Pema Tsewang Shastri
Imagine the Obama administration directing all the governors of the New England states to restrict the movement and rights of all the Catholics by sending in massive military and paramilitary forces; cutting off, hacking into or eavesdropping on all cyber communication networks; sealing the churches; rounding up, imprisoning, and torturing all the devotees who possess pictures of Pope Benedict XVI; imposing a ban on the appointment of Archbishops and Bishops; conducting so-called “Patriotic Re-education” and “Strike Hard” campaigns in the Archdiocese; and banning Sunday masses in all the churches. If this happens, will fellow Americans and people of conscience in the world remain silent spectators to such a gross violation of human rights? I think the whole world, and particularly every Catholic, will speak out and protest against the regime for meting out such treatment to a whole section of American society, and every headline of every major newspaper will focus on his government.
This is exactly what has been happening to six million Tibetans in Tibet for the last fifty years, under ruthless Chinese Communist rule. During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, more than 6000 monasteries – the repository of Tibetan Buddhist culture, art and literature – were destroyed, and 1.2 million Tibetans died as a direct result of China’s illegal occupation of Tibet in the 1950’s. The so-called “Liberalization” in the 80s, “Western Development” in the 90s, and the current “Patriotic Re-education” and “Strike Hard” campaigns were all geared towards the systematic marginalization and sinicization of every aspect of Tibetan cultural identity, from language to way of life. Since 10th March last year, a dark curtain has been pulled across Tibet, under which the suffering that the Tibetans go through is so unimaginable that His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a person of peace and forbearance, was compelled to liken the situation to a “hell on earth” in his address on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his exile in India. He further charged the Chinese government with viewing Tibetans as “criminals deserving to be put to death.”
The way the Chinese government conducts itself in Tibet today clearly demonstrates its desperation, and in a way Tibetans are winning moral and psychological battles even as we seem to be losing the political and cultural war. Blocking international media; cutting off cyber communication networks; sealing off the monasteries; arresting and imprisoning innocent Tibetans on the pretext of “undermining state secrets or social stability;” and punishing anyone who expresses loyalty and faith to the Dalai Lama are signs of utter desperation from a government that does not have even the Chinese people’s popular mandate. There is a popular Tibetan saying that ” a greedy thief kills people out of desperation.” President Hu Jintao talks about building a “Great Wall of Stability” in Tibet. This just means ruthless crackdown on Tibetan people and the continuation of the current de facto martial law that has been imposed in Tibet since last spring.
These days China, with its huge military and economic power, is afraid of neither Japan nor Russia, nor even America. So why is China very afraid of one simple Buddhist monk? The Dalai Lama, in spite of living in exile thousands of miles away from his homeland and his countrymen for the last fifty years, enjoys such an unprecedented amount of influence on his followers that Tibetans are willing to risk their lives just to see His Holiness once. Chinese leaders may call him “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, but for Tibetans, and for an increasing number of Chinese Buddhists, he is the embodiment of wisdom and compassion.
The more the Chinese government suppresses Tibetan freedom, the stronger the Tibetan resentment against the government grows. The more the Chinese government condemns and denigrates the Dalai Lama, the deeper Tibetan loyalty towards him is carved in their hearts. Just imagine the hardship and the risk that the Tibetans take by crossing the mighty Himalayas on foot, in the dead of winter, just to have a glimpse of their beloved leader. Tibetans are willing to go through arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, interrogation and torture just to keep a picture of the Dalai Lama as their object of faith and devotion.
In this regard, Prof. Samdong Rinpoche, the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, remarked in his recent March 10th statement, “Whatever numerous methods, such as oppression, torture, deception, propaganda and brainwashing the Chinese government adopted, these, however, failed to change, even slightly, the mentality and inner strength of the Tibetan people. This is evident by the fact that people’s faith in religion, pride in Tibetan nationality, and especially their faith in His Holiness the Dalai Lama have remained unshakable for three generations.”
Mao has said, “A lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth.” But no matter how many times Mao repeated this, he was wrong. So if China genuinely wants to resolve the issue of Tibet, once and for all, then it stands to reason that she needs to talk to the Dalai Lama in a sincere manner rather than talking at him all the time. On the contrary, if China continues being intransigent and stubborn then the Tibetan civil disobedience movement, spearheaded by young Tibetans inside Tibet, will continue until the Tibetan issue is resolved to the satisfaction of all Tibetans.
The writer is a former teacher at a Tibetan school in India, and currently based in the US.
[OPINION-DISCLAIMER]
