TIBETSPACE

ROBERT THURMAN, ONCE AGAIN, ON TIBET, CHINA, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The indefatigable Robert Thurman on Tibet, China, and the simple question, 'Why the Dalai Lama matters.'  And atheism, and the political right, and anything else that crosses his mind and fall within the wide arena of Tibet and His Holiness.

WELCOME TO TIBETSPACE

Welcome to TIBETSPACE, a blog in the process of changing. Begun as a site for all things Tibetan, all things Tibetan has dramatically expanded as His Holiness has created conversations that continually transcend traditional cultural boundaries.  So I will try to chart some of those conversations here, always keeping His Holiness's views in mind, but also trying to show how long those views are.

ANOTHER MONK DEAD BY HIS OWN HAND

Another monk, this time of Amdo Golok Ragya monastery in Gyulgho township, Machen county, Qinghai, committed suicide by drowning himself in the Machu River.  His name is Tashi Sangpo, and he's pictured to the left.

Say a prayer for him.

It's early morning, Saturday, and raining here as I read of this latest suicide in Tibet.  The world, or my world, at least, seems affected by this latest death.  I have previously posted about this unfolding tragedy, and I don't have much more to add.  But the number of Tibetans who find life impossible under Chinese rule seems to be increasing; I don't have any definite figures.  Maybe someone does and will share them with me.

In the final three years of his life, Martin Luther King, Jr. began to expand his civil rights movement into a human rights initiative that focused on the three evils of racism, militarism, and poverty.  He began to see the deeper links that unite all human suffering.  And began to envsion ways to excavate those links and bring them into public view. 

He began, in fact, the renovation of consciousness within a political arena.  It was a destabilizing initiative, one that sent shock waves through his own community of supporters, and might well have ultimately led to his assassination.  After all, if it's difficult to break a bad habit like smoking, imagine how difficult it will be to stop thinking of anyone anywhere as somehow, someway different from yourself. 

Imagine then trying to break a habit of perception . . . that's what King would ask us to do now, but he wouldn't attempt this in retreat and seclusion.

He'd do it in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

WOESER, SUICIDE & TIBET

As Spring arrives here in the United States, and as the Tibetan New Year passes with great incident and suffering, Woeser, the astute and talented Tibetan commentator in China, has posted a piece in The Epoch Times on the recent flurry of suicides in Tibet. 

Suicide, of course, is a distinctly human form of tragedy.  While all of the major world religions take a stance on it--Buddhism sees suicide largely as yet another destructive act that arises from delusion--for each of us, particularly for those of us who have lost loved ones to such an act of self-destruction, suicide often seems an authentic gesture of sorts, a final message that living, however miserably, could never deliver. 

And so on February 27, 2009, after the Chinese canceled the Great Annual Prayer Festival in Sichuan, a 24-year-old monk from Kirti Monastery lit himself on fire and ran through the streets carrying a photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  The Chinese police shot him repeatedly.  He was removed to a hospital, and as of several weeks ago, nothing was known about his health, or whether he lived or died.  (Read a brief report at The Huffington Post.)

His name was Tabey, and this was the message he delivered to the Tibetan people, the Chinese, and the world community:  life in Chinese-occupied Tibet had become impossible for him in this incarnation.

Was this a reasonable action?  Most of us, deluded as we are, are currently incapable of answering this question.  It is said that Quang Duc, the Vietnamese monk who was famously photographed by Malcolm Browne in 1963 in Saigon, was actually the second choice for the immolation.  The story is told that a much younger monk had set himself the task, and when Quang Duc learned of this, he said, "No, no, you're too young for this, you have much life left; let me do it."  And so, doused with gasoline, he sat down, and he delivered his message.

Perhaps true renunciation leads certain individuals to see the full consequences of suicide, to understand that a temporary, but fully conscious evacuation of this particular mind-body complex can lead to greater awareness among those of us who are left behind to witness it.  And perhaps greater awareness can ultimately lead to an alleviation of suffering . . .

Maybe.  I don't know; I'm certainly not qualified to make such judgments.  But I do know that our witness to these suicides is vitally important; and that our witnesses will range along a broad spectrum; and that this spectrum extends from the Tibetans who recently declared a hunger-strike to death in front of the Chinese embassy in Brussels to the casual reader who remarks the untimely and tragic death of a fellow humang being.

All of these responses matter, and all of them ultimately register at the subtlest level of our consciousness.

So it is vitally important that we witness these suicides in Tibet; that we grapple with them as each of us are able; that we do not forget the starkness and bleakness that arise when we contemplate them; that we transform this starkness and bleakness into an authentic and durable compassion for the suffering they reflect; and that we use this starkness and bleakness to develop the knowledge that reveals to us the causes from which this suffering springs.

Maybe that's obvious.  But in the face of suicide and hunger-strike--in the face of high-octane human suffering--it's worth repeating.

NOW THAT THE OLYMPICS ARE OVER (PART 1 OF 3): A NATIONAL ASSESSMENT

The Olympics are over, Beijing is resting easy, and Chinese journalists are flooding the Internet with articles proclaiming the great success of the Games. For those of us who followed the Tibetan protests that preceded the games, and were aware of the crack-downs both in Beijing and Tibet that left many imprisoned, tortured, and dead during the Games, the Beijing Olympics amounted to an advertising campaign for China. 

Nothing new or particularly devious about that; every host nation sees the Games as an advertising opportunity, and China was no exception.  I didn’t watch these Games, in honor of my Tibetan friends—some of whom did watch them, another paradox for another day—but the people that I trust tell me that the 2008 edition was expertly choreographed, that the poison air around Beijing miraculously cleared, that the athletes soared, dove, flew, and fell the way they do every four years:  with glory, with heartbreak, with pride, with suspicion. 

Many of us who were involved with the Tibetan cause had hoped that the human rights issues swirling around these Games might have claimed more attention than they did.  The protests in New Delhi, Dharamsala, and around the world were extensive, well organized, and undertaken with integrity and forethought.  I witnessed many of them first-hand this summer both in New Delhi and Dharamsala, and I came away from them with a fresh understanding of how perseverance and patience go hand-in-hand in any successful political action. 

The Tibetan people aren’t going anywhere, and they are very patient. 

The fifteen students that accompanied my Tibetan companion and me this summer to India returned to American very different people as well; they have spoken face-to-face with hunger-strikers and political prisoners who escaped from Chinese prisons; they have interviewed Tibetan nomads; they have asked questions of the seventeenth Karmapa.  This matters because they have heard Tibetans telling their own stories; and now these students are busily telling other students about their experiences in India among the Tibetans, about the Tibetans they have met, and other students are busily listening. 

So there were protests, and they did have an effect.

In the American press, these protests were sporadically covered, but the reliable Internet sources were tireless and consistent in their coverage, and without them, without the bloggers and correspondents, we’d have a substantially less detailed picture of what happened in the summer of 2008.   We will count on these same people in the future as well . . . simply making the information available in clear and digestible formats is a mundane but essential aspect of raising awareness about these issues. 

Entering the information, slapping it up on a blog site . . . it’s become a frontier, of sorts for political resistance.

But Americans who are interested in the Tibetan struggle have to be clear about our own country’s relationship to China.  The Economic Policy Institute reported that in 2007, our trade deficit with China rose $23.7 billion dollars (10.2%) to total over $250 billion dollars, while the cost of petroleum imports rose $27.9 billion (9.6%).  We are a country hamstrung by debt, and this compromises our ability to make demands on the international stage, particularly demands that lie outside the arena of goods and services—I am thinking, of course, of human rights.

China’s foreign reserves are now the largest in the world, with Japan in second place.  By 1996, China had amassed its first $100 billion in such assets, and by 2001 it had doubled, and now it has increased to well over a trillion dollars.  Because of China’s substantial holdings in the American economy, provoking Beijing over something like human rights is a dicey business.  Writing in The Atlantic, James Fallows makes the case that

whatever the provocation, China would consider its levers and weapons and find one stronger than all the rest—one no other country in the world can wield. Without China’s billion dollars a day, the United States could not keep its economy stable or spare the dollar from collapse.

Would the Chinese use that weapon? The reasonable answer is no, because they would wound themselves grievously, too. Their years of national savings are held in the same dollars that would be ruined; in a panic, they’d get only a small share out before the value fell. Besides, their factories depend on customers with dollars to spend.

The point is that the United States has now entered into a relationship with China that while, in some senses, is co-dependent, is a co-dependency whose capital must be spent wisely and conservatively.  We simply will not and cannot challenge China aggressively over such issues as human rights.  We have to manipulate, urge, pressure.  Sophie Richardson, the Asia Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch, recently stated that

not a single world leader who attended the Games or members of the IOC seized the opportunity to challenge the Chinese government’s behavior in any meaningful way.  Will anyone wonder, after the Games are over, why the Chinese government remains intransigent about human rights?

And so what then are we to do, we who are concerned about human rights, and who still feel deeply frustrated at our country’s continuing hypocrisy and intransigence—to use Richardson’s word—over the issue of human rights in Tibet?

Luckily, we have an extraordinary number of talented men and women who have thought long and hard about that question, and I will address some of their solutions in my next posting.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FASTING & NON-VIOLENCE DRAWS NEAR

His Holiness has agreed to join an international non-violent action on Saturday, August 30 sponsored by the Tibetan Solidarity Committee.  (See full story here.)  The movement begins at 7:00 a.m., and will come to a close 12 hours later.  Participants may choose to fast in whatever way is most amendable to them--they may avoid all food and liquid for the 12-hour period, or varying degrees thereof, but all are encouraged to spend the day reflecting upon those who are currently suffering under oppressive regimes.  Fasts of this sort, particularly in America, allow us to develop, however minutely, a sympathetic awareness of deprivation.  And if this seed develops into a stronger commitment to alleviate human suffering within our own orbit, then so much the better for all of us.

"We consider this as extremely important non-violent action taken by Tibetans under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in a very critical period for Tibet, particularly the post-Olympic period," Kalon Tripa Prof Samdhong Rinpoche said.

GENOCIDAL OLYMPICS SEEN AS HUGE SUCCESS

You can read about it if you want to, and you probably should.  There will be summaries of the Olympics, appraisals, assessments.  The Globe and Mail in Canada have already added their own rather sobering contribution, and you can have a look at it here.  For those of us who have devoted a portion of our lives to supporting Tibet and the Tibetans, we will have to take an inventory of our own ideas about the future of Tibet and the path that China has laid out for itself.  China is a powerful country, and one that will have its say and its influence on the world stage.

Oppressive regimes such as China's--and North Korea's and Burma's--rely on a host of strategies to keep their country's population under control.  Central among them is the institution of fear:  fear of reprisal, fear of punishment, fear of deprivation, fear of death.  And the goal of fear, of course, is silence.  There is, just now, a blanket of silence over the global community regarding China, one of the world's consistent medalists when it comes  to human rights violations.  And while the Great Firewall of China has shut down access to iTunes, and while the Chinese have done all in their power to use the latest technology to prohibit the free use of technology among their citizens, their mastery of the televisual culture is being credited for attracting the peak audience of 1.2 billion that tuned in for the spectacle.

We might well allow all of this to divert us from our task.  Eddie Vedder, the lead singer for Pearl Jam, mentioned in an interview last year that the contemporary atmosphere was so filled with static and meaningless noise and chatter that it was sometimes hard to file it all down into a focused, coherent song.  That it was sometimes hard to find the space to connect with the authenticity of the human experience.  The mainstream media is partly to blame for this--great globs of oppressive eye-candy, television shows devoted to the celebration of radically insignificant human behavior, cable news shows pressing an ideology while disavowing a bias, telegenic news casters whose private lives ultimately become the subject of the news coverage . . . the celebration of the self, the rabid quest for celebrity status, the acquisition of power in that quest, those famous for being famous . . . all of this signals a drift away from the core of introspective knowledge that gave rise to the people and books and music that I have loved for decades and that changed the way I thought about my relationship to the world at large. 

It is difficult in the current environment to look within ourselves, and the television spectacle that was the Beijing Olympics took full advantage of this.  As 1.2 billion stared at the television, Tibetans were killed, imprisoned, and interrogated.  His Holiness was denied an audience with President Sarkozy of France because the Chinese forbid him from meeting with him.  Six more Tibetan hunger-strikers were taken off their cots and into the hospital, against their will.  Two Chinese women in their seventies in Beijing were sentenced to a year of "re-education through labor" for legally requesting the right to protest.  A documentary film made by two brave Tibetans, Leaving Fear Behind, was smuggled out of China, shown in Dharamsala, and the two filmmakers were arrested and haven't been heard from since.  (BTW--the distributors have sent me a copy of the film, and we will be doing a benefit showing here in Northwest Arkansas soon.)

What then are we to do? Living in America, we are insulated from the kind of human suffering that finds 40,000 children starving to death each day in developing nations.  We don't have starving families living under our porches, a common scene in Indian cities; we have fresh water; we have electricity; our political system is participatory and stable.

We often think of change in political terms:  send food and water, build hydro-electric plants, install democracies.  But while that kind of change is necessary and vital, that kind of change is effected by a precious few:  engineers, social leaders, humanitarian workers.  Most of us are taking out the garbage, raising children, paying bills. 

What can we do?  More than might be immediately apparent.  We hear the phrase "raising awareness" continually, and we tend to think, "O, I see; I know about the human rights abuses in China and Tibet, so my awareness is thereby raised."  That's a start, but it's not enough.  Ken Jones, in The New Social Face of Buddhism tells an important story:

Self-awareness of emotional states is critical in every aspect of social engagement.  How this awareness can help others as well as oneself is illustrated in the Samyutta Nikaya by a story about two traveling acrobats who perform hazardous feats on the end of a long bamboo pole.  One said that their act would be accomplished safely if each watched and attended to the other.  But the other and wiser one maintained that if each concentrated on doing his own part of the act safely and well he would thereby protect his friend as well as himself (105).

So we look to our own part of the act first . . . we examine our motivations for action, which we can only do in self-imposed solitude; we analyze our real place in our real community of friends and co-workers, which we can only do in self-imposed solitude; and we realize that the front-lines of non-violence and compassion are wherever we happen to be standing, which we realize in solitude and enact in the family and the community.  Sulak Sivaraksa has written extensively about the mechanics of effecting these kinds of changes, and I'd recommend starting with his extraordinary little book, Seeds of Peace.  In his essay, "Religion and Social Change" he writes:

We have more than enough programs, organizations, parties, and strategies in the world for the alleviation of suffering and injustice.  In fact, we place too much faith in the power of action, especially political action.  Social activism tends to preoccupy itself with the external . . . Activists tend to see all malevolence as being caused by 'them'--the 'system'--without understanding how these negative factors also operate within ourselves . . . The opposite view--that radical transformation of society requires personal and spiritual change first or at least simultaneously--has been accepted by Buddhists and many other religious adherents for 2500 years.  Those who want to change society must understand the inner dimensions of change (61).

The inner dimensions of change . . . most of us don't want to see monks tortured and murdered; most don't want to see seventy-year old Chinese women sentenced to a year of forced labor, to see 40,000 children starve each day . . . and no one, it appears, can stop it. 

But everyone can turn toward that "inner dimension" to cultivate and grow those changes that would stop starvation, murder, torture, and unlawful imprisonment, if they were widely adopted.  It isn't easy; in fact, it's easier to undertake social action because you're spared the realization that the violence you're confronting outside yourself is simply the fruit of the violence that you carry around within you.  That's a difficult realization, but it's the one that leads to social change.  And this is the project for a lifetime. 

The fact is that meaningful, long-lasting social change cannot be divorced from this renovation of the inner dimension.  And this renovation--unlike working for an NGO in in Africa or Tibet--is our common occupation, our common inheritance. 

LHAMO POSTS: TIBETAN WOMEN AT THE FOREFRONT . . . AGAIN

Another posting arrived from Lhamo, our tireless correspondent in Dharamsala.  Again, we are indebted to her for taking time out of her busy day to keep us informed of what's happening within the Tibetan community in India.  This piece is particularly enlightening regarding the ways in which Tibetan women have responded to the task of survival in their host country (see my recent posting on this subject).  It also announces a world wide, 12-hour fast on August 30 in support of the Tibetans.  More here later.


With the Olympics in full swing, and with the rising status of China, and with the odds overwhelmingly against them, Tibetan women in Dharamsala seeking every opportunity to garner support for their cause and for their imperiled culture today, August 16, celebrated the Rakhi Purnima festival.

Raksha Bandhan (the bond of protection) is a Hindu festival, which celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters. The sister ties a rakhi (a holy thread) on her brother's wrist expressing her love and seeking his protection, while the brother accepts the responsibility with a vow to protect his sister for the rest of her life.

In a somewhat unusual scene, Tibetan women, clad in green chupas (Tibetan national dress) could be seen in the streets of Dharamsala today, buying sweets and eyeing the Indian shops that displayed their colorful rakhis.

"We are tying rakhis on the wrists of our Indian brothers today" said Kelsang Youdon, the president of the regional Tibetan Women's Association here. "India has been a big brother to us since the time of the Buddha and the Mahatma. Today, the situation in Tibet is grave, and we need our big brother's support."

In a modest symbolic ceremony held at the courtyard of Tsuklagkhang (the main Tibetan temple) here, the members of RTWA tied the sacred thread of rakhi around the wrist of Indian brothers and in turn appealed them to help their sisters, who are living a life of utter hopelessness under the Chinese rule.  Members of the local taxi and auto unions also participated in the celebration.

Describing India as “peace-loving, non-violent and the biggest democratic country in the world, Kelsang urged India to support the Tibetan cause more openly.

Meanwhile in Delhi, after the second batch of six men were forced to the hospital on August 14, the Tibetan Youth Congress has today launched the third batch of hunger strikers without food and water.  The third group of fasting Tibetans include Dhondup Tsering, 63,  Tsering Tashi, 21,  Thupten Tsewang, 20, Jampa Kelsang, 33,  Nawang Samten, 26, and Tashi Gyamtso, 31.

The Tibetan Solidarity Committee—comprised of the Kashag and the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile--on the other hand has decided to hold a worldwide mass prayer and fast on 30th August.

Kalon Tripa, the chairman of the Tibetan Cabinet has also issued a personal request to all Tibetans and Tibet supporters to observe this 12-hour symbolic fast and prayer on 30th August 2008 for world peace and, particularly, for the departed souls of the Tibetan people in recent months in Tibet.

"We consider this as an extremely important non-violent action taken by Tibetans under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in a very critical period for Tibet, particularly the post-Olympic period," says Kalon Tripa.

"I personally request you and your organization to kindly participate in this fast and prayer and encourage many other people to join us in this effort to reduce our own defilements and to create wisdom and compassion in the minds of the oppressor."

The Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas will certainly support and participate in this action.

THIRD WAVE OF HUNGER STRIKERS GO BACK ON THE BLANKETS

The third group of Tibetans resumed their hunger strike today, as the second group was forcibly removed to an Indian hospital to receive food and water.  (See the full story here.)  The resumption of the strike was doubly significant as it came on the heels of Indian Independence Day, a day that provides us the opportunity to examine the extraordinary relationship that is developing between the Indian and the Tibetan people.  "August 15th is a moment of joy," a representative of the Tibetan Youth Congress said, "of happiness for Indians, a nation, a race that for the past 50 years has been providing us asylum, has given us a second life, a home away from home."

Central to that asylum, of course, are a number of individuals, but none are more important than Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India's republic.  Consider:  here is a man who spent the first part of his career working closely--and tolerantly--with Mahatma Gandhi and passed the latter part of his life--he died in 1964--assisting the Dalai Lama as he acclimated to his new home in India.  Since 1959, 120,000 Tibetans have settled in India, and as we watch the Indian police forcibly removing the Tibetan hunger strikers to the hospital, we are witnessing the engagement of two deeply spiritual cultures, and we aren't wrong to see the deeper symbols that are activated by that engagement.  On the one hand, the Indian people, motivated by their radical reverence for life, will not tolerate the willful loss of human life, while on the other hand, the Tibetan hunger-strikers have embodied the Gandhian philosophy of self-sacrifice in the name of truth, or satyagraha, as Gandhi named it.  Both actions, salvation and sacrifice, issue from long-standing spiritual traditions, and both spiritual traditions have deep roots in the Indian philosophy.

So we are left with the paradoxical descriptions of India that saturate the travelogues:  a country of mind-numbing poverty and chip-busting technology; of radical pacifism and nuclear deployment; of extreme tolerance and inexplicable religious violence . . . all of these qualities reside in abundance in India. 

And now the Indians have the Tibetans, or perhaps, more accurately, the Tibetans now have the Indians, a more important ally for them than the Tibetans are for the Indians.  At any rate, I spoke this summer to a nomad from eastern Tibet who had been in India for three years, and while he told me that he hadn't learned until he was 17 years old that that His Holiness had even left Tibet (he is in his mid-twenties now), he wanted to come to India because he felt that India must be the land of the gods.  After all, Buddha was born in India, and so India indeed must be a special place.  When I asked him how he felt when he learned that His Holiness was residing in India, he told me that he really didn't blame the Dalai Lama for wanting to come to such an extraordinary country.  Having spent several years in India, his idealism had waned a bit--Shangrila is always too good to be true--and he was making plans to return to Tibet because he missed his family, but India had clearly changed him.

So as India celebrates the 61st anniversary of its independence, those of us who have become involved with the Tibetan cause should take a moment to recognize the generosity of the Indian people and their government.  When the Tibetans most needed a home, India provided them with one, and set an example for all countries who are concerned about the long-term effects of genocide, human rights abuses, and population displacement. 

So happy birthday, India!  Many happy returns, and thank you for the generosity you have extended the Tibetan people.

LHAMO POSTS AGAIN; ALSO AN IMPORTANT NEW FILM: SEE CLIPS HERE

Lhamo reports an extraordinary story that escaped the news sources most Westerners read.  Again, we are grateful to her for giving us these insights into the Tibetan community and its commitment to freedom and human rights.

It was about 10.30 pm. A frantic call from a friend in Delhi: "they just took the six hunger strikers away. There were about 300 of them and we were just a handful, it's over now."

Little did both of us know what was going to come next.

TYC's indefinite fast had just entered its 7th day.  A visit from a doctor, 2 men deemed critical, a warning to the police, and a raid  was eminent.  As assumed, at about 9.30 pm last night, over 300 plain-clothed Indian police, suddenly raided the makeshift tent of TYC, at Jantar Mantar.  Six men were forcefully taken away despite all the pleas and the cries. Yes, it was six men but no, not the hunger strikers!  Before the police knew it, TYC had replaced the hunger strikers with 6 healthy volunteers.

The police were duped, the actual hunger strikers escaped right under their noses!

As the 6 volunteers, perceived to be the hunger strikers, underwent medical treatment at Manohar Lohia Hospital, the actual six resumed the fast this morning. In what in normal times we call a funny incident (I dare not, though, at this time use this word), one of the six strikers, who was mistaken to be an attendant, was taken to the hospital. While the volunteers were given glucose inside, the real striker was seen standing in the corridor before being whisked away by TYC.

And so, the six brave men continue the fast with no food, no water. Today is the eighth day but their will and determintation is still intact. Phuntsok Tenzin had lost 12 kgs in seven days. " I feel nauseus, and I feel dizzy, but I have no regrets. My country should be free again, that's all I ever wanted" he said.

“Indefinite Fast for Tibet – without food and water” is part of the Tibetan People’s Mass Movement which is aimed to draw international attention to China's human rights violations in Tibet through out Beijing Olympics.

Meanwhile, pro-Tibet protests continue in Dharamsala and elsewhere. At a vigil this evening, a new documentary made secretly in Tibet and smuggled out just days before the March uprisings was screened at Dharamsala. Leaving Fear Behind is a 25-minute documentary shot by a team of courageous Tibetan filmmakers that captures the sentiment within Tibet about China's rule, the relevance and symbolism of the Olympic Games, and the return of the Dalai Lama. Amateur filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen, 37 and his helper Golog Jigme, were detained shortly after finishing the film.

________________

The film that Lhamo speaks of, "Leaving Fear Behind," is an important documentary, filmed recently in Tibet.  I have been in touch with representatives of the film, and they have supplied me with downloads of the entire film.  We will arrange very soon for a benefit screening in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with all contributions being donated to the filmmakers who have been imprisoned by the Chinese.  In the meantime, please view one of the trailers: