By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Nov. 11: The vocal Tibetan activist Tenzin Tsundue is set to embark on the last leg of the ‘Walking the Himalayas’ campaign that will culminate in the border state of Arunachal Pradesh in India later this month. He has travelled for the last 80 days to over 50 different places along the Indo-Tibet border. “I took it up as an initiative as a Tibetan and also as someone who was born in India. I feel I have a natural responsibility to the people. So I began this campaign starting from Ladakh, travelling all across the five Himalayan states and finally going up to Arunachal Pradesh,” Tsundue told Phayul.
Known for his poems that thematically revolve around freedom and longing for his homeland, the Rangzen (independence) activist has been on the journey meeting with the press, talking to communities big and small and screening the movie ‘The Great Escape of the Dalai Lama’ to the Indian public. “The common response [for the film] across the region on the subject, Dalai Lama, has largely been that they did not know that he had to personally undergo the difficulties at the age of 24 while escaping Tibet, as it is shown in the film,” he said. The writer further stressed that the Buddhist heritage in the Himalayan region is alive mainly due to Dalai Lama’s teachings and his efforts in the community through education drives, adding that he aims to build on the “cultural relationship” that Tibetans share with these communities.
“When we are talking about the rising threats on India from China, the first brunt of that will naturally fall on the people in the Himalayas. In the 1962 Chinese invasion of Arunachal Pradesh, many people had to run away, literally, leaving their lands from Tawang to Tezpur,” he noted, adding that entire government machinery could become weak unless the public are made aware of border threats.
“For the people in the Himalayas, it was a moment of partition for them. For them, their direction for their religion, culture and language was always Tibet. Once the border was shut and they couldn’t go, they were left partitioned and their lives were severed of any connection to their roots. This was never talked about in the mainstream media,” the 46-year-old elaborated on the importance of building bridges across communities.
The Tibetan activist has been on Indian police’s list of ‘trouble-makers’ for years due to his shock-and-awe style of activism over the years, and is often put on house arrest when there are visits from Chinese officials in India. His clout as an activist sometimes makes him a target as he recounts an incident last month on his social media where he was stopped by an “over cautious” government official at Lachen in Sikkim. Tsundue dismissed it as an “unfortunate and silly” incident as the official had an “imagined exaggeration” of the whole situation, adding that he had all the valid documents to go to the destination.
6 Responses
All my best thoughts and my deep Soul are next to you . Best regards from Belgium.
Respect to you !
I know you won’t never give up !
With my best Tashi Delek.
Ghislaine of Tibet-Normandie association in Normandie.
very inspiring man with a clear vision for Tibet and future Tibetans! thank you and may your (our) aims be fulfilled !
Tsundue la has been doing a great job towards the nation. The CTA officials should invite him and share his inspiring valuable thoughts towards strengthening the Tibet issue. Bodh Gyalo.
When I went to school, we would sing the མི་མང་ལངས་གླུ་ (Tibetan People’s Uprising Song) with much gusto. When the lines like བསྟན་དགྲ་རྒྱ་དམར་བོད་ནས་མཐའ་སྤྲོད་གཏོང་གི་ཡིན་ (We will drive the Chinese imperialist enemy out of Tibet), we were thumping our foot on the ground and gesturing with our hands raring for a fight! To this generation of Tibetans, even seeing a Chinese person made us feel angry and often felt like attacking them. That’s how we have been brought up in the heightened sense of dislike of the Chinese for stealing our nation and dispossessing our people. We knew how our parents have suffered under the brutal invasion of our country.
From this generation came prominent figures like award winning writer and Rangzen advocate Jamyang Norbu, ex-TYC Leader Lhasang Tsering and his deceased brother ex-chitue Karma Choephel. A whole generation of Rangzen advocates made their mark in the early seventies, eighties and early nineties. The young and highly motivated Rangzen fighters dedicated their energy in disseminating the story of Tibet and its brutal occupation by communist China. They wrote numerous articles or letters to the Indian news papers which sometimes reported unfavourable news about Tibet. One of the more notorious one was the Hindu from Madras, whose editor N Ram was an orphan of Maoism and a lackey of the CCP regime. He was used by the CCP to spread the false narrative about Tibet in the guise of a respectable Indian news outlet.
However, when Samdhong Rinpoche was elected as the Kalon Tripa in 2000, he cozied up to the CCP by demonising and disparaging Rangzen advocates. He weaponised it by bringing the sacred name of the Dalai Lama but later he had to clarify that advocating Independence (RANGZEN) for Tibet was NOT AGAINST THE DALAI LAMA. I suspect that HH The Dalai Lama must have told him to make sure the Dalai Lama’s name is not dragged unnecessarily into the Rangzen and Umay Lam debate. The Dalai Lama has said clearly that “we are not a dictatorship like communist China. Therefore, those who advocate Rangzen are entitled to their stand and belief”. He said this in 2005 in Switzerland to a gathering of Tibetans coming from across Europe. The Dalai Lama never suppressed Rangzen but he indeed espoused Umay Lam. However, S Rinpoche used it as his ultimate weapon to bludgeon the Rangzen advocates. During a talk to TCV children in Dharamsala, he cast aspersions about the veracity of Tibet’s historical claim to independence!
The atmosphere changed drastically during these years and the Rangzen advocates were now at the receiving end. They were abused, spat at and ostracised. Jamyang Norbu and Lhasang Tsering, Atsok Lukar Jam were the main targets of attack. This was followed by the attack on the younger generation of Rangzen advocates like Dhadon Sharling, (whose promising political career was destroyed all together) and Lhagyari Namgyal Dolkar who is demonised by the CCP sleeper cells in exile in order to destroy her as well. This undoubtedly the handiwork of the CCP. The polarisation between Rangzen and Uma was the result of a policy of appeasement by S Rinpoche towards the CCP. He was deliberately undermining and discrediting the independence advocates in order to curry favour from the CCP. His devout followers like ex-Domed-chitue Sharchok Kukta went as far as brandishing the blood soaked CCP flag to demonstrate his loyalty to the CCP!
Meanwhile Jamyang Norbu, Lhasang and Atsok Luksrjam. went underground. That didn’t stop the howling and condemnation by their rancorous nemesis.
One person who did a very tight rope walking like walking on egg shells is the indomitable Tenzin Tsondue. He remained aloof from his condemned fellow Rangzen advocates and also concealed his own frustration at the ostracism that he suffered at the hands of the anti-Rangzen storm troopers of S Rinpoche. He survived by the skin of his teeth during these authoritarian rule of S Rinpoche. Patience and tenacity worked for him and soon he was on the air waves of Indian TV shows along with likes of India’s foremost China expert Professor Srikanth Kondapalli of JNU, Jayadeva Ranade and long time Tibet supporter and senior journalist Vijay Kranti.
He kept a low profile during the tumultuous decade of suppression but continued his mission all the while. Today, even those who have been chastising him as a nondescript Che Guevara are realising their folly and are pretending to not notice him but they are forced to swallow the bitter pill. He proved them wrong in their characterisation of him and showed his true mettle by now appearing like a larger than life freedom fighter in the making.
The winds of fortune have changed. Communist China is now becoming a rogue nation and is increasingly isolated. It’s image has taken a battering and it’s economy is sputtering. It’s population is ageing and companies that flocked to China are leaving for India and other greener pastures.
The Dalai Lama lamented that his hope of new leaders bringing changes in China had not come true and Han Chauvinism is responsible for the suppression of other cultures. If anything, the CCP with dictator Xi at the helm is regurgitating the Mao era of total control through mass surveillance. It’s Artificial facial recognition is so advanced, the CCP can recognise the face of 1.4 billion Chinese citizens in one second! In places like Tibet and East Turkistan, even going for shopping is tedious job where people have to produce their ID card! Everything from visiting places and relatives to activities at home are all spied upon by the State to keep its unruly citizens in check. It’s a dystopian world of dehumanisation and degradation of the human spirit. The CCP is feeling extremely vulnerable and that is why it is resorting to such heinous craft to enslave the people of Tibet. Therefore, without independence, it’s not simply possible to achieve a degree of freedom that would enable the Tibetan people to live with dignity. Those who disagree should explain the total disregard for Hong Kong people’s freedom that have been summarily disposed of by the CCP. How on earth Tibet can expect a special treatment when the special treatment, agreed upon with Britain for Hong Kong as a condition for hand over has been consigned to the dust bin of history!!! The age of appeasement has brought no dividend whatsoever since Tibet’s culture and religion are being scrubbed clean by the CCP. The idea of autonomy was an attempt to assure the Chinese that Tibet will remain in association with China so the Chinese don’t destroy Tibet’s rich culture and religion out of fear of separation but that has now clearly proved to be a misconception. China is still calling the Dalai Lama an “out and out separatist” by the Chinese spokes person Wang Wenbin recently even though HH has been saying, “we are not seeking independence” a million times in the last thirty years! I wonder the people with Dolma Tsering’s mind set are still coy to call Bhod Gyalo!!!
Thanks, Tenzin Tsundue la, for your works. There are very few people like him in our society. We can count them on our fingers and still we will have more fingers left to count. Their though and actions are our treasure.
Our exiled government should invite them and share their though and have frank discussions and debates in our schools and Tibet TV. This is my humble requests.