Tashi Wangdu, an exiled Tibetan and secretary at the Office of Tibet in Pretoria, visted Tibet in August last year and returned with amateur digital photographs that assist him in talking about life in exile and under occupation. YAZEED KAMALDIEN spoke to him about his people and their cause
What prompted this exhibition?
I took my digital camera on my journey so that I could show people what I was talking about when I told them about the struggle of the Tibetan people. I am here to create awareness of the Tibetan cause.
What are you trying to make us aware of?
That we don’t have any rights under the Chinese occupation in Tibet. For the past 40 years there have been no organisations inside Tibet helping our people. They can’t say anything. There’s no platform to voice even minor issues. There’s a cultural genocide going on. People are facing starvation and have no proper education or health care. Many Chinese people are being brought into the country and the Tibetan language has become secondary.
What connects you to Tibet, even though you went there for the first time last year?
In 1972 I was born in exile in India, where I was brought up. My father left Tibet after 1959, when the Chinese occupied the land. When I was at school, our parents, teachers and elders told us that we are Tibetan. We were told that we have a big responsibility on our shoulders. We were reminded that we have to bring freedom and happiness to Tibet. It’s our moral responsibility to save our people.
What was it like meeting your Tibetan family for the first time?
I went to Tibet with my parents, who live in India. My father is his parent’s only child who left Tibet. He has two sisters and seven brothers. He didn’t know when his parents died. When I met my uncles I found out that my grandparents died in the 1970s. My parents are still alive and living in India. Through my family I could see that most Tibetans live with fear and hope that they can see our spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama — but he can’t return. They say we are lucky because we live in free countries and can talk about our cause and even see the Dalai Lama.
Was it hard travelling there?
Many Tibetans live very difficult lives, in tents and without water or electricity. It’s disheartening that families have to live apart, but we have no choice. The Chinese have replaced our architecture with buildings and malls. They have divided Tibet into different areas with provincial governments ruled by the Chinese. There’s no democracy, just Chinese rule. Wherever I went I had to report to police stations all the time.
what is a solution for Tibet?
We need to compromise before the Tibetan culture is completely buried. Schools in Tibet don’t even teach the Tibetan language, everything is Chinese. All we are asking for is more autonomy and that we can travel freely in our country. There are 150 000 Tibetans, out of a population of six million, who are in exile. We want to be with our families and practise our religion, but the Chinese government wants us to be communists, like them, because they don’t believe in religion. They think that religion is poison.
Titled ‘Tibet through the eyes of an exile’, Wangdu’s photographic exhibition has travelled to Johannesburg and Durban and will soon show in Cape Town for a month. Wangdu will be giving a talk Saturday, May 1 at 7pm at the exhibition’s opening at the Sophea Gallery in Simon’s Town. Contact 021-786-1544 or check out www.officeoftibet.com for more.
