Yarlung Raging

A Prophecy and a Woman from Lhasa

2012-01-21T10:15:00.001-08:00

The Mayan prophecy that the world will end in 2012 has spawned hundreds of books, films, plays and satires. Although the public fascination with apocalyptic stories does not necessarily translate into real belief, I admit to secretly subscribing to an alternative vision of a 2012 apocalypse - one where the world is cleansed of tyranny, colonialism, and totalitarianism.

If the watershed events of the past year were any indication, we have reason to believe that in 2012 dictatorships everywhere will have a harder time withstanding the wave of resistance that is brewing in the streets, on the web, in the tea houses, and in people's minds.

Barely three weeks into the year, we're seeing groundbreaking change in Burma, where hundreds of political prisoners have been released and Aung San Suu Kyi has gone from being a prisoner of the state to the nation's most esteemed stateswoman. As the structures of oppression fall - whether in neighboring Burma or in distant Tunisia - the democratic pressure on China intensifies.

Tibetans are at the forefront of this revolutionary wave. In the last 11 months, 16 Tibetans have set fire to themselves in protest of Chinese rule, laying bare the colossal failure of China's colonial project in Tibet. The self-immolations - as overwhelming as they are underreported - are a flashpoint for the growing resistance movement in Tibet. Beijing is quickly learning that it can imprison Tibetans, but not their ideas, their words, or their dreams.

In spite of China's pitch-black oppression, Tibetans are charging forward, armed with their nonviolent weaponry of political protest, economic noncooperation, civil disobedience, cultural renaissance and social innovation. And while we have been devastated by each incident of self-immolation, we have also been inspired by the unparalleled courage and sacrifice that motivated these acts.

It was with a similar courage that a hundred years ago, on March 26, 1912, Tibetans formally declared war against Imperial China, effectively ending the Manchu invasion of Tibet. In 1913, the 13th Dalai Lama formally declared Tibetan independence.

2012 marks a century since the collapse of the Manchu empire. My vision of apocalyptic change in China does not seem out of place at a time when people across the Chinese empire are restless for freedom from corruption, inequality, pollution, poverty and repression. The message from Tibet is clear: there is no turning back. I believe Tibetans will once again be ready to seize the moment and restore Tibet's independence, taking our rightful place in the global community of sovereign nations.

My belief in this future is reaffirmed every day, not only by the tectonic political shifts that are changing the world beneath our feet, but also by my personal interactions with friends and strangers - sometimes at the most unexpected moments.

A few days ago at the Kalachakra in Bodh Gaya, India, I saw a middle-aged woman with a familiar face walking past me. I caught her attention with a respectful nod and asked, "Achala, have we met before?"

She smiled and replied in impeccable Lhasa dialect, "Not sure... but where are you from?" Answering that I was from New York but previously from Dharamsala, I asked where she was from.

"Well, I'm from Lhasa," she replied courteously. With a Lhasa accent that strong, I thought to myself, it was almost unnecessary to name the place.

"Oh, really?" I couldn't conceal my excitement at meeting someone from Tibet. "I must have seen you in Lhasa then; I was there in 2007 for a few days. I must have seen you in Bharkor Square."

"Ah, that explains it," her eyes twinkled. I could tell that she felt extremely fortunate to be one of the few thousand Tibetans to cut through China's nightmarish political restrictions to attend the Kalachakra in India. As we parted, she held my hand tightly in a way older Tibetans do when saying farewell to close relatives. With a calm yet intense gaze, she said:

"We will meet again. I think we will all meet again, very soon, back home."

We both knew what she meant. I said, yes, we absolutely will.

On Turning 32

2011-12-28T19:40:00.000-08:00

I am turning 32 today. And it's hard enough not to feel fortunate to be living in a time when history is being rewritten. But what makes me feel doubly grateful is that Tibetans are at the forefront of this great wave of change, shaping our own future, influencing the course of world history.

In the shadow of the highly publicized Arab Spring, a quieter but equally significant revolution is sweeping Tibet. From Lhasa to Kardze to Chamdo to Ngaba, we are seeing acts of nonviolent resistance multiply across the plateau. Amid China's pitch-black oppression, Tibetans are using the most creative tactics including political protests, economic noncooperation, civil disobedience, cultural revival, and social innovation.

While we have been devastated by this year's string of Tibetan self-immolations, we have also been inspired by the unparalleled courage and sacrifice that motivated these acts. The self-immolations, the protests, the boycotts, the vigils, the direct actions, all reflect a turning point -- Tibetans have conquered fear of the Chinese government, and thus sealed its fate well before its death. As we know all too well from the history of other countries, when the oppressed becomes fearless, the oppressor becomes powerless.

The fate of Tibet is intertwined with that of the world. Freedom for Tibet will promote peace and nonviolence around the world. There is no greater argument for nonviolence than the victory of a nonviolent struggle over the largest dictatorship of the century.

I ask you to grant my wish by donating to Students for a Free Tibet -- the organization that is helping to change the course of Tibetan history with its innovative campaigns, dramatic actions, unstoppable activists, all working toward a common vision. Read some highlights of SFT's achievements in 2011. We are working to mobilize the forces of change for Tibet so that the uprisings we've seen in 2011 become a prelude to the revolutions that may come in 2012.

Like Sands in a Mandala

2011-12-25T19:33:00.000-08:00

A new Tibetan song I wrote a while ago... below is the English translation of part of the lyrics:

When the mind is at peace
And the body is at ease
And you are with me
All the sorrows of samsara
Fall away like sands in a mandala.

Disillusioned by samsara
I went to seek nirvana
In a retreat in the mountains.
But the mountaintop was barren
In the depth of samsara, I found nirvana.

There is life after death, they say
But it means little to me either way.
To share with you the sorrows of this life,
I will part with the joys
Of a thousand lifetimes.

In An Endless Dream

2011-12-24T21:51:00.000-08:00

In an endless dream
I was wide awake
guarding you from myself
while wishing the dawn
would never break

In an endless dream
you were fast asleep
or at least it seemed
until my trembling hand
stroked your hair

In an endless dream
you opened your eyes
smiling away your surprise
your eyelashes swept through
the floors of my temple

In an endless dream
we walked side by side
not toward any place
but merely into
each other's embrace

In an endless dream
I thought no more
of the future or the past
I just prayed for
the present to last

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted In Tibetan

2011-12-17T09:15:00.000-08:00

The Tibetan language is making an unexpected comeback, growing in size, stature, usage, relevance and spread in recent years. I wrote an article in the Huffington Post about this encouraging phenomenon. Check it out here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tenzin-dorjee/tibetan-language-social-media_b_1155451.html

Here is an excerpt:

One of the rare advantages of being born a refugee is that you become bilingual by default. As a Tibetan educated in India and the United States, I'm often asked to interpret for Tibetan speakers at meetings, rallies and press conferences. Yesterday, I facilitated a brainstorming session between Nathan Freitas, Tibet Action Institute's Technology Director and a pioneer in digital activism, and Kusho Monlam, a Tibetan monk and pioneer in the computerization of Tibetan language.

As the discussion turned to the technical methods and challenges of creating Tibetan keyboards on Android phones, my usefulness as an interpreter quickly diminished. Nathan doesn't speak Tibetan, and Kusho Monlam doesn't speak English. But somehow, in the universal yet mysterious language of computer programming, they understood each other perfectly. I tried to follow their conversation, not unlike a child listening to grownups talk about subprime mortgages and toxic assets...

It is said that language is a cornerstone of nationhood. The Tibetan people's collective ability to communicate ideas, share stories, conduct business, and express opinions in a unique language all our own is one of the strongest arguments for Tibetan sovereignty. After attending the conference and seeing how the Tibetan language has grown in stature, size, usage, and relevance in the last five years, I was overwhelmed with hope for the future.

Read the full post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tenzin-dorjee/tibetan-language-social-media_b_1155451.html

P.S. Here is a pamphlet SFT published last year: TEN WAYS TO PROMOTE TIBETAN: http://blog.studentsforafreetibet.org/2010/11/ten-ways-to-promote-tibetan-language/.

Human Rights? Still a Distant Dream for Tibetans

2011-12-09T16:03:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow is International Human Rights Day, an anniversary that celebrates one of the monumental achievements of the last century. To six million Tibetans who live in an endless nightmare of China's colonial oppression, the concept of human rights, however, remains a distant dream six decades after the birth of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Yesterday in the SFT headquarters, we crowded around a laptop to watch a new video that contained raw footage of a Chinese police raid on Tibetan homes in a village near Lhasa in 2008. The video, released by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile this week, was the most terrifying thing I have seen in a long time:http://sft.convio.net/site/R?i=40G9DXeC__ZFRrFTEbAgeQ

This footage doesn't show beatings or burnings or explosions; the images are much more ordinary and, ironically, much more disturbing -- probably because it could happen to anyone in Tibet. It shows a team of Chinese SWAT and PLA troops, armed to the teeth, breaking into Tibetan homes at dawn, dragging people out of bed, barely giving them time to put on their jackets or shoes, whisking them away with no warrant, no explanation, no nothing.

The first person they arrest is a young man named Tsering Norsang, 32 years old, whose eyes dart from left to right in bewilderment as he is escorted -- for lack of a better word -- from his home. The troops make him kneel down in the snow while they hunt down their next victims, whose "crimes" may have consisted of participating in peaceful demonstrations or sending a text message about someone's detention.

The footage reminded me of World War II movies that reenact scenes of Nazi soldiers rounding up Jewish citizens in Europe. Sadly, for Tibetans, this is not a page from a history textbook, it is an ongoing horror that is driving them to breaking point. Against the background noise of dogs barking and heavy footsteps in the snow, you can almost hear the detainees' hearts pounding against their chests, as their fate hangs in balance in the frigid air of one of the world's most oppressed lands.

Where are they being taken? Will they get a fair trial? Have they disappeared already? Will they return? Where will they be tomorrow, on December 10th, Human Rights Day?

These are the questions the world must answer.

The world is finally speaking out. In an epic display of unprecedented global public support, over 700,000 people have signed pledges to save Tibetan lives.

The British Parliament held a debate on the Tibet crisis this week. Leading the debate, Simon Hughes MP, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats said, "I hope the government will strongly take up the issue of the self-immolations with the Chinese authorities, and make a robust statement of concern."

Following a lobbying initiative by SFT Japan and the Tibetan community of Tokyo, senior Japanese leaders, including two vice ministers and two members of parliament, pledged their support for the Tibetan cause and signed the Stand up for Tibet petition.

In the age of the Internet, when the entire globe is connected by instantaneous news headlines and realtime social networks, we cannot allow China's fire power and firewall to isolate Tibet into a black hole of oppression.

Contrary to what some may believe, Chinese leaders care about what the world thinks and says regarding Tibet and their human rights record. As bad as it is, the situation could be a lot worse if it weren't for global public pressure and attention.

VOA Interview on Lhakar Movement

2011-11-13T16:46:00.001-08:00

I heard someone in the street...

2011-11-13T15:34:00.001-08:00

I heard someone in the street say
This was the year when you lost
Your home and your job to pay
For freedom's dear cost.

But the street lamps silently rejoice
That in fact you found your light
And your soul and your voice
Amid the dark of the night.

I heard someone in the street weeping:
What about the jailed and the slain?
And the buried and the missing?
Will they come back again?

But look, their faces shine in our mirrors
With wrinkles dug by smiles, not age.
May their faith shatter our fears
And break open our cage.

A Lhakar song from Tibet

2011-09-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

Here is an excerpt from a song that came out of Tibet in 2010. This song urges Tibetans to be Tibetan, buy Tibetan, and join the Tibetan self-reliance movement known as Lhakar.
རླུང་རྟ་དར་ཅོག་གནམ་ལ་ཐོངས།
ཁ་དོག་དཀར་པོ་ལུས་ལ་གྱོན།
གླུ་དང་རོལ་དབྱངས་ལོངས་སུ་སྤྱོད།
མཆོད་མེ་ཕུལ་ནས་དམ་བཅའ་ལེན།
སློབ་གྲ་དགོན་པར་ཞལ་འདེབས་རྒྱག
ངན་སློང་སྤྲང་པོར་སྦྱིན་པ་གཏོང་།
ཉམ་ཐག་སེམས་ཅན་སྲོག་སྐྱོབ་བྱེད།
དཔའ་བོ་འདས་པའི་ནང་མི་ལ།
སྙིང་བརྩེ་ངང་ནས་རོགས་རམ་བྱེད།
བོད་མིའི་མཉམ་དུ་ཚོང་འབྲེལ་བྱེད།
དཀར་ཟས་ཐུབ་ན་རབ་ཏུ་བསྔགས།
དུས་ཆེན་རྣམས་ལ་དམར་ཟས་སྤོངས།
རེད་གཟའ་ལྷག་པ་ལྷག་དཀར་བྱེད།
བོད་པས་བོད་པར་ཞེན་ཁོག་བྱེད།
བོད་ཡིག་བོད་སྐད་དམ་འཛིན་བྱེད།
ཕྱི་ནང་ཤེས་བྱ་སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱེད།
གངས་ལྗོངས་བོད་པ་དར་རྒྱས་ཤོག
བོད་ཡུལ་རྟག་ཏུ་གནས་འགྱུར་ཅིག

ལྷག་དཀར་ ནི་ ཞི་རྒོལ་ གྱི་ རྩ་བ་ དང་ རང་དབང་ གི་ སྡོང་བོ་ ཡིན།

2011-07-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

This appeared in Tibet Times.

བསྟན་རྡོར། བོད་ རང་བཙན་ སློབ་ཕྲུག་ ཚོགས་པ།

བཙན་གནོན་ མཚམས་འཇོག་ མ་བྱུང་ གོང་ རང་དབང་ མགོ་འཛུགས་ བྱ་ དགོས། རང་དབང་ ནི་ འཐབ་རྩོད་ ཀྱི་ བསྒུབ་བྱ་ ཙམ་ མ་ཡིན་པར་ དེའི་ སྒྲུབ་བྱེད་ ཀྱང་ རེད། རང་དབང་ སྒྲུབ་བྱེད་ ཀྱི་ ལག་ཆ་ གཙོ་བོ་ ཞིག་ ནི་ མི་བསྟུན་པའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ རེད། ད་ཆ་ བོད་ ནང་ མཐུན་ལམ་ མི་བྱེད་པའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ གྱི་ རྩ་བ་ བཙུགས་ ཟིན་པ་ མ་ཟད་ སྡོང་བོའང་ སྐྱེ་བཞིན་ འདུག

བོད་ ནང་གི་ ཞི་རྒོལ་ གྱི་ སྡོང་བོ་ དེ་ནི་ ལྷག་དཀར་ ཡིན། ལྷག་དཀར་ ཞེས་པའི་ མིང་ ནི། སྤྱིར་ རེས་གཟའ་ ལྷག་པ་ འདི་ ༧གོང་ས་མཆོག་ གི་ སྐུའི་ བླ་གཟའ་ ཡིན་པར་ བརྟེན་ ཉི་མ་ དེ་ བདམས་པ་ ཞིག་ ཡིན་པ་ དང་། སྔོན་མ་ ནས་ རེས་གཟའ་ ལྷག་པའི་ ཉིན་ བོད་མི་ མང་པོ་ དགོན་པར་ སྐོར་བ་ ལ་ འགྲོ་བ་ དང་། དམར་ཟས་ སྤོང་བ་ སོགས་ དགེ་བའི་ ལས་ སྒྲུབ་པའི་ ལུགས་སྲོལ་ ཡོད། ད་ཆ་ ཆོས་ཕྱོགས་ ཀྱི་ ལས་དོན་ དེ་དག་ སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ དང་ དཔལ་འབྱོར། ཆབ་སྲིད་ ཀྱི་ ལས་དོན་ དུ་ འགྱུར་བཞིན་ འདུག

༢༠༠༨ ལོའི་ སྒེར་ལངས་ ཆེན་པོ་ ནས་ བཟུང་ བོད་ ཀྱི་ ས་ཁུལ་ མང་པོའི་ ནང་ ལས་འགུལ་ གྱི་ ངོ་བོ་ ལ་ འགྱུར་བ་ ཞིག་ ཕྱིན་ཡོད། དེ་ནི་ སྔོན་མ་ ཡིན་ན་ ཆབ་སྲིད་ ལས་འགུལ་ གྱི་ ངོ་བོ་ གཙོ་བོ་ ནི་ སྐད་འབོད་ དང་ ཁྲོམ་བསྐོར་ ཡིན། འོན་ཀྱང་ ད་ཆ་ བོད་མི་ཚོས་ འཐབ་རྩོད་ བྱེད་སྐབས་ སྐད་འབོད་ ཙམ་ མ་ཟད་ མཉམ་འབྲེལ་ སྤོང་བའི་ ཐབས་ལམ་ དང་ མི་བསྟུན་པའི་ ཐབས་ལམ་ སོགས་ སྣ་ཚོགས་ བེད་སྤྱོད་ བྱེད་བཞིན་ འདུག

འདི་ནི་ ལོ་རྒྱུས་ ཀྱི་ རང་བཞིན་ ལྡན་པའི་ འགྱུར་བ་ ཞིག་ རེད་ལ། རྒྱ་གར་ གྱི་ རང་དབང་ འཐབ་རྩོད་ ནང་ ལའང་ ཐོག་མར་ སྐད་འབོད་ དང་ ངོ་རྒོལ་ གྱི་ ཐབས་ལམ་ ཁོ་ན་ བེད་སྤྱོད་ བྱས་ཤིང་། ཕྱིས་སུ་ མཉམ་འབྲེལ་ སྤོང་བའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ དང་ མི་བསྟུན་པའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ བཅས་ བེད་སྤྱོད་ བྱ་རྒྱུ་ མགོ་བཙུགས་ ཏེ་ འཐབ་རྩོད་ དེ་ ཞེ་དྲག་ གི་ ནུས་པ་ ཆེ་རུ་ ཕྱིན་པ་ རེད། དེ་ལྟར་ ང་ཚོའི་ བོད་དོན་ འཐབ་རྩོད་ ཀྱང་ ནུས་པ་ ཆེ་རུ་ གཏོང་ཆེད། སྐད་འབོད་ ཁོ་ནའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ མ་ཡིན་པར་ དེའི་ སྟེང་དུ་ མི་བསྟུན་པའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ ངེས་པར་ དུ་ བསྣན་ དགོས།

༢༠༠༨ ལོའི་ སྒེར་ལངས་ རྗེས་ སུ་ བོད་མི་ མང་པོས་ རྒྱ་གཞུང་ དང་། དེ་བཞིན་ རྒྱ་མིའི་ སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ སོགས་པ་ དང་ མཉམ་འབྲེལ་ སྤངས་བ་ དང་ རྒྱ་མི་ དང་ ཚོང་འབྲེལ་ ཡང་ སྤངས། རང་ གི་ ཉིན་རེའི་ འཚོ་བའི་ ནང་ བྱ་སྤྱོད་ ལ་ འགྱུར་བ་ བཏང་བ་ སྟེ། བོད་ཟས་ བཟའ་བ་ དང་། དགོན་པར་ འགྲོ་བ། བོད་སྐད་ གཙང་མ་ རྒྱག་པ། བོད་ཡིག་ འབྲི་ཀློག་ བྱེད་པ། བོད་པའི་ ཟ་ཁང་ དང་ ཚོང་ཁང་ ནས་ ཉོ་ཚོང་ བྱེད་པ་ལས། རྒྱ་མིའི་ ཟ་ཁང་ དང་ ཚོང་ཁང་ ནས་ མི་ཉོ་བ། བཅས་ཀྱི་ ལས་འགུལ་ སྤེལ་རྒྱུ་ མགོ་འཛུགས་ བྱས་འདུག

ལས་འགུལ་ དེ་དག་ གི་ རྐྱེན་པས་ གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ ཆུང་བ་ ཁ་ཤས་ ནང་ རྒྱ་མི་ མང་པོ་ ཚོང་གི ཁེ་སྤོགས་ སྐྱོ་དྲག་ ནས་ རྒྱ་ནག་ ལ་ ལོག་པ་ སོགས་ བྱུང་འདུག འདི་ནི་ ཧ་ཅང་ གི་ གྲུབ་འབྲས་ ཆེན་པོ་ རེད། ད་བར་ རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་ གནོན་ཤུགས་ དང་ ཨ་རིའི་ རེ་སྐུལ། བོད་གཞུང་ གི་ འབོད་སྐུལ་ བཅས་ གང་ གིས་ ཀྱང་ གཏོང་ མི་ཐུབ་པའི་ འགྱུར་བ་ ཞིག་ བོད་ ནང་གི་ བོད་མིས་ ཞི་བའི་ འཐབ་རྩོད་ ལ་ བརྟེན་ཏེ། གཏོང་ཐུབ་ཡོད། དེར་བརྟེན། ཐབས་ཇུས་ ཡག་པོ་ གདིང་ ཐུབ་ན་ རྒྱལ་ཁ་ འདི་ ལས་ ཀྱང་ ཆེ་བ་ མང་པོ་ ཏན་ཏན་ འཐོབ་ སྲིད།

ངའི་ གོ་ཐོས་ ལ་ དེང་སང་ བོད་པ་ མང་པོས་ ཕན་ཚུན་ སྐད་ཆ་ ཤོད་སྐབས་ རྒྱ་སྐད་ ཤོར་ན་ ངོ་ཚ་བོ་ བྱེད་ཀྱི་ འདུག་ཟེར། གཞན་ཡང་ ཟ་ཁང་ ནང་ ལ་ ཁ་ལག་ མངགས་དུས་ བོད་སྐད་ མ་རྒྱབ་ ན་ ཁ་ལག་ མ་རག་པའི་ སྐོར་ ཡང་ གོ་ཐོས་ བྱུང་། དེ་ཡང་ ལྷ་ས་ དང་ གཞིས་རྩེ། དེ་མིན་ ཁམས་ དང་ ཨ་མདོའི་ ས་ཆ་ མང་པོའི་ ནང་ ལྷག་དཀར་ གྱི་ ཉམས་ལེན་ མགོ་ ཚུགས་ ཡོད་འདུག ད་ཆ་ བོད་ནང་ ལྷག་དཀར་ གྱི་ མིང་ བེད་སྤྱོད་ བྱེད་མིན་ ལ་ མ་ལྟོས་པར་ མི་བསྟུན་པའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ ཉམས་ལེན་ བྱེད་མཁན་ དམའ་མཐར་ སྟོང་ཕྲག་ ཁ་ཤས་ ཡོད་པ་ གསལ་པོ་ རེད། ལོ་ ཁ་ཤས་ རྗེས་སུ་ ལས་འགུལ་ འདིའི་ ནང་ འཛུལ་ཞུགས་ བྱེད་མཁན་ འབུམ་ ཁ་ཤས་ བཟོ་ ཐུབ་ ན་ བོད་དོན་ འཐབ་རྩོད་ ཀྱི་ ནུས་པ་ ཧ་ཅང་ ཚད་ མཐོ་བོ་ ཞིག་ ལ་ སླེབས་ངེས་ རེད།

མི་བསྟུན་པའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ གྱི་ དགེ་མཚན་ གཙོ་བོ་ ནི་ ཐབས་ལམ་ འདི་དག་ ལག་ལེན་ བསྟར་མཁན་ གྱི་ གང་ཟག་ དེ་ རྒྱ་གཞུང་ གིས་ འཛིན་བཟུང་ བྱེད་པའི་ ཉན་ཁ་ ཆུང་ དུ་ འགྲོ་བཞིན་ ཡོད། རྒྱ་གཞུང་ གི་ ཉེན་རྟོག་པ་ ཞིག་ གིས་ ཁྱེད་རང་ བོད་པའི་ ཟ་ཁང་ ལ་ ཁ་ལག་ ཟས་འདུག་ ཟེར་ནས་ འཛིན་བཟུང་ བྱེད་སྲོལ་ མེད་ལ། ཡང་ ཁྱེད་རང་ རྒྱ་མིའི་ ཚོང་ཁང་ ནས་ དངོས་པོ་ གང་ཡང་ ཉོས་ མི་འདུག་ ཅེས་ ཉེས་བརྡུང་ གཏོང་སྟངས་ ཀྱང་མེད། དེར་བརྟེན་ རིམ་གྱིས་ ལས་འགུལ་ ནང་ ཞུགས་མཁན་ ཡང་ མང་ དུ་ འགྲོ་ངེས་ རེད་ལ། ཉེན་ཁ་ ཆུང་བའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ ནང་ འཛུལ་ཞུགས་ བྱེད་མཁན་ ཡང་ མང་ དུ་ འགྲོ་བ་ འཇིག་རྟེན་ ཆོས་ཉིད་ རེད། འོན་ཀྱང་ ལས་འགུལ་ འདིའི་ ནང་ འཛུལ་ཞུགས་ བྱེད་མཁན་ ཆེས་ མང་པོ་ བྱུང་དུས་ ལས་འགུལ་ གྱི་ ནུས་པ་ ཧ་ཅང་ གི་ ཚད་ མཐོ་བོར་ འགྱུར་ཞིང་། རྒྱ་གཞུང་ དང་ བོད་ ནང་ ཡོད་པའི་ རྒྱ་མིའི་ སྒྲིག་འཛུགས་ ལ་ བརྡབ་གསིག་ ཆེན་པོ་ གཏོང་ ཐུབ་ངེས་ རེད།

འདི་ ནི་ སེམས་དཔའ་ ཆེན་པོ་ གྷན་དྷི་ མཆོག་ གིས་ རྒྱ་གར་ ལ་ དབྱིན་ཇིའི་ འོག་ནས་ རང་དབང་ ཐོབ་ཆེད་ སྤེལ་བའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ དང་ གཅིག་པ་ གཅིག་ཀྱང་ རེད། ལོ་རྒྱུས་ ལ་ ཕྱི་མིག་ བལྟས་དུས་ རྒྱ་གར་ མི་མང་ གིས་ དབྱིན་ཇིའི་ གཞུང་ ལ་ ལོ་ངོ་ ༢༠༠ ལྷག་ རིང་ འཐབ་རྩོད་ བྱས་ཡོད་ ཀྱང་། ༡༩༢༩ ནས་ བཟུང་ མི་བསྟུན་པའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ མ་སྤེལ་ བར་ དུ་ དབྱིན་ཇིའི་ གཞུང་ གིས་ རྒྱ་གར་ གྱི་ འཐབ་རྩོད་ ལ་ བརྩི་མེད་ བཏང་ ཡོད། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ འདི་ལ་ བརྟེན་ཏེ་ མི་བསྟུན་པའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ གྱི་ ནུས་པ་ དང་ སྟོབས་ཤུགས་ ངོ་མ་ ནི་ ལོ་རྒྱུས་ ཀྱི་ རྡོ་རིང་ སྟེང་ འཁོད་ཡོད།

བོད་ ནང་ ལ་ ལྷག་དཀར་ སྲུང་བརྩི་ ཞུ་བ་ ནང་བཞིན་ བཙན་བྱོལ་ ནང་ ལའང་ སྲུང་བརྩི་ ཞུ་མཁན་ མང་ དུ་ འགྲོ་དགོས། བཙན་བྱོལ་ གྱི་ རང་དབང་ བེད་སྤྱོད་ བྱས་ཏེ་ རེས་གཟའ་ ལྷག་པ་ ཙམ་ མ་ཟད་ ཉིན་ལྟར་ ཐབས་ལམ་ སྣ་ཚོགས་ ཀྱི་ སྒོ་ནས་ ལས་འགུལ་ སྤེལ་ དགོས། གོ་སྐབས་ བྱུང་ཚད་ བོད་དོན་ སྐོར་ གླེང་བ་ དང་། དྲ་རྒྱའི་ སྟེང་ བོད་དོན་ སྐོར་ འབྲི་བ་ དང་། ཁྲོམ་ལ་ འགྲོ་དུས་ རྒྱ་ནག་ གིས་ བཟོས་བའི་ ཅ་ལག་ མི་ཉོ་བ་ དང་། ཡང་ཡང་ རྒྱ་ནག་ གི་ གཞུང་ཚབ་ མདུན་ དུ་ ངོ་རྒོལ་ གྱི་ རྣམ་པ་ དུ་མ་ སྟོན་པ་ དང་། ཕན་ཚུན་ སྐད་ཆ་ ཤོད་དུས་ བོད་སྐད་ གཙང་མ་ རྒྱག་པ་ དང་། བོད་ཡིག་ གསར་ཤོག་ ཀློག་པ་ དང་། ངོ་དེབ་ དང་ གློག་འཕྲིན་ ཐོག་ བོད་ཡིག་ གང་མང་ འབྲི་བ། ཆབ་སྲིད་ བཙོན་པའི་ ནང་མི་ སོགས་ ལ་ རོགས་འདེགས་ བྱེད་པ་ དང་། རྒྱ་མིའི་ དཔོན་རིགས་ གང་དུ་ སླེབས་ ཀྱང་ ངོ་རྒོལ་ བྱེད་དུ་ འགྲོ་བ་ ལ་ སོགས་པའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ དུ་མའི་ ནང་ ཞུགས་ཏེ། ལྷག་དཀར་ གྱི་ ནུས་པ་ གོང་མཐོར་ བཏང་ ན་ བོད་པའི་ ཞི་བའི་ འཐབ་རྩོད་ དེ་ འཛམ་གླིང་ ཡོངས་ ཀྱིས་ གུས་བརྩི་ བྱེད་པ་ མ་ཟད་ རྒྱ་གཞུང་ གིས་ ཀྱང་ འཇིགས་སྣང་ བྱེད་ས་ ཞིག་ ཏུ་ འགྱུར་ངེས་ རེད།

Noncooperation: མི་རྟོན་པ་དང་། མི་བསྟུན་པ། མཐུན་ལམ་ མི་བྱེད་པ། མཐུན་འབྲེལ་ མི་བྱེད་པ། གང་རུང་ བེད་སྤྱོད་ བྱེད་ཆོག

Disobedience: བཀའ་བརྩི་ དང་ལེན་ མི་ཞུ་བ། བཀའ་ ལ་ མི་བརྩི་བ། གང་རུང་ བེད་སྤྱོད་ བྱེད་ཆོག

ཁ་སིང་བཏང་བའི་ཡི་གེ

2011-05-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

གཞས་ གསར་པའི་ ཚིག་ ད་ལྟ་ བཟོ་བཞིན་པ་ ཡིན།

ཁ་སིང་བཏང་བའི་ཡི་གེ
ད་རིང་ཚུར་ལ་ལོག་བཞག
ཁ་བྱང་ནོར་བ་བྲིས་འདུག་ལབ་ཀྱི།

ཨ་མ་ལགས་ཀྱིས་ང་ལ།
ལབ་ཡག་དྲན་པ་བརྗེད་ནས།
ཁང་པ་སྤོ་བ་ཡིན་གྱི་མ་རེད།

...གཞས་ཚིག་ གཞན་ ད་ལྟ་ འབྲི་བཞིན་པ་ ཡིན།།

An Open Letter to the Panchen Lama

2011-04-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

April 25, 2011

Dear Gendun Choekyi Nyima,

I don't think you will receive this letter. I know that you're being watched, monitored and controlled 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But deep down I have this stubborn hope that maybe you will hear us. Maybe you'll see us typing these words in New York, as you turn 22.

I am writing on behalf of Students for a Free Tibet, an organization with more than 50,000 members in over 100 countries. Every one of us are thinking of you at this moment. Ever since you were abducted by the Chinese government at age 6, we lost touch with you. We don't know where you are, or how you are. But after all these years, we're still thinking of you and fighting for your freedom. We're not giving up.

22 is a great age to be, at least for the average boy. When I was 22, I was in my final year of college, excited but nervous at the prospect of entering the real world. I wonder how you're feeling as you turn 22, another year in captivity, for committing no crime except that of being the Panchen Lama. The Chinese government has robbed you of your childhood, your adolescence, your identity, your rights, your friendships, and your country.

No matter what you've been told by your minders and tutors appointed by Beijing, there is a world out here where people are searching for you. Tibetans and supporters hang your photo in their homes or carry it in their wallets. Mothers hold your image to their chest, your photograph wet from tears and crumpled from years of separation. We have not forgotten you. In fact, with each passing year of your absence, your presence is burnt ever deeper into our memory.

Your previous incarnation, the 10th Panchen Lama, is remembered for his monumental contribution to the Tibetan nation. What is less known about him is that he was also a great Buddhist scholar. In this time of suffering and oppression, he would have enlightened us to the reality that nothing is permanent, not even China's oppression in Tibet. Only freedom and truth will endure the test of time.

The Chinese empire stands on a foundation of lies, and these lies are falling apart. We know that the forces that keep you imprisoned are running out of time. As the world moves from darkness to light, from oppression to freedom, from dictatorship to democracy, we can see the fog clearing up on the horizon. The day is not far when you will join the real world, to live a free life, to take your rightful seat at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery.

Sending you wishes and prayers on your 22nd birthday. May you celebrate your next birthday in freedom.

Tibet will be free.

With hands folded in reverence, most sincerely yours,

Tendor
Students for a Free Tibet

From Tahrir Square to Tiananmen Square

2011-02-26T21:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I learned that the jasmine flower is believed to have originated from Tibet! If this is true, there is a poignant serendipity in the fact that "Jasmine" has come to be a term applied to the revolution in Tunisia, and now it has become a banned word in China. In fact, "Jasmine" has not only been banned as a word, but it's been banned also as a flower.

Last Sunday, when Chinese responding to an online call for a Jasmine rally turned up outside a McDonald's in Beijing, they were immediately arrested. A few Chinese were arrested for carrying jasmine flowers in their hands!

First they banned "Egypt." Then they banned "Jasmine." What will they ban next?

Click here to read a longer article I wrote in the Huffington Post, explaining why China is not immune to the winds of change blowing from the Arab world.

Tahrir vs Tiananmen

2011-02-02T15:21:00.000-08:00

The Chinese govt is censoring the words "Egypt" and "Cairo" online, because obviously they're scared to death of the infectious nature of peaceful uprisings. I can't help secretly thinking what a great moment this would be for the Chinese people to rise up for democracy, and apply the lessons they've learned from the Tiananmen Square movement. Or will China miss the boat again?

How is Tahrir Square different from Tiananmen Square? That is a question worth asking, even though history is still unfolding in Tahrir Square as Egyptians are holding their ground against Mubarak's thugs.

Will Egypt succeed where China failed? And why did Tiananmen fail in 1989 in spite of the hope and idealism with which the movement began? It is worthwhile to examine the strategic and tactical flaws that prevented the Tiananmen movement from succeeding.

If the democratic uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt spread to China today, are the Chinese people better prepared for the fight?

The Great Wall, the Empty Fortress

2011-01-10T21:16:00.000-08:00

It is almost common knowledge that the Chinese empire is weaker than it looks. But here is one concrete evidence that highlights this fact. Kerry Brown of Chatham House in London provides a piercing analysis of China's overpowering weaknesses:

"One is the amount of money that’s being spent on internal security. According to its official budget, China spent about $80 billion on defence in 2009 (although the United States and others would argue that even this massive figure underestimates the true scale). But more remarkably, it spent almost as much—$75 billion—on internal security.

Keeping the lid on Xinjiang and Tibet has clearly required massive amounts of central government cash, as has policing China’s restless provinces and dealing with public unrest. Indeed, those who venture outside the grand cities of Shanghai and Beijing see a country with surprising levels of fractiousness and casual violence."

Read more here: http://youngtibet.com/2010/11/how-china-is-weaker-than-it-looks/

When Gandhi became an "Independence-wala"

2011-01-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

I've been reading "Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power," an old book published in 1960, authored by Gene Sharp. I came across this interesting facet of the Indian freedom movement that many of us in the Tibetan struggle may not be aware of:

"The young men led by Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru wanted a declaration of independence to be followed by a war of independence. Gandhi suggested a two years' warning to the British before undertaking a campaign and issuing a declaration of independence. This would also be a period of preparation, involving constructive programme work, enlarging the nation-wide Congress organization and making it more effective and disciplined. Under pressure Gandhi settled for one year. Unless India had achieved her freedom under Dominion Status by December 31, 1929, Gandhi declared, "I must declare myself an Independence-wala (man). I have burnt my boats." The year 1929 was to be decisive."

This excerpt reveals the frustration the Indian leaders were going through at the time because the British rulers had not given India real Dominion Status, a form of internal autonomy for India within the British empire, an arrangement not unlike what the Tibetan government is asking for today within the framework of the Chinese empire.

But India's battle for freedom under Dominion Status was suddenly bolstered when the leaders gave the British an ultimatum, a deadline by which their demands for internal autonomy must be met. If the British did not honor India with real autonomy by December 31, 1929, the Indian leaders including Gandhi would declare independence as the goal of their struggle. No wonder 1929 proved to be a critical year in the Indian struggle for freedom.

In order to strengthen the position of the Tibetan government vis a vis China, it seems critical that Dharamsala's demands for genuine autonomy must be attached to a deadline. Without a deadline, Beijing will play the waiting game forever.

What if Dharamsala comes up with a deadline, such as, say, February 13, 2013? (the day that marks 100 years since the 13th Dalai Lama restored Tibetan sovereignty in 1913). What if Dharamsala warns that if China does not meet Tibetan leaders' demands for autonomy by this date, it will then declare independence as its goal? This would seriously shake many assumptions in Beijing, while bolstering the Tibet movement beyond imagination. In short, wouldn't that put China on the defensive?

Can 2013 become for Tibet what 1929 was for India?

On the passing of Gene Smith

2011-01-01T10:23:00.000-08:00

I have never met E. Gene Smith, the Tibet scholar who created the largest archive of Tibetan Buddhist cannon in the world. I have long wanted to visit him to thank him for his monumental contribution to Tibetan Buddhist heritage, but tragically, he passed away last week.

Gene Smith's legacy is beautifully captured in Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche's eulogy. Click here to read.

འོད་དཀར་ དྲ་ཚིགས་ མཉམ་དུ་ དྲི་བ་དྲི་ལན་ བྱེད་པ།

2010-12-27T13:07:00.000-08:00

ཟླ་བ་ ༡༡ ནང་ ང་ རྒྱ་གར་ ལ་ ཡོད་དུས་ འོད་དཀར་ དྲ་ཚིགས་ མཉམ་དུ་ དྲི་བ་དྲི་ལན་ ཞིག་ བྱེད་པ་ ཡིན།

དྲི་བ་ གཏོང་མཁན་ ཤིང་ཟ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ རེད། དྲི་བ་ མང་ཆེ་བ་ ཆབས་སྲིད་ དང་ འབྲེལ་བ་ ཡོད་ཀྱང་ ཁ་ཤས་ ཤིག་ སྒེར་ལ་ འབྲེལ་བ་ ཡོད་པ་ དེ་འདྲ་ ཡོད།

དྲི་བ་ དང་ ལན་ འདི་གར་ ཀློག་རོགས་ གནང་།།

The hearts of the oppressed Chinese

2010-12-27T10:25:00.000-08:00

From Gene Sharp:

"The great Indian Gandhian socialist Rammanohar Lohia once wrote that he was tired of hearing only of the need to change the hearts of the oppressors. That was fine, but far more important was the effort to change the hearts of the oppressed. They needed to become unwilling to continue accepting their oppression, and to become determined to build a better society. Weakness in people's determination, and very importantly in their ability to act, makes possible their continued oppression and submission."

In my opinion, this shift has already occurred in Tibet. But I'm wondering how long it will take before we see a similar shift among the Chinese people. Has it already taken place and we just don't know it?

Reading Gene Sharp on Christmas

2010-12-25T21:56:00.000-08:00

As a Tibetan, I am free from the pressure to celebrate Christmas with lights and trees and stockings. But I do observe the holiday every year, by going to the movies with my Jewish friends in Boston. Today, after watching "The King's Speech," I returned home and started reading.

I decided to brush up on some of the writings of Gene Sharp, since I have been able to secure a meeting with him for Monday. For those who're not familiar with his name, let me put it this way: Gene Sharp is the Sun Tzu of nonviolence.

Gene Sharp is the founding scholar of the academic field of nonviolent conflict. In 1973 he published "The Politics of Nonviolent Action," which came to be regarded as the bible of strategic nonviolent action. He has published prolifically in his exceptional career, writing thousands of pages analyzing and deconstructing the methods used by the likes of Gandhi and King as well as less famous nonviolent warriors.

His thought and his books have served as the basis for strategic campaigns in numerous peaceful revolutions from Serbia to Georgia to Ukraine.

Here is an excerpt from his book, "Waging Nonviolent Struggle," a 598-page monster that I would be lucky to have barely skimmed by Monday!

"The question is to what degree people obey without threats, and to what degree they continue to disobey despite punishments. Even the capacity of rulers to detect and punish disobedience depends on the existing pattern of obedience and cooperation. The greater the obedience of the rulers' subjects, the greater the chances of detection and punishment of disobedience and noncooperation. The weaker the obedience and cooperation of the subjects, the less effective the rulers' detection and enforcement will be."

How true! If a million people disobey, the state would have no capacity to punish them all.

Not everything Sharp has written is dense or long. Here is an online version of Sharp's short and most engaging pamphlet, "From Dictatorship To Democracy," which should be mandatory reading for anyone who desires nonviolent change: http://www.hermanos.org/nonviolence/dictodem.html

And here is a Tibetan language version of the same pamphlet, available in PDF: http://www.dawakarpo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2683:2010-05-18-01-28-05&catid=56:2009-06-25-09-28-34&Itemid=125

With or without the zero

2010-12-25T18:53:00.000-08:00

I am turning 31 in a few days. To be honest, it's much less exciting than, say, turning 20, or even 30! The number 31 just doesn't have the appearance or the feeling of a milestone. It must be the zero - or the absence of it - that makes a number look epic - or meaningless.

However, not every number owes its significance to the hypocritical and self-important zero. Take 1911 for example - a number with no zero.

1911 was a watershed year for Tibet. The 13th Dalai Lama was in exile in British-ruled India following the Manchu invasion of Tibet, when the Chinese revolution reached its peak and toppled the Manchu dynasty. The Tibetans seized the moment and expelled the Manchu forces from Tibet. Two years later the Dalai Lama returned to an independent Tibet.

2011 will mark a hundred years since the collapse of the Manchu empire and the birth of modern day independent Tibet. It's a year bursting with the potential to become another watershed moment for Tibet.

Today, Tibetans are blazing the way for mass dissent and civil disobedience, setting an example for the millions of disempowered Chinese pining for freedom and democracy. There are countless Tibetan heroes who are leading the movement at the grassroots level, and many who are giving a voice to the silenced multitude by writing essays and books. One such person is Dolma Kyab, a 34-year-old writer and teacher, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence because of his open critique of the Chinese government. Beijing is fast realizing that it can imprison Tibetans but not their ideas and words.

In light of the millions of restless Chinese peasants and migrant workers nursing their growing grievances against corruption, inequality, poverty, and repression, China is showing all the signs of a weak empire and a brittle state. Throw in the mix some wild cards like the internet and environmental devastation, and the Chinese Communist Party seems a hundred times more impermanent than the melting glaciers in the Himalayas.

So what will this mean for Tibet? We need to be ready to seize the moment -- just like the Tibetans of a different generation seized the opportunity in 1911. Which means, we need the Tibetan freedom struggle to be strong, fast, strategic, and resourceful.

Like many Tibetans, nothing is more dear to me than my wish to live in a free Tibet in my own lifetime. I am confident that the Tibetan people will be ready in the coming years - just like we were in 1911 - to seize the moment to restore Tibet's independence and take our rightful place in the global community of nations.

Giving Liu Xiaobo the Thangka Treatment

2010-12-12T13:23:00.000-08:00

Last Friday was a historic day for Chinese, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other people living under the yoke of the Chinese empire. Liu Xiaobo, a little known writer-activist in China who will now become a household name around the world, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In New York we held an event to honor Liu's contribution to humanity, where Tibetan artist Rigdol and Chinese artist Zhang Hongtu created a Liu Xiaobo portrait in the form of a thangka. I call it, "Giving Liu Xiaobo the thangka treatment," for his unparalleled efforts to promote human rights and democracy in China.

Below is an adapted version of a speech I gave on Friday to a group of media outlets gathered at the Ralph Bunche Park -- mostly to see Richard Gere, not me.

"Good morning and welcome.

Barely two hours ago, Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo as millions of people tuned in to watch this historic moment on television, on the radio, and on the internet. But a fifth of the world’s population, living in the Chinese empire, did not get to share this moment with the rest of the world. The Chinese government, blacked out all broadcasts of the ceremony. To some this is a display of Beijing’s power; that it can control all the televisions and all the media outlets in China. But in reality, it’s a display of Beijing’s weakness and brittleness, Beijing doesn’t have the confidence and the courage to let its own people decide what they watch and to share in a moment cherished by the rest of the world.

We stand here this morning to celebrate the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, a writer, an intellectual, a poet, an activist, a reformer. But above all a compassionate individual whose love of life, humanity, freedom, democracy and his nation is far greater than what China's current leadership can ever match.

As a Tibetan exile whose parents fled Tibet to escape from Chinese government persecution following the invasion of my country, I know that Liu Xiaobo has a special place in our hearts. He is one of the first Chinese intellectuals to support the Tibetan struggle. He has expressed in his essays a profound understanding and a deep empathy for the Tibetan people.

As early as 1996, Liu Xiaobo wrote a letter to Jiang Zemin, in which he argued that the Chinese government must respect the Tibetan people’s right to self-determination and open dialogue with the Dalai Lama. One of Liu Xiaobo’s closest friends, Woeser, a Tibetan writer living in Beijing writes.

“I have known Mr. Liu Xiaobo for many years, in fact, I have never referred to him in such a formal and distant way. I still remember that night when he asked me in his stammering voice on Skype to please sign my name under “Charter 08” as a sign of trust towards him and in memory of his long-standing support for the Tibet issue. I signed my name without any hesitation. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested in his home and one year later, concealed by the haze of Christmas celebrations, he was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment. We will never forget when journalists from international media asked his wife Liu Xia how she felt and she replied: “I think one day would already be too long. How are 11 years justified?”

I feel a deep sense of loss for Liu Xia, who is being condemned to spend the next 11 years without her husband at her side. I feel a great sense of outrage that the Chinese government has deprived Liu Xiaobo of 11 years of his life and freedom. And I feel even greater outrage that the Chinese government has deprived the world of 11 years Liu Xiaobo's presence.

But I'm hopeful that in the end it will not be for 11 years, because the Chinese government will not last that long. Endemic corruption, environmental disasters, grassroots pressure, global isolation, and too many other factors are shaking the Community Party's foundations.

We are standing at this busy road across the United Nations; we’re also standing at a historic crossroads. One line in Charter 08 reads, “The future of China hangs in balance.” I believe the future no longer hangs in balance; the balance of history has tipped toward democracy and freedom. And with it Chinese imperialism will end and people like Liu Xiabo will take their rightful place in history.

I thank you for joining us today and hope that you will continue to speak out for human rights and freedom in China, in Tibet, and indeed throughout the world."

བོད་ཡིག་ བོད་སྐད་ འཕེལ་རྒྱས་ གཏོང་བའི་ ཐབས་ལམ་ བཅུ།།

2010-11-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

ཁ་བརྡ་ རྩོམ་སྒྲིག་ ཚོགས་ཆུང་ གིས་ བསྒྱུར་བའི་ བོད་སྐད་ བོད་ཡིག་ འཕེལ་རྒྱས་ གཏོང་བའི་ ཐབས་ལམ་ བཅུ་ འདིར་ གཟིགས་རོགས།།
http://www.khabdha.org/?p=13517
ཐབས་ལམ་ ཚང་མ་ ལས་སླ་བོ་ ཤ་ཏག་ རེད།
ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ།།

Ten Ways to Promote Tibetan Language

2010-11-20T18:07:00.000-08:00

Tibetans in Tibet are taking great risks to fight for their right to study in their mother tongue while China tries to marginalize the Tibetan language. To support the conservation of Tibetan language, we can all contribute by taking some simple actions. Tibetan version of this guide can be found here: http://www.khabdha.org/?p=13517

1. Listen to Tibetan news at RFA (http://rfa.org/), VOA (http://voanews.com/), and VOT (http://vot.org/) weekly. Watch VOA’s incredibly popular Kunleng TV twice a week: http://www.voanews.com/tibetan-english/news/.

2. Read Tibetan news at least once a week at Bodkyi Dusbab (http://tibettimes.net/), Bodkyi Bangchen (http://tibetexpress.net/), http://Khabdha.org/. Read poems and essays by persecuted writers: Tashi Rapten, Kunga Tsangyang (http://freekunga.com/), Shogdung, Kalsang Tsultrim, Dolma Kyab, and Jamyang Kyi at http://wokar.net/.

3. Install Tibetan unicode on your computer so that you can type in Tibetan. Download the software at http://lobsangmonlam.org/. It’s as easy as ཀ་ ཁ་ ག་ ང་། and it’s compatible with Mac as well as Windows.

4. Write Facebook status updates in Tibetan on Wednesdays. “བོད་ ནང་ སློབ་ཕྲུག་ མང་པོས་ སྐད་ཡིག་ རང་དབང་ ཆེད་ སྐད་འབོད་ བྱེད་འདུག” If you don’t have Tibetan installed in your computer, you can use the Tibetan Virtual Keyboard http://apps.facebook.com/tibetankeyboard/?ref=mf

5. Send an occasional email in Tibetan – it will surprise your parents, delight your friends, and confound the hackers!

6. Stop worrying about spelling. One day soon, there will be Tibetan spell-check on your computer. For now, bad spelling is better than no spelling. Besides, you can download Monlam’s online Tibetan dictionary at http://www.4shared.com/get/0o_FOTWt/Monlam_Dictionary.html.

7. Give a Tibetan comic book or picture book to a kid as their holiday gift. If you have a kid, read a Tibetan story to put them to bed. གཟིམས་འཇག་གནང་ངོ་།

8. Listen to contemporary Tibetan music (this is too easy not to). No matter what your taste you will love Rangzen Shonu (http://rangzenshonu.net/), JJI Exile Brothers, Yadong, Kunga, Sherten, Techung, Phurbu T Namgyal, etc.

9. Buy Tibetan books, magazines, CDs (http://semshae.org/) and DVDs. Tibetan writers and artists are churning out works of art and literature, and we must build a global market to consume their products. Let’s vote for Tibetan language with our wallets.

10. Speak in Tibetan whenever possible, not just when sharing secrets on the subway.

This guide is brought to you by the Tibetan staff members of Students for a Free Tibet.
བོད་རང་བཙན་ སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོགས་པའི་ བོད་པའི་ ལས་བྱེད་པ་ རྣམས་ ནས་ ཕུལ།།

Cough up a Yuan for every Chinese word

2010-11-13T03:23:00.000-08:00

Tibetans in Zachukha are taking matters into their own hands. As Chinese authorities attempt to further marginalize the Tibetan language by replacing it with Chinese as the medium of instruction in schools, Tibetans in Sershul Monastery have hit upon a brilliant idea to protect their language from Chinese invasion.

The plan works like this: everyone makes an effort to speak in pure Tibetan in the monastery. Every time someone utters a Chinese word, they get fined a yuan!

"...Chinese government officials including the County leaders and an official from the local United Work Front Department arrived at Sershul monastery and confiscated boxes containing money collected as fine for speaking “Drak kay”, a reference used to describe mix of spoken Tibetan and Chinese languages. The government officials told the monks that the system of levying fine on people over spoken language must be stopped. The monks told them that they had forced no one to comply with the fine system and that the people of the area had voluntarily agreed to be fined if they spoke “Drak kay”."

The news article in Tibet Times goes on to say that since 2008, "Tibetans in the area have been following a rule of sorts to levy penalty of one Yuan on anyone who does not speak pure Tibetan."

It appears that this new self-imposed rule is spreading through other parts of Tibet. It's hard to imagine a better way to preserve our language.

TIBET'S OWN SATYAGRAHA

2010-08-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

WHAT IF GANDHI STYLE SATYAGRAHA WAS WAGED IN TIBET?

I’VE BEEN ASKED THIS QUESTION FOR YEARS. WELL, HERE IS YOUR ANSWER: LHAKAR.

Despite China’s totalitarian rule, Tibetans have embraced the power of strategic nonviolent action. This grassroots revolution is being called Lhakar, which means “White Wednesday” or “Pure Wednesday.” Not surprisingly, the Dalai Lama was born on a Wednesday.

Every Wednesday, a growing number of Tibetans are making a special effort to wear traditional clothes, speak Tibetan, eat at Tibetan restaurants and buy from Tibetan-owned businesses. They channel their spirit of resistance into social, cultural and economic activities that are self-constructive (promoting Tibetan language and culture) and non-cooperative (refusing to support Chinese institutions and businesses).

Since 2008, Beijing has locked down the streets to deter protests. But the resistance has not abated; it has simply moved indoors. Lhakar participants nurture Tibetan tradition in their homes and daily lives, strengthening their cultural identity, social networks and political impact. Through Lhakar they are saying, “We are Tibetan.”

This cultural revival is also ushering in the Tibetan equivalent of the Renaissance. Musicians, writers, and painters are changing the landscape of Tibetan arts and literature, producing an endless stream of songs, essays, and other artwork that express the Tibetan people’s unfathomable pain, occasional joy, and constant yearning. The courage that fueled the 2008 uprising has emboldened the vision with which this new Tibetan art is bursting into the world. The political movement is feeding the arts, and the arts are feeding the movement right back.

Exiled Tibetans have started campaigns to mirror these activities. Tibetans in Boston, USA hold vigils every Wednesday, making a Lhakar pledge to continue the vigil until Tibet is free. SFT has launched our monthly Renaissance Series: amplifying everything banned in Tibet. Tibet supporters have pledged to educate their political representatives on Tibet, while others have pledged to boycott made-in-China products.

This gathering storm – a combination of cultural renaissance and political revolution – will ultimately wipe out China’s oppression, leaving in its wake a Tibet ruled by Tibetans. Half a century after Gandhi died, his satyagraha is reborn in Tibet. This time its name is Lhakar.

From SFT's official Newsletter 'Banned in Tibet'
To download the Newsletter: http://blog.studentsforafreetibet.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/STUFT1-36887_Newsletter_web.pdf

North Korea facing collapse, China facing change

2010-07-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

I just read this insightful New Yorker article titled, "Is North Korea Finally Facing Collapse?" by Barbara Demick.

For the people of North Korea, living in perpetual famine under a ruthless dictator, the best thing that can happen actually might be the collapse of their state. It will provide the opening, if nothing else, for the birth of a real nation liberated from the oppressive system engineered by the Kim dynasty.

As a Tibetan, I'm interested in what will happen to China in the event of a North Korean collapse. Dictators have a tradition of looking out for each other - a sort of a brotherhood among thugs. Beijing has been propping up the regimes in North Korea and Burma and Sudan, and these countries give their votes to China in return.

But when North Korea changes, China will be left as one of the only countries in Asia that are nondemocratic and oppressive. Might this phenomenon rush China toward democratic change? Or might it make Beijing even more defensive and careful about keeping their stranglehold on power?

There is no doubt Beijing will fight harder to delay democracy. But if the one billion Chinese fight back, there's no doubt who will win.

The Tongue of Our Mothers

2010-07-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

Tibetan as a language has a great history and a rich literature. For centuries it evolved on the Tibetan plateau, its influence often flowing down into other Himalayan cultures such as those of Ladakh, Bhutan, Sikkim, Tawang and so on. Scholars and researchers maintain that Tibetan is the only language today in which one can access the full body of Buddhist literature, including all the root texts and the commentaries.

In the new millennium, when the Tibetan language is thriving in places like Bhutan, Ladakh and, curiously, on the internet, it is coming under systematic attack in Tibet.

Watch this short video from Reuters reporting on how Tibetans in Tibet fear the loss of their mother tongue because of China’s education policies as well as cultural and economic imperialism in Tibet. I hope that the strength of our language and our spirit will withstand China’s effort to forcibly assimilate us.

འཚེ་བ་ཅན་ གྱི་ ཞི་བ་

2010-07-10T00:13:00.000-07:00

ཞི་བ་ དང་ འཚེ་མེད་ ཞི་བའི་ བར་ ཁྱད་པར་ ཡོད་དམ། མི་ མང་པོས་ ཚིག་ གཉིས་པོ་ དེ་ དོན་གཅིག་ མིང་ གི་ རྣམ་གྲངས་ ལ་ ངོས་འཛིན་ བྱེད་ཀྱི་ འདུག འོན་ཀྱང་ ཚིག་ འདི་གཉིས་ བར་ ལ་ ཁྱད་པར་ ཆེན་པོ་ ཡོད།

ཞི་བ་ ཡིན་ ན་ འཚེ་བ་ མེད་པས་ མ་ཁྱབས། འཚེ་བ་ མེད་ ན་ ཞི་བ་ ཡིན་པས་ མ་ཁྱབས། འོན་ཀྱང་ སྐབས་རེ་ འཚེ་བ་ ཡོད་ཀྱང་ ཞི་བ་ མིན་པའི་ མ་ཁྱབས། ཡང་ན་ འཚེ་བ་ ཡོད་ཀྱང་ དྲག་པོ་ ཡིན་པས་ མ་ཁྱབས།

བྱས་ན་ དྲག་པོ་ དང་ འཚེ་བའི་ བར་ ཁྱད་པར་ གང་ ཡོད་པ་ ཞིབས་འཇུག་ བྱེད་ དགོས། དྲག་པོ་ ཞེས་པ་ ནི་ སེམས་ཅན་ གཞན་ གྱི་ ལུས་ཁམས་ ལ་ རྨས་སྐྱོན་ གཏོང་བའི་ བྱ་བ་ གང་ཞིག་ ལ་ གོ་བ་ ཡིན། འཚེ་བ་ ནི་ སེམས་ཅན་ ལ་ ལུས་ ངག་ ཡིད་ གང་རུང་ ཐོག་ནས་ གནོད་པ་ བྱེད་པའི་ བྱ་བ་ གང་ཞིག་ ལ་ གོ་བ་ ཡིན།

གལ་ཏེ་ མི་ ཞིག་ ལ་ ཚིག་ངན་ ཞིག་ བཤད་ ནས་ ཁོ་ ལ་ སྡུག་བསྔལ་ བཟོ་ན་ དེ་ལ་ འཚེ་བ་ ཟེར་ ཆོག འོན་ཀྱང་ ཚིག་ངན་ བཤད་པ་ དེ་ དྲག་པོའི་ ལས་སུ་ ངོས་འཛིན་ མ་བྱེད། གང་ལ་ ཟེར་ན་ ལས་དེས་ སྲོག་གཅོད་ དམ་ ལུས་ལ་ རྨས་སྐྱོན་ གཏོང་གི་ མེད་པས་ ཕྱིར།

རྒྱལ་ཁབས་ ཀྱི་ རང་དབང་ ཐབ་རྩོད་ ནང་ ཞུགས་ནས་ སྡུག་རྩུབ་ཅན་ གྱི་ གཞུང་ ཞིག་ ལ་ ཁ་གཏད་ གཅོག་དུས། དྲག་པོའི་ ལས་ཀ་ སྤང་རྒྱུ་ གལ་ཆེ་ ཡང་ འཚེ་བ་ མེད་པའི་ ལས་ཀ་ སྤང་རྒྱུ་ ནི་ ཧ་ཅང་ ཁག་པོ་ རེད། རྒྱ་གར་ གྱི་ རང་དབང་ ཐབ་རྩོད་པ་ རྒན་དིས་ དྲག་པོའི་ ལས་ཀ་ བྱས་ མེད་ ཀྱང་། འཚེ་བ་ཅན་ གྱི་ ལས་ཀ་ བྱས་ ཡོད་པར་ འདོད་ ཐུབ། ཁོང་གིས་ འགོ་འཁྲིད་ ནས་ དབྱིན་ཇིའི་ ཚོང་ཁང་ ལ་ ཉོ་ཚོང་ སྤོང་བའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ སྤེལ་དུས་ རྒྱ་གར་བ་ ས་ཡ་ མང་པོས་ མཉམ་ཞུགས་ བྱས་ནས། དབྱིན་ཇིའི་ ཚོང་ ལ་ གྱོང་ ཆེན་པོ་ བཏང་བ་ མ་ཟད། དབྱིན་ཇིའི་ སྐྱེ་མན་ མང་པོ་ བཟོ་གྲའི་ ལས་ཀ་ ཤོར་བ་ རེད།

རྒན་དིའི་ ཉོ་ཚོང་ སྤོང་བའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ དེས་ དབྱིན་ཇི་རྣམས་ ལ་ འཚེ་བ་ བྱས་ཀྱང་ ཞི་བའི་ སྒོ་ནས་ བྱས་པ་ རེད། དེར་ དྲག་པོ་ རྩ་བ་ ནས་ ཟེར་ མི་རུང་། བྱས་ཙང་ ང་ཚོའི་ ཐབ་རྩོད་ ནང་ལའང་ ཞི་བའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ འཚེ་བ་ཅན་ འགའ་ཞིག་ སྤེལ་ ཐུབ་ན་ ཡག་པོ་ ཡོང་ས་ རེད།

རི་ལིའི་འགེ་ཁུང་ Through the Window of a Train

2010-07-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

རི་ལིའི་ འགེ་ཁུང་ ནང་ ནས་ ལྟ་དུས།
བཅོ་ལྔའི་ ཟླ་བ་ མཐོང་ བྱུང་།
གནམ་གྲུའི་ འགེ་ཁུང་ ནང་ ནས་ ལྟ་དུས།
གངས་རི་ དཀར་སྐྱང་ མཐོང་ བྱུང་།
སེམས་པའི་ འགེ་ཁུང་ ནང་ ནས་ ལྟ་དུས།
ཡིད་བཞིན་ ནོར་བུའི་ ཞལ་རས་ ལྷངས་ལྷངས་ མཇལ་ བྱུང་།

བྱེ་ཐང་ སྟེང་ གི་ ཆུ་ དང་།
གཙང་པོ་ བརྒལ་བའི་ ཟམ་པ།
དགུན་ཁའི་ སྐབས་ ཀྱི་ ཉི་མ།
དབྱར་ཁའི་ སྐབས་ ཀྱི་ ལྗང་ཤིང་།
མཚན་མོ་ ནག་པོའི་ སྐབས་ ཀྱི་ ཟླ་བ།

ལྷ་སའི་ ཁྲུང་ཁྲུང་ དཀར་མོ། རྒྱ་གར་ ཤར་ལ་ ཕེབས་ ཞག
ལས་ ལ་ བཀོད་པ་ རེད་དེ། ལྡོག་ཐབས་ མེད་པ་ མ་རེད།

This song is dedicated to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I wrote this in 2003 while riding a train from Brown University to Boston.

Beijing: In Power, But Not In Control

2010-06-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

21 years after the Chinese Communist Party massacred thousands of peaceful protesters in Tiananmen Square, the same thugs are still ruling China and its occupied territories. They are still in power no doubt, but are they in control?

The answer to this question can be found in the Tiananmen Mothers, the fearless critics of Beijing's denial of history. Ignoring the threats of arrest from the police, the Tiananmen Mothers continue to demand that the government apologize for killing their sons and daughters on June 4, 1989. Last week they published a moving essay to commemorate their children who have been denied even their death.

The answer can be found in Tibet, where virtual martial law and surveillance cameras and rooftop snipers have not silenced the creative minds who continue to write about freedom, sing about their imprisoned friends, and call for Tibetans to observe civil disobedience to weaken the regime's hold over Tibet. Beijing has increased internet police and shut down cyber cafes, but that hasn't stopped the Tibetan blogosphere from churning out an endless stream of words affirming Tibetan identity, investigating Tibet's history, and advocating Tibet's future.

The answer is so simple it can be posed as a question: If Beijing cannot control a dozen elderly mothers, if Beijing cannot control six million Tibetans, how can it ever control one billion Chinese?

སྐྱེ་དམན་ ཞེས་པའི་ ཚིག་ གི་ འབྱུང་ཁུངས།

2010-05-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

"སྐྱེ་དམན་" ཞེས་པའི་ ཚིག་ འདིའི་ འབྱང་ཁུངས་ སྐོར་ ག་དུས་ སྐད་ཆ་ བཤད་ ཀྱང་ བོད་པ་ ཕོ་མོ་ ཚང་མ་ བོ་སུ་དོག་པོ་ དང་ ངོ་ཚ་བོ་ དང་ རླུང་ཚ་བོ་ ཆགས་ འགྲོ་གི་ ཡོད། ཚིག་ འདི་ནི་ རྣ་བར་ ཐོས་ན་ མ་སྙན་པ་ དང་། དོན་ གོ་ན་ དེ་བས་ཀྱང་ སྡུག་པ་ ཡོད།

རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ནིཿ "སྐྱེ་དམན་" གྱི་ དོན་ སྐྱེ་བ་ དམན་པ་ ལ་ གོ་བ་ རེད། ཆོས་ཕྱོགས་ ནས་ བུད་མེད་ ཚོ་ བུ་ ལས་ སྐྱེ་བ་ དམན་པར་ ངོས་འཛིན་ བྱེད་ཀྱི་ ཡོད་པའི་ ཁུལ་ རེད།

འོན་ཀྱང་ ངས་ མིང་ཚིག་ འདི་ལ་ དཔྱད་པ་ བྱེད་སྐབས་ དེང་སང་ གི་ བོད་མི་ ཚོས་ "སྐྱེ་དམན་" ཞེས་པའི་ ཚིག་ གྱི་ གོ་དོན་ དང་ དག་ཆ་ རྦད་དེ་ ནོར་ འདུག དག་ཆ་ ངོ་མ་ ནི་ སྐྱེས་མིན་ ཡིན་པ་ དང་ གོ་དོན་ ངོ་མ་ ནི་ སྐྱེས་པ་ཕོ་ མ་ཡིན་ པར་ གོ་བས་ "སྐྱེས་མིན་" ནམ་ "སྐྱེས་མན་" ཞེས་ ཡིན་པར་བསམ།

སྐྱེ་དམན་ ཞེས་པའི་ ཚིག་འདི་ འགྲེལ་བརྗོད་ བྱེད་སྐབས་ རྒན་པ་ ཚོས་ གསུང་དོནཿ ནང་ཆོས་ བྱེད་པར་ བུད་མེད་ ཀྱི་ ལུས་པོ་ ལས་ བུ་ཡི་ ལུས་པོ་ ཡག་པ་ དང་ ནུས་པ་ ཆེ་བ་ ཡོད་པ་ སོང་ཙང་ བུད་མེད་ ཀྱི་ ལུས་པོ་ ཐོབ་པ་ དེ་ལ་ སྐྱེ་བ་ དམན་པའམ་ སྐྱེ་དམན་ ཞེས་ མིང་བཏགས། འོན་ཀྱང་ བསམ་བློ་ གཏིང་རིང་ཙམ་ བཏང་ན། བོད་པའི་ སྐད་ དང་ ཚིག་ བྱུང་ནས་ མི་ལོ་ སྟོང་ཕྲག་ མང་པོ་ འགྲོ་གི་ ཡོད། བྱས་ཙང་ བུད་མེད་ དང་ བུ་མོ་ ཟེར་བའི་ ཚིག་ ཀྱང་ བྱུང་ནས་ ལོ་ སྟོང་ཕྲག་ མང་པོ་ འགྲོ་གི་ ཡོད་པར་ ཐག་ཆོད། ཡིན་ནའང་ བོད་ ལ་ ནང་ཆོས་ དར་ ནས་ ལོ་ ༡༢༠༠ ཙམ་ ལས་ འགྲོ་གི་ མེད། དེ་འདྲ་ ཡིན་ན་ བོད་པའི་ ཚིག་ སྐྱེ་དམན་ ཞེས་པ་ བོད་ལ་ ནང་ཆོས་ དར་ ཚར་བའི་ རྗེས་སུ་ བྱུང་བ་ ཞིག་ཡིན་ དགོས། འདི་ནི་ ཧ་ཅང་ ཁག་པོ་ རེད།

དེ་འདྲ་ སོང་ཙང་ ངའི་ བསམ་ཚུལ་ ལཿ བུད་མེད་ ཚོ་ ལ་ ད་ནས་ བཟུང་ "སྐྱེ་དམན་" མ་བརྗོད་ པར་ "སྐྱེས་མན་" ཡང་ན་ "སྐྱེས་མིན་" ཅེས་ ལབ་དགོས།

RENAISSANCE UNDER FIRE

2010-05-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

It is an evil twist of fate that many Tibetan intellectuals and writers get their due recognition only after they're dead or arrested. Gedun Choephel. Dhondup Gyal. Dolma Kyab. Shokjang. Gangnyi. And now, the latest victim of China's wrath, Shogdung (real name: Tagyal) - a leading intellectual recently detained by Chinese authorities. Reading about Shogdung's numerous essays and books further confirmed my long-held opinion that what we have been witnessing is a Tibetan renaissance that is 1000 years overdue. It might take us another century to recognize this too, but future generations will look back at this decade and call it the Tibetan renaissance.

Yes, it's a thousand years overdue but it's finally here. Tibetan Renaissance has begun.

Every day a new book, a new poem, a new essay, or a new pamphlet. Every week a new music album, a new painting, a new thangka, a new exhibition. Every month a new film, a new idea, a new movement, a new school of thought. Writers, poets, musicians, artists, filmmakers are changing the landscape of Tibetan arts and literature. For a culture that has craved isolation and remained static over most of the last millennium, this is a revolution. This is the long overdue Tibetan Renaissance.

Shogdung's book, "གནམ་ས་གོ་འབྱེད་" (Distinguishing Sky from Earth), is one of the hundreds of books and essays written about the Tibetan uprising of 2008. བདེ་སྐྱིད་ནི་རང་དབང་གི་འབྲས་བུ་ཡིན་ལ། རང་དབང་ནི་དཔའ་སྤོབས་ཀྱི་འབྲས་བུ་ཡིན་ནོ།། Shogdung quotes a Greek scholar at the beginning of the book: "Happiness is the result of freedom; freedom is the result of courage." The quote sums up Shogdung's renunciation of fear, which was a step necessary to take before writing anything honest or meaningful.

In a way, the fearlessness that marked the political reawakening of the Tibetan people has contributed to the boldness and brilliance with which the new Tibetan art is bursting into the world. Young Tibetan painters like Gade, Gongkar, Rigdol, and Pekar are dancing on the canvas of modernity with brushstrokes that invoke as well as challenge tradition. Musicians like Yadong and Kunga and Sherten and JJI have electrified the Tibetan masses with lyrics that resonate in our hearts, from the Tibetan grasslands and nightclubs through the exile landscape. Writers like Shogdung, Shogjang, Gangnyi, Tsundue, Bhuchung, Tsering Wangmo, Drugmo, Mountain Phoenix, and of course Woeser, are finally putting into words the unfathomable pain, the occasional joy, and the constant yearning that mark our oppressed or exiled life.

This is the incredible power of Tibetan renaissance. We don't have the hard power of guns and tanks, but we have the soft power of culture and creativity. Chinese authorities can put on the most expensive expo ever in Shanghai, but they cannot create a cultural renaissance in China. The fact that this Tibetan renaissance is taking place at a time of extreme repression in Tibet makes it all the more significant and powerful.

Let's continue this Tibetan renaissance. Let's read more, write more, paint more, travel more, dream more, love more. Khampa youths shall get on the bus and travel to all corners of Tibet, stopping in Lhasa for breakfast, Gyangtse for dinner. Utsangwas shall go to the farthest reaches of Amdo till you hit the bumper of Mongolia - look, Tso Ngonpo is waiting for you. Let's see our beautiful country, let's start our own beat generation.

Seeking the Support of Foreign Governments

2010-03-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

ཁ་སང་ ཨ་རི་ བོད་ཀྱི་ རླུང་འཕྲིན་ཁང་ མཉམ་དུ་ དྲི་བ་དྲི་ལན་ བྱས་ ཡིན་པས། དེའི་ནང་ ཕྱི་རྒྱལ་ ལ་ སྡོད་མཁན་ བོད་པ་ ཚོས་ སོ་སོའི་ ས་གནས་ ཀྱི་ གཞུང་ ལ་ བོད་དོན་ ཆེད་ ཞུ་གཏུག་ བྱེད་རྒྱུ་ གལ་ཆེན་ ཡིན་པའི་ སྐོར་ སྐད་ཆ་ བཤད་ཡོད།

མི་རབས་ གསར་བ་

2010-02-28T07:21:00.000-08:00

མི་རབས་ གསར་བར་ ལང་ཚོ་ ཟེར་བའི་ འབྱོར་བ་ ཞིག་ ཡོད།
མི་རབས་ གསར་བར་ ང་རྒྱལ་ ཟེར་བའི་ སྤོབས་པ་ ཞིག་ ཡོད།
མི་རབས་ གསར་བར་ ཀུ་རེ་ ཟེར་བའི་ རྣམ་འགྱུར་ ཞིག་ ཡོད།
མི་རབས་ གསར་བར་ རང་དབང་ ཟེར་བའི་ བསླུ་བྲིད་ ཅིག་ ཡོད།

གཞས་ འདི་ ཧ་ཅང་ སྙན་པོ་ དང་ ངར་པོ། འཇུག་པོ། འཚམས་པོ་ བཅས་ འདུག
གཞས་པ་ གཡུ་འབྲུག དང་ ཟླ་བ་སྔོན་པོ་ ལ་ ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་ ཞུ་རྒྱུ་ ཡིན།

Tibetans make Gandhi proud

2010-02-21T19:17:00.000-08:00

By Tenzin Dorjee — Special to GlobalPost
Published: February 10, 2010 07:12 ET

NEW YORK — Last year around this time Tibetans decided to observe the traditional New Year — or Losar — as an occasion of mourning for those killed in China’s crackdown in 2008 following the Tibet uprising.

Appeals to forego Losar celebrations spread via text messages, blogs and word of mouth. On Losar, Tibetans stayed at home and ignored the fireworks, defying authorities who wanted them to sing and dance for state media. Overnight Tibetans turned silence — generally a sign of submission — into a weapon of resistance. The No Losar movement was nothing short of civil disobedience in full bloom.

On Feb. 14, Tibetans will again greet Losar with an air of defiance — many are planning not to celebrate while others will embrace cultural traditions as an act of subversive resistance. A couple of days later, U.S. President Obama will meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, sending a signal of hope to Tibetans everywhere. The 2008 Tibetan uprising may now seem a distant memory, but the dust of resistance is far from settled. With the new year, a different kind of storm brews over the Tibetan plateau.

Tibetans from Lhasa and Lithang to Markham and Ngaba have been engaging in experimental forms of nonviolent resistance in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Though China’s intensified repression has created the illusion of normalcy, Tibetans are ushering in a grassroots revolution — one that strengthens Tibetan nationhood and undermines the structure of Chinese colonialism.

This quiet revolution is perhaps best symbolized by Lhakar — a movement whose name means White Wednesday. It’s no secret the Dalai Lama was born on a Wednesday. Every week on this day, a growing number of Tibetans in urban and rural Tibet are making a political statement by wearing traditional clothes, speaking Tibetan, performing circumambulations, eating in Tibetan restaurants and buying from Tibetan-owned businesses. Click here to read more.

Don't Let China Steal Losar

2010-02-05T21:05:00.000-08:00

Losar belongs to Tibet. Losar belongs to the Tibetan people. No one can steal it from us.

I live in a foreign land where Tibetan festivals hold no immediate meaning. Struggling onto crowded subways each morning and each night, avoiding the empty gaze of strangers, the ground I walk upon is many seas and skies away from my mountainous home. So why should I celebrate Losar? The real New Year is already past, any way. Well, the answer is simple: No matter where I live, I am Tibetan, and if I don't celebrate my own tradition, who will?

It has become clear that Chinese authorities have been encouraging Tibetans in certain parts of Tibet to celebrate Losar, even handing out cash for fireworks in some cases. Understandably, this pathetic attempt by China to hijack Losar has angered Tibetans, some of whom may have decided to skip Losar in a knee-jerk reaction.

To celebrate Losar just because China tells us to do so - that's a mistake. Likewise, to skip Losar just because China tells us to celebrate it - that's also a mistake. Our tradition should not be relegated to a mere reaction - equal or opposite - to China's demands. China should have no say in how we practice our tradition. We Tibetans must proactively decide whether, when, where and how to observe Losar.

Chinese authorities will tell us to celebrate Losar next year too, and the year after that. Are we going to skip every Losar just to make a point? If we really want to hit the Chinese government where it hurts most, we should observe Losar in all the ways that distinguish us from them. We should use the occasion to assert our identity - eat Tibetan food, wear Tibetan dress, speak in Tibetan, write Losar cards and door signs in Tibetan, light butter lamps and perform kora. Let khatas hang on the door and prayer flags fly in the wind, let the smell of tsampa and incense fill the air.

Messages from Tibet, via articles and poems, have called on Tibetans to celebrate Losar as an occasion to assert our identity, empower our spirit, and to distinguish ourselves from the Chinese. Many are using the power of visuals, creating heart-shaped images with the word "Tibet" inscribed on them, to play on the fact that Losar falls on Valentine's Day. I heard that in Lhasa, for example, people have done most of the shopping and are planning to observe Losar at home. After living under virtual martial law for nearly two years, sharing a hot bowl of guthuk and a sweet dish of dresil with friends and family will nourish the soul.

Though mourning is important as a symbolic gesture, it is politically useless beyond a certain point. Excessive mourning, instead of bringing the dead back to life, pulls the living closer to death. In fact, the best way to honor the our martyrs is to advance the Tibetan struggle for freedom - which is what they died for - and the best way to advance the struggle is to engage the grassroots through activism. People will participate in a movement that is vibrant, inclusive, engaging and dynamic. No one is drawn to a movement that is drowning in a pool of tears and self-pity and endless mourning.

Let's distinguish ourselves from our oppressors, not by our sorrow but by our spirit, not by our mourning but by our activism. If we want to advance our movement, and if we truly want to pay tribute to our martyrs, we must observe Losar by being Tibetan, by taking action, by taking a pledge.

This Losar, take a pledge to do something every week - if possible, every day - that will strengthen Tibetan people and weaken the Chinese empire.

ལོ་གསར། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ང་ཚོ་བོད་པ་རེད།

2010-02-05T20:38:00.000-08:00

༄༅༑ བརྩེ་བའི་གྲོགས་པོ་ལྷན་རྒྱས་དང་བོད་དོན་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་གནང་མཁན་ལྷན་རྒྱས་ལ།

སླེབས་ལ་ཉེ་བའི་སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༡༠ལོའི་ཟླ་༢ཚེས་༡༤ཉིན་ནི་བོད་པའི་ལོ་གསར་ རེད། བོད་ཀྱི་སྐར་རྩིས་རིག་པའི་རྩིས་སྲོལ་ལྟར་བྱས་ན་ལྕགས་སྟག་བོད་རྒྱལ་ལོ་ ༢༡༣༧ལོ་འདི་ཤར་བའི་དགའ་སྟོན་གྱི་ཉིན་མོ་ཞིག་རེད་ལ། ཡང་འགྱུར་ལྡོག་དང་རེ་བ། བསྐྱར་སོན་གྱི་དམིགས་བསལ་དུས་ཚོད་ཅིག་ཀྱང་ཡིན་པ་རེད། ལོ་གསར་པའི་ཉིན་མོ་འདིར་ང་ཚོས་རང་མི་རིགས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་རབས་ལོ་རྒྱུས་དང་ང་ཚོའི་ རིག་གཞུང༌། ང་ཚོའི་ཆོས་ལུགས། ང་ཚོའི་མ་འོངས་ཀྱི་ཆེད་དགའ་སྟོན་གྱི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། དགའ་སྟོན་ཞུ་དགོས་དོན་ནི་ང་ཚོའི་རྒྱལ་རབས་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ནི་རླབས་ཆེན་ཞིག་ དང༌། ང་ཚོའི་རིག་གཞུང་ནི་མཛེས་སྡུག་ལྡན་པ། ང་ཚོའི་ཆོས་ལུགས་ནི་གཏིང་ཟབ་པ་ཞིག་རེད། ད་ལྟའི་འཆར་ང་ཚོས་དཀའ་སྡུག་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་མྱོང་བཞིན་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན་རུང༌། ང་ཚོའི་མ་འོངས་པ་ནི་འོད་སྟོང་ལྡན་པ་ཞིག་རེད།

སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༠༨ལོ་ནས་བཟུང་ང་ཚོ་བོད་ཀྱི་མདོ་དབུས་ཁམས་གསུམ་ནང་བོད་མི་ཚོས་ གཅིག་མཇུག་གཉིས་མཐུད་ངང་ངོ་རྒོལ་གྱི་ལས་འགུལ་སྤེལ་བའི་རྗེས་ང་ཚོའི་ཤ་ཁྲག་ གཅིག་གི་སྤུན་ཟླ་ཚོ་རྒྱ་ནག་གུང་ཁྲན་གཞུང་གི་དབང་སྒྱུར་འོག་བོད་ནང་གི་གནས་ སྟངས་སྔར་ལས་ཇེ་ངན་ཇེ་སྡུག་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་ནས་བཙོན་འཇུག་དང་མནར་གཅོད། འདས་གྲོངས་སུ་ཕྱིན་པ་སོགས་དཀའ་སྡུག་མྱོང་བ་ཁག་དངོས་སུ་མཐོང༌ཡོད། དེར་བརྟེན་ན་ནིང་ལོར་འཛམ་གླིང་ཡུལ་གྲུ་ཁག་ནང་གནས་པའི་བོད་མི་ཚོས་སྐྱིད་ སྡུག་མཉམ་མྱོང་ཐོག་ནས་བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་གསར་ལ་དགའ་སྟོན་གྱི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཞུས་མེད་པ་ རེད།

འདི་ལོ་བོད་མི་མང་དག་ཅིག་གིས་བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་གསར་ལ་བསུ་བ་ཞུ་རྒྱུའི་གྲ་སྒྲིག་ བྱེད་བཞིན་ཡོད་པ་རེད། དེ་ཡང་རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་ང་ཚོ་བོད་པ་ཡིན་པའི་དབང་གིས་རེད། ང་ཚོས་བོད་སྐད་རྒྱབ་པ་དང་བོད་ཆས་སྤྲས་པ། ང་ཚོ་བོད་མི་རིགས་ཀྱི་ཐུན་མོང་མ་ཡིན་པའི་སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་གཞིར་བཟུང་ང་ཚོ་བོད་ པའི་འདུ་ཤེས་ཟབ་རུ་གཏོང་རྒྱུ་དང༌། ང་ཚོའི་སྙིང་སྟོབས་ཧུར་སྐྱེད་ཡོང་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་ཡིན། བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་གསར་བཏང་བ་བརྒྱུད་ང་ཚོར་བློ་སྟོབས་གསར་པ་ཞིག་དང་གོ་སྐབས་གསར་པ་ ཞིག་འཚོལ་ཐུབ་པ་བྱུང་ནས་མུ་མཐུད་ང་ཚོའི་འཐབ་རྩོད་འདི་རྒྱུན་འཁྱོངས་ཐུབ་པ་ ཡོང་རྒྱུ་རེད་ལ། རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ནང་མི་དང་དགའ་ཉེ་སྤུན་མཆེད་ལྷན་ང་ཚོ་བོད་ཀྱི་ལོ་གསར་ལ་སྲུང་ བརྩི་ཞུས་པ་བརྒྱུད་བོད་མི་ཚོར་སྤྲོ་སྐྱིད་ཀྱི་ཚོར་བ་ཞིག་འཚོལ་ཐུབ་རྒྱུ་རེད་ ལ། སྤྲོ་སྐྱིད་ནི་དཀའ་སྡུག་དང་འདྲ་བར་རང་དབང་འཐབ་རྩོད་ཀྱི་ལས་འགུལ་ཚང་མའི་ནང་ མེད་དུ་མི་རུང་བའི་ཆ་ཤས་ཤིག་ཡིན་པ་རེད།

དུས་རབས་ཕྱེད་ཀ་ལྷག་ཙམ་བཙན་བཟུང་བྱས་པའི་རྗེས་ང་ཚོས་གསལ་པོ་ཤེས་ཐུབ་པ་ཞིག་ ནི་དྲག་གནོན་པས་བོད་མི་རིགས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་སྟོབས་ལ་ཡིད་སྨོན་ཡོང་གི་ཡོད་པ་དང་ དབང་ཤུགས་ལ་གཉའ་སྒུར་གྱི་མེད། ལོ་འདིར་འཛམ་གླིང་ཡུལ་གྲུ་ཁག་ནང་ཡོད་པའི་བོད་མི་ཚོས་ལོ་གསར་ལ་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ ཞུས་པའི་སྐབས་དང་བསྟུན་ནས་ང་ཚོའི་སྙིང་སྟོབས་འདིར་སོན་ཤུགས་ཀྱི་འཚོ་བཅུད་ གསར་པ་ཞིག་བཅུག་རྒྱུ་ཡིན།

ང་ཚོས་གལ་ཆེའི་སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་རིག་གཞུང་ལ་སྲུང་བརྩི་ཞུས་པའི་སྐབས་དེར་བོད་མི་ དང་བོད་དོན་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་གནང་མཁན་ཚོ་གདན་ཞུས་ཀྱིས་སྤྱི་ཟླ་༢ཚེས་༡༤ཉིན་མོ་ འདིར་ཆོས་ཁང་དང་། ཡང་ན་སྒེའུ་ཁུང་གི་སྟེང་མཆོད་མེ་ཕུལ་ནས་རྒྱ་ནག་གཞུང་གིས་ཁྲིམས་འགལ་ངང་བཙན་ བཟུང་བྱས་པར་མུ་མཐུད་འགོག་རྒོལ་བྱེད་མཁན་གྱི་བོད་མི་ཚོར་ཁོང་རྣམ་པའི་དཔའ་ ངར་ཞུམ་མེད་ཀྱི་བློ་སྟོབས་འདིར་གུད་བཏུད་མཚོན་པར་བྱ་རྒྱུ་ཡིན།

བོད་རང་བཙན་ཐོབ་ངེས་རེད།

བོད་རང་བཙན་སློབ་ཕྲུག་ཚོགས་པའི་འགན་འཛིན་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྡོ་རྗེ་དང་།
བོད་ཀྱི་ལས་འགུལ་ལྟེ་གནས་ཁང་གི་འགན་འཛིན་བཀྲས་མཐོང་ལྷ་སྒྲོན་ནས།

ང་བོད་པ་ཡིན།

2010-02-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ངས་ བོད་ཇ་ འཐུང་།
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ངས་ རྩམ་པ་ ཟ།
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ང་ བོད་ཡིག་ སྦྱང་གི་ ཡོད།
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ང་ ཡང་ཡང་ བོད་ཀྱི་ རྨི་ལམ་ གཏོང་།
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ང་ གླུ་གཞས་ ལ་ དགའ།
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ང་ བོད་ལ་ འགྲོ་འདོད་ ཡོད།
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ངའི་ ཕ་མ་ བོད་པ་ རེད།
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ང་ བོད་ཡིག་ ཀློག་དུས་ དཀའ་ལས་ འདུག
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ང་ བོད་ཡིག ད་དུང་ དཀའ་ལས་ རྒྱག་ནས་ ཀློག་གི་ ཡོད།
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ང་ རང་དབང་ དང་ དམངས་གཙོ་ ལ་ དགའ།
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ བོད་མི་ ས་ཡ་དྲུག ངའི་ སྤུན་ཆེད་ རེད།
ང་ བོད་པ་ ཡིན། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ ང་ བོད་ཀྱི་ ལོ་རྒྱུད་ ལ་ སྤོབས་པ་ དང་ བོད་ཀྱི་ འདུན་ལམ་ ལ་ དོ་སྣང་ ཡོད།

LOSAR: Because I am Tibetan

2010-02-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends & Supporters of Tibet,

Tibetans will mark Losar - the Tibetan New Year - on February 14th, 2010. In the Tibetan lunar calendar, this day marks the beginning of the Iron Tiger Year 2137, a time for change, hope, and renewal. On this day, we celebrate our history, our culture, our religion, and our future - because our history is great, our culture beautiful, our religion profound, and – in spite of our present suffering – our future is bright.

Since 2008, following the Tibetan uprising in all three historical provinces of Tibet, we witnessed an escalation in the imprisonment, torture and death of our fellow countrymen and women under Chinese rule. Because of this, last year, Tibetans united around the world and did not celebrate Losar.

This year, many Tibetans are planning to observe Losar for one reason only: because we are Tibetan. We will speak Tibetan language, wear Tibetan dress, and observe Tibetan customs, thus strengthening our identity and our spirit. Through this observance we will find new courage and opportunities to advance our struggle. In observing Losar with family and friends, Tibetans will reach for happiness, which, as much as suffering, is an integral part of a freedom movement.

Through all these years of occupation one thing is clear: the oppressor envies the spirit of the Tibetan people, which cannot be crushed by violence. This year Tibetans worldwide will nourish this spirit with the observance of Losar.

While observing this important cultural tradition, we ask Tibetans and supporters to light butter lamps and candles on their altars and in their windows on February 14th to honor the courage of the Tibetan people in Tibet who continue to resist the Chinese government's illegal occupation of their homeland.

Tibet will be free.

With hope,

Tenzin Dorjee,
Executive Director, Students for a Free Tibet

&

Lhadon Tethong,
Director, Tibet Action Institute

Please take a moment to watch this inspiring video from Amdo, Eastern Tibet, where Tibetans, young and old, declare the myriad ways they are Tibetan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMcau-0igDs

Included in the video are these statements:
I am Tibetan because I love Tibet.
I am Tibetan because I learn Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I love my culture.
I am Tibetan because I wear only Tibetan dress.
I am Tibetan because Tibetan blood flows in me.
I am Tibetan because my mother is Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I sing Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I am a Tibetan nomad.
I am Tibetan because I love my land.
I am Tibetan because I am a herder on the plateau.
I am Tibetan because I never forget Tibet.
I am Tibetan because I love my Tibetan brothers and sisters.

The world's super bully - China

2010-02-01T23:02:00.000-08:00

China may not be a super power yet, but it is already behaving like a super bully.

As Obama prepares to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, this is what Chinese Communist Party official Zhu Weiqun said: There would be "corresponding action" if the meeting went ahead.

He also said: "If [the meeting] does happen we will take corresponding action to make relevant countries see their mistakes."

These words, among others, show a new arrogance in Beijing that has been fueled by the flawed policy of engagement pursued by recent US administrations. When will the United States realize that the main threat to its values and security comes not from "terrorists" in the desert but from the draconian regime that colonizes Tibet and East Turkestan, jails dissidents, suppresses religious freedom, executes more people than the rest of the world combined, and has been building an army of hackers that is stealing intellectual property and will change the very concept of war?

Read full article here.

བོད་ ཀྱི་ ལོ་གསར་

2010-02-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

ད་ལོ་ བོད་ ཀྱི་ ལོ་གསར་ ཇི་ལྟར་ གཏོང་རྒྱུ་ ཡིན་ནམ།
བོད་ ནང་ གི་ རྩོམ་པ་པོ་ མི་ཁོམ་པའི་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ ཀྱིས་ བྲིས་པའི་ རྩོམ་ཡིག་ འདིར་ ཀློག་རོགས།

གྲོས་མོལ་ ཡག་པོ་ ཡོང་བར་ ཆ་རྐྱེན་ གང་ དགོས།

2010-01-26T18:45:00.000-08:00

བོད་རྒྱ་ འབྲེལ་མོལ་ ཡང་སྐྱར་ མུ་མཐུད་ བྱུང་བ་ དགའ་བོ་ བྱུང་། འོན་ཀྱང་ བོད་ནང་ འགྱུར་བ་ ཆེན་པོ་ འགྲོ་བའི་ རེ་བ་ མེད། རྒྱ་གཞུང་ གི་ བོད་ནང་ འཛིན་པའི་ སྲིད་བྱུས་ ནི་ སྔར་ ལས་ སྡུག་ཏུ་ འགྲོ་གི་ ཡོད་པ་ ཚང་མས་ ཤེས་ཀྱི་ ཡོད།
གྲོས་མོལ་ བྱེད་རྒྱུ་ གལ་ཆེན་ ཡིན་ཡང་། སྔོས་འབྲེལ་ བྱས་ན་ གྲོས་མོལ་ འགོ་ མ་འཛུག་ གོང་ གནོན་ཤུགས་ མང་པོ་ དགོས་ཡོད། གནོན་ཤུགས་ མེད་པའི་ གྲོས་མོལ་ ལ་ ནུས་ཤུགས་ མེད་པས་ འཁྱབ། བྱས་ན་ གནོན་ཤུགས་ གང་འདྲ་ བྱས་ནས་ སྤྲུན་དགོས་སམ།
གནོན་ཤུགས་ ནི་ དབྱེ་ན་ མང་པོ་ ཡོད་པ་ ནི། དཔལ་འབྱོར་ གྱི་ གནོན་ཤུགས། སྲིད་དོན་ གྱི་ གནོན་ཤུགས། སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ ཀྱི་ གནོན་ཤུགས། འདི་དག་ ཚང་མ་ ཞི་བའི་ ཐབས་ལམ་ བེད་སྤྱོད་ བྱས་ནས་ སྐྲུན་ ཐུབ་ཀྱི་ རེད།
བོད་པའི་ མི་མང་ ཚང་མ་ མཉམ་རུབ་ ཀྱི་ ཐོག་ནས་ རྒྱ་ནག་ ལ་ འདི་འདྲ་བའི་ གནོན་ཤུགས་ ཤིག་ སྐྲུན་ མ་ཐུབ་ ན་ ང་ཚོའི་ གྲོས་མོལ་ ག་ཚོད་ བྱེད་ཀྱང་ རྒྱ་གཞུང་ གིས་ མགོ་སྐོར་ གཏོང་རྒྱུ་ ལས་ ཕན་ཐོག་ ཡོང་བ་ ཧ་ཅང་ ཁག་པོ་ རེད།

དྲ་རྒྱ་ དང་ རང་དབང་ བར་ གྱི་ འབྲེལ་བ་

2010-01-22T18:13:00.000-08:00

ཁ་སང་ ཨེ་ཤེ་ཡ་ རང་དབང་ རླུང་འཕྲིན་ཁང་ གི་ སྒྲོལ་དཀར་ལགས་ མཉམ་ དུ་ བོད་ དང་ རྒྱ་ནག་ ནང་ དྲ་རྒྱའི་ དམ་སྒྲག་ སྐོར་ སྐད་ཆ་ བཤད་རྒྱུའི་ གོ་སྐབས་ ཐོབ་བྱུང་། འདི་གར་ གསན་རོགས།

ཨེ་ཤ་ཡ་རང་དབང་རླུང་འཕྲིན་ཁང་།

དྲ་རྒྱ་ ནི་ རང་དབང་ གི་ མཐུན་སྐྱེན་ ཞིག་ ཡིན་པས་། བེད་སྤྱོད་ བྱེད་ ཐུབ་ན་ བོད་པའི་ རང་བཙན་ ཐབ་རྩོད་ ལ་ ཧ་ཅང་ ཕན་ཐོག་ཆེ་།

It's time to disengage China

2010-01-15T18:21:00.000-08:00

May be this is the year. May be it was always going to take a giant like Google to unravel an empire like China. Or may be not. But one thing is clear: China will never be the same again.

We might never know exactly what the Chinese government did that incensed Google enough to reverse four years of colluding with Beijing's censorship. But we can be sure that Google's recent decision to stand up to Beijing's dictatorship has a set a new standard for corporate practice.

All these years, the conventional wisdom was that we must choose between human rights and China's emerging market, implying that we can't have both. But now Google's experience shows that doing business with China is not only bad for human rights, it's bad for business too.

This is only a symptom of the larger problem that the Chinese empire represents. China does not honor international law. It does not respect human rights. And now we know it's stealing intellectual property from corporations. It's time to disengage.

The Needle of Samsara

2009-12-28T21:46:00.000-08:00

The lyrics of my song, "The Needle of Samsara," has been translated from Tibetan to English by my sister Dickyi, who writes at Yuthok Lane. This song is a dedication to the nomads of Tibet, who're arguably the most vulnerable population on earth today. Even as they struggle against Beijing's campaign to wipe out the nomadic way of life, they're also the first ones to be impacted directly by climate change. Read more at Tibetan Plateau.

All beings on earth cling to suffering
The road beyond suffering is covered in dusk
My beloved father left home to look for a living
Many years later he is still unreturned
My family has been scattered to the four winds and eight corners
Oh the burden of fate will not be erased

The sky is blue, the blue of turquoise
The turquoise falls to earth and breaks into a thousand pieces
The lake Yamdrok Yumtso has frosted to ice
An iron-sheeted wind enters my tent
I wish to make fire but the firewood is all gone
Oh how I shiver in the cold

When the snows melt, the river-source ends
When rainwater ends, the fields turn dry
When the dry earth cracks, the pastures become a wasteland
The birds and beasts lose their pair
And the yak, sheep and animals starve
Oh how I mourn the loss

I mean to have peace of mind but
When the body breaks apart, endless tears fall
If this human world is the needle of samsara
The peak where I live is the point of that needle
If my nomad’s story were to end here
Oh the burden of fate will not be erased

The Real Ngabo Is Revealed

2009-12-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

Bhuchung D. Sonam, a Tibetan poet and publisher, has written this article on Ngabo Ngawang Jigme, the man who betrayed Tibet in one critical moment of historic importance. Beijing called him a "patriot," and so did Dharamsala. Here is the real story: http://tibetwrites.org/?Ngabo-Yes-Tibetan-No-Patriot

Traitor? Patriot? Traitor? Patriot? Who the hell was Ngabo?

2009-12-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

Is anyone else out there confused or offended by the glorious obituaries coming from Dharamsala about the death of Ngabo Ngawang Jigme, the man who signed the 17-Point Agreement with China? You're not alone.

Dharamsala mourned for him, calling him "honest and patriotic." If Ngabo was a patriot, then who is a traitor? If Ngabo was always honest, does that make the 17-Point Agreement a legitimate treaty?

Political relativism taken to this extreme is destructive to our history and our future. It is too much of a luxury to overlook someone's enormous political blunders simply because he had later committed acts of modest patriotism.

While it is important to recognize and appreciate what Ngabo may have done to preserve Tibetan culture under Chinese rule, it is equally important to shun him for signing the agreement that gave China a semblance of legality in annexing Tibet.

ཨ་ཙི་ ལས་མ་དག

2009-12-01T21:57:00.000-08:00

མ་ སེམས་ཅན་ ཐམས་ཅད་ སྡུག་ལ་ འབྱར་ བསྡད་ བཞག
སྡུག་ འདི་ནས་ ཐར་པའི་ ལམ་འདི་ སྒྲིབ་ བསྡད་ བཞག
ཕ་ དྲིན་ཅན་ ཕྱི་ལ་ ལྟོ་གོས་ འཚོལ་དུ་ སོང་།
ལོ་ མང་པོའི་ རྗེས་ལ་ ད་དུང་ ལོག་རྒྱུ་ མི་འདུག
ངའི་ ནང་མི་ ཚང་མ་ ཕྱོགས་བཞི་ མཚམས་བརྒྱད་ ལ་ ཐོར།
ཨ་ཙི་ ལས་མ་དག

གནམ་ སྔོན་པོ་ སྔོ་བསངས་ གཡུ་ཡི་ མདོག་ འདྲ་བ།
གཡུ་ ས་ལ་ ཟགས་དུས་ དུམ་བུ་ སྟོང་ལ་ གས།
མཚོ་ ཡ་འབྲོག་ གཡུ་མཚོ་ འཁྱག་རོམ་ ཐེབས་ ཚར་ བཞག
ངའི་ གུར་འདི་ ནང་ལ་ ལྕགས་ཀྱི་ ལྷགས་པ་ རྒྱག་གི
མེ་ གཏོང་དགོས་ བསམ་ཡང་ མེ་ཤིང་ རྗོགས་ ཚར་ འཞག
ཨ་ཆུ་ གྲང་བ་ལ།

ཐོ་ ཁ་བ་ མེད་དུས་ གཙང་པོའི་ རྒྱུན་འདི་ ཆད།
ཆུ་ ཆར་པ་ མེད་དུས་ ཞིང་ཁ་ ཐམས་ཅད་ སྐམས།
ས་ སེར་ཁ་ གས་དུས་ སྤང་རྩ་ ཐམས་ཅད་ སྟོངས།
བྱ་བྱེའུ་ རི་དགས་ གར་སོང་ ཆ་མེད་ གྱུར།
གཡག་ ར་ལུག་ སེམས་ཅན་ ལྟོགས་ཤི་ ཐེབས་ འགྲོ་གི
ཨ་ཁ་ འཕང་བ་ལ།

སེམས་ ལྷོད་ལྷོད་ བྱེད་དགོས་ བསམ་ད་ བསམ་གྱིན་ འདུག
ལུས་ ཁ་བཤགས་ འགྲོ་དུས་ མིག་ཆུ་ དབང་མེད་ ཤོར།
ལྷོ་ འཇམ་བུ་ གླིང་འདི་ འཁོར་བའི་ ཁབ་ ཡིན་ན།
ང་ སྡོད་སའི་ རི་འདི་ ཁབ་ཀྱི་ རྩེ་མོ་ ཡིན།
ང་ འབྲོག་པའི་ ལོ་རྒྱུས་ འདི་ནས་ མཚམས་ཆད་ འགྲོ་ན།
ཨ་ཙི་ ལས་མ་དག

ཁྱེད་རང་གི་ཁ་པར་བོད་ཡིག་ཤེས་སམ་

2009-11-20T03:02:00.000-08:00

ད་གཞི་ནས་ བོད་ཡིག་ བྲིས་ ཤེས་མཁན་ ཁ་པར་ ཞིག་ སླེབས་ བཞག
http://openideals.com/2009/11/20/the-droids-dharma-supporting-the-tibetan-language-on-android/?dsq=23609224#comment-23609224

ཁ་པར་ འདི་ གང་མགྱོགས་ ཁྲོམས་ ལ་ སླེབས་པའི་ རེ་བ་ ཡོད། ཁ་པར་ འདིས་ ང་ཚོའི་ ལས་འགུལ་ གྱི་ ནུས་པ་ ཆེ་རུ་ གཏོང་ཆེད་ ཧ་ཅང་ ཕན་ཐོག་ ཆེན་པོ་ ཡོང་ངེས་ རེད།

Lobsang's Last Wish

2009-11-19T04:29:00.000-08:00

This RFA news article provides a window into some of the details behind the closed-door trial of Lobsang Gyaltsen, who was recently executed by the Chinese government for his involvement in the 2008 Tibetan uprising: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/execution-11162009094256.html

On the morning of his execution, Lobsang expressed his last wish to his mother:

“I have nothing to say, except please take good care of my child and send him to school…”

དྲི་བའི་ ལན་ རླུང་ཚུབ་ དཀྱིལ་ལ་ ཡོད་

2009-07-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

གཞས་པ་ བློ་བསྟན་གནམ་གླིང་ གིས་ བཏང་བའི་ གླུ་གཞས་ གསན་དང་།
(དྲི་བའི་ལན་རླུང་ཚུབ་དཀྱིལ་ལ་ཡོད་)

མི་ཞིག་ ལ་ མིའི་མིང་ ཐོབ་ཆེད་
གོམ་པ་ ག་ཚོད་ རྒྱག་དགོས་
བྱ་ཞིག་ ལ་ ངལ་གསོ་ ཐོབ་ཆེད་
རི་བོ་ ག་ཚོད་ འཕུར་དགོས་
དྲི་བ་ འདི་དག་ གི་ ལན་ནི་
རླུང་ཚུབ་ དཀྱིལ་ལ་ འཁྱམས་ཡོད་

སྒེར་ལངས་སླེབས་ནས་ཕྱིན་སོང་

2009-07-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

རང་དབང་ ཉེ་རུ་ ཉེ་རུ་
རྩམ་པ་ ཞིམ་དུ་ ཞིམ་དུ་
སྒེར་ལངས་ རླུང་ཚུབ་ འཇམ་དུས་
གོམ་པ་ མགྱོགས་སུ་ མགྱོགས་སུ་

ཞི་བའི་ལམ་ལ་ནུས་པ་ཨེ་ཡོད

2009-07-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

ཞི་བའི་ལམ་ བེད་སྤྱོད་ ཤེས་ན་ དྲག་པོ་ ལས་ ནུས་པ་ ཆེ་བ་ ཡོད་
ཞི་བའི་ ཐབས་ལམ་ འདྲ་མིན་ སྣ་ཚོགས་ ཡོད་ཀྱང་ འདིར་ ཐབ་ཇུས་༡༩༨ ཙམ་བཀོད་ཡོད་
http://studentsforafreetibet.org/downloads/198_Nonviolent_Tactics.doc

What should the Uyghurs do about China?

2009-07-10T05:33:00.000-07:00

Don’t ask “What should China do about the Uyghurs?” The ultimate question is: “What should the Uyghurs do about China?”

The root cause of the unrest goes beyond the economy, stupid. The economic gap and the discrimination and the cultural assimilation are merely symptoms of the fundamental evil that is China’s illegal occupation of the Uyghurs’ homeland.

Freedom struggles - or secessionist movements, depending on how you see it - are not popular these days since the decolonization wave is considered a thing of the past. But one should remember that colonizers don’t always come in the color white. The Chinese government is the most ruthless colonizing, terrorist state in today’s world.

Half a century ago, the population of Xinjiang (or East Turkestan) was 6% Chinese; today it’s at least 40% Chinese. Population transfer of Chinese settlers into Xinjiang is only one of the many policies aimed at systematically reducing the Uyghurs into a disenfranchised, impoverished minority in their own homeland. Given the violent crackdown against any sign of dissent, the choices that any Uyghur has to make are limited: silence, prison, or exile.

But to answer the question I asked at the outset, “What should the Uyghurs do?” The Uyghurs should unite in nonviolent activism with other peoples like the Tibetans, who’re also oppressed by the Chinese government. The power of strategic nonviolent action is yet to be explored fully by both Uyghurs and Tibetans in our fight for freedom.

China in its current incarnation is not going to last. To believe that this Chinese empire would last is to forget the lesson of history: no empire has ever lasted no matter how strong. The Mongol empire stopped at the gates of Vienna. The British raj, whose democratic institutions and political foundations were far stronger than that of the Chinese government, finally saw the sun set on its empire. It is absolute madness to think that the Chinese empire will last forever.

However, simply because the Chinese empire will crumble doesn’t mean the Uyghurs and Tibetans will gain our freedom automatically. While we work to speed up the end of the Chinese empire, we will also have to work even harder to secure the freedom of our people and control of our own homelands through strategic nonviolent action.

The Chinese raj can handle riots. But it cannot handle the power of Uyghurs and Tibetans (and the Chinese democracy activists) united in civil disobedience and civil resistance.

Eventually, oppression too is impermanent.

Posted by Gen Sherap on NYTimes Room for Debate

Tactics of Nonviolent Action - Translated to Tibetan

2009-07-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

Nonviolence is in vogue these days, but many of us do not understand the enormous range of nonviolent action tactics that are at our disposal. Gene Sharp, the founding father of this field of Strategic Nonviolent Action, identified 198 different tactics of nonviolent action many years ago. But they've only recently been translated into Tibetan.

Click here to download a short document in Tibetan that outlines the "198 Tactics of Nonviolent Action" in plain and simple Tibetan:

http://studentsforafreetibet.org/downloads/198_Nonviolent_Tactics.doc

Snow Walk through the Himalayas

2009-05-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

While the rest of us head to bed on this hemisphere, there is a group of Tibetans in India waking up to walk up the Himalayas. They're making their third attempt to return to Tibet, their homeland, to express solidarity with their fellow Tibetans who are living under virtual martial law. Read more here.

You can access more information on this in Tibetan at: http://wokar.net

China is the Ultimate Hypocrite

2009-04-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

I've always wondered how the Chinese government reconciles bashing Japan as their former colonist and smashing Tibet as their current colony at the same time. Today's New York Times editorial (China can't have it both ways) puts it really well, noting how the Chinese government in one day sent two statements - the first one denounced Japan's Taro Aso for visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, the second one opposed the Dalai Lama's visit to America.

The editorial concludes:

"We understand China’s frustration. But it only makes Beijing’s repression of Tibet and its attacks on the Dalai Lama all the more hypocritical.

As it carves out an ever greater role in the world, Beijing will have to learn that it cannot have it both ways. China cannot be the aggrieved victim in the morning and the bully in the afternoon."

It's Still 1984 in Tibet

2009-04-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is Earth Day - April 22. I wonder what Kunga Tsangyang (pen name: Gangnyi) is thinking about, wherever he is being held. He is an environmentalist, photographer and blogger who taught people the importance of saving the Tibetan plateau. He was arrested on March 17, and not heard from since.

The Chinese government is cracking down on Tibetan cultural figures including musicians, writers, artists. They're going after anyone who is an advocate for freedom of speech and thought. Is tomorrow really April 22, 2009? Or is it April 22, 1984? Well, in Tibet, it's the dark, Orwellian world of 1984.

Prisoner of the Himalayas

2009-04-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

Lyrics from my album "Logchopa" (ལོག་སྤྱོད་པ་)

I remember the land I've never seen.
I remember a sound I've never heard.
And the heart that never cries
Sheds its first virgin tears.

The days are getting longer
Of course, summer is here.
But the nights also get longer
Is it still winter here?
Oh, a sorrow that knows no season
Has settled upon my heart.

The Himalayas claim to be
Guardians of the Tibetan people.
Are you truly our guardians?
Or merely our prison guards.