Empty original: "They stop you for a photo of the Lama" – Descargar PDF
Tibetans are demonstrating in thousands to denounce Chinese oppression
CRISTINA M. SACRISTAN – Monday, 26 November 2012
ONLY in November have they self-immolated 15 young tibetans. Ya van 78 in a year. "¿How many hours do you have for me to explain the situation in Tibet??", asks his large audience Thupten Wangchen, director of the House of Tibet in Barcelona, wrapped in his gold and maroon tunic. Wangchen has been invited by Gea Photowords reporters to a talk-screening at the National Geographic Store on Madrid's Gran Vía to show the reality of this town subjected for six decades by China., "sufriendo mucho" the impositions of the vast neighboring country, says this Tibetan monk close to the Dalai Lama.
Y, how Thupten wants to express many things in a short time, accelerates the pace of his speech and uses infinitives to jump from one idea to another. Serious, although at some moments using irony and a broad laugh: "Nos están contando mucho cuento chino", jokes between shocking facts.
Wangchen describes a Tibet similar to the one we imagine: environmental lover, accustomed to heights - which makes the Chinese suffer when accessing it -, muy espiritual y con base en "su Santidad el Dalai Lama"… but, ojo, rich in gold, copper and uranium in its mountains. "Yo también me quedé sin madre, con 10 years. The Maoist regime killed many people when they invaded us, y somos un pueblo sin preparación para las armas", says the spiritual leader today exiled. The Dalai Lama, remember, he also escaped, just like 80.000 Tibetans, to India. "Fue una invasión llena de sangre y matanzas", insists, and portrays how in his country, these days, se incita a la juventud "a beber y a fumar, para que cojan el hábito y que consuman". Nonetheless, complaint, "la ONU está callando, forgetting human rights. Desde los 60".
PEACEFUL REVOLUTION Thupten usually accompanies the Dalai Lama to some meetings with international political leaders, as in the case of his visit to the Vatican, in which both spoke with Pope Benedict XVI. This weekend he was in Brussels, influencing the mobilizations of his compatriots, that are being produced in thousands and that will continue to occur until the 10 December, Human Rights Day. These are peaceful demonstrations, pues "Mahatma Gandhi consiguió por fin la independencia de la India con su resistencia pacífica y nosotros la lograremos, también", thinks the director of the House of Tibet.
Ayer, Wangchen confirmed to DEIA that they have already gathered more than 300.000 companies, which will be delivered at noon of the day 10 at the UN headquarters in Geneva. These days he is meeting with other Tibetans, "para revisar acciones y soluciones".
Thupten Wangchen has traveled half the world to collect the 300.000 signatures that will give the UN 10-D
Wangchen did not resist returning to his country, and suffered jail time for carrying a photo in which he was with the Dalai Lama. The Chinese de facto forces interrogated him for long hours, y lo encarcelaron "hasta que tomaran una decisión. When I indicated that bankers and diplomats supported me, me dijeron que entonces no me matarían". Despite his beatitude, Wangchen angrily narrates a meeting at the Chinese Consulate in Barcelona, in which the guard did not allow him to enter because he was Tibetan. "Tú eres chino, I'm Tibetan and this is Barcelona. Tienes que dejarme entrar", He says that he rebuked him. In his inseparable tunic, the logo of tibet. "Hasta el oso panda nos han robado. Thus, en una campaña aparece el oso diciendo Soy tibetano", has a certain sarcasm.
The Dalai Lama's successor, Lobsang Sangay, born in India and with a graduate degree from Harvard, no half measures have been taken these months: Cree que la situación del Tíbet "va de mal en peor. There are continuous protests and a lot of tension after in March 2011 so many people have immolated themselves and another ten have survived the attempt, but they are left with serious consequences. A eso se suman las ocho personas que han muerto este año por disparos del Ejército chino". for him, lo trágico es que los que se inmolan o lo han intentado "responden a actos individuales, y es la generación que ha crecido con la ocupación china la que lo hace".
"No hay libertad de prensa. They take you to jail for having a photo of the Dalai Lama on your cell phone, and they can torture you. There are cameras in the streets. And the way of dying by self-immolation is very tragic., very traumatic. Queremos transmitir a estos jóvenes que no se consigue nada así", Wangchen points out. The photographer Ángel López-Soto has met him several times, but he says that especially in the colonies, because in Tibet everything is restrictions, even for non-Chinese tourists.
Refugees in Europe by the thousands, Tibetans have two representatives in the European Parliament, and his government in exile. "La mujer del presidente chino practica el budismo tibetano", points out showing curiosity about the data. Y es que "nunca perderemos la esperanza de la independencia, but always without violence, con paz".
This was conveyed to him during his visit to Gasteiz in 2008 al lehendakari Ibarretxe: "Es increíble que China y España tengan tanto miedo a pueblos como Tíbet y Euskadi". Ibarretxe recognized that Tibet offers several lessons, and one of them is to defend political projects and ideas without using violence.
This profile matches well with the Tibetans' love of nature. . "Nos gustaría hacer un Parque en el Tíbet en el futuro, pero no sólo para tibetanos", Wangchen account. Meanwhile, los chinos expolian esa zona por su "riqueza de uranio y oro, destruyendo la naturaleza". And they dump nuclear waste there. "Rezamos para tener un entorno de paz y en comunión con los animales", affirm before beginning a prayer, un profundo mantra lleno de "oooms" that resonates among the people who have interrupted their hustle and bustle on the city's asphalt for a while to listen to him..
