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Published: June 26th 2006
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Tashi delek blogger buddies! (and Grace, who doesn't like the term "blogger buddy")
I have been in Mcleod Ganj for three and a half weeks now. I have drunken 657 cups of chai, 1 cup of butter tea, which was not good, 23 cups of lemon, honey and ginger tea, which is super and 13 cups of green tea, which is better than butter tea but worse than lemon/honey/ginger tea. So, to summarise- chai good, butter tea bad.
Mcleod Ganj is a hustley bustley hill station in the himalayan foothills. The scenery is pretty special, towering mountain ranges on one side, sprawling valleys on the other.
The town is notable for two reasons. Firstly it is the centre of the tibetan government in exile, home to the Dalai Lama and a large community of tibetans. Secondly, it holds the record for the largest hippy per square inch ratio of any place in the world.
I am spending my time teaching and getting to know the tibetan paople, their culture and story. My students range from 11 years old to nearing 60! There's quite a variety, everybody is very keen on learning english here. They are all fantastic people
and have the best sense of humour. Incredible when you think what some of them have been through and how far they are from their homes and families.
The cambridge-based organisation I am working with is called ELST, check it out on the web. I am volunteering at Tibet Charity, a school down the hill, as well as doing private teaching.
The Dalai Lama's teachings started today so I got my first glimpse of the tibetan leader and current biggest legend on earth. The town is pretty chocka blocka though, hoards of taiwanese in orange caps all desperately clinging to their orange sign holder!
The monsoon seems to have come today as well, it is very very wet.
In 1949 the newly-established people's republic of China invaded Tibet, claiming their actions to be a liberation of the tibetan people from their backward, archaic traditions into the efficient, well-oiled communist ways. It was also claimed that Tibet had always been a chinese province and it was now simply time for it to return to the motherland. In reality the chinese population was expanding beyond the constraints of land and resources. China needed some lebensraum, sound familiar?
Over
the next 10 years chinese presence spread to much of the country and they began to take the affairs of the tibetan people into their own hands. At first the tibetan government was included in the decision making process but it soon became clear that the tibetans had no real influence over their country. A tibetan delegation sent to China was in 1951 forced to sign a 17-point agreement under threats of personal violence. This agreement stated that Tibet was happy to co-operate with China in their joint attempt to unite the motherland. It also included safeguards to the Tibetan culture, religion and people.
These safeguards were repeatedly ignored by chinese forces over the following years. Human rights violations became common practice in the chinese occupation. Violence and murder against protestors, the denial of food and resources to the people, the severe repression of religion and culture, children made to shoot their parents, monks and nuns forced to break their vows of celibacy, the list is endless.
Eventually the tibetan people could take it no longer. In March 1959 it appeared that the chinese were planning to capture the Dalai Lama from his home in Lhasa, the capital.
Over 100,000 marched to his defence, surrounding the Potola, blocking the way in and out. This angered the chinese, who blamed the Dalai Lama for the uprising. The tension between the military might of the chinese soldiers and the army of tibetans resolute in their love for their leader grew until it was clear that a violent end to the stand-off was inevitable.
The Dalai Lama fled during the night, disguised as a soldier. Over the next two days fighting broke out between the tibetan masses and the chinese soldiers. On March 21 the chinese opened fire on the potola and the surrounding area. After a merciless bombardment the buildings lay ruined and the bodies of men, women and children littered the rubble. The soldiers then moved in and captured or slaughtered the remaning resistors. No-one knows just how many thousands were killed.
The Dalai Lama had successfully evaded chinese patrols and set out west. It was hopeless to remain in Tibet and try to negotiate with the chinese so they walked for 15 days over the himalyas and crossed into India. The tibetan refugees were granted asylum and since then have been based in Mcloed Ganj, fighting
for tibetan independence. To date over 120,000 have followed The Dalai Lama into exile.
In the aftermarth of the flight of the Dalai Lama the chinese dissolved the tibetan governing body and took total control, tightening their grip over the population.
The worst years of atrocities against the Tibetan people occured during the cultural revolution. Under the slogan, "smash the four olds", the culture of tibet was systematically destroyed. Before the cultural revolution there were 6000 tibetan monasteries. There are now 6. The practice of religion was severly punished. Hundreds of thousands of monks and nuns were killed or submitted to the prisons, which, due to the appalling torture often suffered by tibetan prisoners, was tantamount to a death sentence.
Pictures of the Dalai Lama, priceless religious artifacts and protesters all burned together in a genocide of the tibetan race. Around 1.2 million tibetans have been killed since the "peaceful liberation" of Tibet began in 1949.
In May 1995 the Dalai Lama recognised the reincarnation of the 11th Panchen Lama, the second-ranking spiritual leader of Tibet. Three days later the boy and his family were kidnapped and taken to Beijing. He has not been seen since. At
six years old he was made the youngest political prisoner the world has ever seen. The chinese instated another boy who they claimed as the true reincarnation. This is an insult to tibetan buddhism as only the Dalai Lama has the authority to recognise the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. The true Panchen Lama is now 17. Any appeal by tibetan or international authorities to have the boy released has been met by the statement that the boy and his family are quite happy in China and do "not wish to be disturbed by foreign visitors because that could have negative effects".
The attitude to the tibetan situation by western governments has always been cowardly. When China first invaded the appeal for help was rejected by Britain, America and India. The united nations chose to ignore the event.
Talks between the west and China always focus on the strengthening of friendly relations and trade routes. The horrendous human rights violations that still occur are merely skimmed over.
The most important figure in world peace and winner of the 1989 nobel peace prize, the Dalai Lama, was barred from attending the millenium peace conference under pressure from the
chinese.
In 2008 the Olympic games will be held in Beijing. Many people argue that such an honour should not be bestowed on a country with such a poor human rights record. Already chinese people have been forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for olympic construction work. Punishment of protestors against oppression, who threaten to "split the motherland", has been stepped up in preparation to give a good impression of chinese unity to the world.
The appalling acts of violence against Tibetans have thankfully lessened in the last few years. But the genocide cotinues, just in a more subtle form. Every day Tibetan children are born in a country in which they have no opportunity to practise their religion or culture. They grow up immersed in a chinese culture, brainwashed into hating the old ways. Those who still remember or hang on to tibetan culture undergo "patriotic re-education". They are taught to love the motherland and hate the Dalai Lama. In this way the tibetan race is gradually being destroyed and assimilated into the people's republic.
It is not all bad though. The international campaign to free tibet gathers more momentum and support every year.
In Mcleod Ganj and all the other tibetan settlements across the world the tibetan culture is untouchable and burns as bright as ever.
Please find out more about the plight of the tibetan people and do things etc
Love love
Chris
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Nat
non-member comment
your blog is too long. please write it again
heyyy chris! long time no see! nice to see your having fun in "tibetten india". i'm too impatient at this moment it time to read the history books, so i'm gonna presume your not spending 7 years up there. also, 2 + 2 = 5. you should know that. Fool. umm, nice to see you've been jamming away and all that jazz. but we've been drinking so much that we might aswell be in the himalayas. My "sober night at the soul tree" started with drinking at 4.30 (blame grace and ben) and then involved a bottle of wine and cheap tequilla. oh dear Oh yes! i have The Sleep Wells a gig. 13th September at the Portland (Kieran and Tom are gonna be the other support band, and i'm dragging my friends band from Exeter up!). Except i'm gutted as British Sea Power have just annouced they play the smallest london show in years on the same night. Bugger. Also, i havent told grace this, but my friend george and I may be putting on a night at the soul tree, 14th August. We could also play that (it'd be the sleep wells or 10 ft. Monster). fun fun. was ment to go see Hope Of The States tonight at BBC STudios! but i cant afford it and nobody else wants to come either! booo! anyway. Enjoy the Chai tea. Its good. As is lemon./ And sun. And jamming with cows. i will read the history bit later and try to write witty comments about it.