The blue tent accommodating the TYC organised ‘Two Months Relay Hunger Strike’ under the banner of ‘All India Relay Hunger Strike for the release of Tulku Tenzin Delek’ has now primed into an unlikely centerpiece of the busy hill town of Mcleod Ganj.
For 43 days as of today, the ‘Tulku Tent’ has stood tall, come rain or storms, engaging almost in entirety the chunk of Tibetan populace in and around Dharamsala into a proactive campaign for the immediate and unconditional release of Tulku Tenzin Delek. The posters, banners and hunger strikers sitting in pursuit of truth, justice and liberty, at the most bustling point of Dharamsala remain a constant speculation for new comers and a subtle reason for the locals to smile, wave or just raise a victory sign at.
The past couple of weeks have seen students and staff of Tibetan Children’s Village, Upper Dharamsala and from Sherab Gatsel Lobling lend their support to the campaign with the monks from Nechung Monastery carrying on the vigil.
The youngest of the hunger strikers, a 11 year old boy, Wangchuk who escaped into exile two years back shivered as he recollected the incidence when he stumbled on the head of a decapitated body during the six long nights of journey on foot that he took to enter into Nepal, hiding from the careless guns and vigilant eyes of the Chinese army men. “My parents never told me of a free Tibet. I knew nothing of independence when I was in Tibet ” he said, accentuating the fact that whole generations of Tibetans have grown up inside Tibet without the knowledge of their roots and pride in their identity. Now that he studies at a Tibetan school miles away from his parents, he aspires to become a teacher when he grows up and go back to Tibet and groom the next generation of Tibetans. “I want to be a social reformer, a nationalist like Tulku Tenzin Delek when I grow up”, the 11 year old boy pledged with a twinkle in his eyes.
The urgency in the signing of the petition letters and the postcards have grown with the passing days. A concerned foreigner who came up to the tent to sign his support questioned in a grim tone, “How many days do we have?”
