TCHRD has translated a letter written by a Tibetan monk, teacher and an activist in Tibet.
Written in August 2012, the letter, sent anonymously from Tibet, was
addressed to the Special Meeting held in September 2012 in India. The
letter raises important issues about the Tibetan freedom struggle and
reveals important details about oppression and resistance in Tibet.
"Therefore, the path the Chinese have laid for us
to walk in the meantime is like an ‘invincible dagger,’
Against which we are presumed to have
not many alternative strategies."
Despite being a truly Tibetan voice, in some measure, it is reminiscent
of Frantz Fanon’s ‘Wretched of the Earth’ for its power to awaken the
consciousness of both the oppressed and the oppressor, which only
highlights the universality of human resistance. In one sense, the
letter also reflects the Tibetan Buddhist liberation theology, the idea
that that freedom is possible through understanding the true meaning of
Tibetan Buddhism.
We have used a pseudonym for the writer of this letter to protect his identity.
The letter is translated and edited from its original version in Tibetan.
“Thoughts and Suggestions for the Special Meeting to be held in Dharamsala, India"
First of all, I would like to extend my greetings to the Tibetan
leaders in exile; especially His Holiness the Dalai Lama and heads of
Tibetan Buddhism, and also Sikyong Lobsang Sangay, the political head of
the Tibetan people and Tibetan scholars. May they all live a long and
healthy life and may their work for [our country] bear greater fruits. I
also pray for the spontaneous fulfilment of the wishes of Tibetans
inside Tibet. May Tibetan people inside and outside Tibet be reunited
soon, and may His Holiness the Dalai Lama return to Tibet to be
enthroned at the Potala Palace!
It is evident that the Tibetan people inside Tibet have no other
choice than to comply with the machinations of the red Chinese
Communist party. Therefore, you Tibetans in exile, through unity and
solidarity, must propagate, in clear and concise terms, the suffering
of the Tibetan people in freedom and democracy-loving countries of the world. This is important.
Many Tibetans in Tibet, for the sake of our nation and people, in
other words, for the sake of our religion, culture and politics, are
setting themselves on fire. They are burning themselves alive, because
our people, who have been completely deprived of freedom and kept at the
mercy of a foreign power, are searching for a measure of happiness.
More than fifty brave Tibetan patriots who sacrificed their bodies had
to endure the height of suffering, having been deprived of all options,
and out of desperation, they have had to resort to such extreme measure.
This is crystal clear.
There are some Tibetans who have directly opposed the acts of
self-immolation and consequently expressed some words of mild
disagreement. However, those of us in Tibet, who love our nation and
people, have never opposed and expressed words of disagreement about
self-immolations; we remain solidly defiant and firm in this position.
The [Central Tibetan Administration], all the voluntary organizations
and individuals working for the welfare of Tibet and the Tibetan people
should be clearly [aware] that in some remote areas of Tibet, the
Chinese, by resorting to various means of trickery, are forcefully
changing the identity of Tibetan people through acts of sinicisation,
reducing them to the status of ‘neither-Tibetan-nor-Chinese.’ As you
all know we are not given a hair’s breadth of opportunity to intervene
in these matters; only journalists from foreign countries will be able
to visit directly and report on these issues, so it is my hope that
[Central Tibetan Administration] and the individual Tibetans will take
interest in these issues.
All the grasslands of the nomads and the farmlands in the valleys have
been surrounded with fences, causing enormous disputes among the Tibetan
people. For instance, these fences have become a source of new conflict
even between father and son. Regarding these issues, I have to share a
few tragic stories here. All these Chinese strategies, as I alluded to
before, are aimed specifically at sowing discord and conflict among the
Tibetan people. This year, a new program has started in the nomadic
areas: to sell nomadic lands owned by the nomads at a price of Chinese
yuan 2000. We must seriously ponder this issue from all perspectives,
because many Tibetans see this program as a Chinese government’s plot to
grab all our lands. I don’t think our concerns are being expressed
without any reasonable foundation. As far as I am concerned, I consider
this a subtle political strategy on the part of the Chinese to lure the
Tibetan people in their traps. This is because not only the land in the
nomadic valleys, but also every nomadic family is being provided with
enormous sums of Chinese money to construct new concrete dwellings.
Moreover, unnecessary roads are being constructed, so that every
monastery and village can be accessed directly. These are causing
damage, for which we would have to bear enormous cost in future.
The Chinese first trap you with guile, then with money, and finally
with violence. Therefore, the path the Chinese have laid for us to
walk in the meantime is like an ‘invincible dagger,’ against which we
are presumed to have not many alternative strategies. This is because,
even if we refuse Chinese money, other pretexts are invented to make
sure that we get arrested. These sufferings and hardships are the norm
rather than the exception at present.
The Chinese are also exploiting natural resources by digging mines;
government cadres are dispatched to various Tibetan towns and villages
to oppress and grab our lands. These have become routine. Another
serious issue is the plight of the Tibetan monasteries, schools and
other institutions - centres of Tibetan learning. In the monasteries,
officials responsible for their management are being bribed, so that
their complicity is ensured to put severe restrictions on religious
activities. The grievances of the monks against the Chinese government’s
negative attitude toward the monasteries are real and justifiable. They
are not mere excuses to criticize them. The same serious problems also
beset our schools. Under Chinese compulsion, most teachers have now
abandoned teaching Tibetan. Moreover, there are also cases where
students attending schools in Tibetan autonomous areas are not allowed
to speak in their native tongue. The medium of instruction in Tibetan
schools is the Chinese language, and to graduate to higher classes,
students are almost entirely dependent on how they perform in Chinese.
For instance, a student securing five per cent in Tibetan, sixty per
cent in Chinese, and 30 per cent in mathematics is eligible to graduate
to the next class. In some schools, even if the student doesn’t secure
just a single star (form of grading in Tibetan schools), he or she would
not encounter any serious obstacles in graduating to the next class. I
am a teacher myself, so I can attest to these problems from my own
personal experience, having voluntarily served as a Tibetan teacher for
one month at a school in Yushu Tibetan autonomous area.
The students I taught in that school, 120 in all, are in the sixth
standard. Of them, we had seven students who were totally ignorant in
Tibetan language - they could not even write their names in Tibetan!
Although they are supposed to be in the sixth grade, their standard of
Tibetan is that of the first grade. When I made inquiries with the
school teachers why they fared so poorly in Tibetan, they confirmed what
I said before, that a student simply needs five per cent in Tibetan,
compared to sixty in Chinese and 30 in mathematics, to graduate to the
next class. When I asked the teachers how was it
possible that some students who couldn’t even secure five per cent in
Tibetan appear in sixth grade, they replied “some students are given
special consideration to graduate to the next classes.”
What is so clear from all these examples is that Tibetan language
doesn’t enjoy any autonomy even in the Tibetan schools established in
Tibetan autonomous areas. Such pathetic conditions have made our [lives]
unbearable, so it is extremely important for the [Central Tibetan
Administration] and all the Tibetan people to be aware of these
problems. All of these are clear indications that Tibetan people have no
freedom whatsoever to pursue their own religion and culture.
Therefore, we must strive for freedom and should be able to experience
the joys of freedom, which will be possible only when we struggle and
resist.
Since pursuit of freedom is an act of struggle, mere lip service and
publicity campaigns outside Tibet is not going to help. What we must
require, above all, is the courage and pride to ‘think, speak out and
achieve.’ Based on these, we must be determined to pursue all kinds of
campaigns. As always advocated by Tibetan scholars in Tibet, the
pursuit of Tibetan learning, including Tibetan Buddhism, culture,
history, literature, folk customs and traditions, are not only acts
that advance freedom, but also helps regain the bla srog (life-soul)
of Tibet.
History documents that merely preserving one’s religion, culture and
religion doesn’t ensure freedom. Freedom is secured only through an
act of non-violent struggle and resistance; we must not only keep in
perspective the long term suffering of the Tibetan people, but also
regard the immediate crises afflicting us as our top most concern. To
uphold our duties voluntarily is the responsibility thrown upon our
shoulders by this century. Tibetans in and outside Tibet, if all carry
their duties with pride and initiate campaigns around the world, I
have a firm belief that a time would come when justice would be restored
to the Tibetan people. These days, what is indispensable for us, is
unity and solidarity. Tibetans in exile must have the courage to aim all
your strength at a single goal; this is our expectation. The life of
our nation and its freedom are directly and deeply intertwined with, and
depending, on you all.
This is because, although we have thoughts about unity and solidarity,
since we have no freedom at all, we have no place where we can speak
about the tragedy and fate of our people. Even if we speak out to the
Chinese, there are few of them who are willing to think about what we
say. This is understandable, because first of all there are fears of
Chinese arrest. Secondly, being a Tibetan, it is not easy to speak up
our minds. Also, it could be due to the fear of widespread Tibetan
running dogs, all those spies, who are fooled by Chinese wealth.
Thirdly, there are many who consider their security more important than
the welfare of their people. Tibetans who nurture the sense of
Tibetan-ness in their flesh and bones, however, without any fear of
their lives, actively participate in the struggle.
For the pursuit of our freedom, since 1958, more than a million
Tibetans have given up their lives through resistance against the
Chinese communists. To this struggle, bereft of any feelings of
solidarity, many Tibetans have an attitude as if they are stories of
myth and legends. Therefore, after having conducted much research and
investigation of Tibetan reality, I came up with a book tentatively
titled ‘Black Annals,’ in which Tibet’s tragedy and suffering are
especially documented.
No matter how much the Chinese communists oppress us, we must not be
cowed down in fear and pursue a narrow and pathetic path that simply
gives us personal security. What we have aimed, above all, is to wrest
control from the oppressive Chinese apparatus, rights to pursue our own
religion, culture, tradition and language. We have also pledged to
uphold our duty to expose the poisonous nature of the shadowy Chinese
communist political system. Although we are absolutely committed to
campaign actively to defend our land from Chinese encroachments,
nevertheless, as the Tibetan saying goes, 'neither the horse won’t
appear, nor the rains would fall at the moment you desire them,’ so
there are certain limitations.
Still, to be the source of inspiration and pride to the coming
generations, we are hopeful of giving up our lives for the welfare of
our nation and people. In view of this, we have founded an independent
organization called “Struggle for Truth through the true meaning of the
Middle-Way,” which would strive towards the preservation and promotion
of Tibetan religion, culture, language, folk customs, traditions and
other ways of life, and through them, we struggle to pursue the values
of freedom, equality, human rights and so on. By opening the hundred
doors of diverse campaigns, we are preparing to continue to participate
in various forms of struggle, so that we could arrive at a defining
moment.
Our organization’s target would be the Chinese political apparatus,
and we would make inquiries about any innocent Tibetan arrested under
this system and strive to advocate for their plight in the world. This
would be our primary goal. Secondly, in Tibet, the Chinese, lured by
bribes, put in prison many patriotic Tibetans. This is a tremendous
loss to our nation, so we must do everything possible to find out a
different strategy that will help us keep track of Chinese spies. Our
third goal is to awaken the Tibetan nomads and farmers from their
slumber of illiteracy, to educate them in our country’s history, so
that a true national consciousness is implanted in their souls. Apart
from these, various campaigns are being initiated to eradicate
illiteracy among the Tibetan children who have been deprived of
opportunities to pursue basic education.
All this reflects the attitude of ordinary Tibetan monks who honestly
believe that there’s no other greater purpose in life than to be of
service, no matter how small, to the Tibetan people. I am hopeful that
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibetan scholars, thinkers, and the
enlightened ones would extend their reflections towards these ends.
With profound respects,
Lobsang Monlam
From Tibet, the Land of Snows
26 August 2012
Originally published at http://tchrd.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=330:tibetan-pursuit-of-freedom-a-letter-from-the-land-of-snows&catid=70:2012-news&Itemid=162
