https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Cv0altxdQ
Conversation with Chemi Lhamo
The Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans podcast session saw FNVA engaging with Tibetan Youth Icon Chemi Lhamo, who is a community organizer and human rights activist based in Canada. Canada has a sizable number of Tibetans and this has seen major legislations being passed on governmental level. The Tibetan Heritage month – A month-long celebration of Tibetan culture and way of life in Canada in July, being the epitome of it. The session with Chemi Lhamo saw her touch on various topics ranging from her engagements with Tibetans, the recent Chinese mass uprising, Sports and Activism, her personal life journey which she still embarks upon, Tibetans migrating from India, activity and initiatives by Tibetans in Canada for Tibet, China’s tactic and polices which aims to assimilate and eradicate Tibetans in China occupied Tibet, on Reincarnation (His Holiness the Dalai Lama) and her experience in contesting at the Parkdale-High Park Councillor Elections this year.
Chemi Lhamo when asked upon her recent trip to Paris, where she was part of the Future of Tibet Conference stated how she was elated to witness that unlike the first FoT Conference in Washington DC, the one in Paris had youths and Tibetan women participating in high numbers. She asserted how Tibetans need such spaces to discuss future policies, gather thoughts and suggestions, and implement them as it would set the tone for Tibetans and Tibet. She also got the opportunity to engage with Tibetan youths in Europe through the Office of Tibet and thanked them and the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) whose work, efforts and initiative inspires and has her belief. When the recent Chinese mass uprising was discussed, she saw hope and was glad that Chinese people themselves are now taking the stand against the atrocities committed by their Communist government. She shared to us how when taking part in a A4 revolution protest, a Chinese lady applauded her and the Tibetans. She pointed out this stark contrast in Chinese attitudes towards Tibetans as she herself was threatened by the Chinese student body when she was elected as the president of the student council at the University of Toronto – Scarborough only a few years back.
Engaging on her personal life, she saw herself as othered like many refugees throughout the world and only when she had matured did she come to ask questions on her own identity. This struck by her even when she migrated and settled in Canada and has been an impetus in her moving forward in life. On sports Chemi Lhamo went beyond the mundane expressions of teamwork and joy, explaining how these days big entities which includes sovereign nations are using it as a PR utility, with Sports Washing becoming more prevalent than ever. She focused on Beijing’s 2022 winter Olympics and the current Qatar 2022 FIFA world cup, the latter which has the death of thousands of migrants that too from India and the Indian Subcontinent on their hands. While touching upon Tibetans in Canada, she reminded and let us know how they are doing their best and continue to adapt various means in preserving and flourishing the Tibetan culture. Here, she illustrated the Tibetan Gorshey (Tibetan social dance) and the intergeneration magic she witnesses every week, in particular how she witnesses 4-5 year old Tibetan children born in Canada dancing and engaging on the same space with 80-90 year old Tibetans.
On Tibet and the reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, she brought to light the recent two major polices carried out the Chinese Communist Regime in Tibet and that is 1. Colonial Boarding school 2. Arbitrarily and enforced Mass collection of Tibetan DNA. These two initiatives aim to uproot Tibetans from their own way of life with the latter focusing to boost surveillance and further control the Tibetan, treating them more like livestock rather than humans. She shared how Dr. Gyalo (the one who was the primary source of the Colonial Boarding school report brought forth by the Tibet Action Institute) told her that when teaching in Tibet, he witnessed how his niece totally forgot the Tibetan language and were not able to communicate with their grandparents in just a few months after being enrolled in such boarding schools. When it comes to reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, she asserted that the final decision should and always lay with the Tibetans, who are the ones that have revered and continue to revere the institution of the Dalai Lama for more than 4 centuries. On top of this she called upon various governments to adopt similar resolutions like the TPSA (Tibet Policy Support Act) which was passed in the US Congress.
Elaborating on the recent election she took part as an independent candidate for Parkdale-High Park Councilor, Toronto, Canada. Chemi emphasized the role of community and how they were the driving motivation behind her contesting. She only has thanks for all those people who came out in thousands supporting her and though she still has not fully taken all this in, she believes the people of Parkdale-High are gearing up for much needed change in the coming years.
She concluded by giving her sincere thanks to all those who have been and continue to support Tibet even though due to China’s unprecedented rise it has become a complex issue to many. And to all Tibetans to remember, learn, understand and listen to our Tibetan sisters and brothers in Tibet who continue to bear the brunt of Chinese atrocities yet still form an unshakable resistance against the Asian dragons.
