One day of the year is most important for all Tibetans; those inside Tibet as well as those in diaspora across the globe. March 10 is Tibetan Uprising Day, and we who live in the free world shall protest in front of Chinese consulates and other sites, to amplify our voices on behalf of all who are voiceless inside Tibet.
Ever since China’s military invasion of Tibet in 1949-1950, the religion, the cultural heritage and sovereignty of the Tibetan people have been severely compromised.
With the signing of the 17-Point Agreement with the Chinese signed under duress on May 23, 1951, Tibet surrendered its sovereignty to the Chinese for the first time in its long history. Tibetans hoped that Beijing would comply with the Chinese side of the agreement. But that did not happen.
The situation inside Tibet deteriorated progressively, year after year following the invasion. The human rights of Tibetans were not honored.
In 1956, violent protests began in the Kham region of Tibet. Many natives of that region, who are known as Khampas, left their homes and took refuge up in the hills with their weapons.
They attacked Chinese posts whenever the situation was tactically favorable. Gradually, our Khampa warriors left Kham, and banded together in the vicinity of Lhasa and the Lhokha (southern) region.
The situation in Tibet worsened by the day, and many skirmishes between the Tibetans and Chinese forces erupted throughout Tibet.
During this tumultuous period in Lhasa, the Chinese military general invited the Dalai Lama to the local army headquarters for a dance performance. They insisted that the customary entourage and security detail not accompany His Holiness.
Lhasans were stunned and suspicious. They smelled danger. They were convinced that as soon as the Dalai Lama entered the military headquarters, the Chinese would kidnap him and fly him to Beijing, just as had happened with many other Tibetan freedom fighters who disappeared after accepting similar invitations from the Chinese.
On March 10, 1959, tens of thousands of Tibetans in Lhasa gathered to protest in defiance against the Chinese military, demanding they go back to China and leave Tibet to the Tibetans.
The demonstrators surrounded the Norbulingkha palace, to protect the Dalai Lama. The angry crowd even stoned to death two Tibetans identified as spies, who were on the special Chinese payroll.
The author, Thepo Tulku, at the re-established Ganden Monastery University in South India in 1975 at roughly 19 years of age.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama escaping Tibet to take political refuge in India in March, 1959, courtesy tibetoffice.org
On the night of March 17, 1959, the Dalai Lama disguised himself as a Chinese soldier, slipped out of his summer palace, and headed south toward India. He was escorted by his loyal entourage, and by Khampa warriors.
At the time, I was five years old. I was living in the Ganden monastery in Tibet, as a reincarnated Tulku.
Word of the escape spread quickly. As people throughout Tibet learned of the Dalai Lama’s flight, many decided to make the perilous choice to try and follow him to India.
Some of our monastery elders fled, and they took me along with them to exile in India.
I was separated from my mother and father.
I never saw them again.
Thepo Tulku: “I am in the front row, second position from left to right. It was 1960, and I was about 6 years old, at the Tibetan Young Lamas Home School (which included all five different sects of Tibetan Buddhism), in New Delhi, India.”
I have worked for my people’s cause all my life. I do my best to serve as a conduit between our younger generation and older folks. I’m a follower of the Middle-Way Approach endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I believe that this approach makes the most sense in our ever-changing geopolitical environment.
On March 10, 2013, I will join Tibetans around the world in protest. On that day, I will attend protests in the Bay Area, then fly to Washington DC to lobby American lawmakers to support human rights in Tibet, on March 18 and 19. There will be many Gangchenpas (“People from the Land of Snow”) in DC for our lobbying efforts, from some 20 cities throughout North America.
I urge every Tibetan reading this message to make an effort to join us in Washington, DC, for our lobbying efforts. We need the participation of as many Tibetans as possible.
The Tibetan self-immolations, which are occurring mostly inside Tibet, are our people’s desperate call for justice and support from the international community. This began as a contemporary phenomenon in Tibet starting around 2009. In early 2013, the number of Tibetans who have burned themselves alive surpassed 100. In a brutally occupied land where there is no freedom of speech, immolation has emerged as a most desperate form of expression.
Each of those 100 fellow human beings demanded the restoration of fundamental human rights in Tibet, such as the freedom to practice one’s spiritual beliefs in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha. They all call out as one voice for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet.
The author, at a pro-Tibet protest in the United States.
All of my fellow Tibetan families and children are suffering so much inside occupied Tibet. It is important for all conscientious netizens of the global community to amplify our collective voices on behalf of the voiceless in Tibet.
We are united in our desire to raise the awareness of the international community. We want the world to hear and see the atrocities being committed against Tibetans solely for the crime of speaking their minds; the crime of human expression. We want to continue our spiritual practices in line with the teachings of our great gurus, not under the dictates of a state entity that does not believe in the right of religious freedom, or freedom of thought.
I urge world leaders to give us a hand. We want China to abide by globally-recognized principles of basic human rights and freedoms for the people in Tibet, as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
China, give us genuine autonomy and there will be harmony.
FREE TIBET.
PEACE ON EARTH.
The author, with a young fellow Tibetan