Appeal

(This is an appeal by a group of university students from Tibet. Translated by Bhuchung D. Sonam.)

The election for the prime minister of the exile Tibetan Government, which represents the six million Tibetans, is a crucial event at a time when the exile Tibetan community has been enjoying democracy and freedom resulting in more political awareness, desire for change and marching on the path of freedom struggle. This is why we need to understand that this election is a big test for the exile Tibetan community in general and particularly to measure their political maturity and collective thoughts.

In spite of all these, if a conservative, orthodox and a foot-dragging prime minister is elected then it will be tantamount to dumping off the heartfelt hope placed by the Tibetans inside Tibet on the political maturity and democratic culture of the exile Tibetans. It will also signal an end to the hope and trust placed by Tibetans individually and collectively on the exile Government and the international community at large.

Too Soon

Remembering Tsewang Norbu-la
1973-2010

Monsoon 1989. The sky was lavish sending millions of raindrops wearing boxing gloves, as my friend Tenzin Tsundue puts it. The playground was a brown sludge. Yet we continued the football match. Almost through the half time, a goal was scored. While we were recovering from the defensive lapse, the scorer ran to the middle of ground and performed an antic that would have done Roger Milla, the Cameroonian football star, proud.

Freedom of Tongue

'I am my language, I am an ode, two odes, ten. This is my language.
I am my language.' — Mahmoud Darwish

On 12 October 2010, the Provincial Communist Party and Amdo (Chin. Qinghai) Provincial Government held a meeting on education during which a new policy to replace Tibetan by Chinese as the medium of instruction was launched. At 8 am on 19th, thousands of Tibetan students in Rebkong took to the streets to demand ‘Freedom of Language.’

The peaceful protests by Tibetan students have spread all over Tibet and Beijing, where four hundred students from the Minorities University participated in a solidarity march. Last week about 6,000 students in Amdo protested against the new language policy. Students in the neighbouring Tibetan province of Kham (Chin. Gansu and Sichuan provinces) also held solidarity protests. As a retaliatory measure, at around 10:30 a.m. on 22 October, the Chinese authorities have detained over 20 students in Chabcha in Amdo, northeastern Tibet.

Sustained Musicality

on “The Northern Sun” by Sherwin Bitsui. Poet and writer, Bitsui is Navajo of the Bitter Water Clan, born for the Many Goats Clan. He is from White Cone, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation and currently lives in Tucson, Arizona. His new book Flood Song won the 2010 PEN Open Book Award. The Northern Sun is from Legitimate dangers : American poets of the new century / edited by Michael Dumanis and Cate Marvin.

In Bitsui’s “The Northern Sun”, I found a rich sustained musicality throughout the poem. He writes with a voice of a man drunk with words and yet each sentence is controlled with a precision of a maestro violinist.

Beijing Wants to Choose Tibet's Reincarnations

Introduction

From the onset of China's occupation of Tibet, the Chinese Communist Party's outlook towards Tibetan Buddhism has been of extreme suspicion and fear. Tibetan people's way of life and their outlook towards the world is inextricably linked with fundamental precepts of Buddhism. This common philosophical thread and a shared culture bind Tibetans into a unified entity giving them a sense of national identity. For Tibetan people this basic identity is inseparable from their belief in Buddhist principles, which "encompasses the entirety of their culture and civilization and constitutes the very essence of their lives. Of all the bonds which defined Tibetans as a people and as a nation, religion was undoubtedly the strongest."1

On the other hand, such unifying power and spirit become definitive threats to Beijing's authority and survival. As a result the Chinese rulers have been at pains to hammer down and eradicate Tibetan faith and identity from within their hearts.

A Message from Tibet

(sent to the leader of Tibetan activists in the US)

Premier Wen Jiabao is going to New York City to attend the UN Conference. China, besides not listening to us when we tell about the problems and the wrong Chinese policies in Tibet, has been carrying out a new policy to strike hard on the Tibetan intellectuals.

Thus, this time when premier arrives in New York City, the foreign supporters and the young Tibetan activists led by you must represent those of us in Tibet, who are denied freedom, to tell Premier Wen to improve situations in Tibet and address all other problems in Tibet today which are too many to list here.

Please let the premier know that, if China still continues to crackdown, the Tibetan people will get desperate and even wider scale protest than the one in 2008 is likely to happen.

Thank You.


(translated from Tibetan by Bhuchung D. Sonam)