By Tenzin Lekdhen
DHARAMSHALA, Mar. 10: The echoes of the shouts from 63 years ago, in Lhasa, against China’s invasion of Tibet reverberates in the streets to this day. Tibetans around the world today commemorated the 63rd National Uprising Day, filling the streets with anti-China slogans and demands of human rights in Tibet.
The Tibetan Government in Exile (CTA) held an official function commemorating the 63rd National Uprising Day at Tsukla-Khang. Sikyong (President) Penpa Tsering addressed the crowd of our distinct history and culture, saying, “we can’t accept ourselves as a single Chinese national. The Tibetan people have a distinct race that descended from their six original ancestral tribes and a culture deeply influenced by Bon and Buddhism.”
The Kashag and the Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE), in their respective press statements, mourned the deaths of Tibet’s numerous martyrs and expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people in their ongoing effort to resist Russia’s invasion.
The function was followed by a peace march organised by the five Dharamshala based NGOs from the Dalai Lama temple to Kacheri junction. The NGOs in preparation for the National Uprising Day and Women’s Uprising Day painted around fifty store shutters with “Free Tibet” slogans and murals over the last few days. The spray-painted slogans and murals function as a reminder to the Tibetans of a collective struggle and to spread awareness to the flocks of tourists that visit the famed hill station.
In New Delhi, around 70 Tibetan Youth protestors stormed the Chinese Embassy to mark the 63rd anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day. All the protestors were detained at Mandir Marg police station.
In London, hundreds of Tibetans and Tibet supporters marched towards the Chinese Embassy to protest against China’s occupation of Tibet. In New York, the March 10th protest began outside the UN. Students for a Free Tibet, the night before, projected images of Tsewang Norbu, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, Rinchen Kyi, and Go Sherab Gyatso outside the Chinese Consulate in NYC. The New York-based NGO wrote, “remember their names and share their stories. These are images of four Tibetans the Chinese government wants you to forget about.”
Although all Tibetan communities in India participated in a peace march or protests, one of the largest Tibetan settlements, the one nearest to Tibet has reportedly been eerily quiet except for a bureaucratic event of statement reading. Ladakh, according to several dozen social media posts, abstained from observing any peace march or rally.
An Instagram user wrote, “it’s a collective failure to reduce the commemoration of 63rd anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day to a formal function in Sonamling settlement.” Another frustrated user posted, “the number of self-immolators inside Tibet seems to increase year by year, yet the response towards the 63rd Tibetan Uprising Day by the administration of Tibetan refugee settlement Ladakh has left us dismayed.”
The settlement officers have reportedly said that the permission required for a protest was denied by the local police authorities. But Phayul has learned that the upcoming March 12th Women’s Uprising Day protest was given the necessary permit, and was told that no officials approach the police authorise to request a permit for the March 10th protest, according to a source who wishes to remain anonymous. The excuse, if true, still remains shady given that the settlement observed a peace rally last year despite the scare of the pandemic.
On this day, in 1959, when rumours about China’s plan to arrest the Dalai Lama spread, thousands of Tibetans flocked the grounds of the Potala Palace to protest against China. Thousands of Tibetans were killed and injured by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in their attempt to suppress the protest. Two days later, on March 12, Tibetan women would take the streets of Lhasa to protest against China, in the aftermath of thousands of arrests on March 10. The violent crackdown by Chinese army resulted in the death of over 85,000 Tibetans according to records of the exile Tibetan government known officially as the Central Tibetan Administration.
4 Responses
It is not the present Sikyong who gave up freedom struggle. Freedom struggle is still going on for Tibet but demand for the completed independence from the control of People’s Republic of China was gave up since 1989. Independence is an establishment of sovereign state which is completely different from demanding freedom. The Exile government has a policy that is a resolution passed by the exile parliament in 1996 to negotiate with CCP government to obtain Autonomy under the People’s Republic of China. The past or present Sikyong has to follow the resolution with no option. Therefore, we or our government did not gave up demand for freedom of preserving our culture, creed, language and administration of regions freely or solely by Tibetans. I am one of the earliest admirers of the Middle Path Approach and did not worry to gave up the status of sovereign state if the People’s Republic of China is sincere enough to agree with His Holiness’s judicious proposal to resolve the key issue of Tibet. While seeing the CCP leader Xi Jingpin’s reaction to Hong Kong’s demand for genuine democracy, I have learnt that we get nothing from China by giving up our sovereign status. Thus, our parliamentarians should rethink about the past resolution and try to understand that the time has come to reverse our exile government policy. No more Middle Path, just demand for complete independence against China now. Do we succeed or not, one can not tell the future. But the Poet, William Wordsworth said, “Work is thy duty. Result thou no concern”. So we have to act without worrying what will happen.
omg the Chinese leadership should fall and die I hate those drunk xi Jinping and all of the Chinese leaders they should be deposed and Tibet shall be FREE and we all should raise up and massacre all of the Chinese leaders HAHAHA CHINA GET THE HELL OU OF TIBET MAN
Free Tibet, China out of Tibet, Tibet belongs to Tibetan, Tibetans be united for Tibetans in Tibet, Bod Gyalo
Ms Sarah, I thank you very much for your interest on Tibet. Unfortunately, your knowledge on Tibetan struggle is not enough or upto date. Our Tibetan exile government and our Tibetans, who elected our exile president, does not want Tibet be free from China. We want to stay under China as their brother and sister. We gave up our freedom struggle!