By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 15: Two Tibetan brothers, both monks at Nenang monastery in Drago County, have been held incommunicado for the last five months since August 15 2021. The duo, Tenzin Norbu and Wangchen Nyima, are currently being held at Tawu county prison by the Chinese officials. According to a Tibet.net report, these officials have withheld all information about the charges from family members.
Although the reason for their arrest is unclear, the source said that it is suspected that they have been held due to their involvement in the monastery’s informal Tibetan language classes for local Tibetan children. “The two monks are amongst those targeted and local authorities have been monitoring them for a long time,” the source further divulged. Wangchen Nyima is an advocate for education and health, and was earlier arrested when the government shut down schools at the monastery in 2015; his brother Orgyan Choedrak had also been arrested during the same incident.
The monks Norbu and Wangchen are nephews of Tulku Choekyi Nyima, the abbot of Nenang monastery. Tulku Choekyi Nyima was a student of Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, the founder of Larung Gar monastic academy. Moreover, other reports suggested that on August 18, Khenpo Thupten and another monk named Bukyo died in a fire, suspected to be set by Chinese officials in the monastery assembly hall.
Several reports of arrests were reported in the Drago County after two Buddha statues were demolished last December. Over a dozen Tibetans had been detained and several have been tortured for opposing government orders; a 99ft and a 30ft Buddha statues in the same vicinity were demolished. The local government has also reportedly planned to build poultry and pig farms at the same location where they demolished Gaden Nangten School last October, which is managed by Drago Monastery.
2 Responses
The Chinese policy in Tibet is once again a repeat of the same genocidal policy which they practised from 1954 till 1984. During these three decades Tibet was reduced to rubble by the CCP and the Tibetan people were terrorised and murdered en masse. The Chinese targeted the monks/nuns and monasteries as their enemies. Ordinary Tibetans were forced to denounce the Lamas and monks/nuns and forced to raze every monastery to the ground. Thousands of Tibetans were forced to commit suicide and Tibet became a hell-hole on earth. That murderous rampage didn’t snuff out Tibetan resistance and in 1987, Lhasa was ablaze with Tibetan resistance led by the monks and nuns. After all, the monks and nuns are the guardians of Tibetan religion, culture and language. More protests followed even after barbaric clamp down by the vile CCP fascists which culminated into full blown pan-Tibet revolt against the jackboot Chinese occupation in 2008. The CCP used the PLA to quell the mammoth protests across the Tibetan plateau and Tibet became a war zone with the Chinese army to shoot at sight innocent civilians. The official death toll was released as 200 but it was in fact three times more than the official account.
Owing to severe repression, demonstrations became impossible but Tapey a monk from the Kirti Monastery opened the flood gates of self-immolation in Tibet in 2009. To date 156 Tibetans have self-immolated for the freedom and independence of Tibet. He was only 24 years old and it’s the first in the modern history of Tibet. Most of the self-immolators have been monks and nuns while both male and female lay people have also laid down their precious life for the freedom and independence of Tibet. The Chinese Communist occupiers made it a crime by punishing the whole family including children and yet it continued unabated until some Exile Tibetans questioned the effectiveness of such supreme sacrifice. The western world looked the other way in sanctimonious righteousness instead of understanding the desperation of the Tibetan people. Their double standard is breath taking. When the Tunisian vegetable vendor, Mohammad Bouazizi, self-immolated, he was regarded as a hero which was the catalyst for the Arab Spring but when 156 Tibetans have done the same, their vanity got the better of them to acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of the Tibetans against brutal Chinese occupation.
The CCP is feeling very insecure and because of this it is completely erasing any trace of Tibet including the name itself. They want to scrub clean Tibetan culture, religion and language to transform Tibetans into Chinese. They think, this is the only way, they can bring Tibet under their control once and for all! Any show of separateness from the Chinese to them means the danger of separation. However, they don’t take into account the fact that Tibetans have never regarded themselves as Chinese or ever belonging to China! All Tibetans inherently believe themselves as Tibetans and totally seperate from China and Chinese. The million Tibetan children who are being indoctrinated by separating them from their parents is to fulfil this evil design by the CCP.
The arbitrary arrests and detention of Tibetan language teachers, students, monks who teach Tibetan language to Tibetan children and teachers like Rinchen Kyi who has been arrested under accusation of “inciting separatism” are all suppression of Tibetan people’s inalienable right to speak, write and use our own language as the main medium of instruction in schools and everyday life. The closure of Tibetan language schools are the same to eradicate Tibetan language and make Tibetans forget their language. ITS CULTURAL, LINGUISTIC AND SPIRITUAL GENOCIDE IN TIBET TODAY!
Tibetans must resist the evil design of our enemy by educating exile children with our own language, religion and culture. Surely, is it too much to ask to teach your children your own language? Is it too much to inculcate a sense of belonging to Tibet by imbibing our culture and spiritual traditions? Don’t you have a sense of responsibility towards your own fatherland (ཕ་ཡུལ་) Is it enough to be living a comfortable life for yourself and care two hoots about Tibet?
On the other hand, the CCP is in a life and death struggle against America and it’s allies. Xi the despot will be affirming his third term and his mission is to “unify” Taiwan which he must do in his five year term. That means he will try to take Taiwan by force but the US has already prepared the ground work to deter Xi’s adventurism. If the dictator wages war, the US, Japan and UK followed by Australia will stand together to prevent democratic Taiwan being swallowed by communist China. In the event, the CCP will be badly bruised and the powers that be will make sure that the present CCP regime is decapitated. They will not countenance any more totalitarian regime in China. Remember, the preset fight is on ideological ground. There will be chaos. This is the time Tibet must seize to fight and drive the demoralised Chinese from Tibet. As it were, we must prepare for a military contingency in the aftermath of the fall of the CCP. When it comes to self defence, nothing must be left to chance. The non-violent movement of Tibet has lost its lustre and we have to reinvent ourselves before we become history like the Incas, the Aztecs and the Red Indians of a bygone age. India has experienced the aggression of communist China for the last seven decades. It has learned valuable lessons and has by now discarded its delusions about the friendship of communist China. We can be certain that when the circumstances are ripe, India will not shy away from supporting Tibet- not because they love Tibet but because they hate China!
Is there any call of action doing by Tibetan government…?