By Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, August 16: Toronto-based Tibetan activist Sangyal Kyap concluded his third bicycle rally for Free Tibet across Canada on Wednesday.Kyap completed his rally, beginning in Victoria, British Columbia, and ending in Toronto, Ontario, to raise awareness and inform Canadians about the Sino-Tibet conflict.
He covered a distance of 4,182.8 kilometres and took 54 days. The rally started on June 21 and concluded on August 14 when Kyap arrived at the Chinese Consulate in Toronto. Upon his arrival, he was greeted by Tibetans and supporters who had gathered to join him in the cause. The rally traversed remote Canadian provinces and made efforts to reach isolated areas. Throughout the journey, Kyap distributed brochures detailing the critical situation in Tibet and engaged in discussions about the urgent need for a resolution to the Tibet-China conflict.
Kyap outlined six demands to the Canadian government and the international community during this year’s rally. The first demand is the immediate return of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to Tibet without conditions. The second demand calls for the renewal of Sino-Tibet dialogue to resolve the conflict in good faith.
The third demand involves the immediate release of the Panchen Lama, who was abducted by the Chinese government on May 17, 1995, at age six. Kyap also called for the release of Go Sherab Gyatso and all other Tibetan political prisoners. Additional demands include shutting down Chinese colonial boarding schools in Tibet to free one million Tibetan children, halting illegal Chinese hydropower dam constructions in Dege, Kham, and other parts of Tibet, and ensuring human rights and religious freedom in Tibet due to ongoing abuses by the Chinese government.
Sangyal Kyap began his activism for the Tibetan cause in 2018 with a solo protest outside the Chinese embassy in Canada. He has since completed five peace marches spanning hundreds of kilometers to protest Chinese rule and policies in Tibet.
Sangyal Kyap’s first bike rally for Free Tibet began in Vancouver, B.C., on August 16, 2022, and concluded in Ontario on October 12, covering 5,000 kilometres. His second bike rally, dedicated to H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama and Free Tibet, took place across Canada from Ottawa to Nova Scotia and then to Vancouver in May 2023.
One Response
Sangye Kyab is an extraordinary young man who has dedicated his life for the freedom of Tibet. He was born in the Amdo Ngawa region and left his hometown and escaped into India. His family has been the victim of terrible oppression by the CCP. One of them was imprisoned for a long time and suffered unimaginable torture at the hands of the Chinese Gestapo. This experience in his childhood steeled his determination to fight for the freedom of Tibet. He knew he couldn’t do it in occupied Tibet because he would face the same fate of his family members if he did and land in a Chinese gulag! The Amdo region has suffered immensely under the Chinese communist barbarism because throughout the Amdo region, Tibetans rebelled against the Chinese communist invasion. All resistance to communist Chinese invasion in Tibetan area was branded as counter-revolutionary insurgency. Thus, the CCP policy was to shoot indiscriminately and neutralise them. They equated monasteries as feudalism and recognised “THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION WAS THE MAIN IDEOLOGICAL OBSTACLE TO THE PARTY’S TAKING ROOT IN THE ETHNIC MINORITY”. This is the main reason, the Chinese communists went on a rampage to destroy every monastery and pull down every statue, every stupa and Mani Lhakhang in occupied Tibet. According to an expert 70% of the nomadic people in the Golok-Amdo region were murdered. In 1958, 731 of the 859 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in Amdo region were laid to waste and out of original 54,281 monks 24,613 were disbanded by imprisoning them en masse. The CCP carried out mass murder all over the Amdo region and forced Tibetans to behave like Chinese by keeping pigtail like the Chinese and even forcing nomads to put tents in line like Chinese streets! All the monks were disbanded, monasteries ransacked and pillaged and only the old and infirm monks were spared of murder. That is why Sangye Kyab has a very strong sense of nationalism owing to the insanity of the Chinese communist party and its ruthless suppression of the Tibetan people and their culture, religion and identity. It fires him to dedicate his life for the restoration of Tibetan freedom. The CCP has hired thugs to inflict personnel harm upon him! It has also tried to lure him to visit his home in Amdo by offering to help him with visa! They tried to prevent him from carrying on with his campaign by pressuring his parents in occupied Tibet.Yet, he has showed no interest in any of the deceptive CCP offers and pressures and continue to campaign for a free Tibet. He is a shining example of young dedicated Tibetans who are the torch bearers of the Tibetan freedom movement as the older generation is slowly but steadily disappearing from our midst as the years roll by. I beseech all Tibetans from the three cholkhas to not create road blocks for his campaign even if you don’t support him. If you are unwilling to support him, that’s your choice but don’t create hurdles to discourage such patriotic young man from fulfilling his dream of a free Tibet. He has seen and experienced first hand the evils of the Chinese communist rule in occupied Tibet and left his parents and loved ones to work for a free Tibet. Let him fulfil his cherished dream which is ultimately the happiness of the six million Tibetans inside occupied Tibet. If you cannot contribute for the freedom of Tibet, don’t discourage those who are willing to dedicate their youth, time, energy and dedication for the cause of Tibet and its bereaved people!