named Thupten Ngodup died after he self-immolated in New Delhi at the Tibetan Youth Congress organized hunger strike. It was an awful scene caught on tape that haunts every Tibetan who has seen it.
When the Indian police saw the Thupten Ngodup was on fire, they tried to save his life. When the Chinese police saw that Tape was on fire, they shot him.
On February 25th, the first day of the Tibetan New Year, around 100 monks in Mangra (eastern Tibet) held a candlelight vigil and protest march from Lutsang monastery to the local town center.
Following this daring protest, the monastery was surrounded by People’s Armed Police and reports now indicate at least 3 of the monks have been detained.
Despite overwhelming repression and a heavy Chinese military presence in Tibet, Tibetans continue to resist Chinese rule. The ‘No Losar’ movementis one of the most creative civil disobedience campaigns ever seen in Tibet. Despite the Chinese authorities’ best attempts to stop them, Tibetans right across the plateau canceled traditional Tibetan New Year celebrations and turned this normally festive time into a somber time of mourning for those killed and imprisoned since last year’s protests.
On Wednesday night, a lone Tibetan, with two supporters at his side, flew the Tibetan flag near the Bird’s Nest stadium as the men’s 200 metre dash finals were ending. Norbu, a Tibetan from Germany, raised the flag while two American men, John and Jeremy, raised their fists in the air and bowed their heads in an act of defiance modeled after John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s protest at the Olympics in 1968 in Mexico City after the same event. Nearby, Briton Mandie McKeown observed and tried to document the simple action with her camera.
There are some incredible people in detention in Beijing right now. It’s been 50 hrs since they were taken into custody and we still have no word on them. James Powderly has to be one of the most righteous and visionary people I’ve ever met. He is an artist and an activist and was detained sometime around 3am on Tuesday morning for planning a beautiful laser light show in Beijing to speak out in solidarity with the Tibetan people and for the cause of freedom of expression in China.
At some point around the same time, 5 citizen journalists and activists were taken by the Chinese authorities. Brian Conley, creator of the well-known videoblog “Alive in Baghdad,†was detained with Jeffrey Rae, Jeff Goldin, Michael Liss, and Tom Grant. And what was their crime? They were in China doing one of the most honourable things you can do: documenting the fight for freedom and justice in the face of incredible oppression. » Read the rest of this entry «
Chinese forces killed two more Tibetans in eastern Tibet. A nun named Sonam Yungzom is reported to have been shot while shouting slogans in Kardze town on August 10th. One source says she yelled out: “There are no human rights in China, there is brutal oppression in Tibet, still the Olympics go on in China.” She was hit by 5 to 6 bullets and then her body was thrown in a vehicle and taken away. An unidentified man is reported to have been shot and killed a few days earlier in the same town after he brought a photo of the Dalai Lama and protested. » Read the rest of this entry «
Here is a piece from the New Statesman by the Tibetan writer and poet Woeser. Woeser lives in Beijing and is fearless. She is even suing the Chinese government. This piece pretty much says it all.
Banning Tibet
Published 31 July 2008
A great cry, a noise that can be produced only by those who live in the grasslands, sounded from the Tibetan lands in March 2008, shocking the world. The Chinese media called it “the wolf howling”.
When the Olympic torch passed through Lhasa, Tibetans were not allowed to leave their homes unless they had special passes. My friends in Lhasa wondered: “If Chinese citizens can watch the torch when it passes through other cities, why can’t we? Are we not citizens of this country?” » Read the rest of this entry «