TIBETSPACE

READ THE LAST WORDS OF JAMPEL YESHI. AND WEEP. THEN ACT

The letter that Jampel Yeshi wrote before he self-immolated has been translated and is now available at Burning Tibet. Read it as a Tibetan Declaration of Independence; read it as a Tibetan Human Rights document; read it as the last will and testament of a Tibetan patriot; read it as a blueprint of the Tibetan soul.  

But read it and remember these words, "Freedom is the basis of happiness for all living beings."

I believe this statement to be universally true, and I believe that the denial of this freedom amounts to nothing more than systemic violence.  And I believe, with Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., that systemic violence can only be dismantled through nonviolent direct action.

In June, 2011, my students and I spent time in Majnu Katilla (and in 2008 and 2009 as well), interviewing Tibetans for The TEXT Program, talking to anyone who would talk with us, and absorbing as much information as we could about the current plight of the Tibetans who are living in exile and about those 6 million Tibetans who are living heroically in Tibet.  Perhaps we passed Jampel Yeshi in the alleyways.  Certainly, Majnu Katilla will never be the same.  And our students left utterly changed.

Tibetans from Majnu Katilla and other areas in Delhi have now been rounded up and placed in jail in anticipation of President Hu's arrival, and they are thankful for what King called "the sacrament of incarceration." Majnu KaTilla's narrow walkways are patrolled now by Indian police.  (Read a wonderful NYT report here.)

Tenzin Tsundue, who was also arrested on Wednesday, refers to India as his "guru."

"My enemy, my teacher," His Holiness is fond of saying.

Long life to you Tsundue la.

And to Jampel Yeshi, who has now transformed Majnu Katilla into a place of pilgrimage, I have little to say.  I can only acknowledge the vast distance that lies between my attempt at homage and your own perfectly realized words.

SENATE RESOLUTION 356: SUPPORT TIBET

Senator Diane Feinstein and other senators have introduced Senate Resolution 356 which urges China to cease and desist from its persecution of the Tibetan people and reaffirms the "friendship" between American and the Tibetan people.  I would urge you to write your Senators and ask them to support this resolution.

In a letter that Jamphel Yeshi wrote before he self-immolated recently in New Delhi, he asked that if "you have any empathy, stand up for Tibet."

Here is one way of standing up.  On the right navigation bar of this page, under "Action Corner," you can easily locate your Senators and send them an email.  You may, of course write whatever you wish, but in the interest of time, you may also want to cut and past the following message:

Dear Senator . . . 

I am writing to ask that you lend your support to Senate Resolution 356 which requests, among other things, that the Chinese government suspend its brutal oppression of the fundamental religious and civic liberties in Tibet.  It also asserts that America is a friend to the Tibetan people and does not condone the abuse of human rights that China has visited upon these people.

The Tibetan people are making the supreme sacrifice for the restoration of their liberties, and I feel that is only right that we offer our support in their heroic struggle.

Sincerely, 

Thanks for your help in this important matter.  Feel free to re-blog this or forward the information.

JAMPHEL YESHI, 27, DIES AS PRESIDENT HU ARRIVES IN DELHI: THREE REACTIONS

With the recent self-immolation and death in Delhi of Jamphel Yeshi, and with the incarceration of Tenzin Tsundue yesterday, and with the arrival of Chinese President Hu in Delhi, Tibetan affairs have become tense.  And that's an understatement.  Human rights, independence, autonomy, Obama, China, Tibet . . . all of these issues are cresting at high tide just now.  Those of us who support the Tibetans have had varying reactions to these events, and I thought I'd offer three observations, three notes-to-self that I recall on a daily basis.

1. Be quiet. Listen. Watch. I don't think I have any business debating the effectiveness, purpose, or intentions of the self-immolations.  It's a difficult business, setting yourself on fire, and to install myself as judge of that difficult business lacks humility, at least.  The Tibetans are struggling mightily to determine their own futures, and they are talking to each other, a task that is made more difficult by the fact that most of them live in occupied Tibet, while those who are directing the international public relations campaign live in India and elsewhere.  And as they are talking to each other, they are conceptualizing that future.  They are perfectly capable of setting their own goals, and pursuing them however they wish.  
2. Stop intellectualizing. I am not going to spend another second wondering whether self-immolation is something a Buddhist ought to do.  (I never have, in fact, approached the problem from that perspective.) China has brutalized the Tibetan people for sixty years; they show no signs of negotiating with them, and have recently, in fact, compared the Dalai Lama's policies to Nazi policies.  And the Tibetans have largely responded to this brutalization with nonviolence.  Hand-wringing about whether there is Buddhist precedent for these actions is academic, beside-the-point, sheltered, and only meaningful to people like me who live in a neurotically developed country with time to wring their hands and fret about religious consistency.  Tibetans are lighting themselves on fire, and their reason and their logic and their love of their country have led them to do it.  That's all I need to know. 
3. Generate love wherever you are.  As I have watched the news roll in from Tibet and India over the past several months, and seen the bodies staggering in flames, I have tried to recycle the powerful energy rising within me.  Anger, hatred, frustration, helplessness—all of these I have felt, and all of these I have tried to understand as manifestations of ignorance.  Such understanding, if it comes at all, however, lasts briefly.  And then it's gone. But kindness toward those I work with every day and patience with my two-year-old daughter who is valiantly trying to understand the difficulties of the potty, well, these are two actions that seem to help.  Perhaps they involve me in a campaign whose central energies are aligned against those energies that fuel human cruelty wherever human cruelty exists.  And perhaps the inter-connections among us are indeed that subtle.  Still, I don't know why this works, and what is more, I don't care why this works (see point 2:  stop intellectualizing).  I only know that it does work.

I'm not really sure how these three points will show up in your own lives, if in fact they do at all, but it's the best I've got now in the wake of today's news, and I thought I'd share it with you.

IT'S A NO-BRAINER FOR WESTERNERS: SUPPORT TIBETAN SELF-DETERMINATION, BUT KNOW HOW TO DO IT

A recent article in Tibettruth argues that many Western Tibetan Buddhists have ceded to the Dalai Lama an infallibility that approaches the same sort of infallibility that has historically been given to the Pope.  This is a problem, the article points out, because these same Westerners not only take spiritual advice from the Dalai Lama, but they also accept his views on the future of Tibet.  They take his political advice as well.  As a result, they support autonomy, as opposed to independence, for the Tibetans who are currently living in Tibet.  Appropriating a phrase from the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism, supporters of autonomy have branded this position as the "Middle Way."

Side-note:  I don't know how anyone could ascribe to a radical thinker like the Buddha anything approaching a compromise with oppression, violence, lying, rape, mutilation, starvation, torture, and cultural genocide, but I will leave that discussion to the Buddhist scholars.  To call political  autonomy the "Middle Way" is, at least, a stroke of branding genius that ad agencies around the world ought to examine.

But to return to my main point:  I agree with this article in Tibettruth because I used to be one of those Westerners.  Many of us have at times gotten so involved with Tibetan spirituality that we have allowed its most able spokesman, the Dalai Lama, to influence our opinions about the political future of the Tibetan people.  And in that discussion, His Holiness represents one voice.

The moral of the story? Tibetans get to decide for themselves how they want their own futures to unfold.  

When I realized that I was an American who had grown up with the notion of self-determination as a national and founding principle, I also realized that if I were going to have an opinion about Tibet's future, I would have to understand first how Tibetans envisioned their own future.  And I would have to extend to them the same priviliges I would want extended to me—I would have to honor the notion of self-determination.

Many Tibetans have now determined that they want to be free and independent, and they have made that position clear.  Even if only one Tibetan, however, had articulated this position, I don't see how an American, or any Westerner, could do anything but honor and support that position. 

And we mustn't confuse discussions concerning the goal of freedom with those that address the possibility of achieving it.  Those are two different conversations.  The complexity involved with determining whether or not independence is a realistic goal does not compromise the determination that independence is still the desired goal.

The struggle for independence and freedom, wherever it occurs, deserves the unqualified support of all Westerners.  This is no less true of Tibet now than it was of the American colonies in the eighteenth century.  As Americans, we honor our past by recognizing that Tibet would envision its own future in a similar fashion.

CHINA! READ THIS NOW!

First, watch this brief video:

Here's what's happening.  Six million Tibetans are living under Chinese oppression, and thirty of them have self-immolated over the last year in an attempt to secure two of their most fundamental human rights:  freedom and self-determination.  There's over 100,000 Tibetans living in exile, and most prominently—how much more prominent can you get than the front of the UN?—three of them are now in the late stages of a hunger strike.

These three heroic Tibetans, gradually ending their lives in front of the UN (one was removed recently to a hospital where he is still refusing food, but is being fed intravenously) are speaking out in solidarity with their Tibetan brothers and sisters in Tibet.  They are happy for the rest of us to listen in on this conversation, and of course, they are happy if we act on their behalf, but make no mistake about it: the primary conversation here is between Tibetans who are struggling for basic freedoms in Tibet and those who are supporting that struggle in exile.

If I were just a bit more advanced spiritually, I believe I might see extending from eastern Tibet to the eastern United States, an arc of light that is the manifestation of the human desire to live a free and independent life.  

So Tibetans in Tibet are talking to Tibetans in exile, and the Tibetans in exile are talking back, and they are using an eloquent semaphore of survival, an evolved sign-system that, were I part of the Chinese occupying force, would send fear running up and down my spine.

This is the conversation that the rest of us are witnessing.

The power of the human heart, in this case, manifested dramatically through the Tibetan heart, and manifested in solidarity among Tibetans separated by many thousands of miles, and moving in step, inexorably toward freedom, of one mind and many hearts . . . well, I can't point to a time in history when this particular spirit was finally and ultimately defeated.  No lie, as Thomas Carlyle wrote, can live forever.

When you looked into Dorjee Gyaltso's eyes in that video, didn't you see that?

VIDEO: THE LATEST SELF-IMMOLATION FROM TIBET

A new video from Tibet shows the reactions of monks and lay-people alike to the most recent self-immolation in Rebkong, Amdo.  Have a look at it.  And buckle your seat-belts.

Two things stand out to me when I watch this video.  First, the Tibetan people have suffered and are still suffering the consequences of China's brutal opposition, which has been continual since 1949.  Second, the Tibetans have used every means at their disposal to respond to this suffering in a constructive, nonviolent way.  China, by all odds, should have long ago silenced the Tibetan people, but they have failed to do so and seem, on a daily basis now, increasingly unable to do so. Whatever it is that I see in this brief film, however I want to describe this Tibetan spirit, I feel clearly that the Tibetans have revealed here a profound and unshakeable commitment to achieving a free state.  

They seem during this brief video a more stable, more commited, more powerful citizenry than anything China has so far mustered.

My hope is that China is beginning to register the same perception at some level, however secretly, however bureaucratically. 

LOCK-DOWN IN LHASA

By mid-February of this year, Lhasa was in complete lock-down.  Please read the report at Shadow Tibet. There are currently 1.2 million Chinese in Lhasa—ironically, the number of Tibetans slaughtered by the Chinese by 1959—and 200,000 Tibetans.  Tibetans in Lhasa have largely been coralled in ghetto-like quarters, much like the Jews in 17th-century Venice. Military patrols are on the streets around the clock.  The Chinese military are locked and loaded. Tibetans are disappearing.  Patriotic re-education programs are being carried out across the country.  Food is too expensive for many Tibetans. 

After reading this report, you might want to pass it along to someone else.  There are links on this site under "Action Corner" that might get you started. Information matters, knowledge makes a difference.  No lie can live forever, as Thomas Carlyle said.  

By spreading this information rapidly, efficiently, perhaps we can hasten the death of the Chinese lie.

THUPTEN JINPA, HHDL'S TRANSLATOR, SPEAKS OUT ON THE CURRENT SITUATION IN TIBET

On February 5th, 2012, Thupten Jinpa, the principal translator of the Dalai Lama, tweeted:  "Three more Tibetans have sacrificed their precious lives.  With these self-immolations, our struggle has probably crossed a threshold."  When I read this, I wondered specifically about the the word, "threshold."

What did he mean?

On March 8, he answered my question.  Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Jinpala said that "there is a growing recognition among Tibetans that Beijing lacks the political imagination and will to resolve the question of Tibet."  Jinpala also indicated that the Chinese leadership had only a narrow window of opportunity now to settle the Tibetan question, and if it missed this opportunity, then it would lose Tibet altogether.  Tibetans in Tibet, he reasoned, were crossing the threshold.

Many believe this has already happened.

Jinpala's statement is important not only for what it says, but perhaps most importantly, for the simple fact that he is the Dalai Lama's translator, and in many ways, is as close to His Holiness as anyone.  He has been a monk, and he understands the monastic perspective.  

And he is now sounding the warning signals about the serious nature of Tibetan unrest, and by implication, about the very real struggle in Tibet for nothing less than independence.

That is a statement of significance.  Or so it seems to me.

REGARDING TIBET: KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO . . . AND CAN'T DO

If you were in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965, you had most likely made up your mind about the Civil Rights movement.  You either supported Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, and the Civil Rights activists or you lined up behind Sheriff Jim Clark who'd ordered every white male to the Dallas County Courthouse to be deputized.

The point is you had a dog in the fight.  John Lewis wasn't going to convince Sheriff Clark that blacks be given equal rights under the law, and Sheriff Clark couldn't convince John Lewis that his attenuated status as an American was right and just.

This is where the press comes in because the press is one of the great allies of political change.  Socio-political protest, covered by the media, is aimed at the fence-sitters, the well intentioned people who don't condone human cruelty and prejudice, but who live in communities where its reality hasn't been dramatically presented to them.  

These are the people who don't have a dog in the fight, and typically, these folks are kind, reasonable, and considerate.  They don't condone blasting a young black girl with a water cannon.

These are the people who, when they saw pictures and video clips of Alabama State Troopers attacking peaceful protestors in Selma, said to themselves that enough was enough.  And they said it to their neighbors, and to their friends, and to their Congressmen, and they said it so many times that it became atmospheric.  

And so the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, extending the franchise to all races, creeds, and colors in this country.

With the advent of real-time social media, the protests in Tibet have the capacity to bring the world's attention to the Tibetan's plight in ways that King and Gandhi could only dream of.  A simple re-tweet, a blog posting, a mention, an IM'd photo, shared, reposted, a follow, a "like" here and there . . . these are all important adjustments in the atmosphere that will bring pressing attention to what China is doing in Tibet.  

As supporters of Tibet who aren't on the front lines, either in Tibet or in the exiled community, this is what we can do, and it is very important.  In fact, it's an essential part of the formula for social change:  protest + media coverage = action.

The Tibetans are standing for freedom.  That won't change.  The Chinese military and police are resisiting that stand. This will not change either until these images, impressions, and reports are spread around the world, to the fence-sitters who don't want to hear of human oppression, really, but who, when they do hear of it, will be repulsed by it.

And Tibet wins every time that happens.  Free Tibet?  Yep.  Retweet now.

SO YOU'RE AN AMERICAN & YOU SUPPORT TIBET: HERE'S MORE STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW

Let's assume, for a moment, that you're an American.  And let's assume, furthermore, that you're interested in the future of Tibet, Tibetans, and Tibetan culture.  If you practice a form of Tibetan Buddhism, let's forget about that for now because religion tends to confuse things if we're not careful.

As Americans, we've got a substantial list of things that we can do on a daily basis that Tibetans cannot do in Tibet.  Things like worship freely, speak freely, work freely (or look for a job freely), or complain loudly because we cannot find a job or we don't make enough money or we don't like our government or we don't like our future.  

America has made enormous sacrifices to preserve these freedoms.  We know the cost of freedom.

Many Tibetans are now asking to be given the same freedoms that we exercise every day.  

So:  when an oppressed people wish to exercise the very rights that define us as Americans, we must respond in kind:  we must recognize the human profundity of that wish by assenting to that wish.

It does not mean that we understand politically how this wish will be granted. It does not mean that we will lead the Tibetan people to freedom.  It means simply that as Americans we have no choice but to honor the wish, to honor the human will to be free.  

And to do what we can to move this dream a little closer toward reality.  More on that later.