Students call for a free Tibet
submitted by Katherine Jordan, studentI’m in a little town tucked away in the foothills of the Himalayas. In the daytime it’s streets are filled with people from all over the world but mostly Tibetans and white hippie-like young people who want a taste of the spiritual vibrations that ripple out from the surrounding mountains and the temple which stands south of the center of town.
I came here with students from Earlham on the South Asia study abroad program 2007. The name of this town is Dharamsala. It is located in the North of India in the state of Himachal Pradesh. Today, Dharamsala is the home of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Here, the religious and political leader of the Tibetan people has made his permanent residence until someday he can return to his homeland. His name is Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. You will likely see his photo on book covers in Barnes and Noble such as My Land and My People, Memoirs of the Dalai Lama, Ancient Wisdom, Modern World and The Art of Happiness. Before coming to India, I mostly thought of the Dalai Lama as an old man who wrote insightful but sometimes cheesy books on how to be happy and more loving. Indeed he is good at that. But there is a lot more to the story of him and his people.
The 14th Dalai Lama journeyed from his home country of Tibet, which is now politically part of China, to northern India when he was 24 years old. The same age as an Earlham student, he made this journey escaping his country under the shadow of darkness in order to find refuge from Chinese political and religious oppression.
China is an amazing country with a beautiful culture. However it is unjust for the Chinese government to claim Tibet and oppress its people. Before the Chinese invasion, Tibet was a free and independent nation. The Tibetan people had their own language, their own government, their own currency, their own postal system, and their own legal system. The people of Tibet are suffering. In Tibet today there is absolutely no freedom for Tibetans to practice their religion, to have control over their nation, to speak freely, or to own a Tibetan flag. Tibetans are now treated as second-class citizens in their own cities. Many Tibetans are now homeless and many are in prison. In Dharamsala, hundreds of Tibetans have found refuge where they can practice their religion, keep alive their culture, and speak openly. One way they do this is through The Tibetan Children’s Village. Here they teach children who have come to India from Tibet how to keep alive their culture and traditions and to speak their own language.
As I sat in a bar in Dharamsala, drinking cheap Indian bear, I thought about a Tibetan woman who spoke to our class several days before. All her family had been killed by the Chinese government in Tibet. She herself had been imprisoned for several years and tortured. She tried to tell us about what she had been through but the words were so difficult she couldn’t speak them. Tibetans imprisoned by in China are often subjected to extreme torture including rape. When asked how she was able to maintain her strength and spirit of hope she responded that the only way she could do it was to feel compassion for those who had harmed her and to pray for them.
As I was thinking about this, a young man came in to buy a few beers to celebrate the end of a long day with his cousin. I recognized him as the owner of a restaurant I had eaten in earlier. We started talking and he invited me to come hang out with him and his cousin. We went into his restaurant after it had closed. He told me how he was nearly killed for making “Free Tibet” flyers in his occupied country but that he was lucky enough to have found refuge in India. When I had to leave he put a white scarf around my neck as a symbol of wishing me well.
Tibet is in dire need of support from us. Now is the time to get involved. The Earlham chapter meets at 8pm on Thursdays in the third-floor lobby of LBC. You can also contact jordaka@earlham.edu or go to studentsforafreetibet.org for more information on the international organization.
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