Lt. Kai Küstner | GERMAN WAVE
28 June 2012. More Tibetan protesters have set themselves on fire this year than ever before, in one of the largest waves of political self-immolations in recent history. A Tibetan monk in exile speaks on the subject.
Two new cases of self-immolations by Tibetans have emerged in recent days. It is a development that Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala, the residence of your spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, are following with increasing concern.
The canteen in the refugee camp for Tibetans who have fled China is as big as a sports stadium. A large photo of a smiling Dalai Lama hangs in the room where 500 Exiled Tibetans usually gather to eat. But only five are there on this particular day.
“Before the uprising in Tibet 2008, we took between 2000 and 3000 refugees per year” Mungyur Yondon said., who works in the canteen. “But the situation has become very tense since then. The Chinese government has established additional border guards, and filling the region with soldiers. So it is very difficult to pass”.
Dangerous and expensive
Only two Tibetan exiles now live in the newly built refugee center in northern India, designed to accommodate 500 personas. The journey has simply become too dangerous and expensive.
Gayrong Chonphel is one of the monks who risked his life and succeeded. Now he wants to tell the world what happened in his monastery in his homeland. “The army and police occupied the monastery in 2008 to enforce the so-called “reeducation plan”, dice.
They demanded that he resign from the Dalai Lama, remember Chonphel, who, like every monk, Reverently refers to the spiritual leader as “His Holiness.”. The Chinese, on the contrary, They call him a terrorist who has forced secession in Tibet.
Chonphel decided to flee and hide for months in the forests.
“Better to be dead”
“Tibetans have seen with their own eyes how their culture is being forced to die.”, and its language, also” says Chonphel.. “Some feel it is better to be dead than to see this happen.”. That is the reason for self-immolations. “I have also felt this depression”.
Sprinkling fuel on oneself and lighting a match is a tragic form of Tibetan protest that often ends in painful death.. There have never been so many self-immolations as this year. Candles are lit in Dharamsala for each self-immolation.
“As a human being, you try to dissuade them” dice Lobsang, prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile. “As a Buddhist, you pray for them. And as a Tibetan, “You show your solidarity with their reasons.”.
Self-immolations have put the Chinese government in a difficult situation. It is under pressure that they follow a different course than the one the Dalai Lama has chosen and is following., the so-called middle path in dialogue with China.
still a dream
“My job is hard enough without adding more difficulties” said Branch. “Our position is very clear: we are in favor of non-violence and democracy, without concessions”.
Although Tibetan Buddhist monks can practice their religion without major restrictions in India, The goal of each one is to return to Tibet on the other side of the Himalayas, some day, says Chonphel..
But the monk had just received a message from his family in Tibet., telling you to return in the moment, it is not possible. Therefore he must accept that the return is still a dream… for now, but not forever.-
TIBET OFFICE, New York
Email: phuntso@igc.org
