Opinions

Leaving Lhasa for Beijing one month ago, I was relieved to no longer be living under martial law, with soldiers and police everywhere. But for Tibetans the pain follows wherever we go: The news that another Tibetan has set fire to herself arrives.

No lie is too big or small for the paid posters of Chinese propaganda, especially when it comes to attacking His Holiness the Dalai Lama and discrediting the peaceful nature of the Tibetan freedom movement.

Hollywood actor and musician, Johnny Depp, was bullied everyday in school by a big fat boy. "Punch him in the face once and he will not bother you any more!" said his mother one day.

The life of a people lies in its history, culture, literature, religion and the arts. These are taught in Tibetan schools in India. Unfortunately, not much progress has been made as far as Tibetan students’ interest in them is concerned.

If you have ever visited a Tibetan household, you will know that its most important room is the chausham or prayer room. Even a Tibetan nomad whose house comprises of nothing more than a tent and a few utensils, its best corner will always be reserved for the gods.

ON one side, we have ‘great leaders’ taking ‘vital’ decisions for our future at the G20 summit in Cannes on the French Riviera, while on the other ordinary people (known as the ‘common man’ in Indian political parlance) struggle with their miseries and their aspirations. In today’s world, there is no connection between the two.

Leaving Osaka, Japan’s third largest populated city early in the morning, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, beaming with smile shook hands and bid farewell to his hotel staff, making sure that the attendants outside the gates got his special attention.

Eleven Tibetans have set fire to themselves in eastern Tibet since March. Six have died. The Chinese government describes them as “terrorists in disguise.”

On February 27, 2009, the 24 year-old monk Tapey from Kirti Monastery in Amdo, Ngaba, died from self-immolation; it was perhaps the first time that someone from within the Tibetan region used self-immolation to express his will. I wrote in an article titled

Tibetan Buddhist monk Phuntsok was known among his friends as a shy novice until one afternoon he marched into the street, soaked in kerosene, and set himself ablaze. Police rushed towards him, beat him to the ground with iron rods and doused the flames. By then the 20-year-old had already been consumed by fire.