By Tendar Tsering

DHARAMSHALA, March 1: The three Tibetan school students, who have been pedalling across the length of India, covering major cities and towns for the last forty five days, concluded their ‘Cycle Rally for Tibet’ yesterday in the Indian capital New Delhi.

Demanding an international monitoring team to be allowed inside Tibet, the three students, Gyaltsen, Lugoen Thar, and Tselo Gyal covered a total of over 3,500 kms on their cycles in the past month and a half.

The students from the Tibetan Children’s Village School, Gopalpur, north India, had begun their cycling campaign from the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe in Karnataka state, south India on January 20, coinciding with their school winter vacations.

While crisscrossing through some of the major Indian metropolitan cities and towns, including Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Gandhinagar, Jaipur and New Delhi, the three students held numerous awareness programmes and press conferences on the current situation inside Tibet.

In a statement at the beginning of the rally, the three students said they were undertaking the ‘Cycling for Tibet’ campaign to highlight the “plight of Tibetans suffering under China’s repressive rule” and to appeal for support in the resolution of the ongoing crisis in Tibet.

“The suffering and the injustice meted out to Tibetans in Tibet must end soon if truth, freedom, and peace are to sustain this world,” they said.

Meanwhile, another group of three students from the Sherab Gatsel Ling School (Tibetan Transit School) in Dharamshala began a cycle rally from New Delhi to Dharamshala to raise awareness on the ongoing repression in Tibet, last week.

The three students, Tashi, Tenpa Dhargyal and Ganre Chogya kicked off the cycle rally on February 22, coinciding the Tibetan New Year, 'Losar'.

The three are planning to reach Dharamshala, the seat of the Central Tibetan Administration on March 10, commemorated as Tibetan National Uprising Day.

23 Tibetans have set their bodies on fire since 2009 demanding the return of Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama and freedom in Tibet. Recent mass protests in Tibet have been violently suppressed, as many areas of Tibet continue to remain under an undeclared martial law.

Tibetans in exile, led by its elected leadership have launched a string of campaigns, including an ongoing indefinite fast by three Tibetans outside the United Nations headquarters in New York.