https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmm8WLG08Sg

Conversation with Tenzin Thinley

During the session with Tenzin Thinley, a student of Poltical Science who completed his
Under Graduation from Methodist University, North Carolina, USA he engaged upon his
personal life experiences till now. Throwing more light on being a Tibetan Refugee, his
engagements with International Student. Be it during his High School in United World
Colleges, Wales and his Under Graduate years in North Carolina. Furthermore, Tenzin
Thinley expounded the governmental structure of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and
deliberated upon the upcoming 20 th National People’s Congress (NPC) of China.
It started with his experience being a Tibetan Refugee and dwelled deeper into this subject.
We then came across the Identity Certificate (IC), the travel documents/passports provided by
the Indian government to Tibetans who travel abroad. He shared an anecdote of how he was
stalled for several minutes just because he possessed an Identity Certificate and felt
embarrassed. This incident is something which everything Tibetans more or less faces when
he/she possesses the Identity Certificate as his travel documents.

Moving on Tenzin Thinley explained and elaborated upon the governmental structure of the
PRC. Their structure is very much different from popularly known democratic system where
we have the pillars of democracy with a level of checks and balance between these pillars.
This was something amiss in the PRC’s structure as mentioned by Tenzin Thinley and he
states that “The structure of the Chinese government is Arcane and synonymous with the
Chinese Communist Party because the party wants to preserve its monopoly over the nation
itself.” He also stressed about how regardless of the generational shift in leadership occurring
in China, the policy making of the PRC will continue to remain more or less the same with an
overt shift in such policy very less likely.

This was followed by an in-depth discussion on the upcoming 20 th National People’s
Congress (NPC). He was of the opinion that Xi Jinping is going to secure the unprecedented
3 rd term as president of the PRC in the upcoming NPC. And when talking about the Chinese
leadership, he emphasized the measures of vetting and scrutiny one goes through before they
are promoted. Hence, he concluded how a leader within the party would hardly break lines
and keep their toes in check especially when it comes to party directives.

Tenzin Thinley was vocal in criticizing Beijing for its oppressive policies in Tibet
highlighting the recent, mass DNA collection and Zero-Covid policy. He also mentioned the
assimilation drive by China which has now created a demographic scene where in big Tibetan
cities the Chinese population is now more or less equal to Tibetans. And for him instead of
China who has recently spurred the narrative of ushering a new world order with it being the
dominant power in Asia, it should be India with the mantle of leadership in Asia and is a
better alternative and constitutes a more representative government that China.

Moving on he shared his own experience in the United Kingdom and the USA. Here Tenzin
Thinley set about to explain his internship at the Office of Tibet, Washington DC and he
brought forth several anecdotes, one which stuck out was during the His Holiness the 14 th
Dalai Lama’s visit to a university. The problem arose when Chinese students in the university
protested against the invitation and arrival of His Holiness the 14 th Dalai Lama. He personally
was taken aback by the pressure but stated “I have never been put under that much pressure
before but I believe when you are put in an uncomfortable position, you learn the most”. This
was followed by the deliberations on the recent bill passed in US Congress titled as
“Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act”. And Tenzin Thinley being
someone who has not only studied in the USA for more than 4 years but has worked at
various institutions highlights clearly that the USA’s support to Tibet is not based entirely
upon humanity but more aligned towards their national interest.

Finally, he feels a strong sense of gratitude towards those working in bringing a resolution in
the Tibet-China conflict especially to those non-Tibetans as their actions and initiatives really
inspires him. He emphasized how in the lead up to the recent Beijing Winter Olympics, non-
Tibetans really pushed for its boycott along with the Tibetans these initiatives really inspire
him to work for the resolution in the Tibet-China conflict. One can note how India also
switched their Olympic kit supplier from Li-Ning – a Chinese sports company to an Indian
company ShivNaresh in the lead up to the 2020 (delayed to 2021) Tokyo Summer Olympics.

The post Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans – a podcast series presented by the Foundation for Non-Violent Alternatives (FNVA) appeared first on fnvaworld.org.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07-Ncc-3va0&t=49s

Conversation with Tashi Dhondup

During the session with Tashi Dhondup, president of National Democratic Party of Tibet
(NDPT) he engaged upon Tibetan democracy, its relevance and significance, genesis and
direction of the National Democratic Party of Tibet, his personal life experiences and
aspirations.

It started with his unexpected appointment as the president of the National Democratic Party
of Tibet through election by its members. Though surprised he stated how he will do his best
in his post as president and will not disappoint those who have confidence in him.

Moving on Tashi Dhondup explained the very genesis of the National Democratic Party of
Tibet and how since its establishment in 1994 with the goal of further developing democracy
in the exile Tibetan community, it has accomplished many historical landmarks. He further
stated how the very establishment of the National Democratic Party of Tibet was a vision of
His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He further elaborated upon the structure of the NDPT and how
it plays the role of a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) and thereby currently sees the
NDPT as a Semi-Political party.

This was followed by an in-depth discussion on the Tibetan term used for democracy and
how out of the two (Mangtso though phonetically sounding the same) one referring to Masses
and the other to Majority, the National Democratic Party of Tibet adheres to one referring to
Majority. The reason being that in the exile Tibetan institutions the decisions are based on the
majority and not the masses, because the thoughts and ideals of the millions of Tibetans in
Chinese occupied Tibet, individually are not the decision makers in the exile Tibetan setup.

Tashi Dhondup then shared his perilous journey from Tibet and how at the young age of 6
according to official documents he reached India. He also highlighted here how we Tibetans
can and must take inspiration from India, our host when it comes to the freedom movement
and the practice of democracy. He narrated how during his time in JNU one witnesses the
graffiti art of India’s struggle for Independence on campus walls which inspires him and
should also inspire the Tibetans in exile.

When it comes to his own future aspiration and that of the NDPT’s. He made it very clear
that he wants NDPT to become the bridge between the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGiE
aka Central Tibetan Administration) and the Tibetan diasporic communities who are not
currently in touch with the TGiE for varying reasons. Stressing also on the fact that the
NDPT on its most recent resolution would try to embody the practice of a multi-party system
as currently the NDPT is the only officially recognized political party by the TGiE. When it
came to his own personal aspirations, he stated that he would like to follow the precedent set
by the previous presidents of the NDPT and that is by being part of the legislative body of the
TGiE, the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile (TPiE) in the near future.

Finally, he mentioned through various instances as to how we Tibetans must not take things
for granted especially the practice of democracy but continue to strive for it. Tibetans must
realize its significance and in light of the current stalemate in the TGiE, as out of the 7
departments, 4 departments still do not have ministers (Kalons). He also warned that we must
stay away from non-democratic procedures and wants the election commission to bring
educated and validated reforms rather than just being a rubber stamp. Here he mentions how
the 2017 resolution under then Minister of Finance, Karma Yeshi basically rendered NDPT
and several democratic procedures inactive especially during the central elections of the
TGiE.

The post Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans – a podcast series presented by the Foundation for Non-Violent Alternatives (FNVA) appeared first on fnvaworld.org.

A podcast that gives a deeper understanding of Tibet through conversations with
Tibetans, China watchers, scholars, environmentalists, security policy specialists and
writers.
In this episode to mark International Day of the Disappeared, two Tibetan scholars
Tenzin Choekyi and Darig Thokmay join Kate Saunders to give personal insights into
writers and artists who have been ‘disappeared’ by China’s Party state, describing how
their writings endure and continue to influence Tibetans and Chinese, both in and
outside Tibet. They discuss the life and tragic death of 25-year old Tibetan pop singer
Tsewang Norbu, who set fire to himself in Lhasa on 25 February 2022.

Xi Jinping’s oppressive campaign to compel Tibetans to conform to a Chinese
cultural nationalism defined by the Party state mean that virtually any expression
of Tibetan identity can be branded as ‘reactionary’ or ‘splittist’ and penalized with
a long prison sentence, or worse.

Pop stars, artists and writers have been tortured and imprisoned in a drive
against ‘cultural products’ with suspect ideological content – such as songs
referring to the Dalai Lama. In music bars Tibetan performers are no longer
allowed to address the audience as ‘Tibetan brothers and sisters’ because it is
considered ‘subversive’ to the ‘unity of the nationalities’.

Tibetans in Tibet, including leading writers, intellectuals and singers, continue to
‘disappear,’ often being taken from their homes in the middle of the night to face
extreme brutality in black jails.

And yet despite the dangers and devastating experiences of loss, torture and
imprisonment, Tibetans continue to express a deeply-felt Tibetan identity and
hold fast to an unquenchable sense of ‘being Tibetan’.
On this podcast Tenzin Choekyi and Darig Thokmay give insights into the stories of
writers and artists in Tibet including:

Go Sherab Gyatso, also known as Gosher, is a prominent Tibetan writer, a passionate
educator, and a fiercely outspoken public intellectual. In October 2020, Gosher was
detained for the fourth time. He was held in incommunicado detention for over a year
before being handed a 10-year prison sentence in a secret trial in December 2021. In
August 2021, the Chinese government issued a  response  to the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights that denied his “enforced disappearance” and stated
that Gosher was suspected of “inciting secession.” Unlike other persecuted Tibetan
writers and intellectuals from Kham and Amdo, Gosher was arrested in Chengdu
(Sichuan) by secret security personnel from the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and
the recent verdict was issued in Lhasa. Gosher’s current whereabouts still remain
undisclosed, and his life is at risk. He suffers from a lung condition and is unlikely to be
receiving medical treatment. From: https://gosherabgyatso.com/
“Pondering generally on the contemporary situation of the Tibetans, we are going
through the cataclysm of forced cultural integration, both intentionally and unintentionally. In this thick climate of cultural assimilation, the environment and the people, language and culture, traditional customs, and so forth are all subjected to acute destruction and decline. As a result, if we are to resist this historical situation, based on
individual passion, talent, or ability, we must leave no stone unturned in gaining control
over the reins of our future. There is nothing more important than that.”
– Go Sherab Gyatso

Rongwo Gendun Lhundup, 48, was sentenced to four years in prison for "inciting
separatism" on Dec. 1, 2021. He was known to have been arrested by the police and
driven away in a black car in December 2020, while on his way to a religious debate in
Rebkong (Tongren), Malho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture,
Qinghai. Gendun had faced multiple interrogations in the past for criticizing China's
"Sinicization" of Tibetan Buddhism. Soon after the publication of his poems titled
"Khorwa" (a Tibetan Buddhist term for the cycle of life, matter and existence), he was
detained. His poem, "The One Born in the Year of Pig," in praise of the Dalai Lama, is
popularly loved by readers in Tibet. 

Lobsang Lhundup, known by his pen name Dhi Lhaden, is serving four years in
prison on the charge of "disrupting social order". Such charges are commonly employed
by the Chinese Communist Party to silence dissent, instil fear, and preserve a culture of
censorship amongst Tibetan scholars. Arrested in June 2019 in Chengdu City, the
sentencing came after two years of incommunicado detention. Tibet Watch sources
report that the writer's trial was held in secret, without the presence of his friends or
family members. Those close to Lhundup suspect that his arrest was linked to his
involvement in teaching Tibetan history at a private cultural education centre in
Chengdu.

Dhi Lhaden's book, 'The Art of Passive Resistance', was released in 2008 and translated
into English in 2015. https://www.tibetwatch.org/news/2021/12/6/notable-tibetan-writer-
imprisoned-for-four-years-after-a-secret-trial Tibetan monk  Rinchen Tsultrim was ‘disappeared on 27 July 2019 apparently for sending online messages and is known to be detained in Mianyang Prison in Sichuan
Province. His whereabouts were completely unknown for over a year and a half. In 2021,
Rinchen’s family were told Rinchen Tsultrim had been sentenced to four years and six
months in prison. https://savetibet.org/tibetan-monk-jailed-for-online-messages-detained-
in-mianyang-prison/

Highlights of podcast
Tenzin Choekyi opens by speaking about the life of Go Sherab Gyatso and other writers,
and their significance in Tibetan society: “Writers are themselves observing the changes
of society, they write what is happening around them and sometimes they very boldly
write their own life stories, which then becomes a portal for us Tibetans in the diaspora
to look into understanding contemporary Tibet. Writers have such an important place
everywhere in the world especially in places where a dictatorship imposes such
censorship.”
“It is really hard [to contemplate] the censorship inside Tibet – a surveillance state is
being deliberately created inside Tibet and China. Even the saddest poem or essay that we are able to read out here, I think there are far more sad and true stories, heartbreaking, that we have yet to hear.”

Darig Thokmay speaks about the important perspectives from Tibetans educated in
Chinese schools and universities, who might be expected to blend more into Chinese
society, but then begin to critique it, using the language of China’s Constitution and laws:
“For instance when [the writer] Shokjang was arrested in 2016 he wrote a very important
letter to a local court – about how people could have freedom of speech, [criticizing]
China’s own constitution.” See High Peaks Pure Earth:
https://highpeakspureearth.com/should-one-follow-the-partys-instructions-by-shokjang/
Tenzin Choekyi: “Writers and artists live through the changes of time, they reflect what
the reality is but the Chinese Communist Party has only one vision of what so called
‘common prosperity’ of human beings should be – this phrase is being used widely by
Chinese state media – what is the version of reality, what you should speak, how you
should think, what you should not think. [The CCP] only intends to consolidate power
and knowledge, directed with a specific agenda. Writers and artists however are not
hungry for power, I think they seek to reflect life as it is. The Chinese Communist Party
are not willing to accept it or confront it so make a host of policies to silence it. It's the
refusal to open their imagination to freedom which everybody wants at the end of the
day.”

Thokmay explores the future of Tibetan literature, and the role of music in Tibet’s
freedom struggle. Since the uprisings of 2008, some songs have almost become
national anthems, part of Tibetan national identity. There has been another shift – music
has become more accessible to the public. While it used to cost a lot of money to do an
album, now anyone can publish online. Many Tibetans are moving into cities, from
traditional nomadic or mountain landscapes, and are developing new connections to
Tibetan culture.

The panel discusses the larger trends in self-immolations inside Tibet, and the
individuals who have set fire to themselves.
Darig Thokmay talks about the future for Tibetan literature – and how film-makers are
expanding the parameters of Tibetan cultural expression. Often they are basing their
films on well-known Tibetan novels, and they discuss questions of Tibetan identity at a deep level.
The self immolation of Tsewang Norbu
On 25 February, a young Tibetan man set fire to himself in front of the Dalai Lama’s
former home, the Potala Palace in Lhasa.
Both Tibetans and Chinese were shattered when they discovered that the young man
who had died was the famous and much loved pop singer, 25 year old Tsewang Norbu.
Tsewang Norbu was born on 9 October 1996, in Nagchu, the Tibet Autonomous Region.
He was exposed to music and arts from an early age and developed a rare dedication to
it. Norbu was known for singing modern, folk, popular, traditional and many other types
of songs – he also wrote and composed them.

In 2017, he was one of the finalists in a major Chinese TV show with his song ‘Nomad’s
Ballad’. He also performed on the major platform ‘Voice of China’ with a song called
‘Returning Home’. His deep love of Tibet and Tibetan culture shine through the lyrics.
On the day of his self-immolation, in his last social media post, Tsewang Norbu
expressed gratitude to his fans for their comments and messages about his most recent
song. There was an outpouring of grief on social media, quickly blocked and censored.
Tsewang Norbu had grown up watching his father, Choegyen, compose and create
music. In May, compounding the tragedy, Choegyen committed suicide following threats
and intimidation from Chinese police after his son's self immolation.
Tsewang Norbu's uplifting song Returning Home has been subtitled in English by High
Peaks Pure Earth:  https://highpeakspureearth.com/my-beautiful-homeland-tibet-the-life-
and-music-of-tsewang-norbu/

Extracts from works cited on the podcast:

Go Sherab Gyatso wrote in tribute to Dr Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who tried
to issue early warnings about COVID but was told by police in December 2019 to stop
“making false comments”. Dr Li contracted the virus while working at Wuhan Central
Hospital and later died.
“Unfortunately, as a consequence of persecuting this and similar courageous
expressions of truth, the black tempest of the pandemic raged in all directions. Like the
thousands of lives, Mr. Li Wenliang also evaporated into the black tempest. I mourn in
helplessness. All I could do is to supplicate and pray for them to Bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara.
Anyhow, since the wish of this honorable physician was to protect people from dying and
suffering from this pandemic, the most fitting way to commemorate this noble being is to
do our best at mitigating the spread of this epidemic.”

–Go Sherab Gyatso, February 7 2020, https://highpeakspureearth.com/a-must-know-
person-go-sherab-gyatsos-tribute-to-dr-li-wenliang/
“In a year that turned out like a raging storm […] we could not remain idle. [We] did not
commit to the foolishness of smashing this egg against a rock and knowingly leaping into
an abyss out of rashness or for the sake of reputation. We did so out of the pain of
separation from the tens of thousands of souls caught up in this deplorable violence, and
the tormenting thirst for freedom, democracy and equality for those who should have
them but do not.”

– From the afterword by editors of the banned magazine “Eastern Snow Mountain” (Shar
Dungri) about the Spring 2008 protests in Tibet. International Campaign for Tibet, ‘A
Raging Storm’, https://savetibet.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/05/Raging_Storm_complete.pdf
“I would like to tell you how it is that a great lake gets dried up by heat and a great mountain burned by fire…”

– An analysis of the crisis in Tibet today by Lunpo Nyuktok, in a collection
of banned writings from Tibet, the ‘Eastern Snow Mountain’ (Shar Dungri)
https://savetibet.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ICT_A_Great_Mountain_Burned_by_Fire.pdf
‘The three [great monastic] seats of Sera, Drepung and Ganden,
Are struck by the vapor of the poisonous snake,
Because of this sea of adverse circumstance,
There’s no right to diligently study the scriptural texts.
O Triple Gem! Kindly guide and protect us!
O Triple Gem! Come forth with speed.’
– song written by a monk being held in Golmud military prison, Qinghai, May, 2008,
published by Tsering Woeser on her blog and translated by High Peaks Pure Earth

The post Tibet in Context – Kate Saunders in conversation with Darig Thokmay and Tenzin Choekyi appeared first on fnvaworld.org.