By Sarah Schwimmer
A group of about 35 Tibetans and 30 Westerners finished a 60-mile walk Monday from Bloomington to Indianapolis. The walkers began their trek in Bloomington last Thursday and finished their journey Monday at Monument Circle in Indianapolis with a rally in the afternoon. Carrying signs that read, “Release the Panchen Lama” and “Honk for Tibet,” participants marched slowly, spreading their message of independence.
The group embarked on the hike to raise awareness about China’s oppression of Tibet, to promote a boycott of Chinese goods, and to ask China to negotiate with the Tibetan Government in exile.
This year’s march saw more participation than last year’s, when about 25 people marched for one day in Indianapolis. This year marked the sixth Tibet independence march since 1995, when IU professor Thubten Jigme Norbu, the eldest brother of the Dalai Lama, asked Tibetan supporters all over the world to walk for freedom.
Norbu’s son, Jigme Norbu, spoke to the participants before the walk began on Thursday.
“This walk has been inspired by my father,” Norbu said. “Almost half his lifetime, since the early 1950s, since Chinese Communists invaded Tibet, he has fought for its independence. As the younger generation, we must continue struggling for the freedom of Tibet.”
This year, many of the about 65 walkers were young people, and two walkers were in their sixties. This representation of two generations was encouraging to Larry Gerstein, president of the International Tibet Independence Movement.
Although Gerstein was unable to participate this year because of an illness in his family, he said he was walking with the marchers in spirit and thanked Jigme Norbu for continuing to raise awareness about Tibet in the younger generation.
The walk coordinator agreed with Gerstein and Norbu that it is important to continue to raise awareness about this issue in the younger generation. She was also encouraged by the large turnout of younger walkers and wondered if that crowd could have added to the hastened speed of the march.
“The younger participants had lots of energy,” she said, “and that might have contributed to the faster pace of this year’s walk.”
However, she felt that this shift in tempo was more than just a matter of speedy footsteps.
“To me,” she said, “the energy shift this year from slow and meditative to a more brisk pace gave a suggestion that there is more urgency right now in raising awareness of these issues in Tibet.”
Response to the walkers was “overwhelmingly positive,” according to the walk coordinator, but “in the rare instances of negativity, we responded with a positive and compassionate reaction.”
Tenzin Namgyal, a Tibetan who came to America originally as an exchange student and who now works at the IU Law School, helped organize the march and made sure that participants got enough food to sustain them throughout the 5-day walk. This was Namgyal’s first year participating in the walk for Tibetan freedom, but he agreed with the walk coordinator that the community’s response was a positive one.
“My perspective is that, being a Tibetan, it is my responsibility to share this culture of compassion,” Namgyal said. “I can help define a broader perspective of all humanity that includes all people who don’t have basic human rights.”
For more information on the International Tibet Independence Movement, e-mail rangzen@aol.com or visit www.rangzen.org.
