Washington, DC: Capital Area Tibetan Association will jointly organize a rally today with the International Campaign for Tibet, the Students for Free Tibet and the Charlotsville Tibetan Association to commemorate the 48th Anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day. The rally will start at 10:30 am at DuPont Circle and will include a march through the city streets to end at the Chinese Embassy, where a ceremony will be held to remember all the Tibetans who sacrificed their lives for the cause of Tibet’s freedom.
On March 10, 1959 the people of Tibet rose up in revolt in their capital Lhasa to demand that their Chinese occupiers leave Tibet and to thwart their attempt on the life of the young Dalai Lama. In response, Chinese soldiers brutally massacred tens of thousands of Tibetans over the next the few days. With sadness and pain still in our hearts, we remember all the Tibetans killed at the time and the million more who had died since then under China’s rule. While March 10 is a tragedy, this is also day of pride for us, for this is a day on which the Tibetan people refused to bow down to the might of China and rose up unitedly as one to fight for their dignity and their way of life. This is the day on which Tibetans from all parts of Tibet – Kham, Amdo and Utsang – lay and monks, man and women, old and young, came together as one and demonstrated their true courage and heroism, and made the ultimate sacrifice for the Tibetan nation. Today we and Tibetans all over the world today remember and honor their bravery and sacrifices, and recommit ourselves to the cause of Tibet’s struggle. We would also like to express solidarity with our brethrens inside Tibet who struggle daily to keep their culture, identity and hope alive under systematic assault by the Chinese state to destroy them.
Even though Tibet was a free and an independent country prior to its occupation by Chinese Communists, our leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama has repeatedly expressed willingness to resolve the Tibetan issue amicably through his Middle Way policy and by asking for genuine autonomy only for the Tibetan people. Instead of responding positively to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s pragmatic and reasonable initiatives, the Chinese authorities have launched a campaign to denigrate and vilify Him. The latest example is the statements by Zhang Qingli, the Party Secretary in Tibet; sadly, a Tibetan official named Jampa Phuntsok has been assigned the task of repeating his anti-Dalai Lama rhetoric.
The Chinese Government and its leaders should know that their attempts to destroy Tibetan people’s hope or to distance them from their beloved leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, will never succeed. As the late Indian statesman Jayaprakash Narayan said: “Tibet will not die because there is no death for the human spirit.” His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said, “No matter how strongly the wind of evil may blow, it cannot extinguish the flame of truth.” We hope and pray that China’s present leaders will have foresight to realize and act on the wisdoms of these statements, for the benefit of both the Tibetan and Chinese people.
Contact: Lhundup Amdo at 703-424-4423 or catatibetan@yahoo.com
